Troy

Come on Sunday :-). It seems like an exciting and interesting time for you Cynique -- I'm not sure anyone less than 80 can really appreciate it fully. I hope you take and share some photos from the festivities here. Your family is fortunate to have you. Actually I've feel enriched by knowing you; even in the limited way one can know someone virtually. Actually you know more about how I honestly feel about a wider range of subjects than most people who "know" in the real world. We have been interacting for a minute huh? Now that I think about it wow. At my stage, there seems like so much more I want to do -- establish more security for my family and enable AALBC.com to survive after I'm gone. Both tasks are far from complete. But knowing my personality I will probably go to the grave trying to accomplish something. My birthday, interestingly, is not something I'm inclined to celebrate. Now it is not that I donl;t like celebrating 'cause I'm down to celebrate any chance I get, but April 8th is nothing really special for me. Now if someone wants to organize something for me that is terrific but I'm not too interested in doing something involved for myself. I remember waiting to make 50 seemed to take a long time, but then hitting 51 seemed to take about 5 minutes. On Sunday we will be taking my oldest to the airport for her to study abroad for a semester. A sacrifice her parent are making that the young lady may not appreciate for many years... I often wonder what the world will be like 30 years from now when I'm 80. Today I'm shooting for 100. Happy birthday CYNIQUE -- I hope there are many more to come!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, 09 August 2013 CONTACT: Brett Abrams : 516-841-1105 : brett@fitzgibbonmedia.com Bayard Rustin to be Posthumously Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom President Obama recognizes African-American, Gay civil rights leader at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington Statement by Tico Almeida, founder and President of Freedom to Work, a national organization dedicated to ending workplace discrimination, on President Obama awarding Bayard Rustin the President Medal of Freedom: "Freedom to Work is thrilled to learn that President Obama will award one of America's most important civil rights strategists with the Presidential Medal of Freedom," said Tico Almeida, founder and President of Freedom to Work. "Among Rustin's many accomplishments, he organized a 1941 March on Washington so successful that it never even took place, and that cancelled march instead pressured a reluctant President Roosevelt to begrudgingly sign the first federal contractor executive order granting African-Americans the freedom to work without discrimination. Toward the end of his career and life, Rustin also advocated for New York City's ENDA law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. Now, 72 summers after Rustin organized a national march to focus America's attention on workplace discrimination, LGBT Americans and our straight allies are calling on President Barack Obama to immediately sign the federal contractor executive order giving LGBT Americans the freedom to work without discrimination. President Obama should sign it today in honor of Bayard Rustin. If it were up to me, we'd even name the Obama executive order after Bayard Rustin. It would be a fitting honor that would bring our nation's civil rights history full circle." # # # # #

I think Jay just pulled the first decrepit city he could think of off the top of his head. He could have said; Camden, NJ, Chicago; Oakland; New Haven, CT; Cleveland; whatever.

Oh yeah I forgot the public option was left out creating a tremendous windfall for insurance companies. Waddya expect. The recidivism rate is so high people when people come out their opportunities are limited. Having your freedom taken away is not small thing even without the risk of being raped or shanked... Given a real choice only a broken man would chose prison or consider that an option

Pioneer I was not even thinking about college when I spoke about education. I was think about just a solid high shool education which most people are capable of completing. No everyone does not have to be a rocket scientist. During orientation my freshman year all the engineers were gathered in a room and told, "...look to your left and look to your right, one one of you will graduate." And that was a room full of mostly white guys -- what do you think they thought of the brothers?. I graduated, barely. Mainly because I was ill prepared, but refused to fail. That said have worked in a wide range of jobs from dish washer to VP of a Wall Street financial services firm (no big deal VP's were a dime a dozen). I've been a full time entrepreneur for the better part of the last 7 years. And let me tell you the game is rigged at every level. We, not just Black folks, serve at the discretion for the rich and powerful. Period. Those who do best are usually entertainers and you better be a rap artist and not a jazz musician. If you are writer, you better be writing celebrity-tel- all nbooks and not literature with complex Black characters. If you are a journalist you better be writing stories about Beyonce's latest hair style instead of explaining why Obama is just a house Negro protecting the interests of the rich. It really is no joke. Again Mass incarceration is just one example of how the deck is stacked. If you watched the film you'll see that Negroes get locked up and have the key thrown away. The information is right there, but no one really cares to do anything about it... really.

In the course of the project was was sad to learn about the end of some magazines, Black Collegian, in particular, but even Right On Magazine. But there are some good ones comping along too.

I'm in the process of creating a shareable database of independent, Black owned, printed, magazines published in the United States. I'm currently researching the publications below to include the editor's name, publication location, description, sample cover, contact info and more. Let me know if I'm missing any. The database is growing: http://aalbc.it/blackmagazines

It is stupid for the the commissioners of any sport to get involved in anything these guys say in their personal lives. If they fined the general public for every stupid thing they said in public no one would have a job. Is it any surprise that ignorant, racist, homophobic people are sometimes football players? If Michael Vick is OK with it that is good enough for me.

Two-time Oscar-nominee, Lee Daniels talks with AALBC.com about his latest film LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER The film is based upon the book The Butler: A Witness to History by Wil Haygood.

Pioneer I think Black behavior is related to the environment. Consider your statement: "And being from Detroit I can say with confidence that the culture of Black people actually IS in part responsible for the condition of the city." I think you have that completely backwards. I think most of that blame can go to companies that sent the jobs overseas along with the the job opportunities and tax base. If you have children I would advise you to leave Detroit, sadly, things will get worse. Isin't the city about to default on pension obligations and go bankrupt?

