Troy

Agreed with you last point and it is f-cked up on so many levels.

"... I see thousands of fat Black school kids standing around and leaning on telephone poles and mail boxes..." LOL I just visualized this and it made me laugh out loud. Then I read Cynique's. "...homeward bound, rag-tag parade of scruffy, loud, unruly..." and I see a herd of Cosby Kids making their way down the street an laughed again. I'm sure anyone reading this would wonder if we even like teenagers Del I live in the neighborhood I was raised in and I can tell you that kids absolutely do not play outside as much as we did. Besides basketball and touch football we played every imaginable variation of tag you can think of. The girls would jump double-dutch for hours on end. I don't recall the last time I saw kids playing tag or girls jumping double dutch... I don't even see kids play outside any more. I'm sure there is data to support the fact kids are getting bigger. I don't have time to look it up right now. Recently however the charter schools seem to run kids more during recess it is fun to watch a bunch of little kids running around it seems like an entirely stochastic process -- like the balls bouncing in the lotto machine before being drawn. Pioneer while we may observer similar things I think the only dispute is our explanations for them and the motivation behind them. Companies are motivated by money. Period. Any perceived good is performed because there is revenue behind it. The faster and easier the better. As a result corporations will always pick a large short term gain over a small longer term one -- even if society, the planet is better off. This is why we will continue to burn fossil fuels until we run out or the ozone layer is depleted to the point where our world can not longer support life -- then some genius will get rich selling oxygen masks. And Negroes will be losing homes because they can't afford to pay for air.

Yeah, but Will Smith is loaded :-) I just have spiritual wealth

Click Here to Support When a capitalist country such as ours implements austerity measures under the weird pseudonym "sequestration," one of the first cuts besides social services occurs among the non-profit sector. Due to this reality, The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS), a NY-based nonprofit organization, has been denied a major grant it needs in order for its publishing entity, 2Leaf Press, a multicultural independent press of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, has been hit hard. In order for it to maintain its publishing of dynamic list of books, it needs to rely on the generosity of the community it serves. At a time when presses dedicated to preserving the literary and artistic legacy of writers and artists of color who challenge a culture that would rather shut its government down than pay decent wages, provide social services, making housing and higher education affordable, and above all, provide decent health care for its citizenry, more and more the community must come together—as we have countless times in the past (and present) with rent parties and such, to cull our resources in order to sustain one another. I am asking you humbly to please, if you can, make a donation of what ever amount is comfortable for you, in order for 2Leaf Press, a NYC-based, multicultural small press "with big ideas," to sustain itself in this difficult time. Donations can be sent to FUNDLY. Below is a video message from 2Leaf Press publisher, Gabrielle David, giving you a sense of 2Leaf Press and its mission. Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and please share this message with your social networks and beyond. Sincerely, Tony Medina, author of "Broke Baroque" (2Leaf Press, 2013). Peace.

Del people tend to hate themselves more than anyone else. The suicide rate in the US is twice the murder rate. When you consider that the Black murder rate are really Brothers engaging in suicidal behavior the number are much more stark. The obesity rates fro US Black women grows every year. If memory service in places like DC, the Black female obesity rates exceed 40%. Cynique I saw Cark Hart on Bill's program when it originally broadcast. The fact most people do not get hooked on drugs comes as no revelation to me. But it is mildly interesting to know there is data to support my observations and personal experience At any rate, I really could not get past that head of hair of his. Is he Rastafarian? I can not image anyone want to deal with all of that hair for purely stylistic reasons. We published a review of his book

Actually when I moved back to Harlem about 13 years ago I thought about doing something similar, basically taking photos of groups of Black men just hanging out. If you can look past the cat calling of women passing by, the public consumption of alcohol and marijuana, the lack of shirts and sagging pants, the blasting music, littering, and over all dysfunction, there is something compelling about the camaraderie and the visuals. I knew these scenes would not last much longer due to gentrification, so I was interested in capturing and preserving them. I never did it though, figuring that some Brothers would not want to be photographed, and if something crazy happened because of something I captured on film I did want to be responsible. The idea really came from a coffee table book, that came out years ago, of photos of East Harlem taken when I was a kid. During that time East Harlem was the poorest place in the country (I learned this reading a story in National Geographic an issue I kept over 40 years). Relatively speaking we were quite fortunate to live in the projects. I actually purchased this book, probably the most expensive book I ever brought, which I could not afford really afford at the time, because it felt like a time capsule to my past. The way some people lived was actually quite horrific. I knew a girl whose baby sister was attacked and bitten by a rat in her own living room -- can you image!. So when Gil Scott Heron (who lived in East Harlem) sang about his "sister Nell," it was not hyperbole. At any rate, I thought something similar should have been done for Harlem. It is probably too late now.

