Troy

Sure, Pioneer I believe in scientific advancement to improve humanity. Hitler was motivated by racism, not improving humanity -- although he may have seen it that way. Much of the progress here in the US is motivated by money not improving the human condition. The two motivations are very, very different we couple them in our society because of capitalism and assume them mean the same thing. They do not.

Doing well financially and intelligence may not have as high a correlation as you think. On average, do you think a smart Black woman does as well financially as the an white guy, with average intelligence? Besides some of the brightest people eschew material wealth altogether. The very definition of intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge in not just practical, but more importantly creative ways. I know plenty of guys who can analyze defense strategies, memorize team roosters, player positions, discuss this in a historical context and form insightful opinions on game outcomes. Unfortunately, all of this mental ability is wasted on skills for which there no demand for in the employment market. We used to call it "snapping" on each other. Being quick witted, or clever and coming up with a unique and funny perspective plus good delivery probably has a intelligence component, but the smartest people were not the best snappers. You also had to be willing to publicly degrade someone else, often saying hurtful things -- just for fun. The willing to do that usually goes down as intelligence goes up. Maybe that guy tossing you the softball unexpectedly was looking for a 1st baseman for the corporate team. :-) What was the logic for testing you physical reflects for a seemingly unrelated job?

Need2ritefaster, the author of the 2nd article, Sabella Abidde, is an atheist. At least that is what her Facebook page says. Image a Black pope. While they would certainly gain more converts in African they would probably loose all the Germans, Irish and most of the Europeans :-) I guess they don't have any mulatto Cardinals to consider to ease the transition in an Obamain fashion

Edited by Robert Fleming Robert has been a professional writer longer than most people have been alive. I've been fortunate to have been able to utilize his talents as a frequent AALBC.com Book Reviewer. I rediscovered this book the other day and had the same initial reaction Thumper had over a decade ago who when here viewed it. "I flipped the cover to the table of contents, read the list of authors and got excited. The authors are among the finest ever assembled in one book. Instantly After Hours became a must-read." Check the list of contributors: Charles Johnson, Colin Channer, Cole Riley, Brian Peterson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Tracy Grant, Earl Sewell, John A. Williams, Kenji Jasper, Eric E. Pete, Alexs D. Pate, Brian Egleston, Clarence Major, Curtis Bunn, Gary Phillips, Brandon Massey, Robert Scott Adams, Jervey Tervalon, Arthur Flowers. Here is a message from Robert about this book From: Robert Fleming Sent: Thu 3/7/2013 9:38 AM "Thanks for the re-appraisal of After Hours. Wow, time flies. I remember taking this idea of all-male anthology of erotic stories to Gary Brozek, then an editor at Penguin. We had worked together under the editorial guidance of Cheryl Woodruff, when she helmed the One World imprint at Ballantine in the 1990s. When I issued the call for submissions, I was surprised by the response of some of the biggest names in AA literature. I'd always wanted to work with some of these guys, namely Charles Johnson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Arthur Flowers, Gary Phillips, and Jervey Tervalon. However, I've remained friends with some of them over the years, including Clarence Major, Colin Channer, Earl Sewell, and Brandon Massey. It was a honor to befriend John A. Williams, one of my favorite writers, to whom I presented an award at one of the earlier Harlem Book Fair ceremonies. For years, we corresponded until he went into ill health and I miss him terribly. This book, After Hours, was selected by the Black Expressions book club and published in hardcover. It won several awards as well as it made the Erotic Book Club list, which took it to a larger audience. It has a companion piece, Intimacy, which was a collection of leading black male writers penning tales of love, committment, and marriage. That book was also selected by the Black Expressions book club. Both of these books are highpoints in my career, which has lasted from the 1970s and continues today. In fact, I have a new novel, Gift of Faith, which has been selected by the Black Expressions book club." The book is out of print but is still available on Amazon from 3rd party sellers including the hardcover published by Black Expressions.

