Troy

Here is another Brother, J. Marcellus Burke, I met during our annual Black Pack Party. He wrote what sounds like an interesting novel, The Black Knights. Which is fact based story about four fighter pilots serving in the German Air Force (Lufwaffe). His publisher, Bennett Johnson, who was also at the party (shown in the photo with me below) has an even more impressive resume. Bennett was Vice President of the Third World Press Foundation, President of the Evanston Branch of the NAACP and much much more. These brothers are both well into their 80's and still gettin' it in!

No Cynique you did not strike me as elderly in the least. I too appreciated that the situation my not present itself again so i cherished the moment even more. I went on about how you look like yourself, because you did. I see A LOT of photos of folks, meet them in person, and wonder who was in the photos they release Well next time you are in the 'hood check out a restaurant called Peaches. It is not much to look at, but they have an excellent breakfast I'm not checkout the duck bacon and the biscuits.

This article was written by a Brother I met at the Black Pack Party this week. Is Black Success Possible without White Infrastructure? by Dr. Obari Adéye Cartman I decided to go the “all Black everything” route last year when I published my book. In the text I encourage us to do for self, so it felt hypocritical to let Amazon make money while I advocate Kujichagulia. I had a vision of becoming a model for large-scale collectively sustained Black success. It was unsettling trying to think examples and only coming up with Marcus Garvey and Tulsa from decades ago and Tyler Perry today. Independent black bookstores are barely surviving, so I dreamed of doing my part by creating a demand for my work to then say ‘you can only buy it from a Black owned bookstore’. Which still sounds good, but I’m starting to have some doubts. Now y'all know this brother is singing my song. When I was setting up his pages on this site, I noticed his book, despite having an ISBN was not in any of the major retailer websites. I inquired about this and he sent me a link to his article. I was like whoa! I'm completely down with this--I just did not know. So I asked him for a direct to his book. Interestingly, I'm increasingly have conversations with publishers and indie authors who are interested in selling books directly--completely cutting Amazon out of the picture. I think this is a great trend, as Amazon OWNS the Black book retail business and this is impoverishing black business, and not serving the reader very well. The other benefit is that with Amazon out of the picture the author will make more money and the reader will pay less for the book. The example I shared about Dante Lee's book is a perfect example. But the trick is, getting the reader to buy the book on a platform other than Amazon. This will require a seismic shift in attitude among readers, but with enough promotion on the reasons why this matters I think it can be done. Dante was able to address the issue of getting reader buy by directly from him with by setting a very low price. This works for the type of book he was selling; a very short ebook. But for a physical full-length book, the model may not hold, but it is something we are wrestling with, and we are open to ideas. Below is a photo of Dr. Obari Cartman and a few other "Book" brothers at the Black Pack party; from left to right (front) myself, Obarl Cartman, (rear) Kwame Alexander (Newbery Medal Winner and Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winning author), Earl Sewell (bestselling author), and Earl Cox (publishing consultant).

@Pioneer1, I don't think it is lack of organization; we have many massive organizations. The greek letter organizations, for example, have 100's of thousands of members. The Black church has even more members. There is still an NAACP, an Urban League, etc, etc. The issue does not seem to be a dearth of organizations, but rather what the organizations we do have are about. That question I can not answer because I'm not a member of any organization. For sure, some would say that is the problem, but I would disagree...obviously. Agreed, indoctrinated Black people can not know much they are being indoctrinated--that is the definition of indoctrination...

