Troy

Pioneer repeating a faulty statement will not make it true. Look up punnet squares for an explanation. Below is an example. Lets replace "disorder" with "blue eyes." In the example below neither parent has blue eyes, but the both carry the recessive trait (lowercase a). There offspring would a 50% change of carrying the trait for blue eyes, but they would not have blue eyes. 25% would not carry the trait and could not have a blue eye child, and 25% would have blue eyes. Now these are probabilities, so at the risk of running a foul of the probability po-po (i.e. @Delano), I will say that it is possible for these parents to have 10 kids all with blue eyes. It is highly unlikely but it is possible. Now if you want to call blue eyes weaker, as if they are inherently inferior than brown eyes, go ahead but know that is not what dominantinant means here. Did you not learn this in high school? Most human characteristics are far more complex and can not be explained with punnett squares.

Cynique, I was expressing sympathy for poor white people. You threw in a bunch of other adjectives "gun totin, mean-spirited , hate-filled poor whites" that had nothing to do with the thought I expressed. Obviously no one would have sympathy for kinds or people of any color. Let's be clear: Hemmings was not a "kept woman" she was property. As a slave Hemings could be dragged around the western world by Jefferson, a man 30 years her senior, for his sexual delight, whether Sally liked it or not. Sally may have had privileges denied her sisters working the fields, but like them Sally had no choice. She had to submit to Thomas' sexual desires whether she liked it or not. The pedophile may have started raping Sally when she was 13 years old. Cynique, come on, it is a given we both recognize Black people, of all classes, have suffered far longer and harder than even poor white people. That goes without saying. Still if we can't have sympathy for each other in this country, we won't have a country much longer... which is they way we are headed. If we don't care what other what "misguided ignorance" festers in our midst, we all stand to suffer as a result. I have not watched TV in a few days so I have not heard Young's statements. I'm sure the "news" stations are riding it for all it is worth. Pioneer, it is funny you'd mentioned the segregated north. I told my cousin during the same conversation that I grew up in a segregated neighborhood, and did not attend school with a single white person until I was in high school. If I went to my neighborhood high school I probably would not have run into too many there. My teachers however were all white, virtually all Jewish. I told her I remember the first time I spoke to a white person my own age, during a trip to visit a cousin who lived in CT. She was surprised to learn this because she always saw images of NY being a very diverse place--it is but New York's neighborhoods are very stratified by not just race but culture. These statues mean nothing to most people. These are the things birds crap on in city parks. We give these things more meaning that they deserve and are distractions from the things that really matter. But again if we are gonna get bent out of shape about an old battle flag, we really need to get bend out of shape about the starts and strips. I'm not calling for destoying the flag but helping to make sure the damn thing actually means something we can be proud of, something we'd actually want to salute.

@Cynique, I sense you'd stop short of calling Jefferson's relationship with Sally "rape." Do you think they were in love? What else would you call a man having sex with someone he owned? Washington and Jefferson were just as treasonous as Lee and Stonewall. They rebelled against the British. Depending on your perspective Washington was a traitor or a freedom fighter. The same could be said for Jefferson Davis. Davis' problem was that he was on the losing end. If the South won, George Washington statues would be coming down all over the North. I'm glad Jackson's mug is being removed from the $20. He truly was a devil--even for his day. Too bad paper currency is going the way of the horse draw carriage; the impact of seeing Tubman's face regularly will not be nearly as impactful as seeing the faces of white men for centuries on our currency I too am sympathetic to poor whites, I won't begrudge Young or anyone else for that sentiment. Poor white don't have the power to oppress anyone. They are the tools of the oppressor. Poor whites were literally canon fodder during the Civil War dying for rich white folks! They were so completely brainwashed that over 150 years later many of them worship the leaders of their oppression. Perhaps is they dealt with the truth of what they were put through, they'd lose their collective minds 45 is about to send 1,000's more of hie white supporters into the middle east again--many of them will return in body bags. The man lied about his plans for the middle east, but poor whites and Black will pay the ultimate price.