Edited by Robert Fleming Robert has been a professional writer longer than most people have been alive. I've been fortunate to have been able to utilize his talents as a frequent AALBC.com Book Reviewer. I rediscovered this book the other day and had the same initial reaction Thumper had over a decade ago who when here viewed it. "I flipped the cover to the table of contents, read the list of authors and got excited. The authors are among the finest ever assembled in one book. Instantly After Hours became a must-read." Check the list of contributors: Charles Johnson, Colin Channer, Cole Riley, Brian Peterson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Tracy Grant, Earl Sewell, John A. Williams, Kenji Jasper, Eric E. Pete, Alexs D. Pate, Brian Egleston, Clarence Major, Curtis Bunn, Gary Phillips, Brandon Massey, Robert Scott Adams, Jervey Tervalon, Arthur Flowers. Here is a message from Robert about this book From: Robert Fleming Sent: Thu 3/7/2013 9:38 AM "Thanks for the re-appraisal of After Hours. Wow, time flies. I remember taking this idea of all-male anthology of erotic stories to Gary Brozek, then an editor at Penguin. We had worked together under the editorial guidance of Cheryl Woodruff, when she helmed the One World imprint at Ballantine in the 1990s. When I issued the call for submissions, I was surprised by the response of some of the biggest names in AA literature. I'd always wanted to work with some of these guys, namely Charles Johnson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Arthur Flowers, Gary Phillips, and Jervey Tervalon. However, I've remained friends with some of them over the years, including Clarence Major, Colin Channer, Earl Sewell, and Brandon Massey. It was a honor to befriend John A. Williams, one of my favorite writers, to whom I presented an award at one of the earlier Harlem Book Fair ceremonies. For years, we corresponded until he went into ill health and I miss him terribly. This book, After Hours, was selected by the Black Expressions book club and published in hardcover. It won several awards as well as it made the Erotic Book Club list, which took it to a larger audience. It has a companion piece, Intimacy, which was a collection of leading black male writers penning tales of love, committment, and marriage. That book was also selected by the Black Expressions book club. Both of these books are highpoints in my career, which has lasted from the 1970s and continues today. In fact, I have a new novel, Gift of Faith, which has been selected by the Black Expressions book club." The book is out of print but is still available on Amazon from 3rd party sellers including the hardcover published by Black Expressions.

I know I'm busy, but I was really curious how I just now learned about the publication of this book 6 weeks after it came out. If anyone posted it on my social media I did not see it. So I decided to run a Google search on the term: "A Deeper Love Inside book review" (without the quotes) to see what reviews I could find on this book [i also ran the same search on duckduckgo.com a search engine I've been touting lately, but in this case I preferred Google results] Most of the top results were the big websites. Their pages were pages where the main purpose of the pages was to sell the book. There was a large image of the book cover, followed by places where the book could be purchased and the marketing copy provided by the publisher. The user reviews were all user generated by amateurs and were all over the place in terms of assessing the book from the terrible "I can say that I was very disappointed in this book" and "I am done with anything SS writes. Don't waste your money.", to the great; "I loved this book and was so glad I got to read it." and "I would give this book 10 stars if I could." After reading a few of these I still had no idea what to think. I'll just abbreviate the site as the same old, same old or "SOSO" for short. #1 Goodreads SOSO #2 & #3 Amazon 337 user generated reviews: still SOSO More confusing, inconsistent, amature reviews are not better -- even if you average them out (shit in shit out) #4 Barnes&Noble No user generated reviews. They provide an editorial review that read like marketing copy. They also pubish the kirkus review with is a description of the book. Better than a SOSO site but still not a source of a the tyoe of review I'm looking for. Sourcing Kirkus is better than user generated review. Overall B&N site really is a better than Amazons, but Amazon is running circles around B&N technologically. #5 Bookspans Blackexpressions Oddly the URL Google provided was broken. Maybe Google indexed a page behind a paywall. At any rate it was a useless result. #6 Itunes: SOSO #7 Literary Marie: The first decent critical assessment of this novel written by someone who apparently writes a lot of reviews. I was previously unaware of this website. For some classes a queries Google is like it's old self and will still turn up small independent websites #8 Blackliterature Magazine.net Includes a synopsis but no review. That said it is a nice site overall though Michelle Cuttino" is her column featured through AAMBC (www.aambookclub.com). Have to add it to my list of Black book sites #9 -- Googlebooks SOSO I noticed however that the reviews looked familiar -- Google is pulling the Goodreads book reviews! Google is so slick. They are brilliant at monetizing freely provided or copied content and information. #10 Urbanreviews A rave review 5 "books" out of 5 "A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story is a thought provoking coming-of-age story that was definitely worth the wait." --Radiah Hubbert. Hurbert also9 who wrote the review also has an interview with Souljah: #11 - Kirkus Reviews A not committal, luke warm 226 word review. The same review used in the B&N website. After reading the review I feel no differently about investing the time an energy in reading the book #12 - The angel experience A review of the book delivered through a video. Which I've shared below The next results #13 to #27 were more SOSO pages including additional results from amazon no actual book reviews. Normally I, as well as the vast majority of web surfers would have given up at this point. But I was desperate. Next we have: #28 - The Prissy Book Snob This was also a decent critical review of the book -- should have been returned higher in this search #29 Chrystal's Corner BOOK REVIEWS This was also a decent critical review of the book -- should have been returned higher in this search #30 N'digo A Magapaper for the Urbane This was also a decent critical review of the book -- should have been returned higher in this search. In fact I would argue this was the should have been one ot the top search results. The take away from all of this is when running a Google search you should probably just start at the bottom of the third page of result to find something decent.

