Troy

The total number of voting age Americans who did not vote is much higher than the number who voted for Trump or Clinton. That is the true majority opinion. Whether you believe that all people are capable of greatness or not. The country generates too much wealth for the average people to be living the way they do. Black or white, male or female, we all should be doing a better job of supporting each other.

Well you can see the output of my passion. However, the site itself is actually not the passion in and of itself. The underlying passion is striving for freedom, not just for myself but for anyone who wants it. Cynique, it would seem illogical for all religions to be "true." They certainly all can't be true. Most contradict each other and none of the world's major religions have been around very long--just a fraction of the time that Sapiens have walked the Earth. But I don't think of it that way. Religions are all man made, but most I imagine started out attempting to enlighten people. As you've pondered I believe the divine is within ourselves and there is more than one way to access it. Different religion whether it is islam or buddhism are different ways of accessing it. Del's numerology is another way, thought he may not think of it that way. The God we seek is within each of us, all matter, and all time. Luke 17:21 says, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Now depending upon the translation you use the words are slightly different than what I've quoted--so different in fact, the the meaning is different. However, this quote taken out of content is probably the main idea of the whole book It just that the versions we have today the leaders preaching the words don't do a very good job helping us discover this...

Yes I was confused. Thanks for the clarification.

Pioneer Kenneth Frazier is a captain of industry and clearly a brilliant man. For a Brother to get as far as he has in corporate America you can be sure that he is indeed the shit. But The folks held up in the Black community are not picked by use,or anye like us. Colin is a celebrity so he will get all of the attention until he is no longer a celebrity. As Cynique implied it was not exactly a tough decision or big sacrifice for Frazier to step down. He won't get any bonus points from me for that action.

I will try to make this event.

@Pioneer1, when I was first exposed to the teachings of the NOI it was through their messenger Farrakhan. This was over 30 years ago and Farrakhan was then a very charismatic figure his message resonated with me because he spoke about the strength of Black people about Black people being powerful. It was a message that was new to me at the time. Sure, when he said Black people are genetically superior, then one considered that most of the players in the NFL and NBA are Black that would seem to make sense. When he speaks about white people being devils and your think about all the mayhem Europeans have caused over the last 500 years across the globe that make sense too. When you are beat down and someone gives you a message of strength pride and hope, that feels great. Louis Farrakhan made me feel great about myself and the potential of Black people. His message was catered to people outside the NOI, once you dig deep it is a different thing. But for some people it works which is great. Which is wonderful. But religions often teach you things that run counter to science. Personally, I draw the line there. Today we know humans are essentially identical genetically. Blacks dominate the NFL and NBA because they work much harder at doing it. White folks dominate tennis and Ice Hockey; that does not mean they are genetically superior does it? The fact that that flood myths predate the Bible and known across cultures was known before the NOI was created. Actually some people believe the flood myths results from the end of the ice ages when glaciers melted flooding many areas to be destroyed by flood, but that is another story... There is no scientific evidence than man is Billions of years old and that apes came from man. Indeed all of what we know rejects that idea. Not all scientists are white. Indeed many will argue the first scientist were Black. In any case, white people do not own science. In my mind saying "You can put your faith in White science if you want to." is the same thing as saying "talking white" or "school is for white people."

@Delano, I'm going to Tampa today. If your parents are interested I'll pay them a visit you email me the particulars if they are into it troy@aalbc.com (No pressure). Sure people in major cities usually come from other places, which may be one reason they are so different than people from non cities. I've met plenty of Floridians in my travels. Unless they are wealthy, most most are not your liberal, secular, vegan, city dweller. They are socially conservative (usually very religious, not excited about homosexuality), eat plenty of pork, and own a gun. Sure these are generalizations but you get my point. Again, people in Hernando county Florida have more in common with people in Mastic, Long Island or Staten Island than I do, and are much more likely to be 45 supporters

@Del, I was thinking about you the other day after listening to a video of someone explaining why people reject science and facts in favor of their own opinions when it comes to things like climate change, evolution, and religion. Unfortunately I can't find the video and it is not in my history. But here is a video you my find interesting, or not. Let me know.

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.