Troy

Cynique I know a Black man, who voted for Trump. He chose Trump because of Trump's promise to lower taxes. Of course, this brother was not unique, because 8% of Black people who voted chose Trump. So unless there is 4th category of racist the Trump-supporters-are-all-racist narrative does not wash. As far as giving Trump a chance, that point is moot because the man won what else can be done? I'm stockpiling weapon and building a bomb shelter.

Donald is conservative, in so far as it is profitable. It is fascinating that the same person can appeal to both racists and evangelicals. Then again, given the history of this country that makes perfect sense... @mzmina, glad to read your ideas here, I think more readers will have the opportunity to enjoy your thoughts here too. I too supported Bernie and reluctantly voted for Hillary, but I'm not convinced that all Trump supporters are racist. In fact, I'd say that most are not. Many people who voted for Obama in the last election voted for Trump this time. I think it is easy for us to assume all Trump supporters are racist, but all this does is prevent us from understanding why he was elected. Also, a significant number of Black leaders supported Hillary over Obama--virtually the entire NY State democratic party supported Hillary in the primary including Rep. Charlie Rangel, and former NY City Major David Dinkens. Of course, they all got on board with Obama due to the overwhelming support of the masses. While all racists almost certainly voted for Trump, that does not make all Trump supporters racists. I think our country's biggest problem is our failure to educate our population. As a people, we are dumb, unread, parochial, tribal, ill-informed, self-absorbed, and easily led. Shoot we should even be allowed to vote... What Trump's election illustrates is not racism but stupidity. Stupidity in the media, our electoral process, and our population.

LOL yeah there is a lot to work with...maybe something with "Staff" From what I've been hearing in passing. If does not look like there is enough of a potential change to make a difference the outcome of the election. But there is something seriously wrong with our system; when more than two million people can vote for a candidate and that candidate can still lose...

No Herr Trump does not have to do anything else. The conditions for the violence we see were created long before he was born...

Me too. I also don't like being, or seeing, people being manipulated in ways that do not serve them. With the Small business Tuesday, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, whatever it is all just an excuse to get people to spend money they don't have, or which could go to better use, for things they don't need just to boost the profits of some corporation. Now, of course, I like getting together with family and friends over the holidays (because they get the time off), but I don't need some stupid, fiction, myth as an excuse to do it. But hey if folks get excited about your birthday, what harm is it to enjoy the love they give, if it makes them happy?

... or the Andrew Dice Clay but where he asks some married dude in the audience if his wife gave good head when they first met. The response is always a sheepish, "yeah," to which the the Diceman quickly retorts, "How do you think she got that way--oooh!" So while we made certainly agree on the double standard applied to men versus women with regards to public perceptions regarding sexual promiscuity, we diverge on the belief that only men have a desire to be sexually promiscuous. I think is should be obvious that women are not all that different in the sex desire for sex with different partners--certainly not as different as you suggest. Again, who would be available for all these men to copulate with? I think your assumptions that women have a desire for less sexual activity with fewer partners is more a reflection of your internalization of the double standard we all grew up with rather what is actually true.

Cool. I like the blog roll on your website. Thanks for the links! I added your blog to our site as well: http://aalbc.com/blogs/blog-name.php?name=Catachreses You know Whit, I have the books of almost 2,800 authors on this website; if I could have half of them do what you have already done, AALBC.com would be a beast :-) Readers and authors would all benefit from an even stronger platform. Thanks for the support! Peace!

Enter Your Debut Fiction, Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry By Dec. 5th The Hurston/Wright Foundation is accepting submissions for the 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awardsin debut fiction, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Submission Deadline: December 5, 2016 The Legacy Award, the premier award to Black authors from the community of their peers, celebrates the creativity and vitality of Black writers. Click Here for Information on Submission Guidelines. To See the 2016 Legacy Award Honorees, Visit www.hurstonwright.org Hurston/Wright Foundation | 202.248.5051| Email | Website About the Hurston/Wright Foundation: The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was founded in 1990 in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to discovering, mentoring and honoring Black writers. Through workshops for adult writers and teens, master classes and readings, the organization preserves the voices of Black writers in the world literary canon, serves as a community for writers, and continues a tradition of literary excellence in storytelling established by its namesakes. The Hurston/Wright Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more at www.hurstonwright.org.