I got gypped! Del, I'm not disappointed that I made the trek, but i was not nearly the event I expected it to be. First I'm glad I got the glasses. I actually moved a small table and chair and worked on my website while waiting in line. While the moon took progressively larger and larger bites out of the sun it was still quote bright outside. If I did not have the glasses I would not have been able to see any of this. In fact, by the time I got settled and looked up at the eclipse it was well under way. Even when the Sun was almost completely blocked by the moon, you needed the glasses to look at it. Now here is when I got gypped. At the instance of totality a cloud blocked the event! I took my glasses off saw the ring ring around the Sun and then it disappeared behind a cloud! It never got as dark as I expected. I was like dusk. I could see Sirius and it did look like the sun had dropped behind the horizon in all directions. But this was not something pronounced and I would not have noticed this unless I knew to look for it. The temperature dropped quite a bit, but that was it. It was not a life altering event that way it was for so many. The images below is of my car when the sun was eclipsed at least 35% the photo on the right was during totality. Again at this point the sun was obscured by both the moon and clouds :-( This shot was taken in Clemson SC, not too far from the university right on the path of totality. The next eclipse falls on my birthday in 2024. I'll probably travel to that one too. ;-)

Living in NY City I can't recall ever seeing the confederate flag (technically, the battle flag of Northern Virginia) flying. Here in the south, where I am now, I see one all the time. The flag is obviously a course of pride for many. The nostalgic reverence is understandably stronger in the the south that it is in the North. Streets are named after confederate generals and a great many things are named after Jefferson Davis including many schools. It is still part of the MIssissippi state flag and only recently removed from Georgia's Sure some white folks, perhaps most, see the flag as a source of white pride, with little knowledge of the history of the flag. Of course many of these people are racist. I was in ATL yesterday and spent the day with a cousin from NC. She told me when she was younger if they saw an American Flag you knew not to cross that person's yard. For her the American flag was a symbol of racism. Of course this make sense. Black people were enslaved under the American Flag long before the confederate flag was designed and flown. It is the same reason many Black people are suspicious of the police and courts of law; while white folks are confident these institutions will protect them. There is even talk of removing the carving, which honors General Robert E. Lee, General “Stonewall” Jackson, and President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis from the face off Stone Mountain. Stone mountain the site of Klan rallies attracts millions of visitors a year, many of them Black, from all over the country. Don't try to get near the place during the 4th of July. While we are at it why not call for ripping Washington and Jefferson down from Mount Rushmore? They both owned slaves and we know Jefferson raped at least one of his. Tearing down statues is not going to change the minds of racists, in fact it will give them something to rally behind and embolden them. I think tearing down the statues removing flags, like getting rid of the word nigger, is a waste of energy, money and time. The money can be better used educating people so that they are not ignorant enough to become racist. Maybe they'll then recognize who their real enemy is.

Man there's a lot going on in this thread. I see rereading it now that I missed quite a bit. Del I missed your question about finding a specific incident when you verbally attacked pioneer. Did I use the word verbally attack? if I did that was not the right description; maybe snide remark or something like that but it was rather base and unnecessary. If I come across one of the statements I'll share it, but you'll probably do it again and I'll point it out at that time. You brought up the probability statement again that I made which you keep saying it was wrong. what I said was not wrong it was a rather basic idea rather than entertain the idea that you did not understand what I wrote, or seek clarification you insisted that I was wrong. But it's not worth rehashing that argument. Del the differences that you and Pioneer may have are incidental compared to the similarity that I've described. Again your participation here is a tremendous similarity. For example, a significant portion of our population did not vote in the last presidential election. One could puy the people that voted into one group, regardless of who they voted for, and call them "voters." The other group who decided not to vote or even register to vote could be added to a group called "non-voters." People who cast votes share common traits. One of them could be as simple as understanding the importance of casting a vote. Who they voted for may not be as important as the fact that they cast the vote. Delano you and Pioneer voters.

Pioneer when you say one race is "genetically weaker" than the other, you are actually saying one race is inferior than the other-- that is what your statement means. But again, since there is only one race the premise of the statement is flawed anyway. The chart showing the different traits as being dominant or recessive does not mean stronger or weaker it just indicates how the traits are inherited. For example, an order for child to be born with blue eyes both parents have to have blue eyes or the trait for it.

@Pioneer1, my quote, "The God we seek is within each of us, all matter, and all time." Is basically my way of saying God permeates everything. Of course we are all unique and have different abilities. Most of these abilities have more or less value depending upon when you lived. Being able to throw ball throw a hoop was not a valuable skill 100 years ago. The statements was not intended to to mean what you've described.

@Delano that dance crowd is not pioneers's scene, so I doubt you'll find common ground there. I've heard variations of Pioneers sentiments expressed by many Black men over the years.

I'm right in path of totality, Clemson, SC. But I don't have those glasses. I waited too late to try to get them. I'm in a local library where they will begin giving some away at 1 p.m. people have been lining up since 9:00! I refuse to wait in a line that long for anything short of something that will save my life. I'll get on the line around 12:30 and hope for the best... Since I'm in the path, I can look at the total eclipse without eye protection. The weather looks perfect so far.

