Troy

This would be great information if people understood why this matters and why is worth trying to do something about it. The reality is even worse than these graphics show. The top 20% starts at $178K, living in NY City on that income would not put you in the lap of luxury. Indeed anyone in the bottom 60% (making less than $50K) would be struggling in NYC and living a very modest life anywhere else. Another factor distorting this issue is wealth. People like Anderson Cooper who was mentioned in the article as having an $11,000,000 annual income. But what the article failed to mention was the fact that Cooper is an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune. Cooper and his children's, children, children are set for life. One also has to consider what is an Anderson Cooper actually doing that warrants an $11 million dollar a year salary. Surely there someone else around who could do the job BETTER for just one million dollars a year. Folks like Cooper get opportunities that people, stuck on the lower three quintiles will never get. As Trump is so quick to remind us the wealthy OWN the politicians as a result they get legislation in acted which benefit the wealth and hurt the poor. My salary will be taxed for example and Anderson cooper will inherit his fortune tax free. I'd also be willing to bet when I was in the lower end of the top 20%, that I paid a much higher percentage of my salary in taxes than Anderson paid of his $11 million annual income. We all accept that the world is not fair. But I'll never understand why people are so goddamned greedy. How can people who are so extremely wealthy continue to hoard so much wealth for themselves while so many people around them are struggle just to survive. Obama promised change the people desperately desired. Maybe Bernie will make a difference.

Saving Horatio Alger: Equality, Opportunity, and the American Dream The stain of racism is a stark, depressing reminder of how far short of its founding ideals the nation still falls. Even with the legal scaffolding of American racism dismantled—and even with an African-American in the White House—black children live in the poorest neighborhoods and attend the worst schools; they have the lowest chance of graduating college, and the highest risk of incarceration. But after decades of rhetoric and reform, the American education system is failing as an engine of social mobility. The poorest children (black and white alike) receive the worst public education. Achievement gaps between poor and affluent children tend to widen, rather than narrow, during the K-12 years. Americans celebrate the Horatio Alger ideal, that all individuals can succeed by their own efforts in a level playing field, yet social mobility rates in America are now lower than those in Europe, risking America becoming an ossified, class-based society. Richard Reeves argues in this Brookings Essay that Alger is on the ropes, that the ideal of American egalitarianism is threatened by a variety of forces related to income, wealth, family structure and education. And yet the answers do not lie in the European model. Instead, Reeves argues, reviving the promise of the American Dream requires a quintessentially American solution, saving Horatio Alger. THE BROOKINGS ESSAY: In the spirit of its commitment to high-quality, independent research, the Brookings Institution has commissioned works on major topics of public policy by distinguished authors, including Brookings scholars. The Brookings Essay is a multi-platform product aimed to engage readers in open dialogue and debate. The views expressed, however, are solely those of the author. Available in ebook only. Print Length: 21 pages Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (August 20, 2014)

Aw man I wish I could make this.

WC. I'd encourage you to start an entirely new conversation and share the information directly. If you go the main page of the forums, http://aalbc.com/tc/ and click the link for entering press releases that would be the best place. I definitely use this site as a source for information to share in my eNewsletter, on the website and even by word of mouth. Readers use this site as a sources of information as well. Indeed, I'm surprised more people do not take advantage of this...

I just published a review of the new film War Room. It was the #1 grossing film this Friday, and was #2 behinding the HEAVILY promoted NWA flick for the weekend. What, never heard of War Room? Neither did I. At least not before publishing this review. I did not see a trailer. I read no social media buzz, nothing on Black Twitter (well maybe there was, but I don't follow it). I mean I did not even get a press release. Karen Hunter mentioned it on her radio show today (thank for what little Black media we do have left). If it were not for Karen I would not have known that this was a film with Black main characters and directed by a Black man! Now as I was looking for material to supplement the review I posted; I saw that critics and industry observers were "surprised" by War Room's strong (relatively speaking) showing...you know given it is an uplifting film with Black people in it--who wants to see something like that? Look at the stark contrast between the audience reaction, and critical reaction to the film, as reported by Rotten Tomatoes By contrast there was only a 5% differential between the critic's and audience's reaction to Straight Outta Compton. Also, there was 10 times the number of critics reviewing the NWA movie versus War Room. Needless to say, the vast majority of reviewers posting reviews on RT are white. This is the kind of discrepancy we see with other success Black films, like Tyler Perry flicks. Now this does not mean I'm going to rush out and go see this film? I'll wait for it to hit Netflix, if I bother to watch it at all (odds are I probably won't watch it). That however, will not stop me from helping to spread the word about this movie, because I know a ton of people who would LOVE this film; it is made for a substantial portion of my audience's demographic. It is my job to turn folks on to books and films they would enjoy that they would not discover otherwise. Unfortunately the appeal of this film is apparently something White critics can't seem to wrap their heads around. I'm not saying they are racists trying to keep a Black film down--they just don't understand the culture. So the reviews skew negative because of that cultural bias, and since we don't have Black film critics with a substantial platform, (Kam on AALBC.com does not count--at least not yet) these films can't do as well as they could at the box office.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution This looks like it will be really interesting, not simply a nostalgic sugar coating of the organization. Here is Kam's review. I stumbled across this film on Youtube, the person who posted it did not attribute the source I recognize the narrator's voice so it looks legitimate.