Pioneer, I'm not saying that some white folks or the government are incapable of perpetrating some horrific shit. I'm just saying I don't believe the tale about spraying chemicals in the 'hood to make us more violent. Defunding schools and locking Negroes up has been very effective for our generation. The Tuskegee "Experiments" are a documented fact. I do not dispute it. In fact, I hold it up as a rational justification for Black people not to trust the government, at all, with anything. Who trusts anyone that would enslave you for 400 years, then implement a permanent Jim Crow. People talk about a "new" Jim Crow, I don't recall the old one ever ending.... really. It is no surprise that whooping cough, measles, mumps, and small pox are making a come back. Again I completely understand why people would opt out of the vaccinations. But I'm taking them and I vaccinated my kids too. I do think Del has a point. Anecdotally women just used to be smaller when I was a kid. A 200 pound girl in high school was exceedingly rare when I was young, now it not pretty common. SO common in far you have people celebrating it. We used to call them "fat", today they are "thick", and it is a complement... I think the crap introduced into the food supply is to blame. I saw a commercial the other day for diabetes medication. The commercial, features a middle age Black woman in a lovely home, surrounded by a loving family, who is now able to take her diabetes medication with her on vacation without having to worry about syringes and spoilage. This is a great thing if you are diabetic, but the feeling was that diabetes is so common place as to be expected by middle aged Black women as the grow older and inevitably gain weight -- just a normal part of life. Meanwhile pharmaceutical companies grow fat off our chronic illnesses, which are more lucrative than prevention or cure. No I'm not a big time conspiracy theorist guy, 'cause what people do in the light of day is f-cked up as it is...

I don't often talk about my kids on these forums but I have to admit my baby girl is developing into a very good writer. She writes a regular column for her school newspaper. Her latest column is on Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's kid Jaden Smith's recent declaration that “School Is The Tool Used To Brainwash The Youth.” http://flathatnews.com/2013/09/30/if-newborn-babies-could-speak-twitters-philosopher-king/ I always that that was what mainstream media was for. At any rate, maybe one day I'll be able to get her to write for AALBC.com ;-)

Pioneer, no I don't believe the government is spraying chemicals in the air to make Negroes more violent; One, there is no way to just target Black people and; (2) because how do they control who the Black violence is directed against. Man this is too far fetched to even argue seriously, especially when there are so many easier ways for white people to annihilate Black people. But you should also consider something else: Do you know, for example, that there are more white people who die from suicide than there are Black people who commit murder? White people are suffering a suicide epidemic, but outside of the outrageously high levels in the military you don't hear anything about it. Black people do not corner the market on dysfunction the media just talks about our ills more. This of course reinforces it in the psyche of the culture as well as our own minds. Similarly you never read about "white-on-white" murder, but the media loves to talk about Black people killing other Blacks. Of course everyone knows people tend to kill people in their own groups, but you will rarely hear it presented that way in the mainstream press.

Dick Gregory is my man, but sometimes the things he says sounds nuts (I thought the video I posted included the clip with Dick from the state of the union). Then you have someone like Prince, though musically gifted, does not strike me a very intelligent man, spreading this information as if it was fact. It is scary. Of course Tavis just sat their unwilling to challenge Prince on anything coming out his mouth. Tavis even phrased the voting question as if his viewers would demand he asked it. Personally I could care less if Prince votes. It is Tavis who is always exclaiming how our ancestors sacrificed and died to give us the privilege to vote and if you don't vote you are spitting on their graves. The US Government is so wicked at times there is nothing most people will not put past her. So the prospect of spraying chemicals in the air which target only Black people, making then homicidal maniacs is completely plausible to many. The clouds coming from the airplanes are called contrails and, like clouds, are mostly water. You can see them today. The only really controversial thing about them is their potential impact on the weather or the environment. Here is the video Prince was referencing:

Here are some replies from Facebook. No matter how hard I try it is very difficult to pull people away from Facebook -- it is like trying to get a mad dog off the back of a meat truck :-) Here are a few posts left there: "Beverly Jenkins, Destiny Surrender. Catching up on all Maureen Smith books." "Im reading Mind Your Own Business by Lutishia Lovely" "The manuscript to Check Your Keys second edition. It's my book that I have to submit to the editor. LOL" 600 pages! -- sounds like Danny's book could have used a bit of editing. As you wrote the Miss Anne book is about 1/4 notes.

