Troy

You know you've reached a certain level of prominence when racists relentlessly attack you. I had to delete scores of comments on 4 different websites. In some perverse way I feel bad for these folks who vent the racist hatred. Some white folks are angry but they have no clue who the enemy is. Black people were never under any illusions--sure we gun each other down in the streets from time to time, but at the end of the day most of appreciate who the oppressor is. It is not the good 'old boy on the other side of the tracks --any more than it is a rival gang member of the other side of town. Image being a white man in America seeing jobs sold overseas, seeing homes foreclosed, and truly believing the people doing this give a crap about you... it must be classical cognitive dissonance trying to wrap your brain around the fact that these guys don't care about you any more than they care about us. I had to delete screens and screens of these messages (screens shot below). I would have left the individual messages stand if they were not spamming scores of pages. This anger needs to be more widely known. Trump's prominence is a reflection of this anger and the country ignores it at their peril. The Islamic state is the least of our concerns... .

I think I can present author information as well or better than anyone else out there. My advantage is that I'm not limited the way a bookseller, publisher or even an author is. For example I have my own database so I can show books that the vast majority other booksellers (save Amazon) are not showing. I have an advantage over Amazon in that can provide buy links from anyone. The domain name registration is also big advantage. Plus I plan to collect data and information that Amazon simply does not have. There is much more coming. We need more independent thinkers like Chris--or at least more people who will follow your lead.

Done. I also added it to your website: http://christopherdburns.com/ Man as soon as I started the video I began to look for the TEDx sign :-) That was a really good talk. You packed a lot into 5 minutes. I was thinking we really need a way for people in our "collective" (being built as we speak), to place links or information such that other in the collective know to share across their platforms. I'm not talking about every little thing, but something that is important. If there are say 30 people in the collective then each of the member gets to have others share something once a month. If there are 90 people you get to request that all 90 member of the collective promote (share) your information once a quarter. This would be free and potentially very powerful. Members would have to have a platform with some predefined reach and ideally a shared demographic.

Shirley, Thank you so very much for taking the time to express those kind words. I tell you making a way on the 'net is extremely difficult; corporations exert monopolistic control; our people are unorganized, at best, and unnecessarily competitive; then you have racists tearing you down at every opportunity. So when come forward to provide inspiration, and support, it has a bigger impact than you might image -- thank you.

I'm at 72% of my goal. I need 293 more subscribers to my YouTube channel: it is free, fast, and easy to help jus click the link: http://aalbc.it/authorvids and confirm the subscription.

Hi @Cynique yes I saw messages and deleted them. Checking for these messages was the first thing I did this morning. As I wrote in my service announcement about trolls, I did not expect these attacks to stop. Unfortunately, I had to stop unregistered guests from posting. One of the complaints I get from would be posters is that they can't register (I know, go figure), so I allowed people to posts as "guests." But this is also the easiest way for someone to spam the forum, so I had to put an end to the option, which will reduce posting--something we can not afford. So the spammers won that battle, by forcing me to require every poster to register. But it is the same battle criminals won by forcing everyone to lock up their cars, homes, buy theft insurance, etc... Just making life more difficult for everyone because a few people are just wicked. A lot of time these racists attacks are just kids goofing around for kicks. I don't think this most recent attack was for "fun." The effort that was taken was not trivial; the variety of IP addresses used (all from the South) and the numerous accounts set up reflect more thought and coordination that some kids just goofing around. My wife suggested I call the police. I explained to her that the police will not give a crap about what is going on here, and that I don't have the time, or inclination, to get them involved even if they did care. The web is still very much like the wild west. There is no law and no protection. The place is controlled by the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook--they make the rules. Sadly, the rest of us are just fighting each other for what remains. The racists attacks are the result of misdirection and confusion. Black folks are the scapegoats for problems created by the plutocracy. But racists are too ignorant to see that attacking us will never solve the problems they are experiencing, for they are victims like us.

