Troy

Pass the Mic! Tour of Tavis Smiley Con Game or True Struggle for Social Justice Featuring Michael Eric Dyson & Cornel West An editorial by Rudolph Lewis Baltimore (12 December 2003) — They each in turn (these men in business suits) danced onto the stage of the Lyric Theater (Baltimore) with the latest moves of the Hip Hop Scene. They were cheered and received standing ovations (by some) as they strutted their stuff, shook their tail feathers, and flashed their pearly whites as they approached the mike to entertain the receptive throng of 1200 who each (mostly) paid his (or her) $60 for a ticket to hear the word from three popular and glib black leaders. Though their lingo and style were that of thugs from the hood, these three men — Tavis Smiley, Michael Eric Dyson, and Cornel West — are highly respected black entrepreneurs or Baptist preachers, or university professors (with tenure) or all three. With each delivering for forty-five (45) minutes a "sermonic lecture," it was difficult to establish whether the occasion was one for careful reflection on and examination of the plight of the oppressed in America or a combination of an evangelical (get happy) church meeting and a hip-hop rap concert....

Send me the link page where you have pressed the Pardlo article. I agree that is a great way to share content. I went three million visitors deep. As you and I suspected the story is consistent. Social does not bring users to my website. It is amazing wikipedia brings as much traffic to my site as Facebook. Again I spend no time on wikipedia. The impact of Google ranking Wikipedia so high in search is significant.

Pretty interesting Blog posts. I've made some of the work I produce available on the web for students. Nowadays many schools use a system called Blackboard I just use it for entering grades. I keep my lecture notes on a website I created for the course: http://cis3630.org/ It would be interesting to know how many professor use the web in the way that we have?

You are probably answering your own question. Given the hostile environment we live in. And lets be clear, it has always been hostile; cell phone has just made it easier to see. Church provides an outlet for the anguish we live with and promises an eternal future of bliss, if we can get through this life. It gives the oppressed hope while placating the masses, and keeping them out of the business of the oppressor. In the modern era some ministers have begun to use their ministry in much the same way the oppressor has, which leads to the problems you are inclined to rant about. While there are many independent thinkers, people who do not need to belong, are happy not being part of a club. Are not easily lead or manipulated. Don't need what the church is offering. They don't fall for ponzi schemes, they throw away chain letters, they step on cracks, and spend more time reading than on Facebook. But the majority of people very easily led, they happily drink the kool-aid. Indeed they we would not know what to do with ourselves if it were any other way Harry. This characteristic will define humanity long after we are gone...

Here is an interesting article in reaction to, the New Republic article and defense of Cornel West: In Defense of Cornel West: Is Barack Obama Right, or Has Michael Eric Dyson Lost His Mind? By Carl Dix and Lenny Wolff (April 22, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper) This article is a more accurate description of West activities, in my opinion. Unfortunately the smaller publication will not get nearly the attending the New Republic's article will get. Those who own the media control the narrative. The following is a statement by Dr. West The escalating deaths and sufferings in Black and poor America and the marvelous new militancy in our Ferguson moment should compel us to focus on what really matters: The life and death issues of police murders, poverty, mass incarceration, drones, TPP (unjust trade policies), vast surveillance, decrepit schools, unemployment, Wall Street power, Israeli occupation of Palestinians, Dalit resistance in India, and ecological catastrophe. Character assassination is the refuge of those who hide and conceal these issues in order to rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo. I am neither a saint nor prophet, but I am a Jesus-loving free Black man in a Great Tradition who intends to be faithful unto death in telling the truth and bearing witness to justice. I am not beholden to any administration, political party, TV channel or financial sponsor because loving suffering and struggling peoples is my point of reference. Deep integrity must trump cheap popularity. Nothing will stop or distract my work and witness, even as I learn from others and try not to hurt others. But to pursue truth and justice is to live dangerously. In the spirit of John Coltrane’s LOVE SUPREME, let us focus on what really matters: the issues, policies, and realities that affect precious everyday people catching hell and how we can resist the lies and crimes of the status quo! I pulled this statement from Facebook, West posted it there on April 23rd.