Whit. you are a good man. Here is a link to can use that will provide the same level of support but will also take readers directly to your book's page: http://aalbc.it/whitbook Both links also have the benefit of counting toward our bestsellers list. If does not look like we will be publishing any non-commissioned book reviews until after the end of the, but your book is definitely on our radar and will be considered. Do you have a website?

The winning titles were announced October 23rd.

The winning books!

Pioneer, I'm sure you'd agree that the sexual appetites of people, of both sexes, lie on a spectrum; from a desire for complete abstinence on one end to catch-get-enough or the other. I simply don't know what the relative distribution of men and women across the races are on this spectrum. But I'm certain you can find Black men on the abstinence side of the spectrum. I'd agree with Cynique that there is a double standard; a man can boast about multiple partners and be envied and revered, while a woman would be scorned or pitied. Image how that gymnast Gabby Douglass would be treated if she went around bragging about how she banged all the dudes on the men's basketball team. She can't even have a hair out of place for Christ's sake. I suspect women are just as promiscuous as men--it just isn't culturally accepted for to them to admit it. Besides, all these guys are not screwing the same woman over and over. It takes two to Tango Bruh. Anecdotally, I see much more evidence that white folks are far more promiscuous that Black folks who generally profess a far more conservative sensibility. The media seems to reinforce the perception that white folks start having sex at a younger age and have more partner than Back folks. White folks led the sexual revolution; invented viagra, swingers clubs, the porn industry, tinder, NAMBLA, and on... What is the first thing a European imperialist does when he invades a country? Before he steals a thing, he rapes the women. Nah man, I'd have a hard time believing Black men are more promiscuous than anyone else, Brothers just feel the need to brag about it more. Sadly too many of us derive our self-worth from the number of sexual partners we have and take too little responsibility for the consequences of so many partners; including the transmission of STD's and children no one wants to rear.

Thanks Chris! There are already plenty of people reviewing books on Youtube, but most of these book reviewers, that I've found, are not getting many views. But FightMediocrity is quite a good channel and I'm not surprised the guy is doing well. Man, I would be happy to be a correspondent on books, but what platform would be willing to pay for this service? You are right; book videos are tough to get a lot of viewers; CSpan's BookTV, The National Book Foundation and others published youtube videos of the National Book Awards too. Even if you ignored my "viral" John Lewis video, my videos got more views because I posted them first and actively promoted them. That is really saying something because the others had teams of people shooting their videos, with high-end equipment, and produced videos of much higher quality. I was by myself, with a crappy camera, running around drinking and socializing the whole night but ultimately I was more effective. God only knows what I'd be capable of with a decent budget and staff.

My John Lewis, shown above (higher up in this conversation), has more 5,500 views in less than two days. The reason for the greater number of views that normal is that Rachel Maddow used a clip from my video on her show, and credited me. Normally this video would have had at most a couple hundred views at this point, but just that simple mention on her show increased it to thousands. She also copied me on a tweet of the video posted --blowing up my twitter account as a result :-)

Clark even through this conversation started more than six years ago, it is good to read your thoughts. Most people I've spoken to about this could care less about Bill's abuse of Denise. He is held to a different standard. This sadly is a consequence of our celebrity driven culture. When I last saw Bill about 6 years ago, he was a very elderly man. So while I won't condone you kicking his butt, I'm sure you could take him :-)

Perhaps. First, Usain is one the most successful athletes on the planet, arguably one of the most successful ever. He is also very, very, wealthy. So he has far more latitude to say what he feels, good, bad, or indifferent than most people. Second, Usain comes from the Black island of Jamaica. Unlike Tiger, Usain is 100% Black and proud of it. Tiger rejected being called "Black" and chased after white women. For this reason and more Usain is universally accepted in his country, while Tiger is not. Again, more reason for Usain to express himself and be quoted in the media, even if what is says is based upon, I suspect, limited knowledge of cultural and social anthropology. Third, the NY Daily News is a tabloid barely one step above the National Inquirer. Quoting from the NY Daily News, in an of itself, weakens your argument--and it is my local newspaper. Fourth, I read the article and you've taken quite a bit of liberty with a few Bolt quotes to assert your argument. Usain did not say he was against marriage or felt it was against Black human nature. You've taken a young, single, famous, athlete who is making full use of his ability to bang a lot of chicks--of course that is natural. Finally, I feel you about living by our own standards, but we also have to live in a culture that necessarily has normals and customs. Of course, we may not like some of these norms, but collectively adhering to them or changing them in culturally accepted ways makes it easier for people with deferent beliefs to live together. Today, there are a great many people screwing each other like rabbits here in the United States, but they keep it to themselves, excising a bit of discretion and modesty. Discretion is certainly one thing America can use a bit more of nowadays.