I would NEVER ban you, or anyone, for expressing an opinion Pioneer. I do believe we really need to be fighting for education and I don't mean just the three R's. Education is even more important than universal health care. I think that would solve a great many problems. There are many intelligent, educated Black people who need help too. What you really mean is monied Black people need to look out for those who need help. History shows that rich Black people are mostly interested in making more money or just making themselves more comfortable. Drugs are an escape and way of easing the pain for most people. The problem comes from law enforcement. I don't think drugs would be as big a problem as alcohol is, if it were not for law enforcement which are enslaving Black men. I think were are simply victims of a racist society. We are behaving stupidly as a result. I'm sitting here watching the Black press disappear right before my eyes and we are too "stupid" to even notice or care....

I think if we put aside partisan politics, and dispense with the political labels, it is obvious that Pioneer is conservative. I think most people become more conservative with age. We can also decouple religion from being conservative as well. People who are conservative can be any religion or even atheist. We can also take racism out of the equation as well. Some conservative people are racist, many are not racist (though I would argue it is hard to be an American and not be at least a little racist). Here are my positions on your points: *I support Universal Health Care - YES But I don't support ObamaCare - Don't have enough info about it to have an opinion *I support women's rights to be equal - Not sure what this means (if you mean equal pay for equal work --then YES) But I support traditional gender roles for men and women - Not sure what this means (if it means women must stay at home while men must go to work, then NO) *I'm against the mandatory drug laws and 3 strikes - ME TOO, But I'm a very strong supporter of tough law enforcement - NO Black folks always bear the brunt of tough law enforcement I believe in corporal punishment both at home AND in school -- I used to believe in this but not any more But I believe the state should step in and take children away in abusive homes -- Sure *I don't believe in the death penalty - Me neither But I believe certain crimes demand a physical punishment (Like what, caning, water boarding, what?)

Yeah James H. Cone is a scholar more people should be familiar with. Interestingly I only learned about his work as a result of AALBC.com a couple of years ago Cone published The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Thanks for the reminder Harry.

I'd settle for similar acknowledgement from the Perry's and Lee's of the world...

I actually have not sat down to watch the panels at the Harlem Book Fair myself. I will comment after I do so which may be some time...

Hey DT do you actually use MySpace and Blackplanet? Do you find them useful. I'd almost forgotten I even had a Blackplanet profile (http://www.blackplanet.com/Troy/) going back to 1999. I saw the negative review on you book on Amazon. Actually it was not a review of your book but an assessment of you tactics. I'm not sure why they guys thinks you are a spammer, you post here but do so in an unspammy fashion. Indeed I would like to see more writers post information about their book that way you do. Can you have the comments removed since they do not relate to the book. If I had the resources I would actually have someone review a couple of your books. One of the really bad things about Amazon is despite being Earth's largest book seller, it is hard to get a good book recommendation out of them -- especially for Black books. As Amazon grows the likelihood of getting a Black book reviewed continues to decrease.

Just a couple of apples in a row, right? I'm not suggesting that this book cover has gone to far. It is however a clever way to combine culinary and erotic interests in a visual

AALBC.com's credit for a quote from Kam's review of the blockbuster film, OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (http://aalbc.it/ohf2013). Sony Pictures could have pulled a quote from anyone. It is nice when small independent source is recognized.

I forgot to mention James Hendrick's book, Power of the P, did really well on the website; it generated enough attention to be clicked by a high percentage of the website's visitors. I don't have similar data on the other books.

"Leaving things to the imagination" a likely respond from someone under 30 might be, "What does that mean?" Cynique, you apparently reacted in the way the author intended. Perhaps you are more reflective of the target demographic. For me the cover did not illicit interest in the book's content. I just started thinking about how book covers (magazine covers too) are becoming much more graphic. Here are a couple of other book covers from recent advertisers. I LOVE advertisers. My intent is not to berate their products. I'm merely discussing them in the context of broader industry trends. Indeed, the fact they are advertisers is the reason I'm, and now you, are aware of the books. That said; When this book cover ad was placed on AALBC.com (this advertisement was sold by an affiliate). I was concerned people would view the AALBC.com negatively. I've actually had two potential advertisers tell me that they did not want their book covers on the homepage (one of my inexpensive advertising options) because of the book covers already present. I hate that attitude because if they advertised they could impact what was on the site. But the real problem I have is that both of these people whose books were too precious to be on the homepage have no problem taking advantage of all the free promotion I provide them. At any rate, this cover, in my opinion, is too revealing for a book cover. I could image a physical bookstore refusing to display it out in the open. But in today's world to get noticed authors constantly up the ante. Besides there are so few stores left the idea of reducing the prospect for prominent placement is no longer a factor. The cover below is rather interesting, humorous even. Perhaps that is the goal? I have no idea. Clearly each of us will see something different in a book cover. This is natural. But the cover and title, ideally, should yield the same impression for the majority of the target audience. I can only speculate who the target reader is and what they should take way from the this cover. It also made me think about HBO again. Netflix as you know has began producing their own original TV series. They also make the entire series available in one shot. Given the Netflix is only $8 a month I think this is a terrific deal (but I'm way off the subject). Netflix seems to be following HBO down the road of leaving too little to the imaginations. On one of the series that I started to watch, "Orange is the New Black", there was as scene in which the main character, a woman, goes to the bathroom. I said to myself if they show this woman using the toilet and wiping herself I'm bailing. She did and I decided to read a book.

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.