Troy

Cynique, I'm glad you did not delete the post too. I truly enjoyed reading it. It was riveting, poignant, profound, and revealing. Thank you.

Yes, Harvey is overexposed in my opinion. The opinion of Black women in this regard does not matter very much. So he will be all over the place until he is no longer profitable, and he'll keep working his butt off as long as he is racking in the dough.

Very interesting. @Delano , if a tree falls in the forest it still makes a sound--even if no one is there to hear it. Similarly, if a racist behaves in a racist manner, but one can't or chosen not to perceive it as such does not make the racist any less racist. Here is a question for you: Is Trump racist? To your way of thinking Del, if you are not in the forest to hear the tree falling it does not make a sound and therefore if you choose not to see racism it does not exist. Does that sum it up? Is racism purely subjective, in the eye of the beholder? @Cynique, you still did not answer my simple question: Which photo looks more natural? Interestingly you responded to which one looks "better." Perhaps that was a Freudian slip. You and Del seem to be fixated on her relative attractiveness. I'm not concerned with that and have not raised the issue of her beauty. Pioneer has raised this issue her attractiveness, but while we agree on the "subtle racism" in play here, we do see things a little differently. @Mel Hopkins , I don't disagree much of what you wrote in your past post. Here is a simple question for you (or anyone of course); is the photo of Lebron James, which Cynique accurately described as "being substituted for the giant gorilla King Kong," even a little racist in your view? Why or why not?

@hen81 your link redirects to http://www.viglink.com/shop/merchants was this your intent?

@Cynique, I may have missed it, but did you actually answer the question? Which photo looks more natural? @Delano, Viola is a commodity, but I would I still think she is one of the most brilliant actresses working today. Yes, this conversation is all about image, perception, and I'd add racism. But again, Del you seem to want to make the about Viola--I could find bazillion photos of other women and make the same point. I can even find a photo of a guy and make the same point. Do you understand what I'm saying? The culture is so aligned against us, we've stopped even noticing, or we make excuses for it. I can understand why you are indifferent to the photo, I would have been indifferent to it or completely unaware of it unless Pioneer posted it. But to behave as if the photo of Viola, Lebron, or even that stupid book about Washington's slaves scurrying about to make a cake without sugar, is not racist is naive. In some quarters failing to recognize racism, or racists, can lead to really bad outcomes. The election of 45 comes to mind. @Mel Hopkins I'm afraid I did not communicate my point very well because it looks like you missed it. But in general, in a white racist culture white men exercise a lot of power over Black women. Sometimes the use of the power escapes Black women and this can be infuriating to brothers...

@Elva D. Green, that is EXACTLY why this site is here. I used all caps because you expressed the situation perfectly and that is relatively rare. Reaching this audience does not come at the expense of reaching readers in the white mainstream, one can reach both audiences. This site is used as a resource by many schools and libraries. Now this demographic does not participate in the forums and make their presence known, but I see the traffic from their domains, I see the 1,000s of backlinks from their sites, and they tell me what a resource AALBC.com is for them when I attend or speak at their conferences. Now I could do a better job of helping authors appreciate these advantages, but I too am resource constrained. Part of the problem, I think, is that there is just so much attention paid to social media by the media; one would think sites like AALBC.com don't even exist. But the media are lazier (or under-resourced) than ever so unless it is on social media it does not exist for them. Many authors are no different, and don't understand anything outside of social media or Amazon. As a result, they don't maintain a website, a mailing list, take advance of sites like AALBC.com, or do any of the other very basic things an author needs to do online to reach a large auidence. The net result of this situation is that indies sites find it very difficult to attract traffic. AALBC.com does FAR better than any site of its kind, that I'm aware of, but if authors do not embrace and utilize resources like AALBC.com are growth is constrained. Ultimately an author's only option is Facebook and Amazon--who only care about your work insofar as they can profit from it. Which does not serve authors or readers very well at all.

Hi Elva, the process is pretty simple. Your AALBC.com URL is https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Elva+Diane+Green But this service is designed for authors who have no web presence or are using Facebook or Amazon as their primary web presence. Your site https://pininthetush.com/ is already a very nice looking, content rich site. In this case, I would not recommend this particular service for you. But maybe I'm missing something; what specifically are you trying to accomplish?

No, it is not a first. BET, when it was Black owned, had a program about books (I forget the name of the program and I a quick youtube search did not turn up anything). It did not last every long, but people were really excited about it when it launched. More recently, Arise Entertainment did a segment on books. It was executed very well but as far as I can tell they did nothing to promote it. The most recent one I could find is shown below. Even after three years it has less than 300 views, and I'd be wlling to bet I drove most of those (as I'm doing now).

