Troy

As a society we have chosen wealth over virtue. The idea dedicate far less resources to more virtuous activities like education than we do selling cigarettes. It is why Trump is close to becoming president. Sadly we are exporting this belief system around the world. Perhaps this is way some cultures are so anti-american.

History Before the World Wide Web (WWW) became available to the general public discussion forums were quite popular on privately run bulletin boards. Operating these bulletin board required a high level of technical expertise and an significant investment of time and money to manage. Even the participants had to be tech savvy just to participate. Later corporate run platforms like AOL and CompuServe stepped in and made things much easier for everyone. Running forums, and participating in them, was made a lot easier. Of course you had to play by the rules laid down by the corporations, plus they charged monthly fee just to participate. The opening of the WWW allowed anyone with a bit of technical skill and a little bit of money to create their own discussion forums. You no longer needed a corporation. People happily ditched the fees, rules, corporate oversight, and enjoyed the benefits creating unique forums. The additional benefits for those starting their own forums was that they and their participants had the freedom to determine the subjects and the rules for participation. As a result, one could find discussion forums filled with other kindred spirits on virtually any subject. It was in this environment in which our forums Thumper Corner, and later Cynique's corner, thrived. The Rise of Social Media In the age of social media now anyone can setup a discussion forum—absolutely no technical skill is required and it is all free. As a result, the number of groups exploded. One Facebook alone there are more forums dedicated to Black books than I can keep track of. Indeed, the level of granularity on Facebook is down to the individual. Individuals have their own discussion forums—with themselves as the subject. It was during this period were AALBC.com's saw it steepest decline in participation. Today some of the old participants here are now active on social media. Interestingly, it is not as if social media provides a better or even equivalent substitute to the discussion forum. None of the Black book forums or groups I've participated on social media have come close to Thumper's Corner in terms quality of conversation on books. The forums were also read much more extensively by non-participants (lurkers). There is no social media platform where one can post a comment with formatting as simple as what yiu are reading here. The vast majority of groups I've seen on Facebook are just used by others to self-promote. I too use those groups for this purpose. It takes almost about 2 seconds to share something on a Facebook group—you don't even have to go to the group. Many tout the benefits of Goodreads, but I don't use Goodreads at all. It reminds me of the AOL days where you are greatly constrained on what you can post. You can't even post a hyperlink back to your website. At the end of the day all of these corporate websites invest a great deal of effort in keeping you on their platforms, and they do a great job. Perhaps it is not that Thumper's Corner has been replicated on social media, social media provides a different and superior value proposition. If that is the case, someone please explain it to me for I can't see what is superior about social media. I won't even get into the issues of supporting Black owned entities, how social media invades your privacy, or any of the myriad of other adverse issues I can raise regarding social media. I think we have lost more than we have gained during the rise of social media. I did not feel this way 5 years ago. It took time for me to understand what was happening and to see how things have played out. Other Reasons for the Decline of Participation Our Our Forums I'm not sure the rise of social media is the only reason for the decline in the popularity of the Thumper's Corner discussion forum. Thumper's Corner's heyday also corresponded with a surge in popularity of African American literature in general. Also during Thumper Corner's prime we also managed an online book club* (The Coffee Will Make You Black), under the leadership of Thumper himself. The online book club ended in 2006, this too certainly put downward pressure on discussion forum participation. *A decade ago managing the platform required a great deal of my time. I often did not have time to even read the books. But today with AALBC.com being my full time job, my kids grown, and the AALBC.com website being greatly improved, managing a book club would be much easier. In 2017 I plan to recruit and Book Club Manager (if you ave any recommendation for this role, please let me know. Most people really don't like their ideals challenged. On Facebook I can't tell you how many times I've read someone boast how they are blocking someone because they posted something that they disagreed with. In almost 20 years I have never banned anyone from these forums for saying something I disagreed with. Banned for being a troll, spamming, or obsessively vulgar and rude yes. But for saying something that I don't like, disagree with, or is unpopular—never. That would defeat the purpose of these forums. Sometimes that opinion I starting our disagreeing with is one that I later embraced. This is how people grow and learn. Growth and learning are fundamentally the my goals for these forums; which is one reason I'll keep 'em going. I'd be willing to bet money these forums will outlive Facebook.