Does anyone believe Black men today are afraid of doctors because of the Tuskegee experience and tragedy? I doubt the average Black man (particularly our younger men) know anything about it . If anything it is a issue of a lack of health coverage, or just ignorance or laziness about getting of regular physical examinations.

The pricing for eBooks is a contentious topic. Some argue that the same amount of work goes into publishing an eBook as a regular book. You still need the agents, authors, editorial, publicists marketing, etc. This of course ignores the physical production of paper, books, storage, transportation loss allowance and most importantly returns. Really what is happening is that eBook have to subsidize the production cost of paper books. There really is nothing inherently wrong with this. However, common senses tell you an eBook costs less to produce than a physical book. So when the sales price fails to reflect this fact it just looks fishy. Certainly the consumer does not benefit,. nor does the publisher Of course Amazon has no problem deeply discounting physical books -- selling them a a loss even to get business and to put pressure on competitors. Since they are not allowed to discount eBooks sold by big 5/6 publisher we run into pricing anomalies like the one described. Of course independents like yourself can price ebooks at any price they like, and certainly at a level that more accurately reflects production costs. The book business is a state of flux right now.

Very nice intro -- thanks for sharing. Love N Joy. Check this out think about shortening the URL with bit.ly that will tell you how many people actually clicked you link here (or anywhere else), Also sign up for Amazon's affiliate program or use the affiliate code of a book selling like myself: Here is an example: Here is a link to you book with my affiliate code applied: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BBS2I6E/ref=nosim/newsstory-20 Customer pays the same price, you get the same royalty but I get a commission an an intensive to sell the book. Next you can take that link and shorten it: with bit.ly the URL is now: http://bit.ly/hftears or if you get a special domain you can customize it more: http://aalbc.it/hftears this is easier to remember and shorter which is perfect for twitter or in print where a long URL is too unwieldy. To see where the link is being clicked you can just go to https://bitly.com/hftears+ and get information on where the link is being clicked and how many times. This is one way you can tell how many people are clicking you links on various social media platforms for example.

A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story By Sister Souljah I discovered this book from the Jan/Feb 2013 bestsellers list I just published. Just a few years ago prior to the publication of, Midnight, Souljah's 2nd novel, a few years after the Coldest Winter Ever, there was much more anticipation, more buzz. In 2013 there was zero buzz at least from my perspective. This is problematic. It is a problem because I actively look for books by Black writers that I think will appeal to or at least interest readers. When a writer of Souljah's notoriety publishes the sequel to a wildly popular book (1,436,559 copies in print) I want to be able to be the first to let people know. Now her latest book A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story has been out for over a month and I had no clue. Sure a few years ago there was more discussion about books here on AALBC.com. I also know many of those people went to social media. But I'm on Twitter and Facebook every day and did not see anything about this book. I also realize publishers spend less on promotion and advertising and that is also part of the problem. (to be plain Simon and Schuster is not an advertiser). I also know we have very few platforms remaining who would review this title. Clutch magazine mentions the book. Digging a little deeper I came across an excellent article about the book in Publishers Weekly. Then the crux on my problem dawned on me. I spend to much time on social media looking for information about books. Sure I push a lot of information about books out there, including this one, but AALBC.com is a much more effective platform for disseminating information about books. I will adjust my behavior accordingly ;-)