I had to ban another poster today today, They posted the following message which interested me. My name was Antonio West. I was the 13-month old child who was shot in the face at point blank range by two black teens, who were attempting to rob my mother, who was also shot. I think my murder and my mommy’s wounding made the news for maybe a day, and then disappeared. A Grand Jury of my mommy's peers from Brunswick, Georgia ruled the black teens who murdered me will not face the death penalty... too bad it was me who got the death sentence from my killers instead, because Mommy didn’t have the money they demanded. See, my family made the mistake of being white in a 73% non-white neighborhood, but my murder wasn’t ruled a ‘hate crime’. Oh, and President Obama didn’t take a single moment to acknowledge my murder. He couldn’t have any children who could possibly look like me - so why should he care? I’m one of the youngest murder victims in our great Nation's history, but the media didn’t care to cover the story of my being killed in cold blood. There isn’t a white equivalent of Al Sharpton, because if there was he would be branded a ‘racist’. So no one’s rushing to Brunswick, Georgia to demonstrate and demand ‘justice’ for me. There’s no ‘White Panther’ party, either, to put a bounty on the lives of the two black teens who murdered me. I have no voice, I have no representation, and unlike those who shot me in the face while I sat innocently in my stroller - I no longer have my life. Isn’t this a great country, or what? So while you’re out seeking ‘justice for Trayvon or Michael Brown’, please remember to seek ‘justice’ for me. Tell your friends about me, tell your families, get tee-shirts with my face on them, and make the world pay attention, just like you did for Trayvon and Michael Brown. I won’t hold my breath. I don’t have to anymore, This story did not ring true so I checked out the story and found that CBS covered it and tragically it is a true story. The problem is the way this story is related. It setup a classic false equivalency, which really does a disservice to the victims of the crime. Snopes.com, the fact checking website, explain this quite well. The comparisons in the example text between the killings of Trayvon Martin and Antonio West are an example of false equivalency, however, as the two cases are nearly polar opposites. In the Trayvon Martin case, there was never any doubt as to the identity of his killer (George Zimmerman), yet several weeks elapsed before the shooter was charged with a crime and taken into custody, and the local police were widely criticized for mishandling the investigation of the incident. In the Antonio West case the identity of the killer(s) was initially unknown, but suspects were quickly determined through police investigation and then promptly arrested and charged, with no one suggesting that local police mishandled any aspect of the case. The circumstances of the Trayvon Martin case therefore fostered the public perception (correct or not) that the case would never have been properly investigated and adjudicated had it not been widely publicized in the media, but nothing about the Antonio West suggested that anyone need "rush to Brunswick GA to demand justice" in order for justice to be done. The reference to a "hate crime" is also a red herring: George Zimmerman was not charged with a hate crime, nor did police investigating the Antonio West shooting find any evidence that the race of the victims was a factor in the commission of the crime. I wish they would get rid the the term "hate crime." All crime is hate, the idea that one murder is worse than another because of the race is silly. If you shoot a baby deliberately, I don't care what color you, or the baby, are, you get the worst possible punishment. Which is exactly what happened in this case. What the banned poster should have wrote was, "...criminal committed a heinous act, was swiftly apprehended, and punished." Not need for a white Al Sharpton or a White Panther Party (Isn't that the GOP?) I did not ban the person for simply posting this message, which should be obvious as I just re-posted it, I banned them because they posted in 10 unrelated conversations.

Well Chris having taught in a variety of situations from troubled youth to one of NY City's flagship public colleges, over the past two years. You really can't do a good job teaching if you don't enjoy it. If you are not very good at it, I can't see how you can possibly enjoy it. If you enjoy doing it, you only get better over time. Which is why experienced teachers are are so valuable. Your 30% figure sounds about right. Even 10% of the parent population is too high. A single unruly student can make it impossible to for entire class to learn. Increasingly, teachers are restrained (by the school system and even parents) in what they can do to deal with these students so the rest of the class suffers. What does this have to do with Ben Carson? Who knows but without an informed and educated electorate just about anybody can be a viable candidate. The idea that a Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the GOP should be a embarrassment not just to the republicans, but to our nation. How about Catlyn Jenner as the VP?

Power to the Author - Your Book on Our Homepage $1 Per Day! I'm going to continue this deal until I deploy the new website; when I will completely revise the advertisements and pricing. On the new website people will be able to place their ads directly.

Richard perhaps, but what do we do about the children being raised by semi-literature and or ignorant parents? Parents who are simply incapable of providing that primary source of education you describe. Surely a compassionate and rational society must bear the responsibility. In our society, schools play an important role. Unfortunately they fail most of our poorest communities. The trend toward corporatization of schools does not bode well. A few will make a ton of money, but I doubt educational outcomes will improve.