Thanks Cynique. We all try to do better...that is about all we can do since no one is perfect. I'm always wary of people who have to tell you how smart they are. This should be self-evident. Simply saying you are "a published author" means nothing without seeing the actual product. Over the better part of the last two decades selling books I've seen a lot of garbage. Besides being published does not make you a decent human being...

I can't give Sara any grief on her English given the many typos I make (I just fixed 5 typoes in my last post). Besides I have no expectation of error free typing unless the message is unclear because of it. Personally I found Sara impossible to communicate with. I stopped engaging with her months ago, and I've long stopped trying to understand her motivation for participating on this forum. I do know she had no interest in exchanging ideas, or learning anything. But that would not make her any different than most people... If she is actually a published author I think she missed a great opportunity here. The fact that I have no clue who she is or what books she has written is a colossal waste, because at the very least I would have created a presence for her on the website at no cost and used any opportunity to promote her work where it made sense. But I have to say I never did understand why you felt it necessary to exchange barbs with her. I wished I started deleting those earlier on, but I actually thought you two were having a bit of immature fun. The other problem is when people read these types of base exchanges they get intimidated, turned off, and are less likely to join the fray. Obviously, I have no problem with a heated debate, but the ongoing tit-for-tat, back and forth, that every conversation between you and Sara devolved into was a waste of everyone's time and it more difficult to read the more interesting parts of a conversation. The idea that Harry's post on Nat Turner could so so quickly devolve into you being called a "ni--er bi-ch" is disturbing. It seemed like a bad pattern was just getting worse. That was something I wanted to prevent.

Did I mention you can purchase Woodson's titles directly from Black Classic press for an enjoy a 30% discount until October 31? Replace "Negros" with African American, and this quote would work perfectly today!

Black writers are over represented (again) on the list of finalists for National Book Awards. This really is something positive in the world of books. Of course this by no means makes our for a couple of centuries of marginalization in the book world. It will take a lot longer to make up for that. I can say that the National Book Foundation is doing their part to make a positive impact in the world of books.

That is just it Cynique running for the Presidency is like a relativity TV show, pure entertainment and no substance. I think a system that would put ether of these two in the position to be the president is profoundly flawed, and the nation will get the short end of the stick. It seems no intelligent, righteous, ethical person would subject themselves to the gauntlet that is running for POTUS in this social media crazed, 24-per-day news cycle age. We are a culture that values symbols over substance. I'm sure the polls will illustrate how serious a problem this has become. If Donald wins the problems could be more serious than I imaged. Meanwhile here in Florida, the land of Trumpettes, we are looking at the potential for 150 mph sustained winds.

@Sara I'll unblock your account to give you the opportunity to remove your posts and delete your account (you created it, you delete it). While Cynique did not feel I should block you based upon that last post, I disagreed for a number of reasons. But I'll give you one. I have no interest in providing a platform for a Black woman to refer to another Black woman (an esteemed elder no less), in the language that you used. I let a lot of stuff go, but even I have to draw the line somewhere. There is no justification for it, and I won't tolerate it here. If you want to trash another Black woman using that kind of language, go to Twitter, and have a blast. If you decide not to delete your account and continue posting, that is up to you, just keep the above in mind.

As I spend countless hours over the last few days in the tedious task of migrating content to my database I've been listening to Youtube videos. The following is of journlist and writer Christopher Hitchens who discusses in great detail the criminal activity of Bill Clinton Man if you listen to Hitchens go on about Bill Clinton, I'm not sure confident he would vote for Hillary as Sam Harris seems to be. Now Hillary is not Bill, but sheesh she supported and presumably had knowledge of everything he did, and even ran with her own schemes. I see now that Frank and Clare from Netflix's House of Cards are based upon Bill and Hillary. It did not dawn on me until now, but it seems obvious now...

Yeah I thought you might enjoy this @Cynique While this was an all out attack and there is really nothing I can say to dispute him. The point he made about preferring a random person off the street to Donald Trump as president is one I'd actually agree with. It really would have been very interesting to hear Hitchen's take on Hillary/Trump fiasco.