Amazon Hardcover List $26.95 (Sale Price: $14.64): Paperback List $16.00 (Sale Price: $10.88) Kindle (eBook) Price: $12.99 Amazon also offers books sales from 3rd part resellers who are selling the Hardcover new for as little as $13.57 and used copies for as low as $7.74. . B&N Nook (eBook) and hardcover prices are the same as Amazon's (3rd party reseller prices are the similar to those offered by Amazon). Interestingly B&N Paperback price is $13.98 a full dollar more than their eBook version (I'm an Amazon Prime member so the difference my be due to my discount -- which also include free shipping). Google's and Amazon's prices for their eBooks is also $12.99. So it seems like the agency model is in full effect. This is where the 5 big publishers colludes to set the price of product (in this case eBooks) artificially high and force retailers to sell the product at the predetermined price. This is oligarchy engaging in monopolistic practices which one would think is illegal. Apparently the Department of Justice does not. But I have not kept up with the story... It reminds me when we were all told how much money we would all save on the price of CD's compared to Albums. Even though CD's were were expensive to manufacture, store and ship than albums; the saving was never past on to the consumer even All this did was encourage the pirating of music to the point we are today: very few musicians can make a living of the sale of their music. I think ringtone sales are more lucrative. If The Accidental Affair was a title I would want to keep in my Library I would buy the hard cover from a 3rd party reseller. If it was just something I wanted to read and not keep it would still make financial sense to buy the hardcover, pass it along after I read it or resell the book (many places buy used book today). If I was concerned about lugging the book around I would buy the eBook. Personally I see no scenario where purchasing the paperback version of a previously released hardcover book makes financial sense. If this keeps up, start looking for mass market paperbacks to proliferate and for elimination of paperback versions of hardcover books to disappear. That or books will skip the hardcover step altogether.

Unfortunately Pioneer "RIGHTEOUS purposes" is purely in the eye of the beholder, and therein lies the rub. One man's human experimentation is another man's form of advancement.

The National Literary Network Organization INC presents 3rd annual Baltimore Urban Book Festival Sunday July 14, 2013 at 12pm-6pm, at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park: 1417 Thames St, Baltimore MD 21231. Celebrating Baltimore's ONLY book festival focusing on African American literature and entertainment Featuring 2013 BUBF Sip and Sign Q and A (Complimentary glass of wine included) with Caroline Jhingory hosted by The Book Looks own Charisse Carney-Nunes taped live by The Book Look Donna Hill hosted by EDC creations Ella Curry, Sadequa Johnson hosted by Sharon Lucas of the Reading Divas Book Club, Angela Stanton hosted by TBA Calling All authors of All genres: Author/Publishing table available,register now Register Now for our Poetry Spoken Word hour Book Clubs register for your free admission and gifts Volunteers wanted Sponsorship opportunities are available and Food vendors wanted to register log on to our new website www.baltimoreurbanbookfestival.org Sponsored by: AALBC.com.Mosiac books,Mahogany books,The Book Look,The Literary Network,EDC creations, Baltimore Times,Rolling Out magazine,The Literary Joint book store.

