Troy

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER by Junot Díaz Finalist for the National Book Award New York Times Sunday Book Review: 100 Notable Books of 2012 EW Top 10 Best Fiction of 2012 Time Magazine Top 10 Books of 2012 Huffington Post Best Books of 2012 Book Page Best Books of 2012: named #1 Best Book of 2012 Kirkus Best Books of 2012 Amazon Best Books of the Year: Editor's Top Picks for 2012 Slate Best Books of 2012 Barnes and Noble “Favorite Books of the Year” Top 15 Fiction pick Los Angeles Public Library Best Fiction of 2012 Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year: Top 29 Picks for International Fiction Booklist Editor’s Choice for Best of 2012 Newsday 10 Best Books of 2012 Barnes and Noble Best Books of 2012: Fiction Kansas City Star Top Fiction Pick for 2012 Saint Louis Post-Dispatch 50 Favorite Books of 2012 Financial Times Best Books of 2012 LA Times Holiday Book Gift

I only learned about The Twelve Tribes of Hatties by Ayana Mathis in the latest issue of Essence a few days ago. However after a few queries I learned that is it all the rage. Critical praise in major newspapers and a selection by Oprah's book club, presumably before the book's publication date (Knopf, December 6th, 2012).

Pioneer1, Agreed on the definition and use of "social construct" for our argument. I looked at the link you provided for the definition of race. It seemed you cherry picked what seems to support your argument while ignoring the most salient information which supported the universally held view on race. Again, it is not just my opinion it is scientific fact; from the source you provided above we find: "Term once commonly used in physical anthropology to denote a division of humankind possessing traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a distinct human type (e.g., Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid). Today the term has little scientific standing, as older methods of differentiation, including hair form and body measurement, have given way to the comparative analysis of DNA and gene frequencies relating to such factors as blood typing, the excretion of amino acids, and inherited enzyme deficiencies. Because all human populations today are extremely similar genetically, most researchers have abandoned the concept of race for the concept of the cline, a graded series of differences occurring along a line of environmental or geographical transition. This reflects the recognition that human populations have always been in a state of flux, with genes constantly flowing from one gene pool to another, impeded only by physical or ecological boundaries. While relative isolation does preserve genetic differences and allow populations to maximally adapt to climatic and disease factors over long periods of time, all groups currently existing are thoroughly “mixed” genetically, and such differences as still exist do not lend themselves to simple typologizing. “Race” is today primarily a sociological designation, identifying a class sharing some outward physical characteristics and some commonalities of culture and history. See also climatic adaptation, ethnic group, racism ." That is, as previously asserted, race is an artificial social construct. Further Race "has little scientific standing". Latin American countries practice racism -- including the countries you mentioned. On the government tracking "race" For about 10 years I spent time researching my family history and after looking it how the government categorized people and how it changed every ten years I became even more convinced that the government should spot collecting the data altogether. I watched the same people, in my family, go from "White", to "Mulatto", to "negro" in 30 years! Did you fill out the categories in the 2010 census -- it was absurd! Why is Barack Obama, for example, Black and not white? Obviously his classification as Black is purely arbitrary given he has a white mother and Black father. Again this classification is American construct -- a vestige of institutional racism. The idea of people "passing" as white is similarly absurd. If you look so white that a white racist in the south can't tell you are not white what is the point of the classification? I would also argue that continuing to track and classify people on such an increasingly sloppy and arbitrary dimension as race actually increases racism. The manner in which we treat people should be a function of fairness, and equality -- race has nothing to do with it.

@Nah'Sun How can "health" be relative? Either one is healthy or not, right? The rest of the stuff you wrote in response is combination of things I did accuse you of or a misunderstanding of something I wrote. I admit I may not have been as clear as I could have been... The interesting thing about genetics is that almost everything than involves humans from the way we look to our behavior is a combination of genetics and environment. People can be genetically predisposed to a variety of things from mental illness to obesity, that may never manifest because the environment did not trigger the condition.

We are simply biological machines. Our consciousness is merely a causal observer of ideas our brains have "decided" before we are even aware of them. In fact, we aren't even in control of those ideas. There have been tests to demonstrate our brains make decisions before we are consciously aware of them -- predicting with 100% accuracy a choice we "will" make before we even know it. Indeed the realization that we don't know where ideas or inspiration come from is further evidence we don't control them. The speculation that they have other worldly origins are just nice stories we make up to fill in the gaps in our understanding.