Sam known for criticizing people who believe in God just unloads on Trump. I actually found his rant very funny.

I guess the biggest difference is that Baldwin wrote all the pieces in his seminal work, while Ward's includes a host of contributors. I have not heard much about this book, since it came out this summer. The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward Buy This Book AbeBooks Amazon BarnesandNoble Books-A-Million IndieBound Borrow from Library Publication Date: Aug 02, 2016 List Price: $26.00 (store prices may vary) Format: Hardcover Classification: Nonfiction Page Count: 288 ISBN13: 9781501126345 Imprint: Scribner Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc. Parent Company: CBS Corporation Book Description: National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin’s 1962 “Letter to My Nephew,” which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: “You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.” Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin’s words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation’s most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin’s essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a “post-racial” society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin’s “fire next time” is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.

It appears Sara's account, or perhaps Sara herself has been, hacked by an actual troll? I have to block the account as I don't have the time to manage these exchanges... Kam interviewed Nate Parker and even asked him about the allegation of rape against him. You won't find his response interesting on the point (I didn't). Nate also seems to be saying a lot to come across as a devout Christian. I'm always nervous around people who have to tell you they are Christian; being a Christian or Christ-like is one of those things that should be self-evident, and I guess they have to tell you 'cause you wouldn't know based upon their behavior...

After watching the trailer, I'm not all that anxious to see this documentary. It is like being a war vet suffering from PTSD, and watching a grisly war movie. Over the past decade Manhattan has become a much nicer city. The image below shows the old meat packing district which used to be a freaking disaster. Today it is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country. I don't get it, because I would definitely not want to live in the area. It is far too noisy and busy for my taste, but even for those with a desire to live there, the real estate is WAY out of proportion (think $1 million+ for a 1 bedroom and you still have to pay for maintenance, taxes, parking, schools, and everything in the vicinity is expensive). The city is almost crippled with all the new construction, but virtually none of it is for people with moderate incomes. Instead much of the new housing stock belong to investors with no need or interest in living in these places--it is just a safe haven for rich folk's money to grow. Meanwhile poor people struggle for decent housing and schools. Here is a little anecdote: In most places in the country you can go to a municipal park and play tennis for free, assuming tennis courts are not already in your community. Forget about tennis courts in schools, the vast majority of schools in Manhattan don't have them (if any). In New York City you have to pay $200 a season to play tennis in a city run park--and there aren't that many places to play. But rich folks play in private clubs where the fees are often staggering. Suffice it to say the next Serena will not come from New York City I could go on all day with little anecdotes like this. Basically if you are rich New York City is great place to live, but even if you are middle class you can't truly appreciate all the City has to offer. If you are a wage earner and make less than $150K a year you will struggle to find a decent place to live in Manhattan and still have enough money to do some of the things people with salaries that high, anywhere else in the U.S., might expect to do like take vacations own a nice car or pay for private school for their kids. New York could truly be a great city if did something to accommodate anyone other than the rich.

For those of you interested the behind the scenes activities... I finally migrated all of my film reviews to my website's new format. Basically the web pages for the old film reviews, indeed all of AALBC.com web page were static web pages. They were essentially MS Word documents, so if anything needed to be changed I had to open the document up and edit it directly. This is cool for a handful of pages, but it is entirely impractical for large websites like AALBC.com. As I added new content the problem just became progressively worse. To make any site wide changes like converting to https, or optimizing for mobile devices, just became very labor intensive. Today changing the format of a film review is trivial. The design of the web pages and the content are completely separate. This ideal is not exactly a revelation in website design, but for a site started in 1997, keeping pace has not been trivial, but it is the only reason AALBC.com has survived and grown over the past two decades. Every Wordpress blog is designed the same way, to keep content separate from the design. This is why you can click a button and dramatically change the look of an entire Wordpress website. But a Wordpress site, as flexible and easy as they are to use, would be too limiting for AALBC.com. I employ very different designs for different types of content; the design of a film review page is completely different than a book club page, or an author page, or a book review page as an example The other trick is that I have not broken any of the old URLs. They all continue to work even through the pages now have new URLs. This is critically important so that I don't lose any of the benefits I've gained in SEO (search engine optimization) over the years. In fact with the site redesign and the changes I made in the page's meta tags (the stuff read by search engines) I should actually gain some benefits in SEO.

