Troy

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.

Yes happy Mother's day to Cynique, Mel and all the mothers who post and lurk here :-)

Impressive. I had not idea about your publishing company--and it is located in my backyard. I've added Gazemba's books to the website: https://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780998642307 and will mention this title in my next newsletter. Thanks for sharing this title here, keep us posted on your new books or any from your backlist that we should know about.

Del as a standalone product, the relative merits of Echo Look are debatable, but in the context of everything else Amazon is doing, I don't see how any of the benefits outweigh the downsides. btw, you don't have to copy the post before replying to it (i deleted it).

“For almost 10 years, Black Books Direct continued to bring you a great selection of books of interest to our readers. Like many other businesses, and particularly, independent book stores, we have faced considerable challenges over the years. We have reached a point where we are faced with making some tough choices. For these reasons, we will suspend our current operations, after clearing out our inventory. We are pricing everything competitively and only listing items remaining in inventory. We will ship within 48 hours and will continue to guarantee your satisfaction while we stay live as BlackBooksDirect.com.” I learned about Black Books Direct's closing in an email I read just a few moments ago. Now I don't have all the details of why Black Books Direct is closing, but as an online bookseller, I know first hand the many "challenges" they have to contend with. Another potentially great website and business closes because of Amazon's virtual monopoly of on-line book sales. Amazon's algorithms will not make up this loss. AALBC.com can not make up this loss. The web is a less rich place as a result. The worst part of Black Books Direct closing is that will go unnoticed by most Black folks—even the most conscious of us. We don't know what we are losing, and it is really very sad.

Mel, did you immediately shut down the amorous advances from the married men and make them feel like the cheaters they were? Sorry for the Fences spoiler. Speaking about Viola Davis she was great in the film, I think you should check it out. Del, I used to think brothers from the 'hood used to get high until I went to school with white boys for the first time (in case y'all did not know Mel and I graduated from the same HS in the same year). They had a term "burnt out" that they would apply to kids that were "wasted" all the time. Interestingly, I did not know any white people my age until HS, they were like unicorns to me. I heard about them but never saw one, except for on TV.

Mel, again you are unique. Some people could never live in poverty despite the odds, their upbringing, or the adversity encountered. You are one of them. However, this is simply not true for the great masses of people. You are right if you are not present you won't have a clue or have a reason to care. Furthermore, if you've never lived, and gotten out of it, I think it would be harder to understand too. It is like trying to explain to someone, who never knew the web before social media, why the internet was better before social media--they simply don't have a framework to understand, they can't "see" it. @Mel Hopkins, since the conversation is why men cheat, why do you think so many women cheat? Why do some of these women choose to have babies with men who are already married? We must all know married men who have had children on the side (ala the play Fences). The men aren't aren't cheating with themselves. Why is the cheating always placed at the feet of men, especially Black men?

@Delano, another difference between men and women Mel, perhaps my perception of the photo is a reflection of myself, as a Black man in America. Maybe the differences between men and women are large enough that we can't see the photo the same way. Another thing I don't like about the photo is the hair. I know white girl hair is still a thing, but I've never liked Black women, particularly dark skinned women, with their hair styled like a European it just bothers me. I'm glad to see the trend toward more natural hair styles among our young women. I would also stop short of calling her look "joyous with unbridled exuberance," also because of her eyes. I think a person's eyes reveal a lot about what they are feeling. Her eyes to not relate unbridled exuberance to me. Of course, this is purely subjective but it is another reason I don't like the shot; her eyes are telling me one thing while her toothy smile is saying something else. Cynique, while Essence can be quite heavy handed with Photoshop and makeup, don't think for a second that Time did not edit Viola's picture. Can we agree that Time has a sensibility that is not optimized for presenting Black women, and that sensibility is rooted in white male dominance? I'll almost certainly take a survey and see how the results pan out both in general and by gender.