Recently, an author wrote me to confirm that she was an "AALBC.com Bestselling Author." I assured her she was and directed her to her page. (One of the benefits of the new site design is that this info is managed in real time and is so much easier to manage.) She thanked me and told e she just wanted to be sure before she used the fact to promote her next book. I told her I wish every AALBC.com Bestselling author share her insight and enthusiasm for the accomplishment. We both reflected that AALBC.com is the only entity that maintains a regularly updated bestsellers list. The is the 20th year I've maintained a list. The first Bestsellers list was published in 1998. Back in 1998, There was the Blackboard Bestsellers list, which was taken over by Essence who ran it for a few years, and dropped it a few years later. Black Expressions Book Club also had a bestsellers list, but all of these have been defunct for years. I even worked with a few other booksellers to produce a brand new list called the Power List, but after 2 1/2 years and a failure to gain any real traction, we abandoned the project--it simply was not worth the extra effort required to maintain it. She suggested that I create an AALBC.com seal. If was like a light went off and I said to myself--why did I not think of that sooner? In fact, I recall just prior to launching the Power List a publishing industry veteran suggested that I just do an AALBC.com bestsellers list. I continued with the Power List simply because I wanted to try to leverage the collaboration of multiple sites. Well, that is some of the history of Black Bestselling Books lists. In fact, the story is far more interesting, but those are stories for another day. These are the finalists for the AALBC.com Bestselling Book Seal Please let me know which one(s) you like the most and why. Personally, I like two of them, and two of them I'm not even considering.

Cynique let me phrase Pioneer's question a little differently. Let's say one of your sons blew of Mothers Day this year--he did not give you a present or even call you on that day. However, you know that he loves and appreciates you. He regularly takes you out to dinner and frequently calls. Would you love your son less or be angry because your son did not celebrate "Mother Day" with you?

@Delano, you answered your own question. Viola s a great actress but she is a commodity, very easily substituted... this is the nature of celebrity. Which also goes to @Frederic's point. I'm sure Viola is accustomed to people talking about her in ways that she may find surprising, incomprehensible, or even silly. Again, it is the nature of celebrity. I asserted this conversation is not about Viola--it could have been anyone. Is it a debate about the depiction, and resulting perception, of Black women in a white racist society. Obviously, there is some disagreement on the nature of these different perspectives. These differences in perspective come up ALOT. Another example is that way Black women are portrayed in rap music video and lyrics (I have not watched a rap video in several years so I don't know if anything has changed). We all know the negative ways Black women were(are) portrayed. We have also heard the rap artists explain away and justify depicting Black women in an objectified, misogynistic manner. I always viewed this as a racist treatment of our people, but I was always an outlier on this issue. @Mel Hopkins as far as the book is concerned I "understand" the portrayal--this was not the first book like this, nor will it be the last. Little Black Sambo was a happy character too. But both are straight up racist. Mel of course white men "see" Black women differently in the context of this white racist culture. Here is an example that will help you understand the difference: When Black American men go to other countries (DR, Rio, Ghana, etc) the women in those countries treat Black American's "extremely well" (wink, wink). Can you appreciate why the local men in those countries would look upon these women differently that the American men would? Now here is the kicker Mel; if these local women also believe that the American men were better to them, or somehow less critical of their appearance than their local men; how do you think those local men would feel? Now think about that in the context of how you described the way white American men look at Black women here. @Cynique, I did not recognize Viola, so the image is extremely unnatural in my opinion. Pioneer did not recognize here either. But before you say this is more about us that the picture consider the following: I've yet to come across a cover photo in a major magazine that is 100% "natural." But some covers are more natural looking than others which of the magazine covers below do you (please anyone may answer) think is more natural looking? Which cover do you find more flattering? Please explain your answer. @Pioneer1, I see now I have the add back the Time magazine cover, content is important here. I'll launch the survey later this morning. Thanks everyone for the comment so far, it has been very enlightening.

Mel (everybody), please do not hesitate to provide constructive criitism I need it. Thanks Mel for thanking the time to provide you insight! Thanks Del.

I guess I'm a product of my environment, @Mel Hopkins. I was just about to post the graphic to solicit people to fill out the survey, but while looking at the photo, divorced from the Time magazine cover, it just looks like a westernized Black woman. The visual loses a little of it's punch removed from the context of Time cover. @Pioneer1 what do you think? Does it make a difference to you? Mel, I guess where I'm stuck is that you are saying that I'm using the white racist lens to view the photo. I can tell you for certain that is not it--because if I were, I would actually like the photo as much as Time obviously does. If anything, I'm looking at it from a Black male racist's lens. But since Black people can't be racist in America... I'm just seeing it from the perspective of American Black man. Remember the not to subtly racist book, A Birthday Cake for Washington. This book was overseen by plenty of Black people. Even the Illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton is Black. The Book's editor Andrea Davis Pinkney is Black. Indeed before the book was pulled Davis is quoted as saying: “… [W]e have a tremendous responsibility to present history with the utmost accuracy and care . . . . author Ramin Ganeshram . . . spent years researching the life and times of George Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules to craft her book . . . . And, with this responsibility in mind, acclaimed artist Vanessa Newton made the deliberate choice to depict slaves as beautiful people who possessed great dignity, . . . and who smiled about their achievements in the face of slavery’s degrading evils”. No one prior to this book's publication said wait WTF is going on here?! This is why we need Black heterosexual men in publishing... and they wonder why Black men don't read more. New York publishing does not care about Black men. I could go on all day with examples like this. The Time cover just another one. As a sanity check, Mel and Cynique, do you think this book is racist?

