Troy

Following up on an earlier conversation on the meaning on spirituality Just emphasizing the distinction between religion and spirituality: "The Romans and the Greeks had no color prejudice comparable to the kind of prejudice we would know later on, otherwise why would three Africans become Emperors of Rome? Why would there be three African Popes? Finally, Constantine decided to make Christianity the religion of the whole of the Roman Empire. Now we’re coming to the critical period when the Roman domination of the church has corrupted the church, the Africans began some disenchantment with the Roman interpretation of Christianity. Constantine called a council of Bishops and Priests at a place called Nice, this is the Nicene Conference. It is at this conference that the European created a European concept of Christianity. It was at this conference that they began to take the African Saints out of the literature of Christianity. Now the corruption had started. The physical concept of Jesus Christ did not exist. Now how did it come into existence? Because the Pope commissioned it to come into existence. Regarding the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michealangelo painted the picture using one of his relatives as a model, and that picture, one of the finest pieces of propaganda ever projected in history, has changed the minds of millions of people, as who is supposed to represent God, whoever He or She is, and I have no problem with the ‘She.’ Spirituality is a way of accepting the fact that: there is a spiritual force in the universe larger than all of mankind. But someone had to come along and invent a word called ‘God.’ Then someone had to say of another God, ‘Mine is better than yours.’ Someone had to create ‘faith’ and say ‘I have the True Faith.’ Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the handmaiden of conquerors. Nearly, all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors and used as the framework to control their minds. My main point here is if you are the child of God and God is a part of you, then in your imagination, God’s supposed to look like you! And when you accept a picture of the Deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people." —John Henrik Clarke from the in the documentary, A Great and Mighty Walk. The quote above is at the 39 minute 50 sec point in the video below This is not the first time I've posted this video here, but of course there are always people you have yet to discover Dr. Clarke and his work.

Well it depends Del. If they throw 45's monkey butt into prison, I seriously doubt he'd be an alpha male in that environment. However, on the outside, even without the title, he will still be surrounded by sycophants willing to do his bidding and defend his child like behavior. If he and I were in a room full of a random selection of sistaz, I think Trump would command far more attention than I. Who would Omarosa gravitate to? The poor, short, Black dude or the tall, rich, white guy? I dunno; you tell me?

The following is a feed of Chris Burns' comments from various websites, including this one. The commenting software is provided by a company called Disqus. Here is my Disqus main page: https://disqus.com/by/AALBC/ Disqus also allows you to provide links to other pages on your site as well as serve ads. These are both services that Google also provides. Google also does a better job. The scrolling display below was created by software from a company called FeedWind. I could do this myself, but they make it easier for anyone to do this. If you pay $50 per year, you can remove the "Powered by Feedwind." I used these type of feeds on the upgraded author profiles here on AALBC.com. Here is Christopher D. Burns (@CDBurns) author profile page: https://aalbc.com/authors/home.php?author_name=Christopher+D.+Burns where you can see his comments as well. My thinking is that people can users can use feeds like this to consume content created on indie websites from across the. This is not new technology. In fact, it is pretty old. Before the advent of the high-end cell phones with 4G connections and tons of storage, we could have information from website send directly to our cell phones and see content from websites. Before that, email programs could be configured receive updates from bloggers, news sources, or anyone who provided an RSS feed. Today social media has taken this over. I'm trying to take back control. This also explains why Facebook has killed the RSS feeds they previously supplied.

Yep they work now. Man, did not know you wrote so many books. I've been sleeping!

Hey Richard these links are not working for me.

This is Science Fiction’s new Golden Age. That is what they would have you believe. Short fiction markets are better than ever before, exploring ideas of equality, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, disability, and most of all what it means to be human. It really is science fiction’s new Golden Age. If you’re white. What does it mean to be black and look at intersectional issues of equality through the lens of science fiction and fantasy? Where are those stories in the canon? There is black excellence out there waiting to be discovered and not tokenized. Octavia Butler is our past and she is an amazing ancestor, but she should not be our only storyteller. This is the future of Black SFF. FIYAH rises from the ashes of the Black literary tradition started by Fire!! in 1926. We aren’t here for respectability. We’re here to ask what it means to Black and extraordinary. We are a place to showcase your stories and grow your career. Part literary incubator, part middle-finger to the establishment, we know you have stories to tell, and we are here for it. I discovered this magazine on Richard Murray's Hearth blog. The magazine is currently seeking submissions.