Cynique, if you like I can troll your facebook account to a more suitable image, comment there and if you approve I'll use it. Chris in NYC you have to have a masters degree to become certified as a teacher. They give you five years (I believe) to obtain the degree, but teachers weak on content knowledge can ruin a generation of children during this time. I'm sure most of these teachers work in schools in poor neighborhood. Often teachers teach, because it is a decent job, not because they like, or are particularly good at it. I give you one guess where you'll find most of these teachers. I read Shakespeare in high school and that was the last time I his work. Richard I did leave it up to my kid's school to expose them to this type of literature, so while I agree the parent is the primary teacher, schools (the larger community) have a role that the parent can not replace and need.

Hi @olayinkatheauthor, I removed the racists posts. I wrote about this problem here.

First I'd like to thank everyone who reported the most recent spam attack. A troll has made it his (mostly likely a young white guy, if I were to profile), mission to trash our forum here with extremely vulgar, obscene and racist photos. This particular troll is pretty aggressive and determined. They have spammed the board on more than one occasion. In the most recent case, they created multiple accounts then spammed the board in what I will call a cluster attack. This resulted in hundreds of vulgar images appearing across multiple conversations simultaneously. Some of the accounts were active, but lying dormant, long before the attack before this attack. One account belong to the aptly named "Unkle Ruckus" had to be banned because he shared the vulgar message in an unrelated conversation. The spammers also waited until I was likely asleep before launching their attack, so the posts were on the forum for 7 hours before I removed them. Spamming trolls have always been a problem on this board, I guess it is the nature of the beast for forums where Black people are trying to do something positive. The software this discussion forum uses monitors email and ip addresses for known spammers, so much of this crap is prevented right off the bat, but a sufficiently determined spammer can get around these measures and unfortunately cause great damage including bringing the board down. Fortunately, the software for this forum makes it trivial to remove these images and prevent the same accounts from causing further damage. So while this episode is over, it will definitely be repeated. I work to make sure these efforts are thwarted before you even become aware of it. One poster who warned me alerted me about the spam (a good thing) wrote; "Someone has posted vulgar images as a reply in this thread. I urge you to delete the thread as it not good for the reputation of my business. Please do it as soon as possible." The person had only made one post on the forum and they did actually removed it. This is fine and I understand, but this comment really irked me: Does this person think that these maliciously racist and vulgar images do not hurt MY BUSINESS? Do they think that I would not remove the images as soon as possible? Sheesh! The lack of empathy and self-centeredness of some people know no bounds. One of my websites, the previous home of this discussion forum, thumperscorners.com, was banned from carrying Google ads because of similar types of images that I was simply was unable to easily find and remove. My inability to easily remove spam was one of the main reasons I had to abandon the platform. I took the time to explain this to help posters and people who read these forums without posting (affectionately known as "lurkers") that I appreciate you coming here and I hope these episodes to not discourage you from continuing to visit the website. I'm doing my best to prevent and remove this type of garbage from defacing what we are doing here. Peace, Troy

If you are in Brooklyn on Friday you can screen this film for free at Medgar Evers College (New York City's - defacto HBCU)

I'll correct the eNewsletter when I archive the Newsletter on my Blog. Just post the photo you'd like me to use here. I can also update your profile's image as well: http://aalbc.org/authors/author.php?author_name=Connie+Bradley. Just make sure the image is not too small. I can always make the photo smaller, but I can't make it bigger without hurting the quality.

Cynique, yes they are both African. While it is great to see African women score big with book deals; African-American women continue to be marginalized. African writers are actually more than the flavor of the month, they actually becoming quite dominant. Chimamanda is another example. Chimi is a brilliant writer, but we have brilliant writers in America too. If Random House is paying these two authors over 2 million dollars in advances, not counting the spend in advertising and promotion, you best believe this comes at the expense of other authors who will not get deals or who will get smaller advances--who do you think those authors will be? You could give 20 other authors advances large enough for them to live on for a year or two. But I guess these guys figure it is better to focus on two books rather than 20. But the trade off is fewer stories being told. The merger of Penguin and Random House has resulted in a massive publisher, owned by a German corporation, that operates, in manner that might seem odd to one that loves literature, but makes perfect sense to an oligarchist.

I actually thought about this when I shared your commentary in my eNewsletter this afternoon. I had no clue what you meant, and just chalked it up to my own density. I figured smarter people than I would get it.