"Tapped" me on my back?! I was talking to someone and I felt someone punch me in my back. My immediate reaction is that this person better know me. So I turned around and it @Cynique in the flesh. Cynique, in an ideal world we could have taken more time to actually have a conversation. Seeing you was like meeting a celebrity. A celebrity whose career you may have followed and taken a photograph with, but getting to know someone takes time and I think it has to be in person. The interesting thing about getting to know someone on these forums versus real life is that (at least for me), is that I tend to be more honest here. I'll express views and opinion here that I would keep to myself at a cocktail party. Here I'm less filtered, so I'm probably more likable in real life But which one is the real me. I think if you know me both here and in the real world you probably know me better than most. Lurkers may fall into that catergory, but hardly anyone you actively posts does. @Delano (who i actually went to business school with in the early 90's) falls into the category of both. I first met him in 1991 when we both were constants in the PC lab. But I have not seen him in about 10 years so we have moved from physical to virtual. Choosing between the two; physical trumps virtual. But when there is no other choice virtual is better than nothing. Our culture seems to behave as if virtual relationships are better than physical ones, given the huge amount of time we invest, in corporate curated, virtual relationships. Corporate control of the relationship is one of the reason's I've optioned out of using social media for personal reasons; social media imposes which greatly distort who we really are. I actually started to dislike people in the social media world that I actually liked in the real world! So if someone who I actually know, warts and all, in the real world, is seemingly constantly boasting about how great wife, children, lives are; they seem phony and disingenuous to me. But then I realized it is not them; it is the way social media works, so rather than disliking people I otherwise like, I try my best to ignore what I see, or like hit the like button and keep it moving.

Hi Ralph, thanks for sharing your new book with us. I will take the liberty of sharing a couple of things that I know will help you" First, At the risk of sounding like a broken record to frequent visitors here, never link to Amazon with using and affiliate code. You are just leaving money on the table. Read this article for more insight. Second, putting on my bookseller's hat: I read the information here and on the Amazon and createspace sites. You have to give us more information about the book to entice us to want to buy and read it. When I say "us" I mean the potential readers. Consider your target audience and how the book will appeal to them. For example, from the perspective of someone on the tail end of the baby boomer generation, when you write, as a 22-year-old person, "... my point of views about the world today." you really have to do some selling because your perspective is that of someone who is really young and hasn't actually lived life yet. This is not to say that it is impossible to appeal to an older demo, but you are gonna have to tell us what that appeal is; do you seen where I'm coming from?

Any institution still around from the period benefited from the enslavement of human beings, including all of the Ivy League schools that we fight to get into while the HBCU's languish. Forget it man, Black folks ain't gettin' no damn reparations. The best we can hope for is not to be gunned down by police officers and to get an academy award nomination every now and then... Move on. The rest of the country has. The important fight now is the right to use the bathroom of our declared gender.

@Pioneer1, Don't try to stir anything up please. It was a beautiful moment I'll be looking back on this post in the future with fond memories don't spoil it for me

Here I'm with Kai EL’Zabar who is the Executive Editor of The Chicago Defender during the Black Pack Party in Chicago this past Wednesday (read the full article and the Defender's website).

Well trying to count the number of African sold into slavery is impossible and estimates will vary significantly. While we know African's sold/traded other African into slavery, few suggest that Africans are responsible for the brutal system. That responsibility rests with the europeans. But that reminds me of more interesting points: You know there were Black slave holders in the U.S. You also know many so called white people are actually Black. Indeed some estimate that most white people who have been in the US for more than a few generations have some enslaved African in their Ancestry, should they be paid too?

Pioneer1 would a sales receipt work for you? Seriously, what would qualify as proof for you? You wrote, "The only thing preventing Black people from getting reparations NEXT YEAR is their disunity and lack of confidence." So, are you suggesting people like me are stopping us from getting reparations? I'm down for unity and I have no issues with confidence. So I'm not sure that is it. Did anyone see the debate?

I just published our bestsellers list for the period ending April 30th. I actually did not have a chance to really analyze the list, so I did not notice that Brown Girl Books published the top three books on the fiction side! I usually analyze the list for trends right before i publish the information in my newsletter. However, the news became quite evident after posting the information on Twitter. I have to congratulate both the authors and the publisher, they are one of the great stories in Black books today--look out for great things from Brown Girls Books.

The City College of New York, walking distance from where I live, and the Alma Mater of people like Colin Powell and Jonas Salk was FREE! Today a degree costs $86K (less if you commute) and that is assuming you graduate in four years. On top of that, the school no longer has the reputation it once had, so the value of the education is lower--and still too costly for many in the community to attend, with out going deep into debt. College should not be compulsory, but there should be quality free options available. The society and culture is FAR better off when the citizens are educated.