I don't want to feed into your conspiracy theories Pioneer but maybe this will explain the physical mutation you describe and the violence we see in the inner city He does not vote He is a Jehovah's Witness He wants to fill in the blanks of the whole story. Wants to smack someone for not telling him there were 8 presidents before George Washington Good thing he is a musical genius

Google recently announced that they will penalize sites that are not optimized for mobile. Google pulls the strings and we jump Ideally they want a URL or webpage called up on a desktop computer will render differently than the same URL brought up on a cell phone. This is something I can do, but I'm contemplating if it is worth the effort. I think AALBC.com pages come up find just as it is now. I can turn the phone sideways to get a better view or even increase the size of the screen. I'm also not keen on making the changes as the additional complexity will make the site more difficult to maintain. Consider that I already make sure the site displays on Internet Explorer, Safari, Fire Fox, Chrome, (just the most recent versions) and on my cell phone and IPad. The mobile specific versions will just add another level of compatibility testing. I know that 27% of my visitors in via a tablet or desktop device today. Facebook told us in a presentation I attended yesterday the they make up 20% of all data traffic over the cellular network. Ok, ok, I know that is already too much detail. So if you can let me know if the AALBC.com is viewable on your mobile device, I'd appreciate it.

The following was a bulletin board at from this year's (2013) Brooklyn Book Festival (click here fore more photos a few videos). It struck me because the question was a popular one here so I figured I kick it off here :-) My little sticky shows the book I last read, which was Jaron Lanier's Who Owns the Future. Honestly, the last book I actually finished was H.N.I.C. by Prodigy, but I did not feel like mentioning it. The book was fine, but not really suited for me. I imagine a teenager would enjoy it. I would certainly recommended it to a high school student it is a very quick read.

Today I learned a struggling indie bookstore in Brooklyn will close atthe end of the month: True South Bookstore Coincidentally I also leaned that the last Black owned indie bookstore in the entire state of Alabama (Expansion Books in Huntsville) closed back in April. One former book store owner says the mom & pop bookstore model is no longer viable. Perhaps she is right. We are witnessing a dramatic demographic shift which is lead by schools and corportions (the same thing really), and facilitiated by our government. Today I also discovered a web site called http://blacksread.com/ they just registered their domain in August of 2013, but it is encouraging to see a new site launch in this space. I also see that they installed my bookstore database on their own: http://blacksread.com/resources/black-owned-bookstores/ they are already off to a good start! ;-)

Kaplan was interviewed on NPR recently: http://www.npr.org/2013/09/16/221452333/introducing-miss-anne-the-white-women-of-a-black-renaissance

HB, don't you see the people perputrating all of the violence are no different than the preachers and politicians you complain about, sure they operate on a different level but we are all on the same court, playing the same game. We have been trained to behave in our own self interest. Black politicans are no different than anyone else. Indeed if they were, they would be unelectable. Obama, clearly, is no exception. Malcom X, nor Dr. King would have made a difference if they were in the Oval Office in Obama's place, but they would never have compromised on their principals to ever be elected. The Black genocide is an American genocide. We are just the canaries in the mineshaft. Anyone with mental acuity to be in the Klan is almosty certainly suffering like the rest of us. Probably wondering, like you, why white folks don't organize. Have you ever considered that the KKK is a Christian organization?

We have three main challenges facing the Black book world; 1 - The Economy 2 - Corporate Control of the Web 3 - Waning Literacy To help combat these trends we've spent most of the Summer creating free utilities on the Huria Search web site. All of this information and content can be added to any website with just a few lines of code. The idea is to help elevate and promote independent websites. At the end of the day, fewer places selling Black books means few books will be sold. Fewer books being sold will result in fewer books being produced, published and ultimately read. Individual authors, even in a social media world, can’t take up the slack. These tools can help. If you are an author, or anyone with a website, consider adding one or more of these databases to your website and spread the word. It is certainly not a solution to the three things pointed out above, but it is a start, a step in the right direction. A step that is desperately needed. Bookstores Database http://huria.org/bookstores/index.php?state=Null Database 100+ Black owned booksellers The Book Look http://huria.org/able/the-book-look.html Video Book Program which can be added to your site The Power List http://www.huria.org/powerlist The only National Bestsellers List of books read by African Americans Book Sites http://huria.org/booksites/index.php Database of the top Black book websites sorted by Alexa ranking Newspapers http://www.huria.org/newspapers/ Database of 100+ Black owned newspapers Magazines http://www.huria.org/able/independent-black-magazines.html A list of 50+ Black owned magazines (a sharable database coming soon) Huria Search http://www.huria.org/able/public-search.html With Huria Search you can quickly search 50+ Black owned magazines, 100+ Black owned newspapers, 100+ Black owned booksellers (including all of the sites above) Plus there are no advertisements! The Top Black Websites Here is a preliminary list: http://aalbc.it/10bestblacksites Of course this problem is bigger than what happens on-line. What we see happening online is merely a reflection of what is happening in the “real world”. Eventually a solution will have to come from the real world. Again this is just a step… Peace, Troy Johnson

