Troy

THE GOOD LORD BIRD a novel of about John Brown a revolutionary abolitionist and American hero by James McBride Riverhead Books (August 20, 2013)

Thanks for stopping by Cynthia. Also check this article especially item number 2 and 3 when you get a chance -- thanks.

Maybe I'm becoming a prude in my old age but sometimes I think the media has really taken things too far. For example, take HBO's television series; it seems HBO is hell bent on shoving sex, especially gay sex, down our throats. Otherwise compelling programing is hurt, in my opinion, by the gratuitous (and it is always gratuitous) sex. Look, porn is fine and there is a place for it, but not during a every single episode of every single series. OZ really took the cake -- I actually couldn't even really watch the program for fear of having to witness that big Nigerian dude anally raping someone. The True Blood series fell apart for a number of reasons but if I have to watch the vamper skank Sookie Stackhouse get naked again I'm going to puke. But from The Wire, to Game of Thrones to my favorite series Six Feet Under, the freaks at HBO bombard you with sex -- full frontal male nudity, Male on male, woman on woman, even dwarf sex -- sheesh! Now to book covers. I saw this book cover at the Harlem Book Fair a couple of weeks ago. I spoke briefly with the author and even shot a quick video of her. The young lady, Nadege who wrote the book was very sweet. I did not talk to her about her cover, so I feel a little bad about singling this cover out -- cause there are many others I could have chosen. But then again when you put a book out into the world you also extend and invitation to folks to talk about it. That said, I thought this book crossed the line a bit. I have no problem with the book cover, but should it be prominently displayed, out in the open, a few yards from the Children's Pavilion at an outdoor street fair? Perhaps this is art and I'm a prude. The faux penis in the woman's month subtly suggesting what one may find between the covers of the book. I dunno. What do you all think?

That was well said Cynique. You brought out what I was after and much more. We hear all this talk about the paucity of "good" Black men but we never hear talk of the scarcity of "good" black women. I think most people are "good" the problem is the inherent incompatibles in needs, wants desires, etc. I know plenty of "good" people getting divorced, multiple times even. I'm not so sure toxic men (or women) are the root of the problem. I think the environment is what is toxic. The men merely reflected the environment.

Pioneer of course Black people behave the way you describe I hear it daily. Mother cursing out there children is particularly irksome to me because when you look at the child's face you wanna just grab them, and show them some love and affection... but it would be a full time job stopping each mother I encountered from doing it. I also hear Puerto Ricans, in the same community ,behaving the same way. When I used to ride the subway I would occasionally encounter groups of young white men behaving badly too -- including calling each other niggaz. It is not just a Black thing we just catch more hell for it. While whitely the REAL crimes, eloquently detailed by Cynique, go unanswered, unpunished. Also a typical New Yorker, as irritating as the behavior is, there is usually no cause for fear.

The House I Live In (2012, Drugs Documentary Movie - Trailer) Pioneer I thought about you when I learned about this film, listening to a recent This American Life episode.

Pioneer the way young Black men present, on the the street, is a direct consequence of living in an oppressive and racist society. To many that sounds like an excuse, but the situation will not change, indeed it will get worse, until we remedy the underlying problem.

I agree completely with what Cornel said. I wish more people would listen. Perhaps because West is so critical of Obama many Black people can;t hear what West is saying. People worship Obama. I think an Obama presidency may have worked out worse for us. Because as Obama continues, even escalates, many of Bush policies and the assault against Black folks continue while condemnation of executive office is non-existent. Indeed those who might complain, like Cornel, are vilified by the majority of Black people including the Brother who wrote the article. If Obama was white Black people would be all over him...

Agreed. Now for a completely different question: do you think Black men have a difficult time finding a good woman?

Highlights from this year's fair

Here are highlghts from the 2013 book fair:

Here is an email I just got in reaction to my article: I started finding a bunch of stories about the Amazon monopoly now -- very very hot news in your industry. Wow. http://www.mhpbooks.com/breaking-news-amazon-declares-war-on-book-industry/ http://www.mhpbooks.com/monopoly-acheived-an-invincible-amazon-begins-raising-prices/ http://www.mhpbooks.com/amazon-warehouses-literally-worse-than-coal-mines/ I have not read the articles yet -- still trying to crank out a eNewsletter which takes all day.

