Troy

The following video is Kellie Magnus, one of the organizers of the Kingston Book Festival. I'm planning or organizing a group trip to the festival this coming March. I just decided to do it and since this would be my first time organizing such an excursion and it is just 6 months away, I'm not entirely sure I can pull it off--but I'll try it really is a nice event :-)

This is why we need Black newspapers with real journalist. Given the number of Black men killed by white police officers under these conditions; the KKK is beginning to sound like a plausible explanation for these senseless killings. Journalists can also dispel these theories, or put them in perspective, so that we don't waste valuable time and energy on falsehoods. Obviously Tulsa has a history of destroying Black people...

You know Terry I've been at it almost 19 years and it feels like I'm just getting started. I have a lot more planned Do you know the writer and filmmaker, D. Amari Jackson? He is also in ATL and wrote a book called the Savion Sequence which uses Egyptian themes as well.

Congrats on the Pacific Book Award and the critical acclaim for your novel @Terry Coffey

Laini Mataka - One Powerful Poet! 0 As I was updating the website I came across this poet. Much of her poetry touches on issues we've been discussing lately.

Book Promotion Special Only $99 September 23 to December 21, 2016 Get Started Now! Your book will appear on the AALBC.com Homepage and the Book’s Main Page for the entire fall, the number of days shown on the counter below. Once you’ve processed payment, by clicking the red “Get Started Now!” button above, simply email us the URL of the page where you want us to send readers who click your book’s cover, and we'll handle the rest.

I think you are making my point Cuba was backed by the USSR. Toussaint had the back of Mulattos and the enslaved population (basically the entire populations) and you can read about how violent the cultural revolution in China was. All of these figures had "big guns." Big guns is what fuels change. It took a civil war to free the slaves. It took the freaking National Guard to desegregate schools (even though de facto segregation in schools persists to this day). There will be no Twitter fueled social change, Football players kneeling during the National Anthem will not change a thing either. The big guns for the 21st century will be our money. If we can have an influence through local politics why is there so much tragedy in Black communities?

Why Pioneer, why? Humm I dunno, maybe it was 300 hundred years of slavery, followed by 100 years of Jim Crow, followed by hyper-incarceration, shitty schools, poor services, and media fueled brainwashing of our people. What do you think? Things will have to get MUCH worse. It will have to touch, in a personal way, " the most intelligent minds in the Black community" that you talk about. Sure Dwayne Wade's cousin was gunned down in Chicago, but at the end of the day he is a highly paid entertainer--and this is not enough. Again it will have to get much, much worse... Cynique, Pioneer, the media, if they choose, can make grass growing compelling entertainment. Crafting stories of white suicide to attract eyeballs would be easy. They just choose not to do it because they care about their community. Black folks are obviously treated differently. This is why the loss of Black newspapers is so devastating. But as a people we are too brainwashed to understand why this even matters. We happily rely on Twitter for our news and information. Cynique, of course a lone woman might be intimidated by a strange white man on the street. But we never, ever hear white men complaining about Black women, crossing the street to avoid them. Yes Black folks live for white acceptance and white folks don't care about ours. So the notion of telling stories about intimidated Black women makes no sense to them. Do you see my point? Black people buy into the same media propagated stereotypes white people do. So Black people too are puzzled as to why shiftless negroes in Chicago insist in blowing each others brains out. The death of Black journalism, black businesses, black schools is the death of us. Cynique, you are being fair, reasonable, logical, and rational when you look at these issues, the media are not. So I think it is hard for you to see the inherent biases in how they report. Dealing with media bias is simple--stop consuming it and call it out for what it is. The power of the purse is one tool we have, but we never ever use it, because we don't know how.

Thanks again Cynique.

LOL yeah you are being choosy for something free, but don't worry about I'll post another graphic for you (for free) shortly Yes I've begun creating these images as enhancements for the Large Book Ad. If you go to any AALBC.com page (expect the discussion forums), you'll see those the large book cover ads on the right hand sde of the page (on the homepage they are in the center of the page). I have not announced it as a new feature yet.

