Troy

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

Hey DT I see the book is #1 on Amazon bestseller (congrats) #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Elections & Political Process > Practical Politics (free cateory) But can you describe what it is about? The description on Amazon does not shed much light. Thanks -

Gwen's passing was indeed a loss. She was a dying breed, a pure journalist. R.I.P.

Facebook does not seem to have a problem doing, shoot they make it look easy :-) I would have commented on Tony Blog were it not for the Facebook login requirement, that plus the fact that Tony is not responding to any of the comments. Mel, after reading the article I would not be surprised it the article was written by someone else using Tony's name. Call me paranoid... but it is hard to take anything at face value on the web.

The transparent background allows you to place so that the back is not obscured by anything other than the logo. Consider the images below the first image used a .jpg file with a white background. If your page is white this may be perfectly acceptable, but if your background is not white, or is another image, the effect may be less desireable. The 2nd image used a transparent background, which allows you to see the author images behind the logo. The 2nd image also a bit transparent, allowing you to see through it a bit. @Mel Hopkins, if you post your logo I may be able to remove the opaque background, which will give you much more flexibility on where and how your log can be used.

I didn't even know Tony was still producing new content. It sounds like the days of hosting the Francis Cress Welsings of the world are over... huh ;-) Let me click through and read the article before jumping to conclusions... ...OK I read the article and essentially agree with his observations, where I diverge wth him is the belief Trump will be a benefit to Black folks. But anything is possible, and we absolutely have to work with Trump to try to gain some benefits. All the protesting can't possibly accomplish anything as the man won the election. Unless your goal is to overthrow the president, which would be stupid, our efforts would be best used to try to get what we can out of the Trump administration. Since Trump is not Black, Black folks don;t about have to worry about dissing a brother and holding him less accountable than we did Barack. So while I don't think it is time for celebrating, as Tony seems to suggest, I do think we need to try to do some "really great deals" with Trump. It pains me to see Tony have to reference all the conversations happening on Facebook on his Blog. Even the commenting software requires you to login with Facebook. But I understand why he does it. Again it is just painful to see the dependence.

I guess Dr. Frances Cress Welsing was a contemporary of yours Cynique. Did you ever attend any of her lectures? I never heard her speak in person. She really did a lot of work trying to understand why white people has caused so much misery for Black and Brown people all over the planet. I was thoroughly impressed with her in the video below. I also miss programs like Tony Brown's Journal. Thoughtful intelligent programs like Tony Brown's journal that provides platforms for conscious and intelligent Black women like Dr. Welsing are in tragic short supply.

Pioneer your opening salvo sounds very racist. But I definitely hear where you are coming from and completely understand the sentiment When Africans came to the Americas they did not take ownership of land and resources, rape women, or enslave people. They came, they exchanged knowledge, and left. When Europeans went anywhere, they were so hell bent on domination that they weren't even above exterminating native people. Tanzania is a relatively recent example. When Europeans came to Africa and North America they were welcomed with open arms and they took savage advantage of the hospitality. Their hostility, of course, has not been limited to Black and Brown people. During WW II they managed to murder 3% of humanity in just a few years. Many if not most of these people were other white people. This is not to say there are not righteous white people--there are a great many of them. Today the Belgians, Italians, British and Germans are not nearly the same murderous lot they once were. And of course there are murderous Black people. But if you looks at the most violent Black people they were placed into conditions created by racist white people. Whether it was Black folks crowded in urban ghettos or setup in puppet regimes in some country white folks created. The entire conflict in the Middle East is really a European/American creation. Outside of white influence, there is no evidence to suggest that Black people behave ever behaved in the same manner that the most evil white people have. I know that might sound racist as well, but I'd be happy to defend the position. I believe, as any reasonable person should, that there are a great number of decent white folks who are interested in sharing and who despise the "enrich-yourself-at-the-expense-of-others" mentality. Sometimes I have to ask myself, "where the hell are they now?" I think people are just worried about their own survival. Working to improve the conditions of anyone outside your immediate family takes resources most of us don't have or don't want to expend. Besides that mentality is not really part of the American or western culture. Working to improve the group is part of African culture, at least before the arrival of the European. It is the part of our culture that was lost when we were enslaved here. I think many of us carry it in our DNA, we just can't express it here in America and it is probably why many of us need mental help today. Someone pass the Xanax please.

Here is the logo. Thanks for asking. It is a .png file with a transparent background.

12% of Black people who voted, voted for Trump. Many more Black people (I'm sure) did not vote at all the others voted for a 3rd party candidate--all of which are effectively the same thing--support for Trump. Even those Black folks that voted for Hillary vary widely on what they think of her. So no, I don't think Black unity is something that will happen anytime soon. I fight for it on a daily basis and it is a constant struggle. I beginning to think there is a more pressing battle than Black unity and that is American unity. Trump apparently does not believe in man-made climate change. What is the point of fighting for Black unity if the Earth is becoming increasingly hostile to support human life?

I'd be flabbergasted if Carson, Palin, and Christy all get Cabinet positions. Maybe he'll give Amarosa a cabinet position. Man, we are living in a crazy time.

Hillary did not make herself human until her concession speech, where you could see the genuine hurt and disappointment she obviously felt. Pioneer, Blacks did come out to Hillary she got 88% of the Black vote. I have not seen the figures on how many people that represents. If you have them please post a link; it would be interesting to see those figures. Democrats have had the Black vote on lock for years, why promise us anything? Obama never did and he is Black. Cynique, I'm not sure the 3rd party votes did Hillary in. It is not clear how many of those voters would have voted for Clinton without the 3rd party option. Besides in places like OH and NC, even if Hillary got all of the 3rd party votes, it would not have made a difference in the results. But as you suggest it was not just one thing that hurt Hillary. I voted for her, but she did not need my vote, she won NY by 1.5 million votes. I almost not did bother to vote for that reason, but changed my mind at the last minute, and am glad I did because I contributed to the popular vote giving Hillary that "win," which at least shows what the majority of people wanted, for what it is worth... We will never know who would have been better for Black people. I never had that much faith in Hillary, and I don't believe it is possible for Trump to do as much damage as many Black people believe he will do. Time will tell.

Hey Pioneer, you should listen to the hard left. My local NPR affiliate WNYC, had plenty of people complaining about a rigged election -- there have street protests with people complaining that the election was invalid. The was not a Republican win; this was a Trump win and he won despite the Republicans and probably because of the Democrats.

Sankofa Video Books & Cafe is located at 2714 Georgia Ave.,NW Washington, DC 20001

If you can stand it, listen to Rush Limbaugh or anyone on the far right and it may give you some additional insight into the way some of the electorate see things. There are great numbers of people who were with Trump and predicted the win. They feel the pollsters simply lied about Trump's reach to undermine his impact. I always believed the media are the cause, or certainly had a hand, in the rise of Trump. Because of their interest in ratings, they gave him tons a free coverage. No other candidate in the history of elections got as much free coverage as Trump did over the course of his campaign. I can't see him doing 8 years in office.