Pioneer all African scholars say that Africans sold other Africans into slavery, I don't think anyone who has studied the subject thinks this is debatable. Also, if you think the American people, Black ones included, would approve some form of reparations for Kenyan, or any African, immigrants?! Negro puhlese! I do think Carlton's idea mentioned above and in his research paper that; "...supports the creation of “Jim Crow reparations.” Distinct from the reparations for slavery considered herein, Jim Crow reparations would be based on federal and state governmental discrimination against blacks and their immediate families during the Jim Crow Era." Now this might be something worth considering, for the people directly impacted are still alive. But still White folks would fight this tool and nail, for the money will come from everyday working stiffs, not the oligarchy who whose families directly benefited from the enslavement Africans.

No one will ever receive a check, or any other form of compensation, from the U.S. Government for compensation for the enslavement of our ancestors. White people don't even want to pay for educating, housing, or providing medical care for each other. Anyone who thinks white folks will pay Black folks for something that ended a century and a half ago is out of their mind. @Pioneer1, do you think President Obama should receive reparations if they were being provided?

Well you can fire me Del, cause, and I know I'm in a minority here, but "reality" TV never ever interested me. I take that back I did watch an episode during a party for Randall Pinkett, the brother who won one year. A buddy agented his book. Actually I'm surprised the media is not parading Omarosa, Randall and all the other Black Apprentices--maybe they have a gag order in their contracts :-) Listening to the news there seems to be more reluctance than I originally thought, by some in the GOP to embrace The Donald. The republican party is a disaster. They better embrace their boy and hope Hillary does not get indicted if they want a chance to win the whitehouse.

I purchased the book too, in fact I purchased two copies because I lost the first .pdf file (due to a bad hard drive). I actually read the book last night. in about an hour or so. I too was curious to learn which tools he used to sell in the pdf version. I had to print the ebook out though, I still prefer paper. Given the large font, broad margins, and liberal use of full page images the page count was well over 100 pages when it could have easily been half the number of pages. Then again I could have printed the document two pages to a side and that probably would have been a better use of paper. The pdf was definitely optimized for reading on a handheld or inflate page count he was also a recommendation made in his book. If you read the book, Dante describes you how he setup his site to sell the pdf. He used shopify which also watermarks the pdf file for you. I was also interested in his recommendations for book cover designers, he points out several recommendation available through Fiverr. On the 2nd purchase I too tried to save to dropbox too, but was unable to do it. I assumed I did not have the space or that I was some other problem that was on my end, but since we both had problems I could have been on the Shopify side. I definitely like Dante's recommendation of selling directly. You can price the product for less and increase your profit margins over selling through Amazon. But as you suggest you are faced with the challenge of getting people to buy directly from you (or an independent affiliate selling on your behalf), when folks are so wedded to Amazon. Dante seems to have addressed this problem by dramatically reducing the price of the ebook. I'll be looking into the Shopify software it will be cool if they also have an affiliate program that would allow authors to give others the opportunity to sell their ebooks and make some money.