Well I'm dependent upon traffic to my site. If I were a restaurant and I was simply interested in people knowing my location, menu and hours, it would not matter very much where people discovered my website. But since Facebook requires me to cannibalize my content, without any form of financial compensation, in an effort to tear people away from the platform to visit my website, it does not make sense for me. I'm going to go two or three million deep. I suspect the info will more strong support what is shown above.

I have not watched all the videos All the back peddling on the use of the term "African American," at the beginning of this video was pretty funny. However, I could relate as it is a surprisingly controversial term that I've had to defend many times. She does a good job explaining it. Though it won't change anyone's opinion or the term, those who don;t have a clue will learn about the controversy.

Well my interaction on Facebook when I actively engage there is decent. But it is very difficult to get people to come to my site FROM Facebook and engage here. Again, the ability to do this has become even harder over that last two years. The main reason is that Facebook is very,very good at what they do. They have made a science of making sure people stay on their platform--it is a super "sticky" website. Another factor, implied by the stats is that many people, perhaps most, who use Facebook are doing so from Facebook's mobile app, that is not the type of configuration that lends itself to people leaving the Facebook ap to click away go to the browser app to visit another website, particularly one that is not optimized for mobile (thought this discussion forum is optimized for mobile). So unless you put you content on Facebook's website, people are not likely to click away to read it. Finally my demographic, are not the type of people who are going to be heavy users of Facebook. It would be like me advertising in XXL magazine or buying a commercial on The Housewives of Atlanta--pointless. Sure they have have a big Black demographic, but those are not the people who would most likely be interested in say, knowing that Gregory Pardlo, recently won a Pulitzer for Poetry or even reading his work. You see what I mean?

Here is a article, Dwayne Alexander Smith wrote exclusively for AALBC.com on his winning the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

Gregory Pardlo just won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry!

Despite all of the money, time and energy only 2% of my traffic comes from Facebook. Not much more than Wikipedia, which I have invested a negligible amount of energy. Chris, this will be the type of information I will share in the article I'm writing. I created this image for the course I teach at Baruch College. I have also looked at Facebook data from a fews years ago when I had 1/10 the number of fans than I do now and I was get more traffic back then than I do now. As you can see not other social media platform, including Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn cam in the top 10 and generated much less than a 1% of my overall traffic combined. I'm going to run a similar chart for a few million visitors (unique). I'm willing to bet that less than 5% of my traffic comes from all social media combined. The end of the day, for me, search is the answer. Now if I was running a restaurant or something, my engagement on social media would be welcome, but I like my Blogging buddies, need readers to visitor our platforms.

Here is one thing that I noticed as both an entrepreneur and as corporate employee. White people in power always hook each other up. Black people in power rarely hook each other up, indeed they may do you harm. NWA described one aspect of their rap "F*uck Tha Police" But don't let it be a black and a white one Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top Black police showing out for the white cop In corporate America, it is not uncommon for Black managers, in an effort to "prove" themselves, to treat other Black employees more critically. Often there is the desire to be "the only one," which creates a hyper-competitive environment between Black folks in the corporate arena. Rare is the Brother or Sister who will go out on a limb to help you--usually out of for fear of their own job security. On top of all of that, there are rarely Black folks with sufficient power to help in the first place. So while Obama prides himself as being the "President of ALL Americans," all the other presidents had no problem being the presidents of rich white people. This really is the source of the disappointment some Black feel regarding Obama. Black people got no special benefit, under an Obama presidency, but wealthy American benefited a great deal as the income gap continues to broaden. Sure one can explain that Obama would never have won the white house if he gave anyone a clue that he would show favoritism to other Black people, but once you are in you can do whatever you want, right? I believe Obama did do what he wanted to do once he got in... If a police officer pulls another cop over for speeding, there is an understanding that they won't get ticketed. You have a buddy with a nice job, you'll get that interview. Getting the "hook up" has become a disparaging remark in the Black community. Within the white community it is just doing business... ...or running the country.