Del like the concept of race, what is means to be Black is arbitrary and in the eye of the beholder. As a result, there can never be an objective determination of what Blackness means; it is up to the individual Even the government allows people to self-assess. As illustrated in conversations over the years here, there is no objective or subjective agreement on what it mean to be culturally, socially, mentally, or even physically black. "Black people are not a monolith" has become a cliche. Speaking of what it means to be Black, Rachel Dolezal, a former leader in the Black community, just had a new book published, In Full Color Finding My Place in a Black and White World:

Oh brother... So if I disagree with you, I'm a know-it-all. Do you really believe that about me?

Mrs Mommy I don't agree with the premise of your question that Colin risked his life. Colin has passed his prime as it relates to football. He got, I suspect, as much positive press as he got negative. Besides professional athletes are already accustomed to this it is part of the job. I'm glad to hear he donated a million dollars. That is commendable. Of course who it went to and what it be used for would be interesting to know. It would also be interesting to know what percentage of his net worth that million dollars represented. There are people who tithe at their church, making a relatively greater sacrifice. Football careers end. They last, on average, 3 years or so. Colin is full aware of this and was on the tail end of his career when he started kneeling. The vast majority of professional athletes do not become commentators at the end of their careers. It is a completely different skill set and very few opportunities. Again, I don't buy into your assumptions. If Colin had the skill of a Dak Prescott, he would still be playing. All I'm trying to do is strip away the media hype (both positive and negative) and put Colin kneeling into perspective. Colin aside for moment; do you, Mrs.Mommy, or anyone else believe that athletes, professional or otherwise, should not stand for the National Anthem? Why or why not?

Thanks for the reply it was very helpful. Please keep us posted on the progress with your website.

@drewskinnerjr no problem regarding the support I gather you don't have a website of your own; why not?

MrsMommy, I think you are pouring it on a bit. Colin was not the first athlete, nor will he be the last, to protest the National Anthem. It was a purely symbolic effort amplified by the media and social media for ratings and engagement--otherwise, it would have been a completely inconsequential action. Colin did not risk a thing. Muhammad Ali actually risked his career, money, and body by refusing to fight in Vietnam. Colin risked very little if anything Colin didn't even bother to vote in the last presidential election... So while I agree with your statement that, "There are no black women or men willing to stand out like those Civil Rights leaders of old." Colin is a FAR cry from exhibiting any of the traits of the civil rights activists before the early 70's.

This along the same of as the articles like "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates and "The Decline of Black Business And what it means for American democracy" by Brian S. Feldman. Of course art of the reason is structural, but the largest impact is mental. “... [we are taught to be] docile and compliant with being taught to be a mule and a burden bearer whose only goal in life is to seek approval and acceptance and to qualify to work for white people.”

Another great pick Harry. Raising Black Boys by Jawanza Kunjufu has been a top-selling book on AALBC.com for years. There is obvious a desire to obtain information on raising Black boys into men, but everything in our culture undermines this process. If you let the culture raise your boy they have nothing to look forward to but a world of hurt. I can't even blame the parents at this stage. They were not raised themselves, and there is very little in the society them. Indeed, 45 seems hell bent on yanking what little support remains.

45 is uncategorically an alpha male. The term has nothing to do with virtue or morals. He might be an evil Alpha male but he is an alpha male nonetheless.

Well I was drinking 40s long before Ice Cube glamorized the behavior. I do agree with you about the very negative impact of gangta rap music had on Black youth. Anyone one with eyes could see this. This the reasons I loss respect for many of these cats, because they swore up and down there was no impact and they were just telling their stories. They were lying and in it for the money. Back to Aires; I'm not sure why you'd put Aries in the same category as a gangsta rapper and call him "dangeous." That is a tremendous and unsupportable leap. Pioneer you and MrsMommy apparently associate being from the 'hood as all negative. Everyone is the 'hood is not creating the slum conditions their, doing crack, on welfare, or from single family households. Aires did not say anything about that. You are saying this and THAT is the danger Bruh. You are applying your own stereotypes onto the 'hood, associating them unfairly to Aires and vilifying hm for it. It does not sound like you heard a word he said? Del and I came from the hood, but neither of us present 'hood. Del and I both graduated a top business school. You can be in the 'hood and not be ghetto. The point Aires is essentially making @Pioneer1 is that Key and Peele are not as culturally Black as you or I and this informs their comedy. Do you agree with this assessment?

