Troy

I agree Chris even if people did decide to make the contribution I actually discovered the Breaking Brown Blog when I added blogs to Huria Search: http://aalbc.it/breakingbrown I did not take the site very seriously because of all the crummy ads. Later, I stumbled across a video with her and Boyce Watkins and they were plugging the site so I visited it not realizing I'd visited it previously. I did recall that the site was plugging The Black World Today website, which Boyce runs, and I see that she is tight with Boyce. At any rate, if they can get their website to work on a subscription only basis they would be the only one I know that can do that. I'm not aware of any commercial entities that are doing that not a website, newspaper, magazine, nothing... I solicit and collect subscription for AALBC.com through the eNewsletter, and that actually covers my fixed costs, but it does not come close to providing a living or even paying writers for content. I can't image what it would take to send a journalist to cover a story in some remote location, $3 a month from hundreds of people would not cut it, you need 10 of thousands to even begin to think about it. Yeah Amazon can work really well especially for high priced items (sneakers yes, books no). Another problem is she spends an awful lot of time bashing Obama, while I might agree with much of what she says, I know most Black folks are not interested in that and certainly would not pay for it. But the real problem is we, as a people, don't work well together.

LOL yeah it is depressing Speaking about support; I noticed this on twitter a few moments ago: http://www.gofundme.com/themoviereport the guy (deliberately not posting his name) is trying to raise money to save his house. He has raised $1,100, over 26 months, from 19 people. The campaign has the requisite hard luck story, but given the numbers it has not done very well this far. A bum on the street would have raised far more in this amount of time. He too complained about the lack of support from friends, family. I've never met the person running this fund raising campaign, but I've published his film reviews going back into the 90's. I feel bad, but I see these requests often some from from people I actually know personally. It is always tough to read these and not contribute. But I'm one of those guys who feel guilty walking pasting a pan handler, because no matter how badly I feel I'm doing financially, I can ways get up off a dollar. I think part of the problem is so many of us are struggling and so many people are asking for money. Overwhelmed how does one decide who to contribute to? This, again, is one of the reasons Spike using crowd funding for his film irked me, because I just saw that effort as taking money away from struggling filmmakers, or even people losing their homes... Struggling people, and indie business don't get much support in America. We happily give millionaires money while we watch others lose their homes. We all know the statistics of how the ultra rich are getting even richer while most of the middle class struggles. I've been making direct appeals for contribution for two years now. Family and friends rarely support. The support come from people who actually believe in what you are trying to do, and sometimes these are not the people in your family. I read there was a time when family members would pool resources to help each other in times of need, or send money when some accomplished something like graduating from high school. If that time existed it was before my own.

Sounds like the projects in many cities.

Well without any bias in term of the blogs I added and the blogs people added themselves, here is a count of blogs by gender combo or unknown: 41 female: 78 male: 38 total: 157 I guess you are right Chris. I'll see how many male Bloggers we dig up. Any ideas on what I could provide other sites with as an incentive to share Huria of post automatically updated information on their websites? One could reasonably draw the conclusion that if an incentive is needed to get others, who are already on the site, to share the information then the website's inherent value is questionable. The interesting thing about the site is that the people who visit the site, seem to find it more valuable than the people who are on it. Of course visitors matter most, but it sure would be easier if someone besides Chris mentioned it on their website. Chris here is a direct link to your Blog: http://aalbc.it/blogcdp

This sister right here, Yvette Carnell of Breaking Brown is singing my song. Would you believe just moments before I watched this video I'd emailed the editor of the site http://breakingbrown.com/ to try to understand how they squared their mission with the all the crazy ads they were running. I could not image the trade off in what I viewed as integrity was worth whatever these ads would generate in terms of revenue. This in my mind is far worse that what Googles ads do. I normally don't reach out to editors in this manner, but the Yvette, seems forthright and conscious so I took a chance. Below is a screen shot from the Breaking Brown Website: After listening to her appeal in the video above, I still think Breaking Brown should get rid of these ads.