Go On Girl! Book Club Announces 2012 Award Winners New York, NY - March 6, 2013 - During this Women's History Month, Go On Girl! Book Club, one of the largest national reading organizations in the U.S. dedicated to supporting the work of authors of the African Diaspora, is proud to announce that authors Marlon James and Karen Simpson have been voted by the membership to receive top honors at their 21st Annual Author Awards dinner on Saturday, June 1st, 5pm-8pm at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel in New Jersey. Marlon James was named 2012 Author of the Year for his gripping novel, The Book of Night Women. Karen Simpson was named 2012 New Author of the Year for her powerful story, Act of Grace. Upon learning of his win, Mr. James commented, "I am so excited to be Go On Girl! Book Club's 2012 Author of the Year! Sometimes we writers, holed up in whichever bunker we write out of, forget about the community of readers. A writer can do so many things with a book but he cannot make a page, or a scene or even a character for that matter come alive. That job is the readers' and I'm just blown away that I am being awarded by a community of readers, so committed to making books and literature come alive." Ms. Simpson also expressed her thanks, "When I first started my writing career some ten years ago, I would go to the Go On Girl! Book Club website and dream that someday my novel would be one of those selected. I never thought it would happen. I am both humbled and grateful for this honor. It means so much for my work to be recognized by your readers. Thank you so much." The awards dinner will also honor our 2012 Life Achievement honoree and the GOG Unpublished Writer and Scholarship winners. The dinner will be followed by an author meet & greet featuring our winners and several guest authors and an after-party. Books will be available for purchase at the event by MahoganyBooks. Tickets to Go On Girl! Book Club's 21st Annual Author Awards dinner are $65 and can be purchased until May 1st at www.GoOnGirl.org/events. The awards dinner is the highlight of a weekend of activities for GOG members and guests themed "Reading in Jersey From Exit to Exit". The festivities begin on Friday, May 31st and end on Sunday, June 2nd with Go On Girl! Book Club's Eboni Gray Phenomenal Woman Awards Breakfast, which honors members of the organization and culminates in a special prayer circle. For more information about Go On Girl! Book Club and the 21st Annual Author Awards event visit www.GoOnGirl.org. To inquire about sponsorship, purchasing a dinner table, or advertising opportunities, contact Tracey Y. Smith at (646) 489-6873 or tsmithwd@aol.com.

Go On Girl! Book Club Announces 2012 Award Winners New York, NY - March 6, 2013 - During this Women's History Month, Go On Girl! Book Club, one of the largest national reading organizations in the U.S. dedicated to supporting the work of authors of the African Diaspora, is proud to announce that authors Marlon James and Karen Simpson have been voted by the membership to receive top honors at their 21st Annual Author Awards dinner on Saturday, June 1st, 5pm-8pm at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel in New Jersey. Marlon James was named 2012 Author of the Year for his gripping novel, The Book of Night Women. Karen Simpson was named 2012 New Author of the Year for her powerful story, Act of Grace. Upon learning of his win, Mr. James commented, "I am so excited to be Go On Girl! Book Club's 2012 Author of the Year! Sometimes we writers, holed up in whichever bunker we write out of, forget about the community of readers. A writer can do so many things with a book but he cannot make a page, or a scene or even a character for that matter come alive. That job is the readers' and I'm just blown away that I am being awarded by a community of readers, so committed to making books and literature come alive." Ms. Simpson also expressed her thanks, "When I first started my writing career some ten years ago, I would go to the Go On Girl! Book Club website and dream that someday my novel would be one of those selected. I never thought it would happen. I am both humbled and grateful for this honor. It means so much for my work to be recognized by your readers. Thank you so much." The awards dinner will also honor our 2012 Life Achievement honoree and the GOG Unpublished Writer and Scholarship winners. The dinner will be followed by an author meet & greet featuring our winners and several guest authors and an after-party. Books will be available for purchase at the event by MahoganyBooks (www.mahoganybooks.com). Tickets to Go On Girl! Book Club's 21st Annual Author Awards dinner are $65 and can be purchased until May 1st at www.GoOnGirl.org/events. The awards dinner is the highlight of a weekend of activities for GOG members and guests themed "Reading in Jersey From Exit to Exit". The festivities begin on Friday, May 31st and end on Sunday, June 2nd with Go On Girl! Book Club's Eboni Gray Phenomenal Woman Awards Breakfast, which honors members of the organization and culminates in a special prayer circle. For more information about Go On Girl! Book Club and the 21st Annual Author Awards event visit www.GoOnGirl.org. To inquire about sponsorship, purchasing a dinner table, or advertising opportunities, contact Tracey Y. Smith at (646) 489-6873 or tsmithwd@aol.com.

He is obviously good at math too. The young man sporting the ?love 'fro was mathematically the winner before final jeopardy even started.