@richardmurray, it is interesting your would say that. I'm sure Cynique welcomes anything you have to say here. But to your point I usually do both. I'll typically comment on the page of the op-ed. If I think it is an interesting subject I'll bring it here to comment on further. I link from here to the op-ed piece, but not the other way around, unless I have content here that advances the conversation. BTW was the remaining blog problem ever resolved I made two upgrades since you pointed out the residual problem.

Definitely. I know plenty of folks who can't turn off work-mode. Many successful authors I'm sure are successful because of that trait. It may not be fair to call it "work-mode," as it is their natural state, their nature. If you try to change it you'd be someone else, and probably be less happy. Enjoy!

The benefit of the shares is that they expand your reach beyond what Facebook provides organically and the leads generated by those shares are MUCH higher quality that anything Facebook can provide with an advertisement. I'd rather have 10 shares than 10,000 Facebook ad provided impressions (no exaggeration). Of course you are still left with the problem of people leaving the platform. But If I can get 10 clicks or my own I can get 50 through 10 people who share. Which is better than what I'd get with 10,000 paid impressions.

This was the same company that ran Black Expression Book Club. Carol Mackey was the editor. They also co-sponsored our 4th Black Pack Party.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG PARTNERS WITH BOOK OF THE MONTH As December Guest Judge, Goldberg selects The Magician’s Lie By: Greer Macallister NEW YORK -- DECEMBER 1, 2015 -- Book of the Month announced today that Whoopi Goldberg will serve as its December Guest Judge. The Oscar-winning actress has selected Greer Macallister’s debut book The Magician’s Lie to share with Book of the Month members. The book is one of five new titles featured by Book of the Month’s panel of Judges for December. Goldberg is one of the very few artists in history to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, and is widely recognized for her humanitarian efforts. She is also a bestselling author, having published 11 books for children and adults alike. Goldberg commented, “Books take you to places you never think you’re going to get to…Books have the power to change the way you see yourself, and the way you see the world.” Goldberg’s video interview in which she discusses the role of reading in her life and career, can be found here, and Goldberg’s video discussion of The Magician’s Lie can be found here. Book of the Month said in a statement: “We are thrilled to have Whoopi Goldberg join us as Book of the Month’s December Guest Judge. She is a great performer and artist with a true passion for reading. Just like Whoopi, her book selection will entertain and surprise her fans, who are among our club members.” Greer Macallister, author of The Magician’s Lie, said: "I was blown away to hear that my debut novel was selected for the honor of Book of the Month, and blown away all over again when I heard who had selected it -- Whoopi Goldberg, an amazingly versatile talent and a creative force whose work I've admired for years." The Magician’s Lie introduces readers to the Amazing Arden, the most famous female illusionist in the 20th Century, who stands accused of her husband’s murder. Macallister’s novel is filled with mystery, intrigue and an incredible attention to historical details. The book was originally published in January 2015 by Sourcebooks. Book of the Month’s other December Selections include: Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker (Judge: Stephen Marche), Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell (Judge: Liberty Hardy), The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (Judge: Bill Goldstein) and What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan (Judge: Kim Hubbard). More information on these titles can be found here. Book of the Month’s previous Guest Judges include Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik and TIME magazine’s Joel Stein. Book of the Month will announce its January Guest Judge on January 1, 2016. About Book of the Month Book of the Month offers readers an easy and entertaining way to discover great new books. Each month, the club’s Judges select five exceptional titles, and members choose which one of the five they want to receive as their Book of the Month. Founded in 1926, “America’s first book club” has served millions of readers for nearly 90 years. For more information see bookofthemonth.com. Book of the Month® and Book of the Month Club® are registered trademarks of Bookspan LLC. Unauthorized use prohibited. All rights reserved. About Bookspan Bookspan, LLC operates more than a dozen online book clubs, including Book of the Month, The Literary Guild, and Doubleday Book Club. For more information see bookspan.com. # # #

Yeah that would be a great idea. But sometimes I just like to get out of work mode and just kick it. This is one of those times. I wish you could make it.

Yeah the mustard gold color is growing on me too. I definitely prefer it to the gray I'm currently using. I just updated my Blog (wordpress) to fit the color scheme too. I actually had to write custom css to do change the menu colors. Fortunately the background color as an option for the theme. I'm also seeing that "sharing" on Facebook is actually helpful. Sharing leads to more clickthroughs than likes or even comments. If people actually like your content they really should "share" it. Liking it does nothing. I'll take 10 "shares" over 50 "likes" anytime.

If you are in the New York City area, on December 3rd, please come join us!