Troy

@Pioneer1, of course I considered that argument. But we can deal with all of those problems without adding race into the mix. If the police, or anyone does not want hire someone, then deal with why that person was not hired. If the cops gun someone down in the street for no reason; that by itself is reason enough to deal with the injustice. The so called race of the victim does not matter. This is a fight against police brutality, that everyone can join, because white boys get tuned up and killed by the Po-Po too. Someone starts a twitter hash tag called #blacklivesmatter, then folks compliant and and state the obvious that; "all live matter" and rather than dealing with bad policing we are fighting about whose lives matter most. Pioneer, give me one example of when bringing the issue of race into the discussion actually worked better than dealing with the underlying injustice.

YES! Cynique that should have been the first thing we mentioned. I saw the documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone on Netflix sometime ago, and learned quite a bit. Nina's daughter was quite impressive. I may just boycott the Zoe film altogether.

35th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: History of Storer College, Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria's first president) Attended

Our course I know all of western culture looks at skin color then makes judgements about people. I simply trying not to do it because it is impossible. I wish the government would stop trying to collect the data and save us some money. Cynique, the enumerator was actually doing their each time, it was just that every 10 years the categories changed, one day you are a Mulatto the next you are Negro Pioneer, as far as the "AA" or African-American in the website's name, this speaks to culture, and has nothing to do with "race," one's phenotype, or what one looks like. If you celebrate the culture, rather than trying to marginalize it, I don't care what you look like.

Nationality is a well defined technical term, no argument there. I think what you describe as Ethnicity is more accurately described as Culture. Throwing in the racial (physical appearance) aspect muddies the water. People can look very different and be part of the same culture. As far as Race is concerned, I know what you are saying and would have agreed with you in the past. However, a few years ago I began stopping myself from thinking of humans in terms of racial categories. The term were devised to put us at the bottom, and only serve to perpetuate stereotypes. Upon further contemplation I can not think of a single good reason to continue using the concept of race, so I don't unless I'm communicating with someone who only understands the world in those terms.

Mulattos is a sloppy term too. In fact the census reflects this sloppiness.. My grandmother was listed on three different censuses, over a 30 year period as Negro, Black, and Mulatto. All based upon the whim of the enumerator. What was she?

Well Chris the likelihood is that I dropped the review when I moved to the new server last month. So she could been to the site as recently as a few weeks ago. I'm just glad she notified me about the missing file. I had to move a bazillion files, so losing a few is to be expected.

34th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, Author, Sociologist, Historian, Civil Rights Activist, Pan-Africanist, and Editor

And therein lies one of the major problems with "Race." When one person looks at Maya they see a white woman, another sees a Black woman, and Maya can see herself as something else entirely.

Hi Sarnetha (I just approved your account). I remember you. You go back over ten years I'm sure :-) I did a quick search on your name and could not find the review. But don't worry the web never forgets, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to retrieve your information. If you have the URL of your reviews that would be most helpful, otherwise what was the name of the book we reviewed. Thanks

@Pioneer1 I'm not mind reader Rachel was just a popular recent example. If I understand your logic regarding "race," then virtually all so called Black people in America would be Afro-American. But extending your reasoning so would most white people. If most so called "afro-americans" have some white ancestry, why would they not be "mixed race" too? What racial bucket would Walter White go in, mIxed race or Afro-American, or is he both? @Cynique regarding voluntary negro -- gotcha. Your explanation for Zoe getting the role sounds more plausible. If that is the case then it sounds like either the movie gets made with Zoe in the role or not at all. Which would you prefer? I'm inclined to pass on this film being made until we could get a Viola Davis in the role and, get the gun out of Nina's hand.

Thanks for sharing the information here. I'll update our events calendar http://aalbc.com/events/index.php?st=Maryland#Gaithersburg+Book+Festival with the missing info

33rd Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: From Columbus To Castro: The History Of The Caribbean 1492-1969 by Eric Williams

@Cynique, this is from the Biography website: Walter Francis White was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 1, 1893. (Before he became president of the United States, William Henry Harrison fathered several children with one of his slaves. One of these children was Walter White's grandmother, making Harrison Walter White's great-grandfather.) In 1906, he was a witness to race riots in Atlanta, and saw his home come close to being destroyed. He only escaped the violence of the day because he was light-complexioned, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Since one of Walter's Grandparents was and enslaved Black woman, which by the rule of the day and Pioneer's definition make him "Black." It is just so crazy how President Harrison's serial rape an enslaved Black women was mentioned in the same fashion as Walter's birthday.

While I think casting Nina was a horrendous decision, I'm definitely not hatin' on her for taking the role. I guess she is not quite at the point where she can decline the paycheck that comes with a major role. She obviously was aware of the justified criticism, and apparently takes it to heart given her responding to a stupid tweet.

As I start to reduce my use of Facebook I'm beginning to realize just how entangled I am with the platform. Over the years, out of convenience, I've been using my Facebook ID to login to all types of websites--including this discussion forum. For the convenience of using my Facebook credentials to log into this discussion forum and other sites, I'm telling Facebook exactly what I'm doing, where I'm doing it and how long I'm doing it. Obviously Facebook is using this information to improve what they are doing, which of course means crushing any competition or assimilating their content. I'm sure this information is part of the dataset Facebook sells to marketers as well. As a result, I've been slowly removing my Facebook logins. Fortunately the forum's software allows me to merge accounts. So I created a new account just using my email address, then I merged my old account which used my Facebook credentials into the new account.