I sure hope so, we can use the evolutionary jump as a species... But before you abandon hope, fear not for mankind is already on it. They are already inserting human DNA in animals supposedly to test drugs, doing, since doing that on poor Black people is frowned upon nowadays. Ultimately these chimera can be used for spare hearts, lungs, even providing external wombs, for genetically designed babies, for professional woman to busy to go through the process of mate selection, conception and bringing a baby to term in her own body. Think of all the jobs that will be created, the taxes to be levied -- maybe it will save my social security.

Pioneer this has already happened. But most professional Blacks could give a rats ass what is happening in the 'hood -- especially if they are more than a couple of generations out of the 'hood. They are indistinguishable from their white counterparts. They live in white suburbs, send their kids to white schools and socialize with each other in various clubs and organization that do not include -- indeed exclude ,people from the 'hood with memberships fees, selection processes and just sheer distance. Sure many of them do the annual corporate sponsored charity event or volunteer effort to help less fortunate Black folks. But there is no concerted effort from the group. Some are struggling themselves and the others don't care. Of course there are individual exceptions be they are rare. Just abandon the idea of a "talented tenth" helping the remaining 90% -- it ain't gonna happen. That would require sacrifice and a long term commitment which would be irrational to expect from this group.

You get no argument from me Pioneer. But legalized prostitution would not have stopped the sexual misconduct of men in high positions. Prostitutes provide a service; they fulfill a very basic physical desire, they are not a perfect substitute for an affair. Until a time comes when no one cares when high profile guys sleep around on spouses and make "illegitimate" babies, there will still be consequences. Even with legalized prostitution.

Pioneer I have not come across an opinion expressed here that would result in getting banned. You have nothing to fear. I agree with your assessment on appealing to people with reason, as I've at that many times here. I also know that most people are more easily swayed with emotions or lies that sounds good. . Sure you can spank people to get them to behave in a desired fashion on occasion. But do you really and truly believe that is the BEST way to get a desired outcome? We also know that spanking does not work on all children or work all the time. Why for God's sake would you use the same tactic used by a plantation overseer in the classroom?! Should we really be spanking some 18 year old female high school senior when they talk in class, fail a test or turn in a homework assignment late? This 18 year old may even be a parent herself. Pioneer there are better ways... There are many cultures that don;t do it and there is plenty of science to prove otherwise. I see you continue to reference the Bible, a document you do not fully embrace, in an attempt to justify a point. ------------ Sure some people are better prepared that others for higher education. The problem I have with your suggestion is that in a racist culture like ours I would not want some bureaucrat to make that decision for my children or yours -- because they will all end up working the lowest skilled, and lowest paid jobs. Sadly, we effectively have that situation now as the schools in our Black communities prepare no one for college. In placed like NY they don't even prepare us HS graduation. We have lost generations of talented Black people as a result. Spanking out kids will not fix this--obviously. The ones doing the most spanking come from poor communities where the graduation rates are lowest.

Cynique I'm going to run with my response in a separate discussion as I have some very strong options about creativity computers, education and learning. It may take some time for me to get to it. But I will. Basically you really need to know quite a bit before a computer can be a useful tool -- otherwise you are really a slave to it...

Cynique, exactly. Many of the limitations we have are there because we allowed society to place them on us and we accepted them. I'm Black so I have to like certain things and behave a certain way. Otherwise people look at you sideways and began to doubt yourself. It is almost as if we have to "come Out" as unique human being For example, as a kid doing well in school or speaking properly was considered "acting white" and a rational for ridicule or even a beat down -- seriously. I understand this is STILL an issue for Black kids in the inner city?! I know many people who limit the friends they have, the food they eat, the music they listen and even the places they go -- simply because they have self imposed constraints on their behavior. It is the same attitude, that rubs me the wrong way, whenever I hear some ignoramus proudly exclaim that America is the best country in the world has ever seen. While they, themselves, have never been more than a 1,000 miles from home, never had a passport and have limited knowledge of Global history. That is one reason our friend Del is so cool. He, as far as I've observed, never let anyone define him (he an I were in B-School in together in '91 we both worked in the computer lab helping students with WordPerfect, Lotus 123, and DB2 -- while learning it ourselves) I suspect many of you who post here, who so freely share your opinions and ideas, have similar characteristics. You are not afraid to let people know what you think. Some of you are even willing to adjust or even change your position which is a pretty rare quality :-)

