Troy

@Cynique, technically I'm in charge, but practically speaking you all are in charge. You all make the forum what it is, good, bad, or indifferent. If I tried to orchestrate how the conversation went It would reflect my sensibilities and be boring. Besides there are good things that can happen that I would never be able to plan. But I do think the protracted back and forth clouds what otherwise might be an interesting conversations. If I came through as a first time visitor I sure I would not wade through the name calling, and might even be taken aback by it. But obviously I'm invested in keeping this whole thing going and I also know you and Sara are just playin' the dozens. But again, I've been here long enough to know this. The forum has been active since 1999. It has evolved over time and has seen ups and downs. Obviously, I'd rather have you and Sara here, than no one at all. Lurkers are cool, but we need participants to make this thing work and to generate and guide the conversation. I simply don't have the knowledge and time to do this across the forums and in every conversation. So carry on as you see fit

@Cynique, No I don't think you should continue. I just decided to take a hands off approach from the moderator's perspective. I do cosign @Pioneer1's suggestion, and assessment.

OK Chris given you statement, obviously all those Black people gunning to make Memphis the nation's murder capital are inherently more violent. What do we do with those people? What do we do with the people who refuse to work? If racism (laws and behaviors) is not the problem, then attacking racism, or the legacy of racism, is not going to fix a thing. What is the solution? Pioneer while I agree with most of your position, particularly historically, today the problem is mostly greed. People (Black and white) who have an insatiable appetite for more and don't really care very much about who they hurt or how they get it. A few individuals were willing to see millions of people lose their homes to earn more money. The are willing to poison millions more for generations with cigarette. Of course enslaving people is not above them either... @CDBurns, racists materially, and adversely, impact my ability to run my business--today. This is not speculation; this is my objective and daily reality; and there is a real financial cost. I don't know how many white owned websites have to deal with Black racists trying to take them down. Rather, I suspect, there are more Black people are doing everything they can to get on these websites, and uplift them, rather than hurting them. This is just the blatant, overt racism, I have to deal with that I'm sure my white peers don't deal with.

Chris, I have not followed the entire conversation, but I read your last post and am familiar with your thoughts on the subject. If institutional racism is not the cause; what is? The only plausible answer must be that Black folks, at least the ones in Memphis, are more violent, and lazy. What else is there? Seems to me you are exceptional, considering you escaped the mentality. Check out the Heist film when you get a chance. b.t.w Chicago is a more violent city than any other in the country, but Memphis does beat "Chiraq" (learned that name from Spike Lee) in them in the murder category--by a substantial margin. Detroit holds the crown for most murderous city.

"...a few weeks will give you enough time to think of some REALLY HORRIBLE shit to say to each other when the ball drops." I can't even image what they'd come up with given some time to think about it

Read Kam's review of Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (2012) The full movie is below. Easy to understand explanation of how the country got screwed up and how we can fix it

69th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Paule Marshall was born April 9, 1929. She was a MacArthur Fellow and author of the very popular book Brown Girl, Brownstones. Yeah I know I'm a day late but Paule is one of those writers we should all know about.

Well I'm still 131 subscribers short of my goal. I've averaged about 2 subscribers a day since I posted this appeal. So at this rate, I should reach my goal by the summer. I wanted to achieve my goal by this point, but considering it took me 9 years to get to 600 subscribers; I guess getting 400 in under a year is pretty good. Earlier in the week I noticed Omar Tyree made the same appeal on Youtube. I subscribed to his and asked him to subscribe to my channel. He has 54 subscribers now and even though he is a well known author gaining and an additional 946 susbcribers, organically, anytime soon, won't be easy.

Oh man lighting is a big deal too. You can correct some of the issues with the software, but it is best to invest in proper lighting. Especially if you are going to be creating videos on a regular basis or as your primary business. I did not know Microsoft had free software to shoot screen capture videos. I know their free video editing software was too limited for me to use. In terms of views of videos, I've watched some great videos that had less that 100 views and have been up over a year. It is really hard to believe. Many of these are author videos, some created by institutions like universities. Simon & Schuster creates nice videos for many of their authors and these video are barely watched. I people will invest a lot of time and money and is put into creating videos but in promoting them (the same is true for authors and their books). I look at S&S's videos and wonder why they spend the time creating them--if all they are going to do is dump them on youtube and forget about them...

Thanks everyone!