OK fellas thanks! I fixed the problem. Having to select the category twice was the clue. Basically, the first selection was sending the category to the wrong form. The 2nd selection, on the correct form would work. The visitor could not tell the difference, I only noticed if because the URL were different. If you would both retest the form I'd appreciate it. You may need to refresh the page first. Thanks when testing the function on my cell phone I noticed a worse problem. I was sending people to a mobile version of the page that I'd abandoned, but never took out the code. Also all the Blogs have been categorized now. Thanks Del and Chris for taking the time to point out this problem!

This is a link to the New Republic article Cynique referenced The GHOST of CORNEL WEST "President Obama betrayed him. He’s stopped publishing new work. He’s alienated his closest friends and allies. What happened to America’s most exciting black scholar? By Michael Eric Dyson" This video, included in the the article, pretty much sums up West critique of Obama. It is a position that I personally agree with. The personal attacks between West and Dyson (and other prominent Black folks) are shameful. The only beneficiaries of these media fuels beefs are wealthy white owned corporations, but what else is new? When white liberals who are supportive of Obama, like a BIll Maher, use their platforms to propagandize on how great the Obama administration is doing is equally shameful, because any Black person, in any inner city knows, this is not true. Indeed, the data show this as well. West is simply one of a few Black people, with a platform, willing to explain this to the broader community. If Sharpton, Dyson, Perry, and others want to continue perpetuate the illusion that everything is going swimmingly in the Black community, it is easily to understandable why they may be called paid tools of our drone wielding empire, by West, or simply liars. I would have been nice to see Dyson's article in a Black publication, but I'm sure the New Republic paid him a lot more that any Black publication would to shot down another Brother.