Agreed, but we already know, because of the hacking of the DNC's email server, some of the underhanded tactics HIllary folks used to harpoon Saunders. On the republican side, Trump represented the exact opposite of the status quo; which is another weakness of Hillary. America can be fixed but the people will need to do it by becoming organized and wresting control of the government from the control of 1% (1/10 of 1% more likely). Perhaps after the objective failure of the Clinton or the Trump presidency the American people might be primed to do what is really necessary to improve conditions for the majority of us.

Cynique, both the Urban League and the NAACP have Facebook pages; and like the vast majority of Facebook brand pages, these pages get very little traction. If these organizations expended the resources (i.e. money because Facebook is pay to play for brands) necessary to increase engagement on they would take them away from somewhere else which further diminishes the impact of the organization. Of course increased engagement of Facebook's does not necessarily translate into more constructive action or communication of important information. The stuff that gets the most traction is generally the "click-baity" stuff. Do you see the problem? Even for the stuff I post, maybe one out of 100 (I have not took the time to take an actual count), gains any real traction. For now, the time I invest and what I get in return is worth my effort. In 6 months it may not be. In a year Facebook could be replaced by the next shiny thing. When my Facebook posts gain traction, it does so because others have shared it in mass. So those of you who click the share button from time to time, thank you. Also lets be clear about the media; Kaepernick did not "use" the media. Time magazine used him, as Cynique wrote, to sell issues, or more precisely to make money. I don't buy into the notion that a constructive dialog will take place, or more importantly that anything will come of Kaepernick being on the cover of the magazine. Did any of us read the Time article, or was the cover basically a semi-viral-meme floating around the WWW which is how I discovered it? In order for Black folks to make any collective progress, as opposed to a handful of exceptions, we will have to work together. That is the only way we will make progress. Waiting around for the government to do the right thing is naive and obviously does not work. The government only helps when we are organized; and we have not been organized for more than 1/2 a century in this country.

I just published Kam's review of this film He says it is an Oscar contender, but apparently folks have been making a stick about Parker being a rapist in college. I did bother to follow up on the hullabaloo. I figured if he was a rapist someone would have locked him up or he would have been charged... Otherwise I guess they are unsubstantiated accusations. Then again if Kam mentioned it in his review, there is probably more to it. I usually ask about these issues in reviews is it relevant, but in this case if it has the potential to prevent an Academy Award nomination, then it is an issue. This will be the next film I watch in the theater.

Book Review: Telling It Like It Is: The Remarkable Life Experiences of My Aunt Edna “We all deserve an Aunt Edna in our life and if you are not of of those lucky ones who has one, her biography is a good option.”—Carol Taylor I have 802 more book reviews to migrate to the website's new format, once that is done I plan to ramp up our publication of reviews. I hope to have that done this week. Look out for even more critical reviews of books written by Black writers!