Hey Milton, thanks but let me know what you think after you get a chance to read the article. I did offer five solutions they are are not to hard to implement. The easiest is if you are gonna send people to Amazon then use an affiliate code -- it kills me when I see people send other to Amazon without using an affiliate code. One day Amazon may decided to stop paying commissions. We should take the money while it is still being paid. The hardest might be stop writing for big corporations for free. If every writer did that then many more could actually earn a living. I pay writers, the Huffington, for example can too -- it writers demanded it, but they never will... I just wish more writers would write for indy sites with the same gusto and largess as they do for rich sites, maybe a few more of us indy sites would be around.

I think Baldwin was a keen observer of his times. He seems clairvoyant because nothing has changed. Baldwin I think would be in West camp. He had no problem dismissing Whitney Young and Roy Wilkins as leaders.

5 Things Writers Must Do To Survive Online Let me know what you think about the above article by posting here or on my blog. My thesis is that we are giving up too much to big websites like Amazon/FaceBook/Google and get too little in return. The imbalance it growing increasingly worse... At this rate books, for example, will only be available for purchase from Amazon -- they already control 60% of all book sales not even B&N comes close. The Facebook will be the World Wide Web, at least that is where most people will spend most of their time and Google will control access to what little online content that is left, that they don't directly control. Everyone else will have to pay Google or Facebook for the potential to be seen. I admit that I contribute to the problem for example, by selling books (almost exclusively), as an Amazon affiliate. But you live and learn, and I'm attempting to change -- certainly for new websites I build. I realize my perspective may not be shared or understood by many. But I also understand that my position as an independent content producer on the web for almost 18 years is pretty unique. So my article may come across as a creed or at least rant. In any case, I'm interested in what people think -- especially those who do not share my experiences and those who disagree. .

I still wonder Karlicia. I mean it is good to say there is someone out there for everyone, but I'm just not so sure just given the numbers. I have not seen a serious study to support my suspicions but if you consider the Black male incarceration, murder and employment rates and contrast that to Black women now obtaining college educations at a higher rate. One has to seriously consider, numerically it is just much hard for a Black woman to find a "Mr Good" so say yes to. If you take a college educated Black woman and assume she wants a college educated Black man of a similar age without children I would be willing to guess there are 50% more women in this category. Once you factor in Black men who actually want to be in a committed monogamous relation, and mutual compatibility. it seems like women have if MUCH more difficult than men.

I was present during the event in which the photo, on the Guardian's website, of Obama and Cornel l was taken (A video is this is shown below). Cornel has not changed as a man. However his opinion of Obama has changed. There is a profound difference. The author's assessment of Cornel as "...probably the most important voice to have helped shaped African-American identity in recent years..." was arrived at from a career of activity and now the author wants to undo that because his assessment of Obama differs from Cornel's?! Cornel knows Obama MUCH better than the authors does. Cornel was on the campaign trail with Obama for 85 events. I'm certain West critique of Obama does not come easily, certainly not as easily the writer's critique of West.

Someone posted cartoon in reaction to an article on The Guardian's website: Cornel West and Tavis Smiley do a disservice to African Americans This links to the video interview with West on Democracy Now! where he called Obama a "global George Zimmerman

The world wide web really is controlled by big web sites. Perhaps I should just give up complaining about everything we have all lost as a result of the corporate take over of the internet and do something else -- for real. Twitter "gave" me $100 of "free" advertising. It was one of those deals where you give them a credit card number and they make money because they know you will end up not cancelling your campaign when the $100 is used up. Well in a few days I used up $340 in extra charges. I fought the charges but PayPal, unlike AMEX, is useless against another corporation. Need ess to say I will never ever use Twitter for advertising. I would ditch PayPal too if there was a substitute. Today Twitter has the balls to send me an email with this image. Apparently I was supposed to be so impressed by my "investment" that I would throw away more money on advertising with them. Twitter clearly does not use their Big Data to check advertiser satisfaction 'cause they would know I they think their advertising sucks. First, the worst advertisement on AALBC.com performs better than what is shown on this graphic below. Second, I got 24 followers at 2 bucks a pop. I can tell you right now I can get 24 followers just by asking a few hundred people (there is software that does this for you) or I can follow a bunch of people and a reasonable percentage will follow me back. There is software that does this too, but I generally do use this stuff any more. $2 per follower is outrageous! Third, I don't understand how 24 users saw my tweets 1.1K times that just does not make sense as I don't tweet THAT much. Finally, 26 engagements does not mean 26 visits to my website and it certainly does not mean a transaction here. I don't care about retweets, or having my tweets favorited if these do not result is visitors coming back to my website. I can tell you from all the data that I've collected compared to FaceBook (which I'm not in love with either) Twitter is far worse in actually redirecting people to my website. Ads are a waste of money for me, as my posts on social media attract as many people as a paid ads -- for now. The problem is that social media sites control who sees your posts. In much the same way Google controls who discovers your website. So Twitter and Facebook can very easily throttle back on who sees my posts and create a need for me to buy advertising to maintain the same effectiveness. Unfortunately besides social media and Google there really are not very many on-line adverting option for me.