Writers like Anne get a tremendous amount of press in the media, so I typically do not publish interviews of authors outside my target demographic, but I know enough Black folks reads Anne's work I figured her interview would be worth sharing... Anne Rice The Beauty’s Kingdom Interview with Kam Williams Anne Rice’s debut novel, Interview with a Vampire, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. She is also the author of many other best-sellers, including the hugely successful Vampire Chronicles, The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Violin, Angel Time, and the Mayfair Witches series. Born and raised in New Orleans, Anne now lives in Southern California. Here, she talks about her latest book, Beauty’s Kingdom, an eagerly-anticipated extension of her popular, Sleeping Beauty trilogy. KW: What inspired you to extend the Sleeping Beauty trilogy after such a long hiatus? AR: I had more to say. Many years have passed since I wrote the original trilogy. I felt a new book could refine and deepen the vision. Also, times have changed and, with them, attitudes towards erotica. It's accepted today in a way it was not before, and I did find that inspiring. KW: Did the appearance of Fifty Shades of Grey have any influence on your decision to continue the series? AR: Yes, the success of Fifty Shades indicated that people were out of the closet about their appreciation of erotica. Erotica no longer need be an underground thing. I was inspired by this new acknowledgement of the significance of erotica. KW: How do you make the writing psychological shift from Gothic fiction to Erotic fiction—or is there a lot of one in the other? AR: For me erotic and gothic fiction have much in common. Both are imaginative realms that are talking about the meaning of life in metaphorical terms. I love that. I don't have any problem writing in both genres. KW: Can you speak a little bit about how your writing has been adapted to the screen and what you have learned from that process, for better or worse? AR: I have good and bad experiences with screen adaptation. What I learned above all is that it is always a risk. However, I love film in all forms, and I think it's worth the risk. So I keep agreeing to and encouraging adaptations. Of course, I feel those adaptations which are entirely faithful to the underlying work are the most successful. When producers and directors and screenwriters try to re-imagine and substantially change the underlying material, more often the end product fails. KW: What is your favorite history book, or do you have a go-to source for your historical perspectives? AR: I read very widely in history and consume an amazing number of biographies. The well written biography is the best way for me to learn about a period, whether we are talking about a biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe or Elizabeth I or Peter the Great or Augustus Caesar. I read history all the time for pure pleasure often immersing myself in a character or a century that might not show up in my novels at all. Reading history for me is like eating ice cream. KW: What made you turn to writing about the life of Jesus. What did that historical research involve? And what has been the response of your readers? AR: Writing my two novels about Jesus involved years of research into life in the First Century, research in the Bible, research in Bible scholarship, research in ancient mythology and literature, etc. I visited Israel twice while writing these books. ---- The reader response to both Christ the Lord books was hugely positive, but I eventually moved away from the project for theological reasons. I loved writing about the private life of Jesus, trying to re-create what daily life was like for Him as a boy in Nazareth, but when it came to tackling His public life and teachings, I found the age old theological battles about Him draining and discouraging. But I loved working in this area. I am a believer in Jesus who has no organized theology to back up that belief. I seek for Jesus outside organized religion and it quarreling churches and cults. And my two books about Jesus are the full expression of my love for Him and faith in Him. KW: Do you have any favorite "monsters" that you have never written about? Is "monster" the right word to describe vampires, witches and Lasher? Is there a real-life Lestat that you patterned the character on? AR: My favorite monster is the vampire without doubt. He is a metaphor for the outsider in all of us, the outcast, the lonely one, the lost one. I'll be interrogating that metaphor for the rest of my life. KW: Without giving too much away about Beauty’s Kingdom, tell us what readers should expect from it? If it becomes a movie one day, who’d you like to direct and star in it? AR: Beauty's Kingdom picks up the characters twenty years after the trilogy. Beauty and her beloved husband, King Laurent, are called upon to come back to the kingdom where they met as slaves and preserve the way of erotica slavery. Beauty declares that henceforth all slavery must be voluntary and open to applicants of all classes. The book explores, among other things, the outlook of those who volunteer to be slaves and how they love it and what they expect from their royal masters and mistresses. ---- Right now, Beauty is being developed for cable television. KW: How did you insure that the filmmaker would do a great job adapting your novel? Were you involved with the casting? Did you spend a lot of time on the set, too? AR: I couldn't really insure anything. I did write the script and Neil Jordan added many things but was essentially faithful to the script and the books. But it's always a risk. There was no guarantee it would turn out that way. David Geffen was the producer behind it all, and it was his desire I think for fidelity that underscored the whole effort. KW: It is amazing that you became highly successful with your first novel. I assume you encountered many naysayers prior to getting published. What kept you going and what advice do you have for aspiring authors? AR: Writers have to have faith. They have to be stubborn. They have to endure lots of insults, contemptuous dismissal and criticism, and they have to keep going. I always believed this. I always believed the author has to fight for her vision, her story, her characters, her "right" to be a writer and to offer something fresh and interesting in a marketplace that will always be tough. I don't know where I got my courage. I am a scrapper. It's in my genes. KW: What was your first job? AR: My first job was as a cafeteria waitress in a downtown cafeteria in New Orleans. I worked on weekends and made 75 cents an hour. It was hard work but I loved it. KW: Thanks again for the time, Anne, and best of luck with the book. AR: Thank you, Kam.

What platform are you accessing the site Del, (Hardware and OS). You may be describing a problem I'm unaware of. Here is a link http://huria.org/blogs/blog-category.php?category=Technology does this come up for you? The urls are dynamically generated so they really can be "broken." The website is up to 141 Blogs:

I knew you would have an interesting perspective on the film Cynique. I got the release date (Release date: January 17, 1940 (USA)) from Google, who probably pulled it from Wikipedia, so I'm not surprised it is wrong. What made Prissy's line about not knowin' nothing 'bout birthing no babies so funny was that a scene or two before she was saying she knew all about it LOL! Regarding Clack Gable being Black; this is from Madamenoire Of course this site even less reliable than wikipedia, but it grabbed my attention when I was searching for info on Gable, which is the main purpose of the site, to grab your attention to serve ads... I ran a quick search and could not find where I read the NAACP organized an actual boycott, but I did hear that, perhaps it was in a video (maybe even the one above). At any rate, the NAACP was actively involved in trying to ensure the film was not too demeaning to negroes. I watched a number of trailers for the film (including the one I posted below); you would not know Black people where in the film by looking at them. Here are a couple of titles from newspaper articles articles; “‘Gone With The Wind’ Put On The Spot by Earl Morris: Predicts Picture Will Be Worse Than ‘Birth of a Nation’” by Earl J. Morris, motion picture editor for the Pittsburgh Courier, on February 4, 1939 and “Hollywood Goes Hitler One Better” from the February 9 issue of the Los Angeles Sentinel. Both papers are Black owned. I wonder what those papers would say about Black made movies today? One thing I liked about the film was that there no no sex scenes. There was sex but I did not have to see folks take off their clothes. While there was no gory violence, not sex, and virtually no cursing, the messages came across. The brutality of the war was clear. While there was not sex there was a marital rape. Clark just took Scarlet and when it was over she was a new woman. Can you image?! I'm surprised women's rights activists were not up in arms over the message it sent. I would definitely recommend the film. It gives you some insight into the American psyche.

I watched Gone With the Wind for the first time last night. I was a interesting film. Apparently, the NAACP boycotted it when it came out in 1940. (Does the NAACP boycott anything nowadays?) Several of the films stars Clark Gable (I read somewhere that he is Black), Hattie McDaniels (who won an Academy Award for her role), and Vivien Leigh all died young. One of the films stars, Olivia Mary de Havilland is still running around and will be 99 in July! I knew McDaniel was the 1st Black actor to win an Oscar, however after seeing the film, it was for a role, in my opinion, no more remarkable than the one Halley Berry earned her award. Butterfly McQueen's, career took a serious hit as a result of her role. This is unfortunate as she seemed quite talented.

The rules are simply not enforced as strictly, and or as harshly, in more wealthy communities. Needless to say as you arrest more people crime appears worse, as is the case in poor communities. This probably contributes to higher crime as people have fewer resources due to the oppressive fines they are subjected to. In the NYC a pack of cigarettes sells for about $14 bucks, due to local taxes. Needless to say this provides a strong incentive for people to buy and sell bootleg cigarettes (brought in Virginia and sold in NYC). People have literally been killed in NYC for selling cigarettes in this fashion. Most famously, Eric "I can't breathe" Garner, was executed by police as a result of selling cigarettes illegally. This is no different than a drug lord killing a rival dealer for selling on their turf. I could go on all day with these inequities, imposed upon poor people, inequities that people with money don't have a clue about. Well in my case, I have no choice I have to go to court. That is another way they "get" you. Poor people don't usually have jobs that allow you to take off without losing a day's wages. As a entrepreneur and someone who works with people these issues are quite plain to me. When I worked, and lived in a "corporate bubble", I was aware of these things, but one doesn't really "get it" until they really live it. It is like walking a tight rope, in a windstorm, without a net, over a tank of hungry piranha with the government shaking the rope on both ends.

Yes I thought about making that a criteria for inclusion. The trick is getting that info programmatically. I think I can pull that through an RSS feed, but that is something I'm going to look into. The other thing is what should be the cut off be. I'd image there are some great Blogs that have not been updated in a few months for very good reasons. I suspect that the other metrics I'm looking at would tease other blogs that are not updating often. They'll have a low MOZ and Alexa number for example. Yeah the list of Blogs is part of the much larger Huria effort. I'm also working on publishing a list of Black Book Clubs. Right now when you got to the site all the Blogs are listed. I will come up with a way to randomize the order in which they are listed. That way the it will give people a way to randomly discover an interesting Blogger. I added the Blog you suggested: http://aalbc.it/politeconvo it does look pretty good. I set up the homepage to display the blogs in random order. One benefit of doing this is that I've discovered some really cool sites!