Hey Drew thanks for sharing this here. I'm not into the social media hash-tagging thing, but I'm into uplifting Black dads. Do you have a website or is the HuffPost the main platform for Black Dad TV

@CDBurns thanks for popping in. I'm predicting Twitter is on the way out. They have never made a penny in profit even Trump's tweets isn't making them profitable. Every semester I poll my students, asking them to name their favorite websites. This semester I asked them to give me two social media websites. Our out of 53 students only 1, named Twitter This is a dramatic decrease from previous semesters. The students did say they used Twitter for breaking news, mainly for the memes. Snapchat and Instagram are far more popular with my group of college juniors and seniors. Good to read your website traffic is up!

MrsMommy, are you equating Colin Kapernick with a civil rights leader of old (or new for that matter)?

Bereavement Announcement On the Passing of Sir Derek A. Walcott On Friday, March 17, 2017, at Gros Islet, St. Lucia, Nobel Laureate Sir Derek Alton Walcott passed away at his home. With his passage, the world of arts and letters has lost a poet, dramatist, and essayist who shaped prevailing definitions of twentieth and twenty-first century figurative language in poetry, drama, and prose. Born January 23, 1930, a twin to his brother Roderick in Castries, St. Lucia, Derek A. Walcott's commitment to forging the English language into an instrument of revelation is of the fiercest variety, equal only to his commitment to the Caribbean as a site and source of artistic and cultural wealth brought forth in the word; if language is the metal at hand, Walcott is our modern-day Hephaestus. His life's work, the monumental and monumentalizing consideration of history in poetry and drama, is captured in each of the following collections of poetry and plays: In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960; The Castaway and Other Poems; The Gulf and Other Poems; Another Life; Sea Grapes; The Star-Apple Kingdom; The Fortunate Traveller; Midsummer; Collected Poems: 1948-1984; The Arkansas Testament; Omeros; the Bounty; Tiepolo's Hound; The Prodigal: A Poem; Selected Poems; White Egrets; Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays; The Joker of Seville and O Babylon!; Remembrance and Pantomime; The Odyssey; The Haitian Trilogy;and Walker and the Ghost Dance. His collection of essays titled What the Twilight Says: An Overture remains one of the richest and most intriguing ruminations on Caribbean artistic creation's inheritance of colonialism and its hybrid cultures; Walcott theorizes the Caribbean artist as both "Adamic," a "first man," and Caliban, colonial slave. Walcott remains the lyrical and elegiac beating heart of the Caribbean, and it is toward the specificity of Caribbean linguistic and cultural hybridity that his work turns in each formal declaration: throughout lyric, elegy, epic, and drama, Walcott confirms the truths of the universal through the particular rhythms of Caribbean language and culture. In that regard, Walcott also confirms throughout his work the messages of the particular in the universal; as such, he is also our modern-day Hermes, messenger to the gods. To quote Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, who was a dear friend of Walcott's: "He gives us more than himself or 'a world'; he gives us a sense of infinity in the language." That "sense of infinity" is foregrounded in Walcott's profound respect for the English language, and his calling to the craft of poetry and drama. It is perhaps fitting that Walcott made his departure on St. Patrick's Day, as his other great friend in life and poetry was Seamus Heaney. Yet the material of his work is always already revolutionary, in that Walcott envisions an infinity in which all of the narrative requirements of heroism are imagined from the position of the black Caribbean world, and remain at the fingertips of the black Caribbean subject, most apparent in his epic Omeros, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. This fidelity throughout his work to fashion his Caribbean through the eyes and ears of its rhythms will continue to enthrall audiences throughout the world, and across time. Walcott's commitment to poetry extended to all of the arts, most notably to his passion for theater and painting. He is an accomplished playwright who founded the Trinidadian Theater Workshop with his brother, Roderick, in 1950, and he also painted for most of his life. Tiepolo's Hound boasts twenty-six reproductions of Walcott's own paintings throughout its interweaving narrative that reimagines St. Thomatian nineteenth-century impressionist-painter Camille Pissarro's journeys to Europe with Walcott's own. He was also a terrifically conscientious reader, critic, mentor, and friend to younger poets and writers who sent him their work; generous with his time, Walcott was also a sharp critic carefully maintaining his integrity and his honesty in responding to people's work. His sense of humor was robust, and sometimes silly; he observed the everyday world and people in it with a voracious curiosity. In social settings, he would speak to strangers-from child to ancient, and in any context-who he found interesting. His delight in the world was complete-as could be his impatience with that same world, and the people in it. Walcott taught at several institutions over the years including Boston University, Columbia, Yale, and Rutgers. Among numerous awards and commendations, Walcott was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II as KCSL (Knight Commander of the Order of St. Lucia) in 2016. In addition, he won an Obie Award for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain (1971) and a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 1981.The T.S. Eliot Prize was awarded to him for his last collection of poetry White Egrets (2010), which includes a series of poems on President Barack Hussein Obama. The Center for Black Literature and the English Department were fortunate to have honored Sir Derek Walcott with the W. E. B. Du Bois Award at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) during the 2014 National Black Writers Conference. This last trip, he and his wife, Sigrid, made included visits throughout the Americas, from Canada to Mexico; after this visit, Walcott remained in St. Lucia with Sigrid, writing, painting, entertaining friends, and enjoying the view from his aerie on Rodney Bay. Victoria A. Chevalier, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Englis Medgar Evers College (CUNY) The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUN Phone: 718-804-8883 E-mail: writers@mec.cuny.edu www.CENTERFORBLACKLITERATURE.org