Our Giants have started the season at 0-3... What is happening in Chicago is, I'm beining to see, is a natural consequence of what happens when take a group of uneducated disinfranschised people and corral them together. You see the same thing in all over the country it is just that Chi-town has the distinction of having the largest concentration of folks like this than anywhere else in the country. Plus the main stream press loves writing about Chicago so very much. It seems murders in chicago make national news all the time. I'm sure there are white communities like this, but the mainstream media loves to highlight Black dysfunction -- it feed into their world view.. Maybe Black media should go into dysfunctional white communties an report on their crime.... Yeah, I enjoy Boardwalk Empire too. Right now it is the only program I watch. I will be watching Sunday's episode later this eveneing. They manage to keep the too often gratuiitous sex scences common in HBO series down in Broadwalk Empire. I'm liking the Jeff Wright character -- epecially fater he took care of "Miss Anne". The Emmy don't interested beyond what you have to say about it. I don't watch any of the shows, though I did watch an episode of Scandal once to see what the hullabaloo was all about. I quickly realized it must be a "chick" thing, 'cause I don't get it :-) '

EXCELLENT! Let us know what yout think. My wife really like Kaplan's book on Zora Neale Hurston's letters.

When I was a kid it was not uncommon to see a women dressed exactly like Cynique (on the left) out and about in the street. It is quote a vivid memory because I would wonder where one would by a dress like that. The ones I remember didn't even have buttons. I guess the woman would just slip it over her head and she was good to go. It is interesting to see the before and after photos I have to admit both images conjure different impressions -- emotions even. I guess in the finally analysis nothing I perceive is the "real" Cynique. I suspect though our own self-perceptions are just as flawed. There was an interesting story in this American life recently. The brilliant college professor believed his success was due to the efforts of a single substitute teacher who something special in him as a result of a paper he plagiarized. She got him into an elite private school he then went on to Harvard and is recognized as a top professor at the University of Chicago. Trouble is his beliefs and the story he tells about his reason for success was completely wrong. They were able to track down the teacher who related a completely different story. They were able to verify what he believe was inaccurate from the condition of the school and how he got into the private school. If was difficult for him to accept the truth, it was as if the fact screwed up his word view. I think most of us do this, if we don;t we should 'cause the world is a pretty harsh place and with our a little glossing over of the past and present to lessen the pain and some dreams for the future what is the point? A periodic dose of the "Blue Pill" keeps people sane.

Kam told me about his connection with the Johnson & Johnson family years ago. Kam, a very modest and low key guy, actually showed me the masion he lived in during a visit a few years ago but he stated almost matter of factly and I did not think much about it. But after reading some of the details the Kam story seems much more compeling. Here is Kam's review of the book. I freely admit it seems unlikely that Kam's revierw would be unbaised and I would not have published it were he not in it. As a result I labeled the page Book "Information" rather than "Review". Again, I find Kam William's portion of the book simply fascinating. If you've been reading his reviews and articles here on AALBC.com you may find it interesting too.

Del regarding bonuses. If the former US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, then CEO got 1 million dollars for every dollar that I got in a ":bonus" (no exaggeration). I would not call it "sharing" where the differences are so inequitable as to be nonesensical. Dude some people may chosose flexibility, fullfilment, ease and all that other stuff, but if you live in New York City you better have a pretty decent bank roll or your life won't be very nice -- especially if you have children. Increasingly throughout the US people are unable to live beyond paycheck to paycheck. Times are really difficult for a lot of folks. Most are too ashamed to talk about it and Obama and his cronies have no incentive to make it an issue of it. I feel it personally, as demand for luxury items like hard cover books continues to weaken. Did you ever work for a firm like Google, Microsoft or Goldman as a full time employee?

Download AALBC.com's Marketing Kit: Learn more about our demographics, web site statistics, mission and services. Or just visit: http://aalbc.com/aboutus.htm