Make that 4 of the last 5 movie reviews I posted having the lead actors in interracial relationships. I did not see the film Flight and failed to realize Denzel was in yet another interracial on screen relationship -- just further support for my argument...

Then again Douglas 2nd wife was white (if memory serves), plus he was mulatto. One would think that that would be great fodder for the film industry. But I guess even a Mulatto, married to a white woman is still too positive a Black man to put on the big screen. In the film Red Tales they had to thrown in an interracial relationship ignoring all the Black women who stayed behind working to keep their families intact. Nollywood seems to be offering some good alternatives. Interesting stories with Black people just being... in relationships with each other, and doing thing people do... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOT5U5C9clc

Pioneer, once the human genome was sequenced it became plain to everyone that there is only one race of people on planet earth. Race is indeed, an arbitrary social construct. In fact I wish our government would get out of the business of using it.

This is something that has been in the back of my mind for quite sometime, The issue jumped out at me while I was updating this page which includes the most recently reviewed movies I posted on the website. Below are the movie posters of three four of the last five film reviews I added to the website: It seems to me that there are far more interracial couples in film than there are Black couples. Further the interracial couples most often depicts a Black woman with a white man. Finally when a Brother is in a relationship with a sister, in film, the Brother is usually very dysfunctional. I have not attempted to collect data on this but I'd be willing to bet that there are more Black women / white men relationships in film than there are Black female / Black male relationships. At least a much higher percentage than what actually occurs in the real world. As a Black man who grew up in a racially segregated community, perhaps I'm much more sensitive about this than women and white people would be. I believe this sensitivity is one of the reasons I simply can't tolerate watching the hit TV show Scandal. The character Olivia Pope, who is otherwise superwoman is complete mush when it comes to the President who is played by a white male (incidentally, would it have been too much to have a Black man play the president's character?). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGbn791Pgjg No I know TV shows and movies need to make money and white America (maybe Black America too) is not particularly interested in seeing portrayals of strong Black men. So we are related to being gang bangers, jailbirds, wearing dresses but certainly not in a positive relationships with Black woman free of serious dysfunction. Maybe this is one of the reasons Frederick Douglas was left completely out of the film Lincoln. Maybe it is the reason a major motion picture has never been made of Douglas' extraordinary life.

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Average dress size probably ignores dress size inflation. A size 12 a generation ago is something like a size 6 today. I would not call eating what you like a "vice" -- unless what you like to eat is limited to just Twinkies and McNuggets and a red juice chaser. One of life's simplest pleasures is eating. Eating is one of the highlights of my day. However you don't want to eat to the point or in a fashion where you give yourself diabetes, or a stroke, or became fat, right? Perhaps your diet conscious friends would have checked out a lot sooner, assuming they passed of natural caused. Or if they lost their lives through unnatural means I suspect the quality of their lives was better. The trade-off between the pleasures of life vices and the consequences are individual and personal. But like the consequences of the life of a crack addict, the trade-off are not those one few would consider beneficial or even sane...

You are right Pioneer we don't have slow brains. As with obesity, behavior is the culprit not genetics. Anyone who questions the potential or the intelligence of Black people need only look to the African immigrants across the Diaspora. Africans are kicking butt in many quarters, corporate America, academia, athletics, entertainment, and entrepreneurial endeavors. Pioneer, perhaps we should look to the Africans in our midist for inspiration and role models for sucess in this system. Cynique apparently Slick Willy was instrumental in getting Obama reelected. I wonder what that support will cost him, us really, in the long run...

Nah'Sun, Side A - Thick is a subjective term. But I have an ideal of what your definition is. Do you think Buffy the Body is heathy (the clinical definition)? Side C - It is not uncommon for cultures to hold overweight people in high regard. It is a sign of having wealth -- not health. American Blacks get their obesity from their diets not their genetics. More accurately, they are not eating a diet best suited for their genetics. Unfortunately much of the food made available to us especially in poorer communities is much more likely to make us obese. Nah'Sun if you are anywhere near me age, I'm sure you've noticed that Black people, women in general, are simply fatter that they we when we were younger. Cynique what are your observation regarding the relative percentage of fat people over the years? Pioneer those articles were interesting and does support the point you made: It is interesting to note however that one article referenced a study which indicated that; The greater bone density among black persons may be caused by their higher obesity rate. At any rate, there is no scientific evidence Black people are better suited or genetical designed to be obese at least no more than anyone else. We are more obese because of reason we can control.