This is an email I got from a visitor to AALBC.com. Normally I can answer these questions, even if I've not read the book, just by querying the website. However in this case I think i'll need to be familiar with the book. Does anyone what book this might be? Here is the message: "I frequently visit your site when seeking new books to read. Last month I went on the site and found a book that I was very interested in reading. Unfortunately, I did not write down the title and have not been able to identify it. I was able to read a few pages of it online, so I know a little bit about it. Is there someone on your staff to whom you can forward this email to try to identify the title? Here's what I remember: A mother is explaining that a young man was drunk and drove his vehicle into her yard. She allowed him to come in her home to sleep it off. One of the odd things she mentions is that her son slept through the entire incident. It also appears that the drunk man's father is a man of importance in their town. I appreciate any help you or your staff can offer!" Thank You,

"Since fixing the "perceived problem", would involve telling people how to live their lives, this creates a dilemma." You know Cynique at the end of the day it all boils down to that. We live in a country where we basically have the liberty to do anything we want. For some this is a great blessing and very fanatically rewarding, for others it is a curse. Most of us fall into the "others" category where liberty and freedom is just an illusion--experienced virtually on social media perhaps. The problem is if we are free to do anything we are also free to be victimized by the powerful, which is why they typically are the ones who fight so hard for what they call liberty, (freedom from government control). You saw how hard these types fought to keep slavery the law of the land, to keep Black people from going to school, or from even allowing women to vote. We have so much freedom it has become politically incorrect to tell people what to do. Rules are for religious fanatics. But we need rules to define acceptable behavior--otherwise the rich and powerful, unchecked will increasingly take advantage of us. It makes me seriously consider what a Trump presidency will look like....

Dude what makes you think virtual sex is not already better than real sex? That said, social media surpassed porn on the web a year or two ago--it is a wrap my friend and I believe that is my point. BTW Del why is your avatar image broken?

I actually did my best to ignore this story, but I'm on social media and it is really difficult to filter out these types of stories. I know some will be offended by that statement; "Troy how can you be so insensitive to Black women being kicked off the train for being too loud--they could be you wife, your sister, you mother, your daughters." I know, I know, but honestly I can't get too bent out of shape about these situations. So much worse happens everyday that is completely ignored But I broke down and decided to check out one of the articles linked from Facebook and I and came across this photo. I immediately recognized at least three of the women. One is a published author, profiled here on AALBC (and she is cool people too). I had know idea this story went freaking global--the story made Al Jazeera! Honestly. it is not clear to me why this particular situation made international news.....5 minutes late....looking to figure this out..... OK I now see that the story picked up steam on Twitter #laughingwhileblack this went viral and every news outlet hopped on board, if you look at the tweets it was a feeding frenzy. How did I miss this? Easy, I post to twitter remotely and when have to use the website I have blinders on--I'm in an out. I hope something really positive comes out of this story. Apparently this is the woman who got the sisters kicked off the train.

Well that's the thing Cynqiue, essentially all we hear in the media--especially the Black media, are the positives associated with social media as described by social media users. While I agree with the video I too am a user of social media--I'm just not addicted to it. This discussion forum is a social media platform. But I make no attempt to invade anyone's privacy, sell anyone information, or attempt to manipulate people in ways that the popular social media platforms do. I believe most users of social media do not present there true selves. I'm not just talking about the trolls who hide behind bogus avatars and say things they would never say in person. I'm talking about regular people. My name is Troy and I'm a social media addict. Several years ago I used to be a heavy social media user. The people I knew in the real world were not the ones I saw on social media. Neither was I for that matter. After while you just get bored reading the fiction of everyone else's lives. Like most things Facebook is really is what you make it, but much of what I'd like to make Facebook is already available, in a better form, elsewhere on the web, but many of these sites now struggle because so much of our online time is spent on Facebook. So it is not just the web that is less rich our real world experiences are less rich as a result.

This is certainly a really good idea from Amazon's perspective, I'm sure they will get a deluge of submissions. It will be interesting to learn what the terms are and how they compare to a traditional book deal, contest, whatever.... In the meantime, indie publishers who compete using a different model, often no advance and a 50-50% split on sales could lose out on the best manuscripts to amazon;s $1,500 advance. Even though the authors have to edit their own manuscripts and get their own covers designed.