@Cynique, I've figured out why your stories mean so much to me. You provide an intergenerational connection that helps complete to complete me as a person. I know I'm not a direct descendant, but the reality is that we are all related and therefore family. That plus our shared culture gives us (all of us) a spiritual connection that is important, but largely overlooked and not celebrated in the American culture. I'm sure this is why promoting our culture through books is so important to me as well. Thanks again. Troy p.s. the newly open AA Museum is a refreshing exception so you know I'm there :-)

Hi @Dr T I've recently begun creating images for author advertisements. Below is one I created for you using the image you supplied above. This was created in photoshop.

Can't argue with that

No not exactly; the fear was already there and the media are exacerbating it because it sells papers. The media cares little about the consequence of their actions. I'm not saying that the media are straight up racist and trying to destroy the Black community, but what difference does it make if the result is the same? How else would you explain the sustained fear of Black men? I mean Black men are STILL, in 2016, complaining about white women crossing the street, or clutching their purses more securely as we walk by. O f course Black men are arrested and killed by white polices officers in numbers disproportionate to any other group of people. Don't try saying we deserve to be treated the way we are because we commit more crimes. We already know Black people are arrested more frequently and judged more harshly than white folks for the same acts. If you give a man a felony conviction it not only affects his life chances if effects those of his children... I still disagree about the coverage of white criminality and dysfunction versus that of Black people. Try this next time you watch TV or read a paper; count the number of negative articles for Black people versus white people. Black folks only make up roughly 13% of the population, but I'd bet you find we make up more than 50% of the negative coverage. Let me know what you find. But if you can't be bothered to do it don't worry; the research has already been done and I won't bore you with conclusions you already know... I also don't think the high rate of suicide rate in New York is commonly known. Did you know it? Are you suggesting it gets the same level of coverage and as the murders in Chicago?

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No, no I'm not suggesting censorship, far from it. I'm talking about balance and treating people with love. Black dysfunction is paraded on TV as it it is normal while and white dysfunction is addressed. If you are constantly barraged with images and stories of urban youth killing each other, everybody starts to believe this is the way ALL black people are like this and it effect EVERYONE. Cops have itchy trigger fingers when it comes to Black men because they finger if Black dudes with shoot each other they damn sure will shoot me. I'm talking about fairness. White boys walk down the street smoke dope--no problem; while Brothers get locked up. Then the media talks about all the Black men getting locked up for drugs. Please don't mistake the media hyper-coverage of Black dysfunction, like the shooting in Chicago, as the same thing as solving the problem. Obviously it is not. The hyper-coverage is about revenue generation and the reinforcement of stereotypes. I have no problem of crimes being reported But why are you, in Chicago, not reading about the white boys in New York City killing themselves every time it happens. Why and I, in New York, getting a blow by blow update every time someone in Chicago catches a stray?

No I don't think Trump's wealth is as great as he says it is either, but that is incidental, because no one cares about it that because he continues lives the lifestyle of someone that is a super rich celebrity, buying off politicians, funding his own presidential campaign, and getting the media to jump and cover any silly utterance he makes. I see what you are saying Cynique, but I think you are looking at it the wrong way. For example, I could take your words about Trump and apply them to Obama just as easily; Obama would not be where he is if it were not for "his huge following among the discontented masses." Do you see my point? In other words, the masses did not go out select and uplift Obama, Trump, and Hillary out of obscurity. They are simply the choices we are given. The high unfavorable ratings that both Trump and Hillary are getting should tell you something. The masses don't really support either. But these are the choice we have been given, and I'd be willing to bet most people feel like they are choosing the best of two evils...

