Troy

Thank you ALL.for making this a fun place to visit! I do know the A Chapter a Month site is working through all its kinks. Hopefully when they relaunch things will be much better. In the meantime i hope you enjoy Cynique's story as much as I did.

Check out an article about the performance at Dominion of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Ben Wrobel, NAACP Communications 202.463.2940, 1012 bwrobel@naacpnet.org Jennifer Price-Keith, The Lippin Group 323/965-1990 jprice@lippingroup.com Gary Mednick, NBC Entertainment Publicity 818/777-3021 gary.mednick@nbcuni.com RADIO ONE/TV ONE FOUNDER & CHAIRPERSON CATHY HUGHES TO RECEIVE NAACP CHAIRMAN’S AWARD AT 43rd NAACP IMAGE AWARDS Broadcast airs February 17th on NBC (Los Angeles, CA) – TV One Founder and President Cathy Hughes will receive the NAACP Chairman’s Award during the 43rd NAACP Image Awards, broadcast live on Friday, February 17th (8:00-10:00 PM EST) on NBC. The Chairman’s Award, chosen by NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock, is bestowed in recognition of special achievement and distinguished public service. Past honorees include U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, Tyler Perry, Former Vice President Al Gore and Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, Aretha Franklin, Bono, then-Senator Barack Obama, The Dave Matthews Band, Danny Glover, and Aaron McGruder. “I am thrilled to offer Cathy Hughes the NAACP Chairman’s Award,” stated Chairman Brock. “This recognition is long overdue for her accomplishments as a trailblazer in the media industry. As the founder of Radio One and TV One, an advocate for small business entrepreneurship, and philanthropist, Cathy Hughes reminds us that collectively and as individuals, we can make a difference. Her presence at the Image Awards continues the NAACP’s quest to celebrate and uplift individuals who model principles of hard work, perseverance and community empowerment.” “This is the most humbling honor to ever be bestowed on me,” stated Ms. Hughes. “Those who have received the Chairman’s Award in the past are counted among the very best that America has ever produced, and I am honored and very humbled to be included in their ranks.” In 1979, Hughes founded the communications company Radio One and built it into a major media institution with over 70 stations in 16 major markets. When the company went public in 1998, Hughes became the first and only African-American female to head a publicly traded corporation. Today, Radio One is the largest black-owned media corporation in the nation with a platform that includes TV One, Interactive One, Music One and Reach Media, the home of the Tom Joyner Morning show. In January 2004, Radio One launched TV One, a national cable and satellite television network which is the "lifestyle and entertainment network for African-American adults." TV One is currently available in over 58 million homes. Before founding Radio One, Hughes served as President and General Manager of WHUR-FM in Washington, DC, where she rejuvenated the station’s struggling sales revenue and created the, still immensely popular, Quiet Storm format, which has become the most successful format in urban radio history. After that, she served as Vice President and General Manager of DC’s WYCB Radio. The NAACP Image Awards is the premiere multicultural awards show. It celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. Event sponsors include UAW/Chrysler, AARP, FedEx, Hyundai , Wells Fargo, Ford Motor Company, Walgreens, Bank of America, AT&T, American Airlines, and General Motors. Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors. For more information on the NAACP Image Awards, please visit www.naacpimageawards.net.

Red Ibis of course Black Planet ranking is higher than Black Enterprise. Black Planet is scandal, celeberity, social and sex. Black enterprise is about Black Business. Essence, should be doing better, particularly given the site's ownership, but who know what resources they are allocated. Radio One is a publically traded company: ROIAK on the NASDAQ The majority of shares are held by insititutions. A significanrt part of the management team is Black. I seem to recall reading somewhere that they qualify as a minority owned business, but I'm not sure i that still applies. In any event, without having more information or taking the time to really dig. I'd have to put them into the "Black Owned" side. Publicaly traded companies are really a different animal, you really can restrict ownership to just Black folks Based upon Alexa Rankings, so far, Black Planet is the most popular "Black owned" website. What are is the largest independent, Blacked owned, websites? When I get back to Huria Search I'll be able to make that detrminination.

writegirl, would you believe I've recieved a death threat for running this site? I posted it on these board few years ago. Death threats, unfortunately, the come with the job (as President). Ronald Regan knew what he signed up for when he took the oath of office. I agree with you people want Obama to fail miserably. But how pathetic would Obama be if he lost his cool over Miz Ann getting her panties in a tangle? Cynique, Obama being used by Wall Street and the Republicans wanting him out are very much compatible. To the truly rich and powerful parties are incidential. Party affiliations are what poor people fight over while they are being fleeced, but the rich. You know Wall Street plays both sides of the fence, right?. They don't really care who wins; they can manipulate Obama can be as easily as Gingrinch. Cynique, the symbolism you speak of is what you choose to ascribe to the situation. Miz Ann's reaction is merely a reflection of our current state -- not the cause of it. We need to remedy the more profound problems of the nation. Chasing after every fool who flies off the handle or assigning more value them than they are worth it is a waste of time. Put this in the same category as "beer-gate". Obama can not afford to give Miz Ann and any attention. He has far more serious shit to deal with.