The conversation on Facebook is over. Here is a continuation of the comments I posted here on Thursday: Chris Burns Yes. I actually had a conversation with my wife last night and she explained to me that I can not separate the actually things in place from the people who participate in those "things". I actually read your explanation in regard to why parents give teachers a hard way to go, but having been in the situation so often where the parents themselves take pride in their ignorant behavior and watching how one disruptive child can completely destroy the classroom environment. I simply have the hardest time understanding how the Somalian, Sudanese, Congolese students who were in Southeast San Diego and did not speak the language in 6th grade, ended up in the top 20th percentile at the end of high school and became college graduates. These are kids who didn't even have shoes and definitely didn't have enough money to eat regularly in some instances. What they did have was pride and excitement about education. What is wrong with Black kids who have been here? I'm not naive about societal factors, but at what point do our kids begin to take pride in being smart? I agree that there has to be a solution for the masses and I realize that I am the exception. Although I taught high school I was never trained as a high school teacher. I was a college professor first so my engagement in the classroom can not be compared to teachers who were trained in certification programs. My wife explained that to me last night and stated that is the problem with the SYSTEM, I agreed. She went as far as saying that my exception should be the rule and the school system can be changed basically by getting more men into the system as teachers. According to the NCES "Among full-time and part-time public school teachers in 2007–08, some 76 percent of public school teachers were female, 44 percent were under age 40, and 52 percent had a master’s or higher degree. Compared with public school teachers, a lower percentage of private school teachers were female (74 percent), were under age 40 (39 percent), and had a master’s or higher degree (38 percent. In addition, among both males and females, 83 percent of public school teachers were White, 7 percent each were Black or Hispanic, 1 percent each were Asian or of two or more races, and less than one percent each were Pacific Islander or American Indian/Alaska Native in 2007–08." I think we both are passionate and I know that I am blinded by experience, but I again refer to the fact that the individual has more to do with this problem than it seems. I gave 17 years to the SYSTEM, I think more men need to forgo those well paying careers in various fields and go back into the classroom. I think the system should be changed to allow for work experience to be the basis for teaching which removes the need for "certification" which places a 24 year old white woman in a class with people who don't look like her. I get it now. The SYSTEM definitely has to be repaired. I just don't think it will which means that Blacks have to reevaluate their priorities in regard to their children and sacrifice careers and money to give to their kids so the next generation can be better. That's the way it was and that's the way it should be. Troy Johnson We are certainly both passionate about this subject and of course I'm familiar with your work (http://aalbc.com/authors/christopher-d-burns.html). We are all impacted by our experiences but we also understand our experiences don't shed much light on what is actually happening -- beyond our limited environments. Our experiences do help us interpret that data and create stories to explain it. I understand about African immigrants. I used to go on recruiting trip for Goldman Sachs. I'm a Black guy with graduate degrees in Engineering and Business so they would send me to Howard or some other "black" school. If my degrees with from Ivy League schools I might have been sent o Standford or Harvard (but that is another story). Anywho, Goldman only wanted to see students with 3.5 GPA's or better. I remember the last time I interviewed students, about 7 years ago. My entire slate of interviews were with Black men -- not one was born in the US. They were all Nigerian or from the Caribbean. In this particular instance these cats were smarter than ME LOL! Trust me when I tell you the unspoken believe was that African Black are actually smarter than American Blacks. I take it to mean if African Blacks can achieve on par with anyone else on Planet Earth, so can American Blacks. Long story short, I saw fewer and fewer American born Blacks in senior roles in the firm. Part is racism, par is class-ism, part is the "pipeline crisis", part is a believe American Black are not very sharp, part is a poor education, it is a convoluted problem but firmly entrenched and virtually impossible to reverse. As a result, a company like a Goldman Sachs, headquartered in NY City can claim a diverse environment, but have almost Black men from NY City in VP roles or higher. This is not to bash Goldman, specifically, but I worked for them. The other Wall Street firms I worked for were the same. There is no public discussion about any of this because their are so few people in position to even know there is a problem -- further we have too few platforms to made anyone aware of the issues so we just watch murder rates creep up and graduation rates go down without an apparent ideas on what we can do collectively. So we fend for ourselves... Now I'm not convinced we have to have Black men in the classroom to educate students, but I do know with so few Black men in the classroom, the potential talent pool is greatly reduced. But the problem is compounded by the fact that so fewer Black men are qualified to teach -- as a consequence of THEIR poor education. But that is not the only problem. I have three college degrees and a wealth of corporate and entrepreneurial experience. The students in my current GED class think I'm a great teacher. Do you know many hoops I would have to jump through to become a NY City public school teacher -- far more than I'm willing to encounter. Besides, after I become a teacher I'm not sure I can deal with the bureaucracy I read and hear so much about. My wife is a teacher and I know a lot of teachers -- I get an ear full. So not only does the SYSTEM reduce their potential talent pool with despicable educational outcomes they also discourage talent from entering the field. Chris Burns I think this last post is the beginning of a much needed book on education. I'm down to write a chapter. As a Prologue your last post is clear and accurate and completely changes my perception of the discussion; along with my wife explaining a few things to me. I actually owe another brother an apology because I recently ranted against comments he was making in regard to this exact same topic. I think the Goldman Sachs discussion is a microcosm of the problem. Jeramie Tate, I get it a little better now. I guess the final statement is how do we begin to move beyond our conversations. I'm one of the burned out ones and I'm not going back into the classroom. I also agree that the hoops for certification limit the talent pool. What can be done? Jeramie Tate @Chris after reading these post. It's amazing how people I don't know expressed the same thoughts and similar experiences. Is there really a so called black community or is it a state of anomie? In either case, how does one survive? @Tamara black folks are mad at me because I say America was built on white supremacy and racism, which the system still promotes. Black folks never ask why are they taught they are descendants of slaves the day they are born. My son asked me why was Roots on again last week. I told him it was to brainwash people. Chris Burns here is one of my facts Roots is a lie. Alex Haley plagiarized much of it from a story " The Afrikan" I think by Harold Corlander. He won a law suit against Haley, but black folks thinking it's a true story. People won't blame the system or institutionalized racism , but can't see what is out there that make so called blacks hate themselves from day one. They have blacks so twisted that we call FREE people runaway slaves. What type of crap is that? Troy Johnson Jeramie, everyone I have ever related the Alex Haley story to including a few educators were completely oblivious to it. I tend to look at America being built on the premise of an elite class of people. Sure most are "white" but even the racial designation is an artificial construct used to pit the rest of us against each other. Most of the homes lost in the Mortgage related criminal activities belonged to white people.