Anyone who knows me knows I've been singing this tune for years. I also believe all of the issues described in this video adversely impact Black people more than any other culture in America. I know part of the problem is that I rarely hear Black folks discussing social media in this way, and I think for the most part we are largely ignorant of these issues, and don't really care to think deeply about them. Another, perhaps more important factor, is that social media simply has us addicted. People who are happy and led fulfilling lives are probably not the same folks who have their cell phones out while dining with others in a restaurant. They probably never took a bathroom mirror selfie and are not stressed if they leave their cell phones at home by mistake. If anyone in this country has a reason to be depressed and stressed out it is Black people. So it is no wonder we dominate social media platforms like Twitter. We have become addicted to the activity, like a drug. And like a drug, alcohol, or junk food, you can get away with it occasionally, or in small doses, but constant use is destructive. We are destroying ourselves, and large corporations are profiting from it like any common cracker crack dealer. Actually the title is this video is "How Social Media Makes us Unsocial," but if figured the more inflammatory title would attract more viewers. You attract more people with sensationalism than reason.

I started Brooks profile a long while ago in anticipation of a book he was working on, The Maturation of Moses. I understand he has completed the book and folks are working on getting published. Brook and I worked together on The Harlem Book Fair (over a decade ago) and, most recently, The National Black Writer's Conference. He was a very positive Brother, and down for working to make things better for all of us. The Black Book Ecosystem will certainly feel the loss; and we really can't afford any loses.

I plan to attend this event. Thanks for posting this here. Brook was a cool Brother.

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I'll try to pop in sometime during your event and check it out.

Folks can also go to Fiverr look under Graphics and design, then Banner ads they'll be able to have a well made banner created for as little as $5. I've been using Canva to create my banner and memes. I created the banner below, which I think looks pretty nice and I have no design skills :-)

Here is the link to the interview: http://bit.ly/jt-tdj Akaschic is a Brokklyn, NY based publisher. They have kept in print a bunch of talented Black writers that would have had to self-publish, but more likely we may not have see the work of those writers at all. The name was chosen with the same sensibility. I'm sure you would get along with the Publisher, Johnny Temple. Del we are all ignorant about something. So I'm not annoyed by plain 'ole ignorance, that is normal. What does annoy me are folks you are arrogantly, or even murderously ignorant. Many Black people have died, for example, due to ignorant racists. Even when you present some racists with facts they still believe Black people are subhuman, therefore unworthy of being treated like fellow human beings. Del I don't think I'm as direct as my chart would indicate. A few days ago someone posted here asking for the definition of a word. My direct self wanted to say, "go away and come back when you've learned to use a dictionary." Now you might say I was annoyed by ignorance, but I'd say I was annoyed by simple stupidity. Yes Del, I believe Bill is guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting more than one woman. But surely these accusations could have been made public 20 years ago. Why has this become an issue after so much time has passed? Doesn't this seen strange to you? I don't believe for a split second that this came to light because of Twitter.

Hey JonReneé congratulations on your new book. I've added it to our website: http://aalbc.it/poeticlyric This website is underconstruction and should be ready by next year. I would share the information in the document you've attached directly into a post. Many people myself included do not like downloading documents. That is one of the easiest way to spread a virus--even without the sender's knowledge. Besides people without the appropriate program may not be able to open the document. If you just copy and paste the contents of the document you may be surprised how well the format of the original document is preserved. Chris you mentioned something about it being a problem using your own ISBN with Createspace, I know they allow you to do this, but what problems does it cause for you to feel that using the ISBN's they provide would be preferable to using your own?

Thanks again for sharing your poetry here Shaniqka. I see that you do a bunch of others things besides write poems. I added your Blog to our Blogger database: http://aalbc.it/myheartssaysthis

Hey Brother man I answered your question about Bill 4 weeks ago: http://aalbc.com/tc/index.php?/topic/3199-whatever/&do=findComment&comment=13188 What does "my flat is a Maori" mean. Are you in New Zealand or am I taking you too literally?

Hi Shontavius, Thanks for sharing information about your book. I've added it to the new AALBC.com website: http://aalbc.it/beautifulbrowns AALBC.com's new website will feature a lot of information about books not found on most other websites. It you have a youtube video, a website or any other information about you book that you would like to share, please post it here, and I will add it to the database. I hope to have the new website rolled out by the 18th anniversary of our website's launch (March 2016). If you have any suggestions on things I can include on a the new AALBC.com book page like this, please post them here. There will be new authors pages as well.

Hey Hickson besides being fun for you, does this sort of activity accomplish anything else? What time will you be starting on the 5th?

People annoy others with their ignorance, not themselves. "Everyone is asleep..."--you can stop right there :-) In American achievement is defined by who has the most wealth, which is why few are satisfied, as you can always accumulate more wealth. Where you been Del?