@Pioneer1, to your point about leaders. Leaders, by definition, have followers. If the so-called followers don't do what the leader says, then that person is not much of a leader. Are they? Obama, for example, is not a leader, but Minister Farrakhan is definitely one. But the impact of the NOI was greatly diminished after government intervention fostered division within the organization, as with the Pathers and an organization responsible for making material changes within and for the Black community. Brother Umar is a leader too but he is too obscure to have the kind of impact Matin or Malcolm had. I hate to let you guys in on something, but feudalism has already returned. Once white folks started complaining about a lack of opportunity that should have told you it was a wrap for us spooks. But we are happy to be serfs, so long as we have cable TV, social media, sugary food, porn/sex, and some way to get high. We don't mind being bound to the land--most of us don't even have passports. We are happy to give away our labor for free (ala HuffPosty Bloggers) Here is a related article worth reading: The Decline of Black Business And what it means for American democracy by Brian S. Feldman Last June, Black Enterprise magazine marked the forty-fourth anniversary of the BE 100s, the magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s top 100 black-owned businesses. At the top of the list stood World Wide Technology, which, since its founding in 1990, has grown into a global firm with more than $7 billion in revenue and 3,000 employees. Then came companies like Radio One, whose fifty-five radio stations fan out among sixteen national markets. The combined revenues of the BE 100s, which also includes Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, now totals more than $24 billion, a ninefold increase since 1973, adjusting for inflation. A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that these pioneering companies are the exception to a far more alarming trend. The last thirty years also have brought the wholesale collapse of black-owned independent businesses and financial institutions that once anchored black communities across the country. In 1985, sixty black-owned banks were providing financial services to their communities; today, just twenty-three remain. In eleven states that headquartered black-owned banks in 1994, not a single one is still in business. Of the fifty black-owned insurance companies that operated during the 1980s, today just two remain. Read the full article in the Washington Monthly. Of course there a great number of parallels to Black bookstores. This photo of the Black grocery struck a cord, because I remember when Black people owned grocery stores in Harlem. Today I'm not aware of a single grocery store owned by a Black person.

