Troy

I spend a lot of time in Tampa Florida and New York City. Venture outside the cities in both locations and the people do not strike me as very different. Conservative, 45 supporters, the standard complement of good 'ole boys and a sprinkling of red necks. Cynique that phrase "High Yella" just strikes me as a crazy term. The praise is both simultaneously a compliment and insult. The last time I was in Nashville I visited Fisk. I may have seen your Aunt's home, though much of the housing around the school does not look like it goes back o the 40's from what I recall.

Makes sense. In fact yesterday I started collecting email addressed for a author and publisher email list. However, I already have a lot of insight into the motivation and needs of authors already and provide, or can provide, some of the services that can help. It is not a matter of providing authors with services they need it is getting them to use them. In other words, I can run a survey, collect the data, create and promote the services, but the challenge of getting people to actually use them still remains. Indeed I've done this before. Again, the issues are not technical... Here is an anecdote to illustrate the point: We determined that authors were really interested in a bestseller's list that covers Black books. I got together with then Mosaic Books and Cushcity and created a list called the Power List. The list gathered sales from a variety of sources and was far better than any of the bestsellers list' Essence, Blackboard of anyone else produced from a methodology perspective. Some suggested that I should simply promote my list more. I wanted to have a list that was not tied to a particular sources to I teamed up with others. At any rate, the list was published once a quarter for over two years. The list failed to gain any traction with Black authors, ultimately I killed the list, shut down the website and archived the data on AALBC.com. @CDBurns, used to describe the "white co-sign." I believe the list failed to catch on because it did not get the elusive white co-sign. Today, authors are still describing themselves as "Essence Bestselling" authors and Essence has not produced a bestseller since 2009! When they produced a list it was never more that just that a list so content supporting content or even information about the books themselves. But Essence had the white-cosign (maybe because they are white owned). Side bar: when running a query to figure find out when Essence actually stopped publishing their bestseller's list I stumbled across a website the American Library Associations website describing AALBC.com's list; "The people who are viewing the site must be the people who are interested in this literature, and so it follows that those using the site as a vehicle to make book purchasing decisions are part of the African American book buying market. They are truly 'best sellers.' There is a certain straightforwardness to it." I never saw this quote before but I appreciate it. The Powerlist bestsellers list was mentioned on Publishers Weekly, but not a single mainstream published referenced the list in their marketing materials. Now I would argue that acknowledging the list would have created buzz for their titles, but that is besides the point. Because mainstream publishing did not embrace the list, Black authors did not embrace it. I can't prove it but that is my professional judgement. Just this week I posted a newly created AALBC.com Bestselling Books seal There is no other entity that has published a bestsellers list focused on Black books for as long as AALBC.com has. I have made these list available, continuously, for 20 years. Almost 1,200 books have made the bestseller list during that time. Every book is backed by a detailed description of the book, the authors many are reviewed. Yesterday I emailed my mailing list information on how to use the seal. My hope is that publishers large and small will recognize the achievement of being an AALBC.com bestseller and use it as a tool to help create buzz for their books. Of course this will help raise AALBC.com profile when will then allow me to better promote great Black literature. Win-win right? I will continue producing bestsellers list whether they are acknowledged by mainstream publishing or not. My hope is that Black authors and publisher recognize the lists If we embrace it, readers will, and mainstream publishing will have to recognize it. We must claim our own agency and be the ones who validate our work. Now @Mel Hopkins, I know full well this may be more than you asked for, but often when I write here I'm not just replying to you, but I'm replying to other readers interested in this subject, and even to my future self. If you are in an Amazon bookstore one day and see this seal on a book, you know it took decades and a lot of work to make that happen.

Most people, even racists, view and treat celebrities as if they are superior to other humans. But this of course has nothing to do with the person. If I'm a white racist and I don't happen to know you are a celebrity you are just another nigger to me... In any event, this is simply not enough to make a red neck change his thinking about Black folks in general -- unless it was possible to make every Black person a celebrity.

Wait, what? Are you saying Eddie created and performed the original Rochester character? Eddie was in the motion pictures Gone With the Wind and Cabin in the Sky? Elva I did not pick this information up. I listened to the interview and read all the material I've. It is possible I missed it all but it should be front and center the Rochester character is recognized as a seminal figure in media. This is big stuff. I'm probably moving to fast to pick things up... @Elva D. Green I've added your website info to your AALBC.com page, I'll check your site for information.

Hmm it seems Ike I'll have to experiment with the Blog software myself. I would expect all the Blogs to have the same functionality, regardless of when it was started. But I'll look into it.

