Troy

Here is a 60 second trailer from a much longer video I shot of Michael Eric Dyson critiquing President Obama, during the National Black Writers Conference a few days ago. It has been interesting to observe Michael move to essentially the same position Cornel West took several years ago, a position that Dyson himself beat Dr. West up over publically.

65th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Booker T. Washington author of UP FROM SLAVERY born April 5, 1856 I read Up From Slavery as a youngster. I don't recall what or prompted me to do it. It would be many years later before I would learn that he was a "controversial" figure.

65th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Booker T. Washington author of UP FROM SLAVERY born April 5, 1856

Wait to y'all see the video I post of Michael Eric Dyson taking Barack Obama to task....

People are still sharing this post, I think some are just blindly sharing it and not even really thinking about it. I mean I have posted something almost every day since February 1st; maybe this is just reflective sharing.

"blacks now have advantages that white people don't have," I've heard this so many times it's ridiculous. The sentiment is ridiculous as well, but I understand why people feel this way. The first time was heard this was in college; I was in a program to help underprivileged kids the inner city become acclimated to college life. It was summer program which allowed us to earn 6 college credits and we did not have to pay a cent. "Free" room and board and well as tuition. I think we may have even received a small stipend. Our RA was a white upper classman. Whenever ever the subject of cost of anything came up we had the habit of saying "Pay?...Pay? We don't pay for anything!" Once I was saying this in unison with one of my buddies, who was also on a free ride. and our RA lost it! He started yelling about how hard he had to work and how his parents did not have any money and we were getting everything for free and one.... This kid unloaded this was 36 years ago and I never forgot it. One, the kid was so angry; and two, I just assumed all white people had money. Understand I grew up in racially segregated New York City. Of course as I got older I learned that there were plenty of poor white, uneducated white people. Today I'm I'm probably older than my RA's father was and I'm saddled with a ton of student debt, putting my own kid through the very same school. So I feel his pain. But coming from that position I would never want to be trade growing up in the environment I did for a scholarship to college. I'm sure the RA made out find in life, despite having to work through college. I suspect however he still believe Black folks have much better than white folks.... and is probably a Donald Trump supporter. Pioneer, I know things are bad now Because I see more and more people are begging for money in NYC and here is the kicker--most of them are white! I see young white people begging for money every single day. This is very unusual.

Read the full article that the The National Law Review The self-publishing vendors (i.e., Amazon’s Kindle Digital Publishing, Barnes & Noble Nook Press and Smashwords) sought summary judgment asserting that they were not publishers of the book but merely allowed the author to use their systems to distribute it, and that were protected from any liability for third-party content by CDA Section 230. In opposing dismissal, the plaintiffs argued that the vendors worked in concert with the author to provide a platform for publishing books the same way a traditional publishing house does. Siding with the defendants, the court dismissed the claims against the self-publishing vendors, finding that their services are not “publishing,” as that word is known in the book industry. The court pointed to the terms of service that the author agreed to when registering for defendants’ services. For example, the terms of the Kindle agreement contained representations that the uploader owned all rights to the material and that no rights were being violated. In the Nook agreement, the author represented and warranted to Barnes & Noble that he held “the necessary rights, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the [book] and related content” and that the book could be “sold, marketed, displayed, distributed and promoted [by Barnes & Noble] without violating or infringing the rights of any other person or entity, including, without limitation, infringing any copyright, patent, trademark or right of privacy….” Moreover, the Smashwords agreement stressed that: “Smashwords does not… undertake[] any editorial review of the books that authors and publishers publish using its service.” It is interesting to read the summary of the court ruling. While Amazon and the other companies provide a service, and have actually given Black folks more of an opportunity for our voices to be heard, they should not be confused with publishing. You see unlike publishers that take on both financial and legal risk these self publishing platforms do neither. They get paid not matter what and assume no legal risk. Indeed they provide little more of a publishing service that my Canon printer.

64th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Poet Dr. Maya Angelou born April 4, 1928 This photo was taken, during the National Book Awards, just a few month before Angelou passed.