Pioneer, corporal punish in the schools is a bad idea because; (1) in the vast majority of cases it is a bad idea anyway; (2) Why would you want to give permission to an individual to spank a child when they have not demonstrated an ability to teach that child; and (3) spanking a kid in 2013 would likely escalate catastrophically as both kids and parents are very likely to fight back in 2013. Cynique, quite a few school had adopted the concept of a school of one. Where each student is given the option of several modalities including computer based, tutoring and classroom instruction based upon skill level and temperament. Of course individualized, one on one attention is superior to group instruction. Whether a computer can provide a high level of educations is questionable unless it is a really sophisticated program one that interactive and can respond to questions. Sure a program can provide instructions on how to complete a task. But again real education is much more than teaching kids how to had fractions or memorize dates. Education includes comprehension and reasoning, I'm not sure a computer can do that. Computer can not help foster and develop creativity. Computer are great tools to help a teacher by supplementing classroom or individual instruction, but we still need teachers.

Pioneer I think the problem in schools (as well as parenting) is also a function of confusion about gender roles. Some men of my generation, believe they should be head of the household. However most don't have the financial or mental wherewithal to make this happen. Even if they could I doubt they could find a woman willing to assume a traditional role. Why should a woman be subservient to a dude that is unable to support them financial, can provide no spiritual leadership and won't even stop sleeping with other women (or men). Again, while I think men having kids by multiple women, in present day America, is a bad idea. The reality of the situation is that this is what is happening anyway. We, effectively, have a polygamous society. Some might say promiscuous, which may be more accurate as it seems many of the men don't assume complete responsibility of their actions.