Chris Pioneer has a point, sure parenting is important but if the parent themselves are under-educated and knows little about parenting, how are they supposed to help the next generation? Children spend most of their day in school, often eating two meals there with some programs going as late as 5 p.m., much of the rearing of these kids naturally falls into the hand of schools, this is why schools are so important. Now we can argue about which is more important, schools or parent, but at the end of the day both are important and for many Black children both are failing. We can't legislate good parenting, but we can fix the schools. We both agree in many in states, like Nevada, the graduation rates are atrocious. Now we also know not all high school diplomas are equivalent. Do you think that all of the students getting high school diplomas, in places like Nevada are prepared for college or meaningful employment? If not which students do you think are less prepared? Man there are kids coming out of college who are unemployable; certainly not for a job that requires a college education. How do you think the all those Black kids without a HS diploma, and a relatively useless HS diploma will fare? What do we do about them? These folks will have kids and while we can point the blame on on the likely poor outcomes of those kids on the parents, that will not improve a thing. Cynique, I dunno but Pioneer may be winning me over with his argument. When I was a kid many kids suffered brain damage or reduced mental function due to lead based paint that was common during the time. We also had to contend with food desserts; fresh produce and seafood was not widely available. We ate a lot of canned vegetables which is loaded with salt. Then we were targets but corporation at an early age with cigarettes, shitty processed food, and alcohol. I drank countless Colt 45's (thanks Billy Dee), smoked, and ate a ton of junk food. Eventually I left the environment, but it took even longer for the mentality to leave me. Today when I see people smoke I feel bad for them, I eat fresh produce every day and I don't eat much processed food or drink as much as I used to. But many of the kids I grew up still do, some already have heart disease or have even died; others look much older than their age. We also know that heart disease did not exist 100 years ago. We also know who is dying at higher rate from heart disease today, right? I'll tell you; Black folks are dying at higher rates for all of the reason I mentioned above. My father died when he was 44 years old. Do you think my family was better off with or without him? What about all the other families of Black men, in poor communities, dying prematurely? Think of all the added stress on these people. We have no compassion for these folks and we want to blame them, poor parenting, lazy, uneducated, for all their problems. This is the fundamental problem I have with Republicans. But the problem I have the the Dems is that they just pay lips service to these issues while things only get worse for us. More Black people will die in Chicago, Harlem, and the entire US from heart disease than all other causes combined. More than 22K people died of coronary heart or stroke in Chicago in 2006 to 2010. During the same period 2K people died from firearms--an order of magnitude less! All of these deaths are preventable. But where is all the attention going? Which should it go? Where will it go...

Pioneer as soon as that Black person who is intelligent, articulate, and angry gets enough people behind them who are activity doing something they are murdered. This is why Malcolm, Martin, Hampton, and others were murdered. This is also why Obama has nothing to fear. If Quanell X's organization becomes effective, we'll need to protect him, or he'll be gunned down too. Pioneer EVERYONE is giving up--not just poor Black people. White people who lost their homes and who can't afford college have lost hope. The BS in the news about lower unemployment is propaganda, to make people think everything is OK; and that they must be the exception and are doing something wrong, when in reality most people are struggling! I'm struggling to make a web based business thrive, something that is becoming increasingly more difficult over the years. Rather than many indie websites being able to thrive and provide jobs and revenue for others; we have mega-corporation concentrating the wealth and opportunities in the hand of a few. Oh and before you tell me how many jobs they provide, you better look at the numbers of Black people they employ and the communities they serve.

This looks like a a very interesting story. Nice cover and well presented. The book trailer is well produced, short, and sweet. I noticed you are using an Squarespace Affiliate code on your Amazon buy links, which means SquareSpace is earning the commissions. Is this an arrangement that you have with them?

Rice & Rocks by Sandra L. Richards, Illustrated by Megan Kayleigh Sullivan a “Top 100 Recommended African-American Children’s Book”

@Pioneer1, while researching my families history we lost a two of my mothers siblings were lost to whooping cough. They would be around Cyniques age if they were alive today. Sickle Cell is a lethal affliction, far less desireable than the chance of contracting malaria. Carrying the trait of Sickle, I understand offers some protection... but to your point you might be correct contact with Europeans and there communicable diseases has indeed wrecked havoc across the globe including the Americas. Still live expectancy is higher today due in part to the eradication of diseases; a benefit which folks who refuse to get vaccinations put at risk. @CDBurns, man I looked at the stats and I find them depressing Basically only 12 states can manage to graduate 3/4 of their Black students; while virtually all the other states graduate there white students at rates exceeding this. Just looking at this data you can't help but be struck by the differences between Black performance and the performance of white students and Asian students. Particularly in places like DC. Now if you believe there are at no inherent natural disadvantage in intellectual ability and potential, what else can explain the differences? I'm sure in DC it is social-economic, as it is in New York City. People with money send their kids to private school in these cities, and public schools that are segregated by both race and class. I'll let you guess where the best teachers and resources go. Unfortunately for too many bright Black children, their life opportunities are stunted, if not altogether destroyed by the systems we have in place. 545 murders in Chicago.

The only thing that came out of this is that white folks, like the guy Quannell was debating just dig their heels even more. The notion that dissatisfied Black people should just live basically says; yeah the situation for ya'll is jacked up, don't look to us to help make things better, you might have better luck finding justice in another country... Maybe he is right.