I ran a query to see when I actually started this website's upgrade. I've been saying 18 months but it has been two years and I'm still at it! It was interesting to reread my thoughts and the comments. Part of what has slowed me down was that the scope of the upgrade has expanded substantially. Despite the delay the upgrade has actually gone far better than I anticipated. The site is better on every single level. I still have content to migrate from static pages to my database, but I should finished that this year, for the number of pages needed to be migrated now number in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Once all of the content that I can find has been migrated I'll consider the update completed. Of course that will not be the end of updates to, but they will not longer consume most of my time as they have for the past year. I'll be able to focus much more on content creation and maybe get back into the gym ;-) Rereading my notes it seems I underestimated the value, teaching web design, has been to the sit'e upgrade. I've learned more about web design in the last 2 years than I have in the previous 10. The technology changes so rapidly; teaching forces me to keep up which has benefit the site more than I could have anticipated. My kids never did join in the effort to help. They are both smart, but this was largely my passion. No one else in the family really shares my passion for what I do, indeed most people don't, but there are enough who do, so I continue to work to find my tribe. Both of my kids have actually moved out on their own since I started this project I'm still not satisfied with the homepage layout. A lot of people like the the slider which scrolls through a bunch of large pictures. While it looks good but it is trends and does not do much for SEO. Did I say SEO (read: making Google happy) is incredibly important. It is the most important thing behind the website's content--perhaps more. Chris suggested a Blog format, which is a better idea, which I may try after the upgrade is complete. The homepage is just one page, so I'm not stressing over it too much. Besides it is no longer the most popular page on the website. Indeed, many of the most popular pages today did not exist prior to the site's upgrade, which is one of the reasons the site's traffic will almost certainly be the highest ever. As I knew when I started this project, two years ago my challenges would not be technical. Despite the site's enhancement and increased number of ,visitors and ability to reach readers, authors simply do not take of the platform. The other problem is that Facebook, Amazon and Google's power has only increased. While I've eliminated all dependencies on Amazon and Facebook, Google could easily put me out of business tomorrow--and there is nothing I can do about it. I've made appeals to readers, webmasters, booksellers to try to support each others website to reduce dependency on Google search, but this effort has largely failed so much so that I don't devote much time to the effort longer.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson, and The entire March trilogy by John Lewis is on the The New York Times’ list of books on “How to Talk to Your Kids About Charlottesville.” Are on the The New York Times’ list of books on “How to Talk to Your Kids About Charlottesville.”

@richardmurray, man you replied in less than 24 hours--that is perfectly fine. No one expects an immediate response. On the forums I find the "promote" feature to be a lot better than clicking the social sharing button provided. But I don't know if the feature is available on blogs (I actually don't run one).

Del, yes I think the true divider of people in this country, the true cause of misery for Black people (and white folks) to are the ultra rich. It was not a Black man that killed more than half a million white boys in the civil war, it was not a Black men who sent them to die in Vietnam, Korea, the deserts of the middle east. It was not a Black man who took their homes during the mortgage crisis. It was not a Black peopel who outsourced their jobs and hired people from all over earth to work in silicon valley. If white people got rid of every Brown person in the United States, they would actually be worse off, not better. Pioneer, the military budget is $600 billion a year; more than half of our entire budget, we have the money. I think the reason BET and Oprah don't do journalism is because it is hard and expensive. Unscripted reality TV, music videos, and talk shows are much cheaper and easier to produce--i.e. far more profitable. At some point someone has to care more about informing the public than making money. The incentives of are system will not allow this to happen organically. It has to be a public service. 45 as potus, Charlottesville, climate deniers, etc, are are all a consequence, in a large part, of an misinformed public. But the other problem is that people probably would not tune in on their own; opting to watch music videos and the NFL instead. Maybe we could require high school students to watch ... I dunno informing the public so that we can make better decisions seems hopeless.

Wow I did not know they taught that in the Nation of Islam. Well I guess that puts them ahead of Christianity that is pushing to get the entire theory of evolution pushed out of school altogether in favor of creationism.