Should the U.S. provide reparations for slavery and Jim Crow? Carlton Mark Waterhouse, Indiana University Editor’s note: This article is part of our collaboration with Point Taken, a new program from WGBH that will next air on Tuesday, May 10 on PBS and online at pbs.org. The show features fact-based debate on major issues of the day, without the shouting. The debate over reparations in the United States began even before slavery ended in 1865. It continues today. The overwhelming majority of academics studying the issue have supported the calls for compensating black Americans for the centuries of chattel slavery and the 100 years of lynching, mob violence and open exclusion from public and private benefits like housing, health care, voting, political office and education that occurred during the Jim Crow era. Despite this academic support, the nation is arguably no closer to consensus on this issue than it was 150 years ago. Not surprisingly, my research has shown that the idea remains widely unpopular with white Americans and overwhelmingly supported by African-Americans. The example of a Founding Father ‘Should the U.S. pay reparations to Black Americans’ is the question Point Taken debates May 10 at 11 PM E/10 PM C on PBS The debate over reparations began not long after the country was founded. In 1790, Benjamin Franklin committed to instruct, employ and educate the children of those he had set free from bondage. Franklin saw this as a way to “promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures.” After slavery ended, Senator Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania proposed the reparations bill in 1867. It provided 40 acres of land to each adult male and to each female who was the head of a family. In addition, it called for funding to construct a homestead on the land. Stevens saw reparations as necessary to avoid racial hatred, inequality and strife. Callie House, who was born enslaved, took up the charge in the 1890s under the auspices of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association. She was arrested and ultimately imprisoned for her efforts in 1917. She was accused of raising money to support a cause that the government argued was so implausible as to constitute fraud. The organization had built a membership in the tens of thousands from 1897 to 1898, and continued to grow thereafter. Scholars pick up the cause Slave market in Atlanta, Georgia in 1864. The case for reparations for African-Americans was taken up in academic and popular circles more than 40 years ago. Yale Law Professor Boris Bitkker gave the first significant academic treatment of the issue in his book “The Case for Black Reparations” in 1972. The book followed the public demand for US$500 million in reparations from white churches and synagogues by civil rights leader James Foreman. The issue remained on the political agenda of some black nationalist organizations like the the Nation of Islam and later the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations. It was also part of the research agenda of scholars such as Bernard Boxxil and Howard McGary. Boxill and McGary provided a basis in moral philosophy for black reparations that future scholars expanded into other disciplines. In 2001, well-known anti-apartheid activist Randall Robinson published his book “The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks.” After its publication and popular success, a new group of academics began to give significant attention to the issue. A popular movement also arose that sparked lawsuits relating to slavery and state-supported racial violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All of the suits were dismissed by the courts, causing many to conclude that legislative action was the only possibility for redress. The legislative approach had succeeded previously in one instance. Years earlier, the Florida legislature enacted legislation that made Florida the first and only state to provide reparations for state-supported mob violence against African-Americans during the 1923 Rosewood massacre. A number of cities and universities began investigating their historic relationship to slavery. Several states issued apologies for slavery. The United States House of Representatives followed suit in 2008. The Senate joined in the following year. The 2014 article by Ta Ne-hisi Coates in The Atlantic represents a recent resurfacing of the issue. My current research explores the commonality between the views held by the majority of American whites on this issue and the views of dominant ethnic and racial groups who oppose redress for injustices and harms inflicted in other countries. Social hierarchy and reparations globally Following World War II and the extermination of Roma peoples alongside Jews in death and concentration camps, the Federal Republic of Germany refused redress to the Roma at the same time it provided extensive reparations to Jewish victims. Australia’s rejection of reparations in response to the theft of over 100,000 indigenous children over the course of 60 years under federal and state laws provides another example. Japan’s refusal to provide redress to the Korean woman forced into sexual slavery during World War II is one more. In each case, the rejection of redress corresponds to the low social status of the victims. This reflects a phenomenon social psychologists identify as “social dominance.” It describes a state in which certain groups have a disproportionate share of a society’s “negative social value” such as incarceration, poverty and substandard housing. Others in the same society have a disproportionate share of “positive social value” including education, political power, wealth and quality housing. A ledger recording the sale of slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. Yale University Groups enjoying the benefits of social dominance often reject claims by subordinate groups, even when they are rooted in horrible and well-established historic injustices. The reasons for rejecting these claims vary, but they ultimately flow from the perceived flawed character of the group members. Following World War II, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer identified the Roma as a “race of criminals” who in no way deserved reparations. In Australia, former Prime Minister John Howard rejected reparations based on the idea that “contemporary Australians should not be held responsible for mistakes of the past.” An interesting position in light of the continuation of the practice into the 1970s. In Japan, the claim was made that the issue of the “Korean comfort women” was settled at the end of the war by the agreement to end hostilities. It is worth noting that in Germany and Australia, both groups had disproportionately high incarceration and poverty rates and were broadly viewed as having cultural and moral deficits. In Japan, a similar view is illustrated by the recent remarks of a government official that the victims of the years of enslavement were actually Korean prostitutes who “volunteered.” Uprooting racial subordination in America In the same way, white Americans' rejection of reparations has little to do with the oft-repeated challenges that “my family did not own slaves” or that “the debt was paid in the blood of the Union and Confederate soldiers.” African-Americans fall at the bottom of America’s racial and social hierarchy. That reality has routinely and popularly been explained as a result of their inferiority. Initially the claim was rooted in genetics. Today it is based primarily on a theory of cultural deficiency. Until these ideological bases of racial subordination are acknowledged and rejected, no “case for reparations” will convince the majority of white Americans that reparation are due African-Americans. A clear example of this can be found in the hundreds of comments to my recent New York Times editorial on the issue. The comments reflect the negative views of African-Americans held by many readers as well as an intense emotional rejection of reparations. My proposal looks at slavery and the Jim Crow era separately. I draw the distinction to prevent the memory of the enslaved from being overshadowed by the more recent injustices of the Jim Crow Era. I believe each group of victims warrants specific attention and an appropriate response. Compensatory reparations should be limited to the harms of the Jim Crow Era. For slavery, I suggest that reparations take the form of monuments, museums, memorials and educational programs that are currently lacking in this country. One early step would be the creation of commissions at the state and local level that would identify the enslaved, their owners, and any role they played in the development of the state and its industries. This information would be used along with existing research and funded grants to develop appropriate projects to honor the enslaved and to demarcate the contributions they made. A comparable examination should be made at the federal level to note persons of national significance. In light of the centuries-long history of slavery that took place here, we have a great deal to learn and illuminate about this aspect of our shared history. This approach provides the focus needed on the lives of the enslaved, their humanity, and their indispensable contribution to America’s growth and development. At the same time, the proposal attends to the survivors of the governmental abuses inflicted over the course of 100 years following slavery’s end who remain without recognition or redress. Carlton Mark Waterhouse, Professor of Law and Dean's Fellow , Indiana University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