Yeah, when I was a kid people mostly just gossiped about each other to spreadh bad news -- and it was frowned upon if that was all you wanted to do. Today if you can't talk about the about House Wives or Jersey Shore -- whatever... you're left out of most conversations. I guess on some level it is better than spreading rumors about eahc other :-) On the other hand we spend more time fetting over the fake celebrities on the "reality" TV ratther than thinking about outselves or our own families. Maybe you are right Pioneer, it is more desireable to watch "...people whose lives are more despicable than thier own."

Very good article, Balogun -- you've posted like a pro!. You would certainly like Guy Johnson's work. If you are not already familiar with it try his Standng at the Scratch Line first

Sound very interesting! Here is a link to th4 ebook on Amazon: http://bit.ly/redeemerbook

Wow. This is deep. When did the term "fat" become so charged? Have we become so politically correct that we can even use the term in way that allows us to communicate effectively? Now in my book the woman pictured is fat -- any day of week. I'm not making a value judgment, I'm not describing her self-esteem, I'm not making any assessment of her health, I'm not even giving my opinion on how attractive she is. But if we can't agree that this woman is fat, we need a dictionary. Now I asked about the term thick, because like a lot of slang the term is an imprecise one, that does not communicate very much. It has more meaning when used in content and within a well-known group. Pioneer say's the woman is "thick" and Nah'Sun say she is not. As far as being obese, I can't say for certain, any more than I can say how tall she is or how much she weights. But I'd be willing to bet this woman is clinically obese (a body mass index of 30 or more). Pioneer, that last statement about African and middle eastern women's bone structures being suitable to handling more weight in a healthy way is interesting. Where did you learn this? I wonder if this "idea" is were "big boned" came from? In all seriousness, we need to be very careful about how we view excess weight, without boring you with stats. Diabetes, and heart disease, runs rampant in our community. While we embrace thinckness (whatever that means), we also embracing serious health issues...

Thanks Hickson -- it is the only way any of us can survive in the long term. Here are a few positive comments, so as not to give the haters any more due than necessary "I want AALBC.com to do well and $7.99 is not a lot to ask." "Congratulations Troy!!! An awesome feat and invaluable service." "...this is by far your best looking enewsletter" "He is the real deal and committed to literacy. Feel free to circulate to others." "They have a lot of good and insightful information and content within. Please feel free to share with your contacts." "Love your newsletter!!"

Mani I jut decided to google "thick girls"... whoa! At any rate, it is diffuclt to discuss thinkness, obesity, or just plain fat (as opposed to phat). without some concrete examples. Here is a page that had some clean, tasteful examples (alarmingly difficult to find on Google) http://pinterest.com.../body-positive/ Here is one such image: Obese, Thick, Fat all three?

Pioneer1 Welcome to the boards! I'm so disillusioned by the political process that I don't trust anyone who is successful enough to get elected. Obama was about as qualified as Paul Ryan to be president. And Paul Ryan was not qualified. We voted for Obama because we wanted a Black man in the office and he promised everyone else a desperately desired change. We got more of the same. If Hillary was not tied of with Bill Clinton she may have had a chance, but her opportunity was a direct result of being mixed up with Bill... Anyone who expects anything different out of Obama is woefully optimistic. Unfortunately the Republicans have MORE of an incentive to jam Barack up. The resolution of the "fiscal cliff" will be quite telling. So while team Obama skill at winning elections is prodigious, governing is a completely different skill set. To quote a keen observer of the passing seen, "The powers-that-be always prevail, and - "the revolution will not be televised.""

I equate "thick" with "obese" Am I wrong? I'm pretty certain most of the women y'all are calling "voluptuous" have BMI's over 30 -- along with all the associated health risks ESPECIALLY those in my age bracket. Often when I hear Brothers talking about a thick girl, the subject, is obese. Now if, as Pioneer1 suggested, using the term "Thick" to refer to the classic "brick house" 36-24-36 I'd agree. But that kind of Thinkness is so rarely found in women after 30. Generally big booties come with stomachs to match... More rotund than thick Now the ladies on this page http://the305.com/2012/07/24/photos-of-the-day-big-booty-edition-90-photos/ are THICK!, but if you account for photoshop and implants I'm not sure how many would still qualify. "Butt" even in the case we are still dealing with teenagers and 20 somethings... I think a healthy women with any type of physique can be attractive.

Xeon good to see you name.

There was speculation there was mental problems brought on my head trauma from football...

Nice article Nah'Sun. On a related note. If seems to me that most girls are actually "thick" as opposed to slim. It is possible Brothers who prefer thick girls are in the majority. What do you think?