I created a several video this year which showed the activity of my PC's screen. Some of the videos included a video me in a small window. All of these videos included audio of me speaking while demonstrating various task on my desktop. In the past, I used TechSmith's Jing to create these videos. I still use Jing to annotate screenshots. This save me the effort copying the screenshot to the clipboard (alt-shift-prtscn) then using a graphics editor to annotate the image separately. Today I use Screencast-O-Matic It is free and very easy to use and is superior to the free version Jing software. But he real issue with these programs is that to get professional results you really need a good mic and good video editing software. The video you create without the use of a full featured video editing application may be OK, but it will almost certainly benefit from additional editing. There are plenty of free video editing tools available in fact Screencast-o-Matic and Jing come with some basic video editing functionality but you really would need something a bit more sophisticated for the best results. I used CyberLink PowerDirector, many other use Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro. The free video editing software that comes with your computer's operating system and the free video software available on the web is usually inadequate. The mic I use is the one that comes built into the very inexpensive little video camera that Microsoft sells in Staples. This mic is suitable for Skype chats but little more. As a result, my audio suffers. Sure the audio is adequate, but you can certainly hear the difference in videos where a better microphone is used. The other issue is background noise and the acoustics of the room you are recording in -- it all makes a difference. I guess the real issue is how much are you willing to trade off in terms of time, money, and effort in exchange for quality. Another issue to consider when making videos demonstrating software, at least for me is that I find it very hard to speak off the top of my head when making these videos. If I was in front of an audience it would be MUCH easier for me describe what I'm doing as that seems more natural. Speaking live while making the recording is just hard for me to do. I have to have a script. I published a 3 minute video today and it took about 3 hours create it from start to finish. Most of the time was wasted with multiple takes. I did not write a script, so I spent a lot of time starting, stopping, deleting, restaring. I thought I could have some time skipping the script, but I was wrong. The editing took the next biggest chunk of time. Again this is where good editing software helps I was able to edit out things and really improve the quality of the presentation. The finished product was much better than the original video, which was essentially unuseable. I did not strive for perfection because besides being impossible to achieve, I have to balance the effort required to make the video versus the benefit it would provide. ------------ All things being equal, better produced video simply outperform poorly produced videos. But, content high in demand can get away with lower production quality. One has to determine the production quality threshold for their audience and content. For example, this video which has a relatively high production quality will be viewed 12,000 times over an 8 year period (about 4 times a day), while this video,with much lower production quality, has been viewed 75 times a day over the same period--and has more than paid for itself through YouTube ads. What software do you use to create videos of your desktop? Do you have any tips for creating these types of videos? What videos have generated the most views and why?

Thanks again @CDBurns I found your video pretty helpful. We should probably start another conversation about press this under bloggers helping bloggers. I took your advise and created the video (added to original post above). Creating these videos is not trivial-this 3 minute video took me a couple of hours. I'll start another conversation on this subject under Bloggers Helping Bloggers.

@Mel Hopkins, I modified the widget so that it would fit in your sidebar without the horizontal scroll bar. I made the AALBC.com logo and powered by text less pronouced. Shorted the text in the drop down menu (which was causing the horizontal scroll) I got rid of the indentation so the text and image use the full available width. The widget looks a lot better on both of your pages now. You see I never would have anticipated that people would the "widget" on the side bard of the page, so it was not optimized to display in a width that narrow. Now it is so it will bok good on a full width display as above or a narrow display like a cell phone of the sidebar of a Blog. The events page is very popular people are using it as intended. This should add value to your websites, help promote the events and AALBC.com--lifting all boats. If use of the widgets grows I could event insert a ad and do a revenue share with those who use the banner based upon impressions served. I'll create video to demonstrate how to use the widget and announce it's availability. I'll also use your websites as examples of how it is implemented. This idea should be applied to a wide variety of things. How about a sneaker widget when we sell Chris' most popular brand and earn a commission? Thanks again for the ideas, there is potential in this....

Thanks Cynique! I'll be in Chicago for about 24 hours in May, for BEA. I'm doing a panel and hosting the Black Pack party hopefully you (and anyone else in who can get to Chi-town) can make. I don't have a venue set yet, but it will take place on Wednesday May 11th. The final details will be posted here: http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2016/04/08/bea/

68th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: First Black Billionaire, Robert L. Johnson Born April 8, 1946 Bob and I change the same last name, and birthday. But our bank account could not be more different

67th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Billie Holiday born April 7, 1915 here are a few books

I never heard this message from Dr. King. This is not the Obamaish "I have a Dream" speech, the people now want to pigeonhole King into; this is a important message, from an activist, explaining to people why they are in the situation they are in, how the government is involved, with a concrete plan on how to remedy it. King had not only the dream, he had the plan, but he also had the ability and the willingness to articulate this to the masses--this sort of thing gets you killed in America.

The mythology about the rise of the "super predator" emerging from the crack epidemic has been dispelled. There is no evidence to support a rise in crime or impoverishment despite the fact people often mention this. Have you read the wildly popular article that Coates wrote, "The Case for Reparations?" I have to assume you have. If you did there are several reasons that point directly to why Blacks are doing poorly in this country--despite prodigious efforts. Do you @CD Burns, not agree with anything Coates wrote? If not, I can point you to many books that make a much more substantial case than Coates' work did. The role of the government was substantial in all of these cases. It still is. So we can certainly agree on the government's role in keeping us (the working class in general and Black folks in particular) down. But what us the problem now? You ask. In a nutshell, I think the problem is that all of our institutions have all been gutted. As you suggested, don't support each--certainly not the way we once did... Assuming you agree with me the next question would be why is this now the case? The following comments are an exchange between two people that was sent to me via email. First person picked up the message from Twitter. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2016, at 5:22 PM, XXXXXXX@gmail.com> wrote: Michael Eric Dyson, on a rampage about President Obama. It's about an hour long. He's doing the same thing most African Americans are saying: the gods have him under their wings. No, we did.They had to know where this Presidency was going. White politicians in Washington probably said among themselves, OK, we'll let him in but... Yes, as Dyson is saying--preaching about here--his leaving office is leaving a vacuum that Trump is trying to step into. Can you see It? http://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Michael+Eric+Dyson From: XXXXXXXX Date: Apr 6, 2016 6:49 PM Subject: Re: Michael Eric Dyson, Author To: "XXXXXXXX@gmail.com> Cc: Dyson and West are public intellectuals. Personally, I think both of them are assholes. For some reason they thought having a black president could end the the problems plaguing the black community. The President was doing good to walk outside everyday. I guess he thought the President could act like a dictator. It's real easy to criticize from the outside and say what should have been done. Sent from my iPhone