When white* people talk about Facebook marketing they make recommendations like: Facebook ads should get people off of Facebook and onto your website or mailing list. The longer people are on Facebook, the more time they have to get distracted and leave your Facebook page. Forget about vanity metrics like how many people “like” your page. Facebook’s decreased organic reach presents problems for small business marketing. *The quotes above were obtained by a company called ThriveHIve (you can obtain their Facebook marketing information here). I don't know, nor did I check, the racial makeup of this company. Based upon their phone number they are based in Boston, so the assumption that they are white is probably correct. The primary point of this post is to highlight the difference between the way Black entities talk about marketing on Facebook and the way white people talk about doing it (I know I'm talking in broad brush potentially racist generalizations here but stick with me). You see Black folks talk about getting on Facebook and using it to increase engagement ON Facebook, many have even abandoned their own websites in favor of using Facebook as their primary platform. White folks talk about how to use Facebook as a tool to support your business, Black folks treat Facebook as if Facebook IS their business. In reality, this is not about race, if it where I would be white based upon how I talk about Facebook. This is really about how sophisticated we are in the business of the web; which is not very. When the lion's share of our resources and talent go toward uplifting Facebook, or talking about how we dominate the conversation on Twitter, we weaken ourselves. My goal is to ensure Black folks have strong platforms on the web and to make sure AALBC.om is one of them

No. Trump's ascendancy is fueled by his power which comes from his wealth and celebrity. Do you think it would have been possible, for your garden variety white boy, without Trump's wealth and fame would have been as successful as Trump? Because of Trump's power he can play the masses. It definitely wasn't the other way around.

Sure the people in Chicago's south side would like the senseless murders to end. But media attention will not end the murders. It is not like Obama, Emmanuel, and those in power in Chicago were unaware of the high rate of murders before the national media attention. If anything, the media attention has provided additional fodder for the Trump campaign as he becomes the next voice for hope and change in the Black community. As far as those with a financial interest in playing down Chitown's murder rates, who would they be? The real estate moguls interested in gentrifying the area, the racist happy to see negroes kill each other, the prison industrial complex salivating at the additional beds they will fill, the privatized charter school looking the save the inner city with government funded schools, the media profiting by reporting on the carnage, who? Who, other than the small business owners in the community, have a financial interest in stopping the slaughter of Black people in Chicago or anywhere else?

Pioneer you missed my point. Please reread this post. The most profound changes in history are initiated by the powerful, not from folks at the bottom. The rape of Africa, for example, was not initiated by european peasants, but by their leaders who interested in increasing their wealth. Look at America, do you think the great masses of people at the bottom, like you and I, have any say on what the country does?

For a little perspective, there were more suicides in New York City than homicides. The total number of suicides in NYC exceeded the number of murders in Chicago or any other city for that matter. I'm sure most of these suicides were white men. But of course the media prefers to talk about Black dysfunction rather than that of white folks, and what the media covers drives the national dialog. Imagine an alternate universe where Black folks ran mainstream media; we could all discuss the problems of crazy white folk killing themselves, while quietly, in the background, effectively and compassionately addressing our own problems. The country would start to associate suicide as solely a white problem. Of course we would ignore the root causes and not look for real solutions. We would fight over covering every single suicide first, and write stories on this disfunction day after day. Some outlets would publish grizzly photos of the victims, or create reality TV shows. The more liberal platforms would write human interest stories of the victims. It would be white suicide 24/7 and we would make tons of money. But in the space/time continuum we inhabit, we focus on Black murders in Chicago. No longer a toddlin town but Chiraq.

Thanks so much @Cynique! You are part of the last generation of Americans, who actually knew people who were enslaved in these United States of America. That is really something when you think about it. A simple DNA test and access to one of the databases like ancestry.com would almost certainly pull up those relative from TN.

The question really is what do Black women, any of us really do with this anger? Do we direct it inwards, and become self destructive to ourselves and our community; or do we take that energy and do something constructive? Anger is not the problem it is natural reaction to the real problem we confront on a daily basis.