LOL! Whoa hold everything! Mel, have you considered that the very same critique you leveled against Pioneer and me could be leveled against you and Cynique--verbatim? Think about it.... Indeed Cynique reveals the crux of my argument when she wrote, "...you think black folks should be portrayed as perfect rather than natural..." I don't see Viola being portrayed as natural at all--far from it. What is "natural about her appearance? Again, it is more of a caricature, a white man racist depiction of a dark-skinned, middle-aged Black woman. As far as expecting perfection... that is the last thing on my mind. Del, statistics, as Facebook can tell you, reveal more about a person's motivations than even they themselves are aware of. I agree, collecting more data would shed more insight, but I'm afraid it I ask too many questions it will discourage participation. I did add your "flattering" question. I can collect the regional data from the IP addresses. Besides this is more fun than scientific. Again I'd like to see if there is a correlation between gender and the perception of racism.

I understand Cynique. This is one of the reasons I'm motivated to run the survey. This is not really about Viola Davis or Time. To me, it is about all of us; how and why we, as Black people in a white racist society, perceive images like this so differently. I'm not concerned about reaching consensus on whether people think the picture of Viola is attractive or not, I'm more concerned about the motivation behind the perceived differences. Again, I believe the image reflects the underlying racism that permeates our culture. Others, of course, won't see it this way; because "It ain't that serious." My only concern is that people will view the survey as sexist. Perhaps racism is inextricably intertwined with sexism...

I'm not going to the mat to fight against Mother's Day, again it is not worth it. But the commercialization of everything from Christmas to Thanksgiving has extracted the true meaning behind all of these celebrations. Rather, they have become very stressful situations for many. Even suicides increase during these so called holidays. People go into debt every year to "celebrate" Christmas, and to pay for rings. I don't think this is necessary nor part of some historical "tradition." This is what Chrismas means for far too many retailers--injury, mayhem, and even death. It is all good, as long as the profits continue to roll in...

LOL, Mzuri, if I let every troll or mental midget get to be I would have gathered up all of my marbles and went home 15 years ago ;-) Glad to read you again.

Yes, perhaps the unqualified term "Racist" is a bit hard @Pioneer1 I've changed the question. You may complete the questionnaire above now. I don't think I'll make any more changes to it. Here is a link to the survey that you can share with others: https://aalbc.com/survey/ I'll make the results public after a few hundred people complete the survey-- assuming I get that many (it is a lot harder to get people to fill out surveys than it used to be). I may break my social media boycott to share this. It is controversial enough to appeal to that crowd and Facebook's algorithm, Hi @Mzuri , can you point to an article which supports what you wrote bout Streep?

Of course Pioneer this is true. People are being manipulated by marketers solely for the purposes of generating revenue. I recall Zales or one of the jewelry vendors telling dudes they had to spend at least three months salary on a wedding ring. I'm sure many poor saps were guilted into feeling bad if they could not pony up the funds for a marriage that would in all likelihood be temporary. The cost of a wedding ring is no more indicative of one's love than Mother's day is. Saying happy mothers day, or buying some flowers, is not like going into debt to spend three month's salary on a wedding band.. choose your battles.

I just partnered with What’s The 411 TV. They just produced their first series of segments this is one of them. I see there is a lot of room for improvement on my end. I have this bad habit of saying "ahh." I actually have to focus on not saying it. I also move my head too much. We could us a second camera and a tighter shot, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

The film The Invisible Universe includes interviews with Black writers of SF like, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler , Steven Barnes , Tananarive Due , Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor , Brandon Massey, and N.K. Jemisin. This feature-length documentary has been in the works for serval years not I now discovered it while looking for a more recent video for author Brandon Massey. It looks like it will be a very interesting project.

The book is called Brown Girl Dreaming. People usually women, use the word "Brown" in the place of Black. I think this is unnecessary and potentially confusing. Brown I image is an attempt describe our skin color. But Blackness is about culture, nit skin color. It would be like white people calling themselves "Pink" people. Brown Girl Dreaming is a fantastically successful book. A Top 120 African-American Children’s Book 5 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book! Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2015 Honored by the National Book Awards in 2014 An NAACP Image Award Honored Book Woodson's adult novel Another Brooklyn is coming out in Paperback on the 30th or May. Amistad is a supporter of AALBC.com.

I started out by asking if the picture was flattering but decided to go with is it racist, which is what I really wanted to find out. Photo aside, I think it is great that Time voted Viola one of the 100 most influential people. I cropped out the rest of the magazine because people might be more inclined to think it is racist because it is Time. I don't think too many people thinks she was "harmed."

I created a draft of this questionnaire I know simply presenting a questionnaire of this form can be considered sexist. But I'll risk it because race trumps sex every day of the week. Besides I'm interested in seeing if there is a gender bias toward people liking this photo. And people perceive the photo a racist. Actually crafting an online survey to determine this is not really easy. I cropped out Time Magazine to remove any bias due to Time Magazine itself, though many people maybe still know where it came from. Let me know what you think I'll post this on the site. It is a working form please feel free to complete it.

I just added your info: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Sarah+J.+Heidelberg Keep us posted on your accomplishments.