Cynique money and power is that the core of Republican opposition to Obama. Racism is a useful tool in their arsenal, but lets be clear: this is all about power. Republicans would be and have been against all democratic Presidents. Obama has the disadvantage of being susceptible to the race issue. We can go back and forth all day with me giving you an example of a President being dissed more than Obama and you can others can give me examples of why that was not as bad as what this white lady did or what some dumb congressman did by yelling you lie. Kennedy had his head blown off. I think that is far worse than Obama will ever encounter, because Obama will never do anything signification enough to disrupt the current balance of power. The Governor from the state of Arizona got mad at Obama and acted out - so what. Do you think Obama handled it properly? Should he have punched her in the face? Or should he have handled it the way any gentleman who is disrespected by a woman? Polarizing?! At the end of the day. The behavior of the woman in no way diminished the love and respect Obama supporters have for him. Maybe her behavior even strengthened their resolve. Again, the Arizona state governor's behavior only hurt herself and her constituents. It in no way changed the balance of Obama supporters or detractors.

Cynique, Luther looks like a Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark often compared to Obama) that spent a little too much time in 'hood. At the end of the day, Obama was elected president. I think that speaks more for the country than some malcontented ignoramuses who don't give the office the respect it warrants because a man who is 1/2 Black holds the office. I think anyone who believes any no other president was disrespected is simply forgetful or too biased to see the truth. Writegirl some presidents were shot, another had a shoe thrown at him. My God, what would Black people do if some white person threw a shoe at Obama?! The issue of some old white lady wagging her finger in the president's face has already taken up too much press and reflects poorly on her not on Obama.

No Kola I was not aware of an organized effort. As you can see from my commentary I had issues with the film before it opened as well. The issues are related. I felt a little alone leveling any criticism against the film. Everything I heard has been rah, rah, rah. But funny you should mention it. Today I posted a review of the film Extremely Loud (1 star - http://aalbc.com/rev...emely_loud.html). In reaction to the review a sister wrote: I wrote in reaction: Then you start really thinking about it and it gets scary. At the end of the day independent Black voice willing to say something negative about Red Tails are too disjointed and obscure to have a real impact on the masses. When I saw the movie yesterday ($6, 10:30 AM matinee in the heart of Harlem) it was with a crowd of mostly Black people. The two sisters who sat behind me seemed to love the movie -- that is what I gathered from their continuous conversation. I over heard one teenager say it was the best movie he ever saw. I was gonna turn around and say something but then I thought all the movies he would remember were released after 2000. He probably do not even know who Spike Lee is. I don't think there was even a photograph of a Black women in the Red Tails.

I saw the flick yesterday. It was a sufficiently entertaining film. As long as you did not look at it as a lesson in history (unless you were a student of propaganda), were able to suspend disbelief, and were not bothered by shallow characters, plot and dialog -- it was all good. Indeed this flick was no different that many actions flicks. Kola, when you say part of "the Black women Boycotting the film" are you talking about an organized effort? I'd be interested in learning about a group of Black women not interested in seeing Nate Parker, Terrence Howard or David Oyelowo.

Well Kola your sales are due to your hard work and talent in writing and promotion. No matter what anyone says about you you they can't take that away -- congrats!

AALBC.com's best selling eBooks list for 2011: http://aalbc.it/top20ebooks Iyanla Vanzant the only author to be in the an AALBC.com best sellers list in 1998 and 2011. Wahida Clark most dominating author with 25% (5 out of 20) of the top selling books Ntozake Shange's For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf and Ahmad Williams' How Did I Get Here? are the only two books to make both the 2010 and 2011 lists WTF?! This is the only AALBC.com best sellers list that Zane did not make since she has been publishing books

Writergirl I'm pleased to hear you are sharing Cynique's contributions. I'm afraid however we will never get rid of celebrity culture. Until the lives of the general population are more full, we will need to live vicariously through the lives of celebrities who we perceive are better. Of far as raw sex, people are human and often revert to baser instincts. Unfortunately, your friends are right. Married people are not all that safe either. They should know, if you catch my drift . Also, men hate condoms. Especially as men age the need to "feel it" is much more important for the physical process. There but for the grace of God...

Xeon, that would be 41 years of having sex

Red Ibis, I thought it would be useful to share your Top 3 Blacks in IT from our Twitter exchange: John Thompson first creator of internet video: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_Lingo_programming.htm Alan Emtage created the first Internet search engine, ARCHIE: http://www.alanemtage.com/cgi-bin/iowa/biography/index.html Emmit McHenry (because without him we'd have no dotcoms) founder of NetSol: http://alumni.du.edu/s/1150/index.aspx?sid=1150&gid=1&pgid=359 You may be able to pull up my exchange with Red Ibis by search on twitter hash tag #blackinamerica

I'm liking the spirit of UrbanCusp so far...