Yeah @Cynique, I try to write posts that make sense. I often reread something I wrote and find that the meaning was different than what I actually intended, so I edit them. I'm glad I've gotten better. The problem you described with my posts was more prevalent in my newsletters and website--which irked me to no end. I spend more time editing my newsletter than writing it. Your assessment of Del was interesting too I often have no clue what he is trying to communicate, but I welcome his comments and commitment to the board. @Del I find it interesting that you would say that you conversations with Cynique and Mel, are "less combative or ego driven." I've read a number of your comments to Pioneer1 and I found them unnecessarily combative. Indeed, your negative comment about my using statistics (which I rarely do), was passive aggressive and also an unnecessary dig. I think what you are perceiving as "ego" is disagreement. It is fascinating don't appear to see these characteristics in yourself. I will admit I'll say things to you and Pioneer in a manner that I would not do with Cynique or Mel, simply because they are women and Cynique is my elder. @Mel Hopkins, the reason I hopped in was that it is obvious that you and @Pioneer1 were not understanding each other (yeah I know you disagree with that now). He assumes you were, "play games of DENIAL or ACT like she doesn't understand or can't relate to what I'm talking about." I don't think you were playing a game--why waste the time. But it is seems pretty clear you were not relating to what he was saying. I only interjected because I thought you were not receiving anything he was saying. I did not attempt to reiterate your comments because I did not think he was missing what you were saying. So I was trying to help and it was dismissed as "mansplaining" I guess that is cool since I am a man and we as Del says we are wired differently; though I do not think it has to be the source of ongoing conflict.

...or fight the plutocracy.

OK cool Mel. Judging from the exchange it appeared as of you did not understand what Pioneer was saying based upon your responses. If you got it great--I stand corrected. Cynique, yeah I can't know what the support rate is for Black women of Black men. But I do see so much focus on the inability of Black women and men to communicate and connect. I know you are more likely to see this kind of conversation in ATL, DC, and other places with large or majority Black populations. We can look at marriage rate and see something as gone awry -- wouldn't you agree? I don't have scientific data to back anything up, I'm just going on my observations. What do you think about your observations of the passing scene from your vantage point?

Pioneer have you ever tried to stop a moving automobile? Surrounding the vehicle was not an option as long as it could be driven. Regarding the network it has to be paid for. Unless the government takes the money from us, the way they fund defense, we would never subsidize a network like this on our own.

Mel, I think you are misunderstanding Pioneer's use of the word average. Of course successful men are worthy of emulating. Their achievements can be motivating and inspiring. But the vast majority of people will not achieve this level of success. If everyone did, no one would be exceptional. We already know the majority of Black men do not go to college, therefore the "average" man does not go to college. Not everyone has the intelligence, motivation, preparation, and nowadays money to attend. Of course environment and family circumstances hinder others. The inability to go to attend a good college and graduate puts a damper for one's earning potential. Today, in a world of digital technology and automation the opportunities for many Brothers, unable, or incapable, of going to college have dried up considerably. Of course during this period incarceration rates have skyrocketed.... These are average, everyday, normal people for whom Pioneer is talking about (I think). The inability of these people to raise to become CEOs of their own companies or the secretary of some department, does not diminish them. Everyone can not become a CEO. The lack of willingness to provide support to each other is very prevalent in a capitalist system, where rugged individualism and independence is a sign of strength and needing help is a sign of weakness. In reality, all the successful people that every existed got tons of support whether they recognized it or not. We all need support In fact, as wealth and income inequality continue to rise. The ability and likelihood of anyone to move from poverty to wealth becomes lower--and it is. This is a time for Black women to provide more support for Black men--not less. Obviously. the converse it true too.

If I may interject here. Mel consider Pioneer's point this way: consider the Brother who built the community center to support those single moms; I presume some of those moms were black and that some of the fathers of those babies were Black too. These are the Brothers that Pioneer is referring to. When I worked in corporate America, everybody's kids went to private schools (or they lived in a great neighborhood with great public schools). Virtually all of my peers were married and had healthy (at least n the surface) relationships with their wives and kids. Many were active in the community, churches, and political or social organizations. We all made meaningful financial contribution to charitable organizations. But I know my peers were not the average folks Pioneer is talking about. Individually we made far more money than the average white american family made. The Brothers Pioneer is talking about are a different breed of Brother than the ones I described and the ones you've been talking about. I not saying one is better than the other, but they are certainly different. I have always had jobs where I used my brain not my brawn. I was intellectually stimulated and usually enjoyed the work. I was well paid. Now I know brothers that get up and go to jobs they hate. They can't "work from home." If they miss a day they lose a days wages. They work to pay bills that can barely afford. They don't travel abroad. take vacations, or even live in very nice place the prospects for the future are not bright. These Brothers need the support of their women. Look, all of us do. It is just that the rich, smart, successful Brothers can compensate for it very easily, because they have far more options that the average man. The average Black man is just more vulnerable. ...and of course Black men should support Black women. The more vulnerable we are the more we need to support each other. Seemingly the more vulnerable you are the less likely you are to get the support you need... and perhaps this is the crux of the problem.