Cynique, there are plenty of Bernie supporters who are my age. In fact, I don't really know anyone (other than yourself) who is so staunchly supportive of Hillary. Basically folks are either "Bernie or bust", or "I'll vote of Hillary if Bernie does not make it." The later may be in the minority. When you write, "...in his role of savior, will pull off his miracles by applying simple solutions to complicated problems..." that same thing could have very easily been applied to Barack 8 years ago. I did not know Bernie had a child out of wedlock, I'm not sure why you mentioned it other than to demonized Bernice in the same why you accuse others of demonizing Hillary. Considering the fact that the mmajority of Black people born in America are born out of wedlock, I doubt very many people will hold that against Bernie, but rather see him human--like the rest of us. We need people who are far m,ore progressive in the white house, not moderate centrists who parrot whatever the polls say people want to hear, then proceed to do the bidding of the oiligarchy once elected.

62nd Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Carolyn M. Rodgers passed April 2, 2010. The Black Arts Movement era Poet was a 1976 National Book Award Finalist

Well Tolly thanks for stepping out of the shadows. I was not aware that Victor had a new book out. It just goes to show you how inefficient the Black book ecosystem is today Now of course Victor's books would appeal to a broad audience, but the fact it escaped my scrutiny is telling. I'm filmed Victor a number of times and even paid him to do a reading at the National Black Writers Conference a few years ago, which makes my lack of knowledge of The Ballad of Black Tom all the more remarkable. This also means that my visitors will be less likely to know about this book too. How did you learn about it? Everette's latest book of essays is Half an Inch of Water. Please post again, forums are only as good as the participants. Lurkers help by bringing traffic, but the quality of the conversation is really a function of the participants--thanks for raising the quality of our conversation today. If you create an account you will not have to wait for me to post.

Yes Cynique people willing to exploit others do quite well in this country, often better than people who would treat others more fairly. The election of Obama was a strong indicator that the country wanted a change. The rise of Trump and the popularity of Bernie is more of the same. Sure progress has been made but you can't ignore the fact that many of those gains have been reversed. "...the poorest [sic] people of color are doing better than most." You are the "most"? Who are you comparing poor people of color to Del; poor white people, poor people in other countries, poor people of the past??

Well again Bernie has my vote. Hillary does not, nor does Trump. However many slaves to the democratic party who feel that if you don't vote for Hillary, assuming she is the democratic nominee, that is actually a vote for Trump. I think people should vote for people they support, they should not be coerced into voting for someone they do not support as a strategy to stop someone else you don't support from winning. Hopefully the process will work out with a candidate that the people (at least the democrats) actually want....