Glad you made it in Red Ibis. Yeah I checked NetNoir, someone must have "camped on the domain name" it is an obscure blog -- not the same site. But who know one day. Blackplanet a sical media site is owned by Interactive One. Interactive One's whose ownership is unclear. I was unfamiliar with Urbancsup. They don't have a very high Alexa ranking, but it looks like a cool site and I'll help spread the word.

Over the course of a conversation I was having recently lamenting the state of the Internet; I asked someone to name just 5 popular Black owned websites. I figured I'd put the question to a larger audience, and see what answers I got. Try to answer the question off the top of your head, without resorting to internet searches.

Yeah it looks like this guy passed in 1978 at the age of 58. We can be absolutely sure it is him but I suspect the odds are there are just too many correlating fact and the name does not strike me as very common. I just posted an interview with Ne-Yo, who also stars in Red Tail. he is reading an interesting book http://aalbc.it/ne-yo2012 AALBC.com Interviews Ne-Yo on his role in Red Tails

I believe I found your man Cynique. What do you think?

Lucus/Spielburg, 6 of one... sorry for the sloppiness I'll go back and correct my entries. Roosevelt Layton! Wow Cynique it would really be great if you still had that photo. Cynique you really do have a talent for concisely stating ideas that would require many more words from me: "Consumerism not capitalism is what defines the black community." is precisely the difference! Consumerism is the fuel that feeds capitalism, I just wish we were not the fuel all the damn time. I'mm gonna do some research on Layton. I'll post anything of interest I find. Oh yeah, I published Kam's review of Red Tails http://aalbc.it/red_tails

Minnie, thanks so much for sharing your words on this platform. Facebook is cool as a tool to help support our platforms -- but become our platforms. I see far too many authors, in particular, giving Facebook everything -- to our collective detriment. Gabby Sidibe my actually have a little career for herself, so i would not count here out yet. She was in the film tower heist: http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/tower_heist.html Glad to read your critical analysis of Braver Deeds. This is really the spirit behind why this forum was created over 10 years ago. Maybe John will be inclined to check out your work as well Writergirl your analysis of the art of writing as it relates to the business of writing is on the mark. You can, of course, you can write to a known formula which has proven successful, and many writers do this, but unless money is your only goal, you won't enjoy the work as much as you would if your wrote what was in your heart and spirit.

Writegirl I really wish I had the time to break it down, but in all my time in business. I've observed a many things having run this business and other businesses for two decades, that if expressed off the top of my head, would probably come across the wrong way. But I will do as you suggest -- that is really all any of us can do Thanks for the kind words. The spiritual support is greatly appreciated.

Again the story trumps, race for reasonable people when reading a book. Even some of my favorite book were written by people who are not Black. There however another level of complexity introduced by our racist culture. Black authors are often relegated to (unable to get published) writing books with white characters. How many novels were published by a major house, written by a Black writer, that contains white characters? Zero*. Further, Black and white writers are forced (unless they want to get published) to write characters that conform to degrading stereotypes; characters who embody a handful of the most negative archetypes. This is most evident in major motion pictures. Of course there are exceptions, but there are always exceptions and exceptions. *Honestly I don't know that stat is true, but I suspect it is and I'll resort to making unsupported claims from time to time to make a point

Breena, My reviewer, Kam Willaims, who was forced to wait until opening day to see the flick, described it as "very good, not great, but solid and entertaining" The critics on Rottentomatoes are still slamming it, however the audience reaction is mostly positive. The real story will be told by this weekend's box office. AALBC.com's review will be posted here: http://aalbc.it/red_tails and will be favorable. I also don't like the whole idea put forth that if Black folks don't all go out in mass to see Spielberg's George Lucus' flick then we'll all be punished by not getting another positive Black film out of Hollywood. Do we have so little control, that we HAVE to go see whatever they produce for us? Breena, authors like you are the reason AALBC.com exists -- full stop, end of story, period. When platforms like mine extend themselves to promote, for free, the efforts of the rich and powerful we do so at the expense others who would be more supportive, authors like yourself. If independent platforms are to, not only survive, but grow we can not afford to support those who really don't support us. When you support independent newspapers, magazines, websites, filmmakers, you give them the power to to tell the stories that are untold and important. My free support of corporations ends with Red Tails. I'll pubs reviews, but unless they take an ad that is it. I'll divert my energies more constructively. By the way, welcome to the new discussion board and THANK YOU sharing your thoughts on this platform, 'cause I know you could have replied on Facebook. You really do get it. I wish others did as well. FYI, Roland S. Jefferson send this out in an email today Writegirl -- Exactly!

2011 was a shitty year for Black film if you ask me. The characters in The Help, caricatures or not, it is about as good as we got, and the Academy has to have some Black faces or else they risk being seen as overtly racist. I just Published Kam's annual Blacktrospective which is his annual list of the best of Black film. The Help tops the list of Black feature films: http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/blacktrospective_2011 As far as white people getting Black characters right, the reaction is purely subjective. The story trumps everything. A Black writers spawns Precious or For Colored Girls and many Black folks get tight with the portrayals. A white person pens The Help and most Black people are weeping in the aisles. Those that complain are really on the fringe.