Yes Sara, it was an April Fools Joke. But the idea that some folks found it plausible enough to be possible is promising (I think).

66th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: April 6, 1968, Eldridge Cleaver, the author of Soul On Ice was in a shootout with police that left a Black Panther dead

Chris you wrote; "What in the hell did people expect to happen over the last 10 years when the crack babies are now becoming parents?" What percentage of Black parents today were former crack addicts? Was it 75%, 50%, 10%, if you know I'd like to know how you obtained those figures. Also to your points "You want Black books to sell, support AALBC, don't ask Obama." If the government creates conditions that are adverse to small businesses there won't be any AALBC.com's to buy those books. There are FAR few bookstores (online and physical) today than there were before Obama took office. I'm not saying it is Obama's fault, but corporation exert seemingly more control over the government and have way more power than they should and get bailed out when their ponzi schemes fail. The Obama administration has dome nothing to change this, indeed it could be argued the opposite is true. "You want Black small biz to work, take your ass to a Black business more than once a year." See the above "You want Black schools to get better, support the teachers, discipline your kids and then sit and discover what your kids are working on everyday." Chris corporations are taking over schools as well speak, schools unions are being busted across the country. Our children, based upon our global standings are poorly educated. BUT if you are wealthy you get the best education on Earth. Working class Parents however are overworked, have not seen a real increase in wages the whole time Obama was in office, and tired themselves. What good would it do for them to look at school they themselves may not understand or are too exhausted to deal with. I'm not trying to come at you, you are my man, but the situation is much more complicated than simply blaming Obama or pull yourself up by your own bookstraps. To your point about Dyson: I have to admit I was very surprised by his critique of Obama. Because he was one of the guys giving folks like Cornel West a lot of grief for this very same position. Sure, people can change their minds, but now when Obama is out the door and access to the white house is no longer in jeopardy--now you come at Obama?! Man it is too late now to make any difference, but I guess it is not too late to make money on the lecture circuit or from book sales.

If you get a chance to watch the longer video, Dyson's more sensational comments are put into context. My goal with the trailer was to make it sensational enough to prompt people to seek the detail behind the statements. But it looks like I underestimated the desire of people to seek a deeper understanding--particularly of positions they disagree with. Early indications are that Dyson's statements are not actually promoting people to watch the longer video, but helping to reinforce their current positions pro or con Obama. This effect could be indicative of the way social media works. People will not leave it. I uploaded the 60 sec trailer directly to Facebook, people will watch that, but is seems people are less likely to watch the longer video. But it is really way too early to tell--I just posted the videos. I would not immediately watch a 90 minute video on my PC. I would watch it on my regular TV later, so I have to give it more time for word of the video to spread. to see how effective the trailer is at getting people to watch the longer video While Dyson did not come out and say that he is backing Hillary, he did say that Hillary is more likely to do more for Black people than Obama, simply because she does not have to navigate race they way Obama had to. I believe Bernice will be willing and able to more for Black folks for the same reason. Dyson also says Obama was a good president, as far as white people was concerned--an A+ but as far as Black people he'd give Obama a C-.

"...caught a little hell...," @Pioneer1, Tavis was crucified! His career, and platform, is a shadow of what it was before Obama. Besides it was Obama's job to come up with an agenda and execute on it. But sure, Obama was given plenty of agendas and things to do--he just did not do them. If he need an agenda, he could have pick up Tavis Smiley's The Covenant But he obviously was not interested. Again, as Dyson said, Black people worshipped Obama, so much so that they simply refuse to critique him--and attack anyone who does. Sad.

Here are the video I shot during the National Black Writers Conference which was held March 31 through April 3, 2016. These video represent just a small portion of the many panels, workshops, related events that took place during the four day conference. This event is a big deal. The event run by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson Writing Race and the Obama Presidency with Dr. Khalil Muhammad (1:26:24) 13th National Black Writers Conference Opening Night Program (31:40) Rita Dove's Poetry Reading (18.42) Rowan Ricardo Phillips Reads from His Collection of Poetry, Heaven 18:01) Afaa Michael Weaver Poetry Reading April 1, 2016 (18:42)

Here is a 60 second trailer from a much longer video I shot of Michael Eric Dyson critiquing President Obama, during the National Black Writers Conference a few days ago. It has been interesting to observe Michael move to essentially the same position Cornel West took several years ago, a position that Dyson himself beat Dr. West up over publically.