He has a new book coming out (Sept 2017) The Most Defining Moments in Black History According to Dick Gregory May he rest RIP

Pioneer I agree with you about the government, but keep in mind the government is run by people. Right now those people should be doing a much better job. Indeed they will have to if this nation is going to last more than a coupe hundred years. Del are you saying 45's divisiveness will ultimately unify people? You may be right--at least I hope you are... Del you may have been away from being around large numbers of Black people too long, while i don't agree with Pioneer on everything. I understand where he is coming from. Ya'll are not that dissimilar. One similarity worth exploring is why you both choose to participate here. Your time is valuable and you two can be doing anything else, but you have decided to provide this forum with the benefit of your insight and perspectives. Why?

I agree Del. Now image it everyone behaved as Mel described? That would actually change things. America does not have to function the way it was designed. I can, it must evolve. 45 may be the impetus to change that we needed.

{smile} It took me a minute but I'm glad I finally heard you. I read the article Del linked to and I'm working on listening (and breathing deeply). Yes I can use a staff. If I ever get to a point where I have a paid one, you won't be able to talk to me :-) that would also mean the site would wouldn't need me. That is my long term goal.

But does you belief define your afterlife? That would be something wouldn't it?

Mel I need a publicist. All of the fixed expenses required to run the website are much less than what a good publicists costs. If I actually had the money that would be one of the first professionals I would hire. I think a good publicist could craft that sermon you say I need to appeal to the indie published author. Sure, I could sell my car and hire a publicist. So no, a publicist is not that important to me. I'm not willing to bet that hiring one is worth going without a car and risking not not being able to afford another one as a result of their efforts. "Need" is not the best word. Perhaps not willing to make the tradeoff (sacrifices) describes it better. I also need someone to do some of the basic research required for the website. I need someone to handle sales. Most of my transactions are done online. But I could sell much more if I had someone to pitch the services. I'm not even talking about cold calling I'm talking about following up on phone inquiries I can't follow up on. I also need an editor too much of my copy contains typos. Sure I fix them eventually but it would be better if they did not exist in first place. Shoot, I need someone to moderate Thumper's Corner. As you can imagine, I perform all of the tasks above, and get by, so I think I understand what you mean by "need." I've been doing this 20 years--obviously I don't "need" a publicist. I'm understanding you? If that is what you are saying, I agree, but I sure can use use one ;-) Every author needs to promote and advertise. J. K. Rowling advertises for the same reason Coke and McDonald's does. Again NY Times bestselling authors and their publishers use AALBC. If you are trying to reach readers of Black literature I think AALBC.com is better than Facebook. At least I have not seen any evidence that it is--and I'm looking. But Facebook is selling something I can't compete with. Facebook appeals to some authors for the same reason some want to be authors; If that makes sense. I'm going to publish reviews of your book you might not like. You already know from these discussion forums your ideas will be challenged here. Facebook, on the other hand, will make sure everyone wishes you happy birthday and feed you things to reenforce your world view. I'm working with a company that will contract the service of another company that touts its ability to effectively promote content on Facebook. The strategy they intend to use is nothing I have not heard, or tried, before but it will be great to have the additional data points. Of course if they are successful, I'll be the first to promote the company!

@Cynique happy birthday! You have been a gift to so many. I'm grateful for every minute you spend with us. If I make it to Chitown for Third World Press' 50 anniversary maybe we can connect. When you look uy at the solar eclipse on Monday know that I'll be thinking about you :-) Here is to many more birthdays.

Actually if you ask me you have to wonder why Frazier agreed to work with 45 to begin with. I know an argument is to effect policy and make change from within. But I can't think of a instance when that tactic has ever worked for us. Originally, I had no problem with people like Jim Brown and other Black folks going to meet with 45. In hindsight, I see that was a pointless waste of time. Nothing will change for the collective benefit of the United States until 45 is out of office. One has to wonder why "sisters" like Omarosa (45's director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison) hang on? I guess it is just as simple as a perverse need for fame, money, and power--regardless of the cost.

Wow I'm sorry to read that man. I was kinda looking forward to meeting them . When was the last time you were in the states?