@harry brown, this was indeed my Black History month update for the day: 32nd Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Black Men Built the Capitol http://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780762745364 Interestingly no one (on social media) has comments on the fact that my Black History month updates have extended beyond Black history month LOL! Many people are already tired of Black history month.

I hear you Pioneer1 but all culture are rife with example that contradict what you are saying. For example: Walter White, former head of the NAACP to you and I might be considered whit, but he said he was Black, and Black people embraced him as Black. If you can attend a Klan meeting without getting a beat down, you're white. Walter White was able to do this. . More famously Rachel Dolezal was able to rise to the presidency of a local chapter of the NAACP, all the while asserting her Blackness. Even Homer Plessy had 7 White great grand parents and was able to "pass" for white until someone who knew his background had him thrown out of the "whites" only car. Whites in the area had to reconsider the law, for they knew if you looked far enough into their ancestry, you'd likely find a negro lurking in there. Pioneer, I know a few blonde haired blue eyed of "Black" people who could pass for white, but don't. They consider themselves Black and so do I. They have Black ancestry and they choose to embrace it above all else. They are culturally Black. So what you are saying does not "seem" divisive. It is divisive by definition. According to America's presumptive definition of "Blackness," Barack is "Black." But again this is arbitrary, for Obama with the same reasoning could say he is white. Also I would actually consider Barack Obama more African than your garden variety African-American since his father was actually Kenyan. I don't even know how many generations I have to go back to find an African. But again being African does not mean you are racially "Black." I have another question for you @Pioneer1. What do we do will all this mixed "race" people running around here? What racial category do we put them in? Do you propose a 21st century Brown Bag test? What do you do with people like Tiger woods that want to embrace the full diversity of their backgrounds?

Well I think it is probably the later @CDBurns, she sees social media sapping her traffic. I monitor the entire online book environment and the impact has been devastating. Sure there are many reasons Black book websites struggle including, failure to keep up technically, dependence on a single stream of income, lack of new content, etc, but the impact of social media can't be ignored. Of course the impact is not limited to Bloggers, and Black book websites, the entire web is effected. Luvvie has an advantage in that she is a celebrity. AALBC.com has an advanatge in the it is big and has been around a while. But the real problem is social has put a real damper on the ability for new indie websites from succeeding. Which I always argued makes the Internet a less rich place and focuses control onto a few platforms. Another Luvvie or AALBC.com will be virtually impossible to start today. But the solutions are simple: (1) As Luvvie says, stop giving Facebook your content. (2) Take all of you energy devoted to social and actively support other platforms--including your own.

Someone tagged me on this comment, because they knew I would agree with this. Now the sister that wrote this is somewhat of a Blogging sensation. Here post was shared 1.6K times in a few hours. I scanned the comments in reaction and it is clear most people did not understand what she was saying. But some clearly got it, so maybe, just maybe we still have a chance.

I'm not sure Zoe considers herself "Black," many Dominicans do not. I guess when Zoe is given an Academy Award nomination for her performance that will placate the negro masses. Pioneer you realize there is no way to identify someone as Black based upon their genes. So sentences like the one below are confusing: "But the fact is, many of our people (AfroAmericans and AfroLatinos) are NOT actually Black (genetically speaking), despite having African ancestry." If an enslaved African has a son child with a native American is the child Black or Native American? If that son (1/2 Black 1/2 Indian) goes on to have a another son with a white woman is that child Black? If that son, the enslaved African's grandson has a son with a white woman, is that son Black? Now this son, as you can image probably looks 100% white, but if you tested his DNA his y chromosome would point directly balck the his African great grandfather.

Harry post a link to the site, or at least say what site it is. This conspiracy theory is a bit too much to believe, but hey I any government that would enslave a group for a few hundred years certainly would not be above loosing control of some designer virus.

It is me, or does Zoe look like an actress performing in Blackface? Why does EVERY single film trailer about a Black musician show them wielding a gun? Whether it is the NWA film Straight Outta Compton or Miles Davis bio-pic, one would think Hollyweird believes this is the only way to attract an audience. Zoe is a fine (in both senses of the word) actress, but her being cast in this role is distracting, particularly where there are so many dark skinned actresses who could have pulled this role one off brilliantly. @Chasitie, this will be another flick I'll wait to see when it is available for streaming online

On March 2nd 1997, I registered the domain AALBC.com. I had already been working on the website for the previous 5 months, and could never have imagined that I would still be working on it over 18 years later. Over the years I’ve worked a variety of jobs in a bunch of locations, and nothing has ever motivated me more than the work I put into AALBC.com. I work hard on the website and have sacrificed a great deal to keep it going, but it never felt like work, and the sacrifices pale in comparison with what I receive in return. AALBC.com can’t survive in a vacuum. It only has value when others see value in it. So I must say, “THANK YOU” to all the readers, visitors, writers, customers, and financial supporters who continue to make this website possible. Hopefully it does not come across as too presumptuous of me to make the launch of my website, AALBC.com, a Black History month update. But hey, like our literature, if we don't celebrate our accomplishments one else will

This is a good pick man. I'm going to make Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington, D.C. by Jesse Holland my Black history month update tomorrow. I would use it today, but today marks the 18th anniversary of AALBC.com :-)