No. These things have become the bane f the internet. I regularly have to remove these links from my website. This tactic works; it is cheap and easy to execute on a large scale so finding victims is easy. Plus there is no penalty for getting caught, so the practice will continue. I believe this type of thing will increase as these hustlers get even better and we will become easier marks. So keep spreading your message, maybe you will help someone. It is much better to say something than nothing at all.

One World publisher and editor-in-chief Chris Jackson acquired world rights to the two new titles, including audio rights, from Gloria Loomis of the Watkins/Loomis Literary Agency. He will edit both books. Jackson was Coates's editor at Spiegel & Grau when Coates won the 2015 national Book Award for Nonfiction for Between the World and Me. Read the rest of the article at Publishers Weekly

@Delano, I did not write the statement above that you've attributed to me. I'd appreciate it if you posted a link to where you found it, and attribute it to the person who actually wrote it. Besides, what point are you trying to make by copying what someone else wrote, posting a seemingly unrelated photo, and adding no comments of your own?.

Now that I think about it we did that too :-)

Again I believe Hillary is getting beat up because of her gender, despite her white skin. Consider this; Bill Clinton engaged in a variety of activities that embarrassed the nation and hurt the Black community and he got a pass while doing it. Today Hillary is getting beat up and called to account for all the stuff Bill did--talk about a double standard. I think Obama beat Hillary primarily because he was selling hope and change--something Hillary simply can never do. This is tragic because she may be a great president given the opportunity. As far as intellect I'm not sure Obama is that much smarter that Hillary; assuming he is smarted than her at all. As far as oratory skills, Obama never wowed me personally but I guess this is purely subjective. Donald is selling a hope and change too, and he is making no attempt to come across as smart (I doubt he is capable of it). No one will confuse him with a great orator either. The other issue is we usually switch parties after 8 years; republicans have an advantage here. I agree there are many factors in play. But again, Hillary represents the status quo. Trump represents everything Hillary is not. Now that the republicans are starting to line up behind Trump, he will be a formidable candidate for president. Meanwhile, Bernie shows no sign of dropping out so while the democrats are duking it out, the republicans will continue to build momentum. Besdies, a white man beats a white woman everyday of the week...

I first met Dante, the author of the book below, over a decade ago at the time he was a wonder kid, a young entrepreneur who'd carved out several successful niches on the Black World Wide Web. He was in Black Enterprise, often quoted, the whole nine. He would later publish a book through Hay House's Smileybooks called Black Business Secrets. Black Author Secrets. Get your copy today before the price goes back up to $4.95! He Dante references AALBC.com as a source. He also practices what he preaches by promoting his book on our site.