Who knew Orson Welles was a civil rights activist. Isaac Woodard, Jr., often written just Isaac Woodard, (March 18, 1919 – September 23, 1992) was an African American World War II veteran who was attacked by South Carolina police in 1946, while still in uniform, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army. His attack and injuries sparked national outrage and galvanized the civil rights movement in the United States. The attack by South Carolina police left Woodard completely and permanently blind. Due to South Carolina's reluctance to pursue the case, President Harry S. Truman ordered a federal investigation. The sheriff was indicted and went to trial in federal court in South Carolina, where he was acquitted by an all-white jury. Beginning shortly after this in 1946, President Harry S. Truman embarked on several major civil rights initiatives: he established a national interracial commission, made a historic speech to the NAACP and the nation in June 1947 describing civil rights as a moral priority, submitted a civil rights bill to Congress in February 1948, and issued Executive Orders 9981 and 9980 on the same day to desegregate the armed forces and the federal government. (from wikipedia)

I don't know Wordpress well enough to develop my own theme. Besides I don't have the time to stay abreast of all of changes Wordpress makes to properly maintain one-- I can barely keep my plugins current :-) Man, all of the conferences I attended use to be white male dominated. I used to go to a trade show hosted by the FSID. I just went to their website here is the first photo I saw: This photo pretty much sums up my world back then. I can tell you all of these people have incomes well into 6 figures, they all have nice homes (as in more than one home), in good neighborhoods. Their kids go to private schools and they take several vacations a year. During conventions like this, they have a really good time staying in fancy hotels, dining in fine restaurants and drinking, everything, all on their company's dime. They've flown to the location in first class and have racked up a tons of frequently flyer miles to cover personal trips. How do I know? I've sat in countless rooms like this having everything in common with these folks and nothing having nothing in common with them. Most Black people I encounter nowadays have not idea well so many other folks live... But I digress. In my current, life the only trade show I go now is Book Expo America (BEA). I've attended BEA every year for over a decade and I've even exhibited there three times in NY, LA, DC. That was back when I was still sitting in rooms like the one pictured above and could afford the expense.. Today, if you visit BEA's website it looks completely white washed. You get no real indication that Black people have anything to do with the business of books. Attending the show would not change your mind very much. When you do see a Black face most of the time it will be female. I think the reality is that Black men are increasingly missing from a wide variety of fields that don't involved entertainment, whether it is by scoring points or yelling ni*ger to a beat. Many of us have blue collar jobs like driving buses or pullin' triggers for Uncle Sam. I'm going to seek out Black Male Bloggers.

I need a lot more flexibility than wordpress can provide. Both Huria Search and The Power List Website started off using Wordpress templates, but I quickly discovered that it was far too limiting given what I wanted to do and I ended up rebuilding both websites. Like wordpress both my Power List and Huria Search websites are completely database driven, but I can control exactly what I want my sites to do. I maintain my own books database, for example, and it contains a lot more information that I'm presenting on the website. Huria Search is also taking advantage of the Bootstrap Template. I'm not pleased by Googles mandate. AALBC.com is completely useable by a typical smartphone. Google's motivation is driven by their own financial interests, not some altruistic desire to make the web a better place. The are optimizing the delivery of ads on mobile devices. Unfortunately Google also controls search so I have to comply. However, I do need to bring AALBC.com out of the realm of static webpages to dynamically generated content, but I can't afford to rely on a template designed by someone else that I don't understand and unable to troubleshoot or customize. As far as the Blogger event being mostly female, I asked a few people why they thought that was the case. I was told it was because women are more inclined to network and talk more than men. I dunno about that reasoning, because I've been to many conferences dominated by men. Maybe this issue is a Black thing, and is just reflective of the absence of Black men from the world of building a business from Blogging. The most popular Bloggers tend to be women and if they are men a substantial portion tent to be gay. Most of the 153 Blogs in my database are run by women.