I've been pulled over by the police so many times I can't recall them all. The majority of the times I was not doing anything wrong. A few weeks ago, I got two tickets a block from my house. First I was pulled over for making right turn around a slow moving car that was in the right hand lane. I'd been behind the car for two blocks and did not want to be held up any longer. The guy was probably looking for a parking spot. Anyone who drives in NYC for more that 5 minutes knows that this is not unusual. Nonetheless, I was pulled over by a cop who probably had a quota to fill. I only spoke when spoken to, despite my frustration. Arguing with white cops never turns out well. After being given summons, I drove off and the cops stopped me again! He did not like the way I pulled off, and said I drove within a foot of a double parked car!? Was he trying to provoke me? Did a have an arrest quota to fill? I wanted to punch him in the face and I'm sure my expression made that feeling plain. Trust me, wealthy people don't deal with this nonsense, their neighborhoods are not patrolled by cops who need to fill ticket quotas. Residents of non-black communities are not harassed, punished by police officers. The fines and penalties levied on people in my community are oppressive. You can barely drive a block without seeing a car booted to be towed away. In my place in FL, the cops don't even pull me over. I've never gotten a ticket. People do not have their cars towed away for have three parking tickets as they would be in NYC. Folks in FL park their cars in garages. The police officers do not cruise the the street in nice neighborhoods looking for expired registrations. I completely understand why some Brothers, under a lot more pressure than I, lose it during encounters with police. I'm glad the cop who shot that brother in the back 8 times is going to jail. I'm sure the other cons will take care of his monkey a-s.

Hey man I corrected the typo for you Blog's listing. Regarding your suggestions When you say add it to the Power List, I'm not sure what you mean. When you say recent updates would be a necessity; what do you mean? I both vases it is not clear to me what you are suggesting that I do-- thanks for the feedback and no problem being included. I'm speaking at a Blogger conference in two weeks I hope to gain some additional traction on the site then.

I heard about this shooting (of course) but I had not seen the video until now. My this is really unbelievable. I guess the "officer" did not see the guy shooting the video, because he would have shot him too.

That is true Cynique, I was in love with technology, until it occurred to me the only real purpose behind technology is to drive us to consume more. Why do we have to replace smart phones every year or two? Are the new ones really worth the expense? Am I better off? I had a 19" Sony TV that worked for 20 years before I gave it away. Since then I've purchased 5 more TV continuously upgrading them until I stopped 6 years ago with a then state of the art 60" screen. I refuse to buy another TV. I don't care if it displays virtual reality and read my mind. I've had a record player for 30 years too, it still works and is in a garage somewhere. Since then I've purchased countless CD players, cassette players, and MP3 players. I'm done. I'm not buying any more devices that play music, I'm not migrating anything to the "cloud". I tired of spending money! The technology God is greedy, insatiable, and will not stop until you have no more money or are dead--indeed the tech god is working you getting money out of you even after you are dead.. I guess the technology god is this is not unlike the greedy preachers in the pulpit. Perhaps they are both products of their times.

I’ve just created a database to track Black Bloggers, and I invite you to submit your Blogs for inclusion: http://huria.org/blogs/ The password to enter a new blog is “bloggerweek” (without the quotes). I’ve already collected data for 107 blogs. If yours was one of them please email me at info@huria.org, you’ll need to use a different password to update the information I entered. The primary purpose of the site is to showcase Black Blogs (I actually discovered some great ones building the database), and to make them more easily discoverable. I also plan to add these blogs to the Huria Search engine. Huria Search is a Google search engine whose search results are restricted to Black websites. I’m not interested in including just any 'ole Black Blog, I’d like to include serious bloggers. Of course determining who is “serious” is a subjective activity; so I’m interested in coming up with some objective criteria to determine which blogs meet some minimum standard for inclusion. My initial thinking is that the Blog should be at least two years old, hosted on its own domain, with some minimum MOZ page authority. None of criteria has been determined yet, right now I’m collecting Blogs information. Again, If you have any feedback please let me know--and add your Blogs.