Zane is a 213 Time AALBC.com best selling Author—No One Comes Close. She has 34 bestselling books and has made our bestsellers list an astounding 213 times! Here are the top 30 (89 counting ties), bestselling authors on AALBC.com over the past 18 years and a link to the books that have made the bestsellers list. Karrine Steffans', Confessions of a Video Vixen is the all time best selling book #1 Zane #2 Jawanza Kunjufu #3 Wahida Clark #4 Karrine Steffans #5 Teri Woods #6 Kimberla Lawson Roby #7 Iyanla Vanzant #8 J. A. Rogers #9 Maya Angelou #10 J. California Cooper #11 Hill Harper #12 Carl Weber #13 Nikki Turner #14 (tie) Deja King #14 (tie) Eric Jerome Dickey #14 (tie) Guy Johnson #15 Carter G. Woodson #16 Vickie M. Stringer #17 Walter Mosley #18 (tie) R. Renee, Cynthia Harper #18 (tie) Leonce Gaiter #19 Carleen Brice #20 J.J. Smith #21 E. Lynn Harris #22 Aaron McGruder #23 (tie) Terry McMillan #23 (tie) John Henrik Clarke #23 (tie) Cornel West #23 (tie) Ivan Van Sertima #24 (tie) Edwidge Danticat #24 (tie) Amos N. Wilson #25 (tie) Toni Morrison #25 (tie) Ntozake Shange #25 (tie) Chuck Sambuchino #26 (tie) Tavis Smiley #26 (tie) Donald Goines #26 (tie) James Earl Hardy #26 (tie) Kola Boof #26 (tie) Frances Cress Welsing #27 (tie) Martha Kennerson #27 (tie) Herb Boyd #27 (tie) Kevin Powell #27 (tie) Pearl Cleage #27 (tie) W.E.B. Du Bois #27 (tie) Saul Williams #27 (tie) Tom Burrell #28 (tie) Kiki Swinson #28 (tie) Tiffany Warren #28 (tie) Michael Baisden #28 (tie) Ashley and JaQuavis #28 (tie) Timothy George #28 (tie) Nikki Woods #28 (tie) Robert Fleming #28 (tie) Kashif Malik Hassan-El #28 (tie) ReShonda Tate Billingsley #28 (tie) T. D. Jakes #28 (tie) Na’im Akbar #28 (tie) Ta-Nehisi Coates #28 (tie) Rita Williams-Garcia #28 (tie) Yvonne S. Thornton #28 (tie) Carmen Bryan #28 (tie) M. D. Williams #28 (tie) Robert Fleming #28 (tie) Kashif Malik Hassan-El #29 (tie) Victoria Christopher Murray #29 (tie) Lerone Bennett #29 (tie) Iceberg Slim #29 (tie) Delaney Diamond #29 (tie) Barack Obama #29 (tie) Shannon Holmes #29 (tie) Yosef Ben-Jochannan #29 (tie) James Daley #29 (tie) Octavia Butler #30 (tie) Sister Souljah #30 (tie) Henry Louis Gates #30 (tie) Michael Eric Dyson #30 (tie) Sapphire #30 (tie) JaQuavis Coleman #30 (tie) Jacqueline Woodson #30 (tie) Derrick Bell #30 (tie) T. N. Baker #30 (tie) Chancellor Williams #30 (tie) Terrie Williams #30 (tie) Trice Hickman #30 (tie) Bebe Moore Campbell #30 (tie) Karen E Quinones Miller #30 (tie) Jessica Care Moore #30 (tie) E L James #30 (tie) Bernice L. McFadden This new database lets me ask some very interesting questions.

This event has been added to our directory: http://aalbc.com/events/index.php?st=Canada

@Dr. Jazzy, system is screwed. There is very little we can do, within this current system, to provide justice for all people. It was not designed to do that. Ultimately this system will crash and burn, hopefully what emerges, as a result, will be better that what we have now. That is the mostly likely outcome IMHO. Alternatively, there is a shot at effecting positive change in the current system, but we would have to eliminate all of the corporate monopolies that control our media and effectively our government. But as wealth disparity increases this seems very unlikely. The Hares had/have a think tank http://aalbc.com/authors/nathan-julia-hare.html What you you think? Cynique I would agree with you if you replace "evil" with "strong."

Well lying politicians are nothing new, we don't have any journalists you will or able to keep them in check. They are too busy worrying about ratings, or traffic to care about providing a desperately need public service.

Cynique was that said in your Nancy Reagan, "Just say no" voice? You, and for the most part I, grew up at a time when people cooked at home. We NEVER ate out. After I got into college my family started to go out to restaurants, but this was typically for special occasions. Today many people in places like NYC never cook and eat dinner out every night. Overindulging in processed foods just did not happen. An overweight kid in my day was unusual, not the norm. A child with adult onset diabetes are unheard of. Today it is much harder to avoid these foods. I know you'be heard of food desserts, but actually exist. Even if fresh produce is available, it costs too damn much, and will not satiate you as easily has some good 'ole American fast food. Marketers target kids and get them hooked at an early age--using the same tactics cigarette company's use. At the end of the day, I agree with you Cynique, but I also know for many people making the right choice is often very hard, if not altogether impossible. Avoiding gluttony sounds simple on paper, but in practice it is completely different story. People don't want to be fat any more than they want to be hooked on drugs. Also the food is manufactured in such a way that you don't have to necessarily be a glutton, the same number of calories compared to unprocessed food will result in additional weight gain--for some more than others. But again Coke is cheaper than water and tastes better. They sell it schools directly to children. You can go to a movie theater or 7-eleven and buy a cup of coke the size of a bucket--with free refills. We are programed to consume, not to be concerned with our health. And a lack of education makes it much easier to become a victim of this corporate programming.