I'm going to keep the site not-for-profit for the foreseeable future. Even though it is doing well trafficwise. I can certainly use the money but I feel like putting ads on the site would pervert the mission. I spent the weekend in DC at a blogger conference it was a really good event, but it skewed too young and female to benefit me very much. The real problem was the age difference. I was on a panel with a young lady that was the same age as my daughter. Which means I've been building websites almost as long almost as she has been living. I doubt anyone else was making their living primarily from their website my perspectives was very different from the average person in attendance. But I did meet some cool people and will follow up with them overtime. You know I've seen so many sites come and ago over the years; I really wanted to just tell folks most of you will not be doing this in five years and here is why. But that really was not the right audience I really needed to be around folks who've been around for a while and have experienced a few things--like one major Google major algorithm change :-) Speaking about hair, that was probably the single most popular topic amongst the bloggers, followed by perhaps, fashion, lifestyle and weight loss. Again, it was a good event for the the twentysomething female demographic. At any rate, I have to make AALBC.com more mobile friendly. Google sent me a message saying, effectively, that I will lose revenue unless I make the changes to my website. I'm going use some of the techniques I used to update Huria.org on AALBC.com to update AALBC.com. I also want to pull all of my content into a database, but this will take some time to accomplish and really push back some of the writing I was planning on doing...but I have to bring my website out of 2009 and into 2015 ;-)

I just upgraded Huria Search making it mobile friendly, adding back the social icons (Harriett Tubman had to go back to the plantation to save her people), cleaning up the look and making major changes on the backend. The database is growing and the quality of the content is improving. Sadly, many of the book stores are dropping their websites--there are some many broken URLs, I'm considering removing the category. This is hard because supporting bookstore websites was my primary reason for creating Huria Search in the first place! It is to the point now it is not even worth talking about, sort of like complaining about the lack of Blacksmith websites. The larger Black media websites don't appear to care about this issue either... Hopefully these upgrades will improve traction of the website. I have not tried to monetize the website over that last 4 years, and I get very little financial support. I'll continue to run it as long as I can. Google, which drives the search portion of the website, says the number of websites in my index will generate "unpredictable results." I pay for the ability produce this search results without Google advertisements (which has the effect skewing traffic away fro our websites). Google say they are working on a solution to support what I'm doing, but they have not provided a timeframe for a solution. I'm looking for an alternative solution, but have not found one yet.

...and Clinton apologized for enslaving Black people. Do you think these apologies make a difference? Australia, more progressive... compared to what, the U.S.? That is not exactly a high bar Del. I'm not so anxious to give Australia too much credit. It is much easier to be progressive in a "racially" homogeneous environment. I bet it would be an entirely different scene if the Aboriginal population were significant. But we will never know, because they've been, effectively, exterminated like the North American indigenous peoples. There are many great white neighborhoods in the U.S. with great schools; fine homes; terrific services; splendid businesses; friendly policeman, who are part of the community; low crime; beautiful houses of worship; shoot even the air quality is better. You'd be hard pressed to find many predominantly Black neighborhoods like this in the U.S., I'm sure Australia is no different. If Black people move into what some call "whitelandnia," white folks move, property values drop, voting districts are redrawn, services decline, crime increases, and ghetto emerge.

Free the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) 12 Black teachers are under assault in America. This trial may prove, just like during slavery, that educating Black children in America is something for which you can go to jail. Hear the victims of the failed American justice system in Atlanta speak for themselves. You may call in to speak with them on Saturday, May 2, 2015, 7:00 pm eastern, 6:00 pm central, 5:00 pm mountain and 4:00 pm pacific. Teresa A. Mann, Attorney, APS 12 Dr. Dana Evans, Principal, APS 12 Diane Webb, Teacher, APS 12 Free the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) 12 As they continue to proclaim their innocence, they do not want probation, a pardon, community service or time served; they want justice in America! Because they are are innocent, they are requesting exoneration of all charges, restitution of legal cost, and re-in-statement in the jobs they love! ------------------------ Now that RICO (Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act) has been used to "railroad" Black teachers In Atlanta, "Are You Next?" ------------------------ Please asked President Obama to send the new Attorney General of the United States, Loretta Lynch, to Atlanta to investigate this miscarriage of American justice by Clicking Here. join us on Saturday, May 2, 2015 Join us at 7:00 pm Eastern; 6:00 pm Central; 5:00 pm Mountain; 4:00 pm Pacific; 3:00 pm Alaskan; 2:00 pm Hawaiian. Call-In number at 773-591-1690 Listen to The Black Star Project's Internationally Acclaimed Radio Program The Parent Revolution Every Saturday on WVON 1690AM Click Here to Tune In. ***************************************************************** The Black Star Project thanks the Board of Directors of The Field Foundation of Illinois, the Board of Directors of Woods Fund of Chicago, Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins, Illinois State Senator Kimberly A. Lightford, Chicago Alderman Will Burns and Melody Spann Cooper of WVON for their generous support for our parenting programs