HI Sarah, please post your bio and head shot. I'll add them to your AALBC.com page: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Sarah+J.+Heidelberg If you have a youtube video please post a link to it as well. If you have a website please post the UR too. Do you have any other books besides the ones listed above? Finally, have you heard from Chris Hayden lately?

True, being able to "see" something is in the eye of the beholder. If you do drugs know where to get it, if you don't you might not even be aware that drugs are so freely available. The same goes for people who are poor and struggling, we don't see them... I mean really see them.

@Mel Hopkins my blog https://aalbc.com/blog uses Wordpress, so the blog should be followable, but I'll have to look into why you are not being alerted. Mel, the bottom line is that gadget is designed to generate revenue for Amazon, in ways that we have no way of fully appreciating because we are not being told. Again Amazon is preying on and exploiting our insecurities for a payday. However, they are quite slick in the presentation of the product as something helpful and innocuous. Harking back to our other discussion, the choice here is a false one, because we are ignorant of what we are buying. Any negative impact can;t be blamed on the consumer, because they did not understand what they were getting into like the people who becomes addicted to cigarettes, or sugary foods. It is interesting to consider @Pioneer1 's point about Time in the context of the treatment of Viola's presentation

Mel I actually don't disagree with your quote: "All are pleasurable to me...but if I'm 100 lbs overweight, obviously being serviced by food is a sign there's psychological distress." Perhaps where we may disagree is the source of the "psychological distress." I believe the source to be primary external. Again, you don't see rampant obesity in upper middle class and wealthy communities. The reason is not simply one of making better "choices." Sure if one has plenty of financial resources they can more easy exercise more and better options. But wealthy people are not targeted by marketers, they way poor people are. When you were in this poor neighborhoods, did you notice all the advertisements for anything bad that could be consumed? In fact, many wealthy communities have rules again putting advertisements in their communities. Can you image a malt liquor ad on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. But in East Harlem, which is physically adjacent to the Upper East sides these ads were rampant. So in my community, many of us kids drank malt liquor. I suspect if I grew up in a better neighborhood, I probably would not have chosen to drink Ole English 800--at least until the rise of the popularity of gangsta rap (which is a marketer's paradise). Hey @Delano , you went to prep school, were any of the rich kids drinking 40s of OE? I suspect they were into more exotic things, huh quality grades of marijuana and the like.

I stopped short of calling Viola's expression a "grimace," because of her eyes which look happy, but I did consider being hyperbolic to emphasize the point. I think we all can agree that this is not a complimentary photo of Viola, particularly when you contrast them with the many other great looking shots you can find of her on the web. The question is what was Time's motivation for creating and publishing this unflattering image of Viola. I called it racist because a Black person would have selected a nicer image. Magazines understand the importance of imagery--especially one that has been around as long a Time. Time selected the image for a reason, and it was not a reason that any conscious Black person would have used. Maybe I'll create a survey to see what others think.

Interesting observation. I believe it to be true based upon my experience.

Mel the question that led my last post was rhetorical. Many of the people who voted for Trump were simply lied to. They were misinformed and sold a bill of goods. They were conned. Sure victims have choices, but they are still victims. She was raped because she wore a revealing dress. He was robbed because he went to the ATM late at night. They voted for Trump because said "crooked Hillary" and the democrats gave you jobs to Mexican who illegally crossed the border. You see what I mean? Mel I think in this case you are viewing the world from your perspective They are plenty of decent people who are simply not nearly as informed, discerning, and smart as you are. They are easy prey for marketers. Mel, I think most people don't know they have choices. This could be through simple ignorance of, or laziness to pursue, options. Del yes it is true I work hard, but so do a lot of people. Del I believe men and women are different in numerous ways but I would never say all women are this way and all men are some other way. A good example would be height; the median height for a man is more than that of a woman, but there are of course women who are taller than some men. That said, men can climax more easily and quickly than women. Women can have multiple orgasms and sustain them longer, These physical characteristics inform the way we behave sexually.

Pioneer, you are looking for proof of something that will never be provable, at least to your level of satisfaction. The answer can't be recorded on a video camera or measured in a lab.