Charter schools are a money grab, at the expense of children, usually the ones with darker complexions. It is beyond pathetic. People with money simply send their kids to private schools.

I dunno Chris they could be sharing it as an April Fools joke. I don't think there have been any comments though. The giveaway should have been this is the first time I posted on Facebook, in a couple of years, where I did not have a link back to a website. I wonder what would happen if people just started sharing false rumors on social media... nevermind that pretty much is what is happening now.

Chris I just visited your site: http://www.cbpublish.com/ is loads very quickly from what my vantage point. But if you really want to get into optimizing your website for speed check out this page. If I were you would would definitely take advantage of compressing your images and caching. You can download plugins to take advantage of both of these.

@Pioneer1, no problem. Please do direct people to this site if they are interested in romance of any other genre I'm sure they will find something that the will like, There are almost 2,200 writers and their books profiles on this website, all manually curated, so there is a lot of quality literature to chose from. Like you I'm not a big fan of romance, but I listen to people who are, and of course Brenda tops the list. Omar too is popular and has been publishing books for over 2 decades.

61st Day of #BlackHistoryMonth: 10 years ago today, April 1, 2006, Bob Johnson, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan, pool resources to create a fund to provide startup capital to support independent Black owned businesses.

I believe it, but I also believe white folks abuse the system even more. As with anything else Black people are prosecuted more frequently, penalized more harshly, and more weakly represented by attorneys in our criminal justice system. But stealing money that should go to students is wrong no matter what the so called race of perpetrator is. It is unfortunate, though that Black folks suffer more as victims and victimizers. It is all connected

LOL! @Pioneer1, if you started off with "God Told me..." I'm leaving the room. It would be sufficient to say "I believe...." that would be more accurate. Often people try to bolster an argument by relating the mind of God. Misinterpreting the mind of God gets people killed every day. Pioneer, where are all these plums and bananas growing where you can just walk up a pick it off a tree? What world are you envisioning the Garden of Eden? In the real worl, before industrialization and certainly agriculture, the vast majority of our time was spent looking for food. In order to produce those Bananas, you take for granted they have, to be cultivated. To cultivate them in the volume and price that most people will consume them, takes a lot of fossil fuels for framing, transportation, storage, etc, and slave like labor to work the fields. The production of meat is even worse. As far as infant mortality and the related life expectancy. I don't need to argue about that the data is readily available. Your personal experiences while interesting are certainly not extendable to entire populations. Also, I'm not aware of any documented evidence of anyone living to be 150 years old. I'm certain you can not produce any, so that is not worth arguing about either. @Cynique, modern processed food is developed to appeal to us. Seriously, there are scientists working in laboratories, every day, trying to concoct something that will taste so good that it will hook us. Of course nowadays there is a bit more pressure to produce something that will not also kill us--but not nearly enough if you ask me. The food tastes good, it is artificially cheap (though still remarkably profitable), readily available, so we over consume. Of course we get all the associated weight related diseases as a result. I can go into mcdonalds today buy two hamburgers, and a large Coke for $3.00. That is far cheaper that it would cost me to go to the supermarket buy the ingredients and prepare that meal myself. Plus I'd save a lot of time. If you are under educated, overweight, poor, and over 50 you are almost certainly diabetic. But no one cares cause treating diabetes is profitable and Black people get it disproportionately--though we are no more susceptible than anyone else. But the real kicker is that as we get fatter and fatter, rather the dealing with the problem in our food supply celebrate our new found obesity. Thick is the new fat. Skinny girls are evil.