Yes there are indeed a great many Black folks on TV now. Interestingly I don't watch any of the programming. I may try Queen Sugar, based upon Natalie Brazille's novel, I hear that show is good. I don't know how many more white people now see us as human as a result of more Black folks being portrayed on the small screen. But I'm sure it is more than if would be otherwise. I think Black people are in a better place than we would be otherwise.

@Cynique, sorry, when I was referring to media I meant the news media. Obviously, people are free to talk about anything they want to social media. This discussion forum is a form of social media. It is impossible for journalism to be done for free, but the current model is not serving the population very well. Indeed it is the model that put 45 in office. I'm all for taking a few billion from the defense budget and using it to fund a news agency to free it from commercial influence.

That is interesting Cynique. I think you are a product of your time. How do you feel about a white Jesus? I'm old enough to remember all white TV and I remember being excited when Black people were finally depicted on the screen. It makes a difference to see yourself reflected in movies and to have stories that speak to your experience. More importantly it is important for others to see our experiences as well and not just a ghetto dwellers or big booty vixens in music videos. Perhaps if white folks saw us in films with universal stories that resonated with them, they would not be marching in Charlottesville. You see we are presented with broad diversity of they humanity everyday, but they are not presented with ours Most of the Blaxploitation films were filmed in my neighborhood so they were really exciting. When I watch a film like Shaft I marvel over how much Harlem has changed.

I pulled these images from a blog post of the same name, “My fellow white Americans.” The article is worth reading. These images are described as being from the Charlottesville, Virginia white racist rally (or whatever it was called). I was struck by the imagery. It actually saddens me. I feel like I really should be angry or even afraid. Both emotions seem to be more appropriate reactions. Perhaps if I were there I would have felt that way. But seeing other Americans behave this way just make me sad for both the protestors and this nation. If white American men, the prime beneficiaries of every benefit America has ever doled out, are so angry, one can only be amazed that every Black person in America has not gone completely insane. Our collective ability, as Black people, to hold it together, on any level, in this nation, for so long, is truly a remarkable feat. Any white person who believes another Black person is the cause of any problem they might have and who is so motivated by such a belief, as to participate in such a rally is unimaginably misinformed. I'm sure there is nothing that could be said or done to convince them otherwise...

Mel you may actually know the software as well as I do. Much of what I know is HMTL, which is not specific to the feature of the blogging feature of the software. I'm sure @richardmurray, knows the software better than I, as he uses it more. It would take me some time to create the tutorial video, one because they take time, and two I'd actually have to get up to speed on the software and I don't know when I'll be able to do that. What I really need to do is check the vendor's website to see what documentation they have and direct people there. Here is a link to a description of the blogging software: https://invisioncommunity.com/features/apps#blogs

Between Nukes from North Korea, the rise of the Klan, the NFL's boycott of Colin Kaepernick, and 45 in the whitehouse. The media must be beside themselves with glee. So much sensational news to "report" on, so much money to be made... It really would be interesting to know how much Twitter stock 45 owns.

The fact of the matter Pioneer is that no scientist, Black or white, has proven that apes came from men. In fact all the evidence points to the scenario Cynique described. As Xeon, wrote simply saying something, or believing it to be true, does not make it true--but you know that. Where did you get the idea that apes evolved from man anyway?

Xeon another reason I complain about the lack of Black influence in Hollywood also has to do with the revenue. Not only do we not get to tell our own stories we don't profit from them either. This is, and always has been, untrue. In fact, Black people have been spending the better part of the past century correcting the racist nonsense produced by so called white "scholars" about Black people. For example, I'm reading a book, written.by Drusilla Dunjee Houston, called the Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire. This book was first published 90 years ago and is incredibly significant because it help Black people understand, indeed prove that Black people had an advanced culture long before Europeans emerged from caves (that is not a hyperbolic statement). She is writing about a subject that I was completely unaware of because it was simply not taught the the schools I attended. Leaving Black people out of history is a crime in progress. There are a great number of Black folks telling our stories. One problem we face however is the fact that much of this information is crowded out by all of the nonsense that is pushed into our face by corporations solely interested it our money. Of course a Nicki Minaj video will be appeal to more people than a Drusilla Dunjee Houston book, so this is what we get. Over time people begin to believe that all we are Minajs rather than Houstons. Of course white folks do engage true scholarly research as if pertains to Black people, but this is a relative recent thing.

Men don't have to go this this at all. There are plenty of unattractive Black men with successful careers, because they are talented. Forrest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Rock, etc, etc. I think the video advances the objectification of women, which does not really serve us very well. But that is in my opinion and I'm sure people will disagree. The conversation that has emerged here, and arguably the video itself reveals the sexism inherent in our culture. I agree women do have to look much more attractive than men performing the same task. Women who fall short get a lot of grief where men don't.