I just changed the topic of this conversation to: "Black Writers Dominate the 67th National Book Awards," because they did. This evening, in between classes, I began running searches on the awards ceremony just to see how well my content ranked and to comment on other sites sharing my content where appropriate. Would you believe many people believe that giving three of the four awards to Black writers is a result of "white guilt?" I actually had a version of this conversation with a white attendee last night. I simply said, "...the winning books obviously reflect a high quality of writing." Here is a typical comment in left-leaning New York Times. "Is it even possible to win a major lit award anymore without being a black male writing about the African American experience, and in particular slavery and racism? Apparently not, just as there are apparently no other worthy or noble topics in the world. The quality of these books notwithstanding, it's hard not to view all these recent wins (NBA's, Man Booker Prize, etc.) as evidence of a pervasive strain of white guilt among the liberal intelligentsia. Time to stop treating books as props...and literature as politics." Sure Black writers were absolutely over-represented at the National book awards not just this year, but last year too. Is the National Book Foundation trying to correct for previously overlooking Black writers? I seriously doubt it, but who knows? Besides, this is not the first time three Black writes won the award. Back in 1983 Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, and Joyce Carol Thomas won National Book Awards. But let's for argument sake, say the National Book Foundation is indeed giving conspiring to give awards to Black writers to make up for the years they were overlooked. Is that even possible? How long would it take? Below is a chart which breaks down the number of Black winners since the award was launched. I attended the last four National Book Awards. In those four years, seven Black writers won the award. To put that in perspective: The award has been given for 57 years, it took 42 years before 7 Black writers won! It took another 20 years before another seven author were given the honor. Even before I ran the numbers, I was fairly confident that Black writers were historically underrepresented. Of course, this lack of recognition can not be attributed to a lack of talent. Many great writers who never won, Baldwin, Hughes, Wright, Morrison and on. Obviously, the doors to mainstream publishing were closed to all but a few talented Black writers. Indeed it has been illegal for us to even read the majority of the time we've been here. How many great writers did we miss out on because Black people were systematically prevented from being educated let alone being published? How many potentially great writers are lost, in 2016, because they aren't being educated? Today, when a handful of our best writers are finally being recognized, why can't it just be for pure talent? Why does "white guilt" have to be part of the mix? Racism reveals itself in the strangest places... If the Trump election tells us anything, it tells us who we really are as a nation. Comments like the one that I posted from the New York Times above just reinforces what we, in the Black community already know. Of course, Larry Wilmore's joke about the book awards being hosted by BET, was probably not funny to many in the audience last night and probably exacerbated some ill sentiment. But Larry called President Obama "my nigga" in a room full of white folks, so you know he'll say anything, at any time, in front of anyone. I commend the National Book Foundation for providing a platform which is not afraid to recognize Black talent, obviously doing so generated some criticism.

Miss you @Xeon, where you hangin' out these days?

Colson Whitehead won the "big award" The National Book Award for Nonfiction: The Underground Railroad; Ibram X. Kendi Wins National Book Award for Stamped from the Beginning

I spotted Luvvie Ajayi, Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, Terrance Hayes, Saeed Jones, Walter Mosley, Eisa Ulen, Sofia Quintero, and Willie Perdomo Below I'm with Dr. Brenda Green. For you hip-hop heads; Talib Kweli's mom. Civil Rights Icon, John Lewis Wins National Book Award and give a short but moving acceptance speech!

“BET Presents the National Book Awards” —Larry Wilmore For real, after decades of barely recognizing the existence of Black literature, the National Book Foundation gives 3 of 4 National Book Awards to Black writers! But it was not about correcting past wrongs--it was about recognizing great literature Below Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Accept Literarian Award for Outstanding Service:

Larry Wilmore, the Master of Ceremonies jokes about "45" in his opening routine.

Jacqueline Woodson and friends. Jacqueline has been nominated for a National Book Award 4 times! She won the last year for Brown Girl Dreaming. As far as I know, no other author has been nominated as many times.

I'm here for my fourth National Book Awards (NBA) Ceremony. The NBA is the Academy Award of the book world. It is always an honor to attend. The most celebrated authors on Earth are honored here. I, as usual, focus on the authors of African descent, and there is no shortage of these authors honored this year. I'm making these posts live, from the event. The entire program may be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/DNpxugLaDgG