You were an adult 50 years ago Cynique, I was still learning to speak, so I bend to your wisdom. But by all accounts, from what I've heard and read, what is happening in Baltimore today is like a walk in the park compared to the riot in the '68. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, police were shot it at, people died. 50 years later some of these places have yet to recover. The devastation was far worse that what we've seen in 2015. The biggest story coming out of Baltimore today seems to be the one about the mother going upside her teenage son's head. We also have Black people running things, the Mayor is a sister and 30 minutes down the road, another sister, Loretta Lynch is attorney general reporting to a Black President. Black people make up a substantial percentage--if not most of Baltimore's police force, the police commission is Black. Can you see why the fight today is so very different, from 50 years ago. Of course I often talk about and fight for Black people, but that is a tactic I'm forced to employ to deal with very serious problems we face. But our problems are a symptom of a much more profound root cause; greedy rich people who will rape the planet and everyone on it for even more wealth. This was true in Hughes day. As far as Australia (which is 90% white) being shocked, that former penal colony better not say anything.

...yeah Warren as a running mate would help placate those who want a female president.

It looks like he will be running on the democratic line. Though he is actually an independent. "...there is a hunger in this country for a movement that is prepared to stand up to the billionaire class, which has so much influence over not only the economic life of the country, but the political life of this country. Everybody knows that the middle class continues to collapse, we have more people living in poverty than ever before, and the wealthiest people and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, and people are angry." He has my vote.

I not disputing when the poem was put to paper it may have been true. But in 2015 it does not carry the same gravity. Now if the word Negro was replaced by "Poor People" (of all colors), then I'd say it would be more applicable today. WARNING! Negroes, Sweet and docile, Meek, humble and kind: Beware the day They change their mind! Wind In the cotton fields, Gentle Breeze: Beware the hour It uproots trees! Del, your Aussie compatriots are not alone, Americans are asking the same question. I'm not surprised it is making news in Australia, it is the same 'news' everywhere in the western world. Have the Australians completely exterminated the Aboriginal people yet?

No, Black folks will never over throw the government. But this current iteration of civil unrest, like all the others in the last 1/2 century, seems to be focused on destroying our own neighborhoods. I don't really know how much more counter productive we can be. I think Hughes' warning was directed at white folks. White folks who took the suffering of Black folks for granted, and who should not be surprised when our anger is directed at them directly, their neighborhoods, their businesses, their people. Seriously, as far as I can tell White folks attention would be better spent worrying about what they are doing to each other, than concerning themselves with some angry Black folks might do. This Hughes meme is more wishful thinking than a portent of the future.

Maybe 50 years ago this would have meant more. But in 2015, with drone technology, anyone can be taken out at anytime--and we wouldn't even know what hit us.. We also know Negroes are out numbered and out gunned. Many of the Brothers who already "changed their minds" are incarcerated or pushing up daisies. Besides changing our mind is against our religion: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;" --Colossians 3:12 (king James Version)

"Stop making Facebook the center of your relationship marketing efforts." --Nate Elliott, Forrester Research, Inc. This is one of the conclusions drawn from research conducted by Forrester Research, and summarized in an article Facebook Has Finally Killed Organic Reach. What Should Marketers Do Next? It’s not as if marketers could count on much organic reach or engagement anyway. Ogilvy reported that in February 2014 large brands’ Facebook posts reached just 2% of their fans (a number that was falling by .5% per month). And earlier this year a Forrester study showed that on average, only .07% of top brands’ Facebook fans interact with each of their posts Obviously, We've been know this for sometime now, but it is nice to have a reputable, unbiased, market research company validate your observations. The research report is $499. Check out the teaser they used: Marketing leaders use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to build stronger customer relationships. But few people see companies' social posts, and even fewer engage with those posts. The result? Brands don't actually have social relationships with their customers. It's time for marketers to start building social relationship strategies around sites that can deliver value. This report will detail where brands can successfully reach and engage their customers, what social relationship strategies they should use, and what this means to the future of social marketing. The emphasis is my own. Man is this not exactly what we've been trying to get folks to do? Here is a graph from the Ogilvy's website Now if I could just get our people to understand this and react accordingly...