Congratulations man. I'll mention your milestone in my next eNewsletter! In today's environment this is a great accomplishment.

James Baldwin Tells Us All How to Cool It This Summer Is it too late, now, to put out the fire this time? An interview, forty-five years later. By The Editors In Esquire's July 1968 issue, published just after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., the magazine talked to James Baldwin about the state of race relations in the country. In light of the Trayvon Martin case, we've republished the interview in full below. Q. How can we get the black people to cool it? BALDWIN: It is not for us to cool it. Q. But aren't you the ones who are getting hurt the most? BALDWIN: No, we are only the ones who are dying fastest. Q. Can we still cool it? BALDWIN: That depends on a great many factors. It's a very serious question in my mind whether or not the people of this country, the bulk of population of this country, have enough sense of what is really happening to their black co-citizens to understand why they're in the streets. I know of this moment they maybe don't know it, and this is proved by the reaction to the civil disorders.It came as no revelation to me or to any other black cat that white racism is at the bottom of the civil disorders. It came as a great shock apparently to a great many other people, including the President of the United States. And now you ask me if we can cool it. I think the President goofed by not telling the nation what the civil-disorders report was all about. And I accuse him and the entire administration, in fact, of being largely responsible for this tremendous waste and damage. It was up to him and the Vice-President to interpret that report and tell the American people what it meant and what the American people should now begin to think of it. Now!It is already, very very late even to begin to think of it. What causes the eruptions, the riots, the revolts- whatever you want to call them- is the despair of being in a static position, absolutely static, of watching your father, your brother, your uncle, or your cousin- no matter how old the black cat is or how young- who has no future. And when the summer comes, both fathers and sons are in the streets- they can't stay in the houses. I was born in those houses and I know. And it's not their fault. Read the complete interview at Esquire Magazine

Pioneer look at it this way, Black men are; arrested and stopped at much higher rates than whites and given much harsher sentences when convicted. So the probability of any Black man in ANY situation will have a higher likelihood of having a history with the criminal justice system. There are PLENTY of cases of Black people being gunned down just here in NYC who were COMPLETELY innocent. One famous was that of Amadou Diallo. Amadou was killed after Midnight on February 4, 1999, by four New York City police officers from the Street Crime Unit. Amadou had come home from work to his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview Section of the Bronx and decided to go back out to get something to eat. Upon his return, he encountered the police officers who ultimately fired a fuselage of 41 shots, 19 of which riddled his body. Amadou was unarmed and did not threaten the officers in any way. Diallo’s death sparked massive public demonstrations against police brutality and racial profiling. The po-po claimed, of course, that Amadou brandished a weapon. I guess Five-0 don't watch movies 'cause they could have planted one. I met Amadou's mother on couple of occasions, including this event where you can read more about the case, she is an impressive woman. Man I've been stopped by the police more times than I can remember -- seriously. One at least three occasions I was concerned about my own safety. I could have easily -- EASILY behaved in a manner to make the situation much worse, but I kept my cool. In those situations I had done absolutely nothing wrong. I'm not suggesting that the police are all bad. But the are working class folks, often in tough, sometimes life threatening situations, and under pressure from everyone. Officers are modern day overseers or "officeseers" as KRS-1 once described.

They are talking points for the right wing. They should be talking point for the left wing as well. Of course that is all they are is talking points neither side really care enough to actually do something about the situation. The article says While perpetrate violent crimes at a rate of 2 to 1 compared to Black but this is a weak and misleading argument because White out number Black in this country by 6 to 1!

Sounds like a very interesting story Alon. Thanks for sharing it here I will mention it in my next enewsletter.

Del do you understand given my example of the athetist who understand the bible but does not believe it? That is to say understanding something is completely separate from believing it. I made the statement in contrast to the statement you made to Pioneer, "I would say that it is hard to understand something if you initially do not believe in it.". The implication being that you have to believe something to understand it, which I disagree with. I don't believe in predicting the future because I don't believe it is immutable. Perhaps there are many futures unique to each of us, perhaps even controlled by us? Maybe in my existence no one can predict the future -- at least not mine ;-) Del why do you want to know the future anyway?