Yes Mel you are right authors are indeed at different stages, and aalbc cannot help every author at every stage equally. I disagree with the premise that if an author is not using AALBC then they don't need it. For example, I have never used the services of a publicist. However, that does not mean that I don't need one. I don't use one because I can't afford one. The site suffers as a result. Many authors I encounter, perhaps most, cannot afford to advertise. they have spent all their resources on producing their books and unless the ad results in more sales than the cost of the ad it is difficult for them to justify the expense of advertising--even for branding. To address the issue of cost I've made available a number of very low-cost options (less than $50 bucks), But these are not as effective as the higher-priced ads run over a longer period of time. There are a few things to consider when looking at your traffic from Facebook; if you generally don't have a lot of traffic say less than a couple hundred unique visitors a day a day then Facebook might make up a more significant portion of your traffic. But if you have several thousand visitors a day the same level of traffic from Facebook is of no real consequence. Most of my traffic for example comes from search. The beauty of SEO is that the more you focus on the web site's content the better off you are. I also get more traffic from other sites then I do from Facebook. Now we are talking about hundreds of sites sending a handful of visitors a day. But that beats the hundreds of visitors that come to my website from Facebook each day. Also the fact of the matter is many authors promote Facebook far more actively then they do their own websites and they engage on Facebook daily. Indeed the entire culture promotes Facebook. Today it is not uncommon for me to have to visit Facebook when looking for information about authors--and these are authors with websites! So it's not a matter of authors promoting Facebook, Facebook is winning and search. In many cases Facebook deserves to win because they have better content then the other site does-- seriously! In addition to that many authors use Facebook as their primary web presence. So all of these factors and more combine to make Facebook a much better draw of traffic than any other, website especially for websites with low levels of traffic. In order to address this I have begun promoting a free service which allows authors to register a domain name and direct it to their AALBC profile page. I just got tired of people sending me links to their Facebook page or their Amazon profile page. Last week a couple of authors did this but I also noticed they had domain names registered that were not pointing anywhere so I offered to direct those domains to their aalbc profile, which is obviously better than going to some default Go Daddy page. Both authors immediately took advantage of the offer so I made it an official service. Not only does this result and potentially more traffic to aalbc it gives the author a proper website. And more traffic to aalbc means potentially more traffic to the other profile pages. Do you see what I mean? there's a residual effect that benefits all the authors not just the one. Still if the author does not promote their own domain hosted on aalbc they greatly diminish any potential benefit. As you mentioned different authors are at different stages. A midlist or extremely successful author published by a major house will always fare better then an unknown self-published author, whether they actively engage on Facebook or aalbc. There is a little I can do to change that dynamic. However I do believe that a stronger aalbc would benefit the self-published author more than Facebook, who is about as powerful as you can get. There are a number of New York Times best selling authors who advertise every book they publish on the site. Authors who are that successful advertise on aalbc because they know the platform can let a great number of people know about their books. The authors who don't need to worry about name recognition benefit from the site by using it to alert readers about new books. I argue any best-selling author interested in connecting with their fan base could benefit from aalbc. Again it's not a technical issue it's just one of informing the author of what's available and helping them understand how they can benefit from the services. Now of course a great publicist can do a better job then I, but you already know that story :-)

Oh I get your question now. It is actually in our own self-interest to do more for others. In a world where everyone is free to maximize their own potential, we all benefit. A rising tide lifts all boats that sort of thing. Mel would you shave 500 square feet off your house in exchange for never having to lock the front door? That 500 square feet can go toward someone who is homeless. We can reduce crime by simply ensuring that people's basic needs are met. Think about all of the great discoveries that will never happen because so many in our population cannot afford an education. Many of the most successful people who we think we can emulate did not have to pay for college Colin Powell did not have to pay to go to City College. When we started college we could borrow enough to attend. Today many students can't even borrow enough go. Even if they could the quality of the education has gone down a great deal employers do not value it as much so the graduates fare less well. Having large numbers of uneducated or poorly educated people does not serve our culture or Society.

I received this text message late last night: "Watch yourself outside. Two people I know have had encounters with KKK or neo-Nazis in Manhattan today. And yesterday, someone messaged me about a confederate flag in Brooklyn and there was a news report of one in the East Village today."

Why? Because on a global scale there is far too much suffering, poverty, and violence. Collectively Humanity could do a much better job ensuring the well-being of our species. Closer to home wealth inequality is at an all-time high. Americans can certainly do better than that. We just don't care enough about each other to try very hard. We live in a culture where it is perfectly acceptable to lock up huge portions of the population. It is insane. The icing on the cake however is the election of 45. It says a lot about our country, none of it very good.

Sure capitalism and the profit motive which is designed to reward the most greedy has screwed up all types of things including medicine and science. But that doesn't make science bad; it doesn't make science White; it's just perverted, in much the same way greedy ministers have perverted Christianity. I don't think there is a cure for cancer if there was, Steve Jobs would be alive.

I'll probably go see it this weekend, now that you basically given it the film a rave review. I was going to wait to watch it on TV but In the one horse town I'm in now, you can go to the theater and watch movies all day long.