Sure most corporations are not blatantly racist. But what is the difference? When we were forbidden to use white owned businesses we formed our own including schools, banks and newspapers. They thrived. Today we have 25 banks, a hundred or so newspapers and about 100 colleges--most, if not all, are struggling. Sure a good idea and a more affirmative action to would be to support some Black owned businesses. But I think boycotting a corporation that is not "serving" us, but thriving because of our financial support has a place. Lets say every Black person put they money into a Black owned bank (I know that will never happen, but stay with me for a second), that bank would then have the resources to open branches, join a network, grant loans and create jobs in the community, etc. This would not happen over night, but it could happen pretty darn fast. Suppose every Black person subscribed to their local newspaper AND stopped support the corporate publication. Those weeklies could become dailies reporting in issues that matter to us. Jobs would be created. If the people actually read the paper who knows what could happen ;-) Imagine if we sent out kids to HBCU's and supported them financially, instead of aspiring to attended and enrich institutions founded by slaveholders. I agree with you Chris, we have to support out own, but boycotting has its place--even if there are no Black alternatives. Maybe we should do without until we build our own. Meanwhile Baltimore burns...

Chris I'm waiting for someone suggest what should we boycott--Seriously. Is there a company that Black people disproportionately patronize, while at the same time taking that patronage for granted. Maybe they don't advertise in our media, many they don't have Black employees in high level positions, maybe they only produce products that are bad for us, maybe they don't pay their employees a living wage. Are there any companies we should be boycotting?

LOL, "pair of divas ridiculing each other’s plastic surgery." I'm going to quote you in the next eNewsletter. Sure, white indie businesses have to compete against corporate monopolies too. Google put a lot of indie websites out of business, or marginalized them--most of those where white owned. But those white owned business owners simply don't have the additional burden of being Black in a country suffering from the legacy of hundreds of years of legalized slavery and institutionalized racism. Black business, indeed people, have no choice but to work together. Consider the fact that West posted his response on Facebook. As short as it was imagine the potential benefit to a Black owned property if they were given the scoop. ​Also, Dyson wrote his brutal critique of West for a white owned publication. He could have easily given it to a Black owned newspaper. Again, we lose, big white owned companies won, and Black folks are the losers. One day we will get it together.

145 Blogs and counting. I hope the number of Blogs will increase more dramatically as I add more features and begin more active promotion, starting with a mention in Tuesday's eNewsletter and my sharing my it at the Blogger Week conference I'll be speaking at next week. My next task is to make sorting through the Blogs more easily. I'm not sure the categories are working well, so I'm going to add a search feature, but I hope to have much more feedback in the coming weeks.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, lasted over an year and was effective. Today, Black people, poor people, or any group of people with sufficient numbers could not organize a boycott of anything. Even if we could organize a boycott would we be willing to make any short term sacrifices for a long term gain? There are many things that Black people are responsible for making happen from the Obama presidency to the success of TV shows like Empire. Black people complain all day long about the bias of Fox News; why should Fox enjoy any level of financial success due to Black people? Would Black people be willing to Boycott the show Empire (watched almost exclusively by Black people) or even better the entire station? Black Enterprise reported that Black buying power will reach $1.1 Trillion this year. How much of that money goes to Black owned Businesses. I don't know, but I'll bet my life very little of it does. Sure boycotts have been called for in recent years, but were they sustained, effective? The main reason we won't execute a boycott of anything at a national level, is that we don't have any organizations with the capability or desire to do it. It appears the organization we do have are either exclusive, in the pockets of corporations, platforms for enriching those in the leadership, or are purely social. In any event, there is no organization, or group of organizations, capable of executing an important tactic like running a boycott. Often I hear people talk about how great social media is an getting information out, and organizing people--Phulese! Social media has done nothing to benefit Black people--nothing. When the Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched many of the Black people involved did not have a TV or a telephone, let alone a Twitter account. How did they do it? Perhaps a better question would be; why did they have boycotts and why don't we do it?

Michael defends his tearing down Cornel's work over the last 25 years...