That short little speech was so deep. Yeah, there are no leaders speaking this way. All of our leaders are quite safe and at no risk being assassinated today. Forget about Black people for a second, image if the masses boycotted Walmart, Amazon or Facebook for a day, a week or even a month. This shouldn't even be a sacrifice for anyone, but image the immediate impact of throwing our collective, financial, weight around? We should be boycotting Coca-Cola simply because the product is complete garbage and only good for fostering obesity and related illnesses. Of course, we will never boycott anything because all of us slaves (whites folks, you are slaves too) are still fighting amongst ourselves. --------------- Is Black History Month still a thing? From my perspective, Black History is celebrated every day, but thinking about this last February I don't recall much buzz about Black History Month. In fact, I usually see a doubling of traffic the site February, this year the increase was much more muted. The graph below supports my observations, should that the number of search for the term Black History Month is way down compared going back to 2004 (the earliest year Google supplies data). Remember Black Solidarity Day? maybe that explains the small spike prior to the one in February

“When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery.”—Martin Luther King, Jr. I'd be surprised if many people would recognize that quote coming from MLK. If they knew it was Dr, King, they probably would not recognize that it came from the famous speech he gave, the evening before he was murdered in Memphis, TN almost 49 years ago to the day, the "Mountaintop" speech. The most quoted line is, "We, as a people, will get to the promised land! I'm glad I reread this speech as I was migrating Dr. King's web page. We are misdirected with the focus nonviolent aspect of King's message. But King was keen on using economic power to win justice for Black folks. “And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis.” It was pretty clear from the speech that King knew his life was in serious danger but he did not let up. Calling for a boycott of Coke in the south probably signed his death warrant. Coke does not have to worry about Negros boycotting them today, or anything else for that matter because we are not prepared to give up anything--even if it would advance our cause. Read or listen to the entire speech--especially if you have heard it before.

In the first 27 days of not using social media at all. My traffic from social media has actually gone up when compared to the prior 27 days. It is also higher than the traffic from the same 27 days in 2016. After about 6 months or so I'll write about the impact of not using social media on my business. My initial conclusion is the increase this just reflects how the impact of my personal activity on social media has been on my websites traffic. I have to admit I have sometimes I found it hard to ignore the desire to share something on social media that I just posted on this site. I feel like people will not learn about the interesting book or author I just posted. Intellectually, know this is just the result of 10 years of conditioning to use social media. I know of course over time this urge will diminish. From an online social perspective, I have y'all :-) From my family and friends perspective, most are not active on social and those that are, are the ones sharing the minutia from their daily lives--either way I don't feel like I'm missing anything, From news and information perspective, I know I'm better off ignoring social media. It has been interesting to see traditional news outlets start to sell themselves on the virtues of providing true journalism and not the fake news you find on social media. The subscriber base for the NY Times has increased. It appears the pendulum may be swinging the other way. Last night (March 26th), 60 Minutes aired a segment which spoke about Fake News. They demonstrated how websites can buy fake likes and shares, which not only gives people the false impression that articles are important but "tricks" social media into sharing these articles as trending--which greatly increases the organic reach of the entity buying the fake likes. I put "tricks" in quotes, because I know social media sites can identify the artificially amped up articles, but they have little incentive to remove this fake engagement because it helps the social media platforms too. I watch and enjoy the Showtime program Homeland. One of the threads in the season's series deals with social media and how is used to influence public opinion. This is straight out of the article @Mel Hopkins shared about how social media was used to influence the trump campaign. This is actually not the first time I stopped using Facebook. About 2.5 years ago I stopped as part of a much larger campaign called, 99 Days without Facebook, which asked the question would you be happier with Facebook. I hoped to use the campaign to encourage others to join the effort. I don't think I convinced a single to leave Facebook. I boycotted Facebook for 37 days. This boycott is different. I don't care if any joins me. I'm not even trying to convince anyone to. I'm relating my experience here for my own benefit as much as anyone else's

Yes "building a progressive Black community in Michigan," is a vision in my book. The individual steps you taken to accomplish that a vision is not. Perhaps my vision can be stated as "developing an independent Black community on the web." I don't mean independent in terms of being exclusive of anyone else, but independent as in self-sufficient. Where Black folks reap not just the cultural but the financial benefits. The problem with my vision is that it is exceedingly difficult.one to accomplish. Overtime, I've learned limiting this vision to the web is short sighted. It is not like we have independent Black communities in the physical world, and they simply need to be extended to the web. I think the web reflects or amplifies the physical world and that our independence needs to start in the real world... If the weather were not so jacked up in Michigan I would consider moving there--seriously.