Troy

A few recently published non-fiction book reviews I Hate Muscular Dystrophy: Loving a Child with a Life-Altering Disease http://aalbc.it/ihatemd Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention By Manning Marable http://aalbc.it/malcolmbio The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll by Preston Lauterbach http://aalbc.it/chitlin Celebritize Yourself: The Three-Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business by Marsha Friedman http://aalbc.it/celebritize

Carey I read the letter and it is interesting. The letter completely ingores all the reasons why The Congressional Black Congress and other Black people might not be too happy right about now. That really is the bottom line. You can't see why support for the current administration (the whole political process really) might be wavering? You can't see that even though we have a Black man in the white house that business is as usual? Joan gives Obama an awful lot of credit for perceived positives (health care without a public option), while conveniently blaming others or ignoring all the bad shit that is going down today. The writer is clearly a rabid Obama supporter and not one easily convinced with what it happening right before her eyes. Look Obama was voted into office with effectively zero record and a gift of gab. This time his gift of gab will be confronted with his record. If literarlly millions of white people loose their homes incurring the collateral damage of bad credit, embrassment, depression, stress, etc and Obama gives the companies responsible for their misery trillions of dollars. Who do you think they will blame? It millions of white people have lost their jobs and are rapidly becoming unemployable who do you think will take the heat -- deserved or not? Yeah the president is the president of ALL the people. The CBC, Smiley & West are the least of his problems.

Yes ad placement is a big factor Carey. Running the pink ad on the AALBC.com website is rather redundant (yes I did do that). And running the blue an on an wehere people likely to be interested in AALBC.com's content would be fruitless (I don't think I've done that).

Cynique almost two years ago I visited several African countries the most suprising thing was how much African's adhered to Eurocentric standards, much more so than the Black folks here. In Nigeria, for examle, virtually every Black woman had straightened hair or wore a wig to mimic such. Lightening creams were readily available in stores. In the corporate enviroment everyone wore suits with ties -- in 90 degree temperatures. Even on Wall Street professional employees dress down. This in a "racially" homogenous nation of 40 million + Black people. Fortunately I did not see a McDonalds... Kola will have an answer I'm sure but it all stems from imperialism as eveidenced from my observations about.

Lucky Lois, I've actually started the process of following your suggestion. I'm having 3 identical ads created. The only difference will be the model. One will be (for lack of better terms) "light skinned", the 2nd will be "brown skinned" and 3rd will be dark skinned. For a total of three ads soliciting people to advertise on AALBC.com. I will do the same, creating three ads, targeting readers to visit AALBC.com. Those ads will run on other sites. Someone off-line someone indicated that the model on the left is not dark skinned at all. At first I was a little taken aback, but ultimately had to agree. I guess it exposed by own bias Hence the addition of the "dark skinned" model. Yeah Kola the entire media does setup unrelaistic expectations -- espeically for women. Photos are touched up to brighten teeth, the whites of eyes, to even out and lighten skin tone, remove marks, etc. Essence magazine is a master at this type of photo enhancement (manipulation). So they will have a bazillion covers of a retouched Beyonnce before you see a single unretouched photo of say an Ursula Burns on the. Carey, as you can see some people already answered the question as posed. I'm not sure what you are missing, but it is not that deep. This is not a scientifc study -- just something I thought would be "fun and interesting". I will publish the results of the more rigous experiment shortly. In the meantime the discussion is useful -- like the relevations that the sister on the left is not "dark", and Cynique's belief that the Brown Skinned beauties reign supreme.

Hey KPCBookDiva, yeah I knew the quiz was flawed on that aspect but the impressions are still very useful. Ideally, I would have both models in both types of ads for a better test. I will actually run this type of test in the near future by running it all 4 in live ads. Thanks for your thoughts I'll post the answer after labor day.

Hey y'all check out this one question poll: http://aalbc.it/darklighttest Cynique sure those anecdotal stories were indeed heart wrenching and as you seem to suggest the issues are far more complex and nuanced. And of course are not universal. Cynique do you mean "Golden Brown" like Zoe "Hubba Hubba" Saladana? Zoe would be foine in any complexion white, brown, blue... My daughters "Golden Brown" I suspect most of their partnership issues will be more impacted by class more than complexion.

Let me know which banner ad below is consistently clicked most frequently and why. One of the banners below, after hundreds of thousands of impressions over the years, is clicked three times as many times at the other. Now I know the banners target different people (potential advertisers vs. readers), but I thought it might be a fun and intersting exercise anyway

Kola I don't know what you mean by "You don't meet the MAJORITY of black men in America". Are you suggesting the majoirty of men are like that sad "Brother" at the 4:36 minute mark of Dark Girls? If that is the case, playing devils advocate for a second, have YOU met the majority of Black men? Do you think that Brother is in the majority? Carey, wow you ran into Deesha on line. I met her in person a couple of years ago. Funny I have not really heard from here since. I plan to reach out to the old posters If can manage to pull email address of the old board.

Let Me Take You Back, Envision In Your Mind. Long Ago, Southern Woods, In The Distance, The Devil And His Demons, Their Evil Voices Echoes. By The Moonlight, Upon The Ground, A Hanged Black Man's Shadow.. Drug Gangs, Street Gangs, Would Their Black Community Violence End. If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men. They Would Hang One Black Man, Sometimes Together 2 Or 3. Naked Black Men Swaying Back And Forth By The Southern Night Breeze.. Street Gangs, They Could Spiritually Travel Back In Time Understanding Where Black People Have Been.. If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men.... Some Black Men Were Burned Alive Before They Were Hung. Celebrating, No Doubt, Songs By The Devil, Were Sung... Would Street Gang Violence End, And Black Unity Begin. If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men...

The trailer for Dear Daddy was actually hard to watch, so very sad. Too many Black girls (children really) are raised without their fathers. Dark Skin definitely struck a chord with the women I talked to about it – and I can see why. I wonder where they got homeboy (see 4:36 mark) from. In the circles I roll in I never hear a guy talk like this – maybe they are too smart to admit it…

Dear Daddy is a feature length documentary about the life long effects of fatherlessness on women. The film follows the dramatic journeys of eight young women from the tough city streets of Washington,DC as they struggle to overcome poverty, poor educational systems, no healthcare, and the most difficult life circumstance they have been dealt... the absence of their fathers. More information about Dear Daddy Dark Girls is the upcoming documentary exploring the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color---particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture. More information about Dark Girls

Carey, Obama betta reveal those hold cards and soon. The mid term elections were a a complete disaster for the Dems. And now the CBC seems poised to bail.

Xeon, I'm sorry to read about your mom's passing but happy that you had such a great relationship with her. That positive and deep relationship may be more rare than you think. You were blessed. Often smart, successful people only socialize, work and live with other smart and successful; this is natural. However these folks tend to have a distorted world view; for the majority of people in this country are not smart and successful; most are struggling to make ends meet. Most don't have passports nor the luxury of time and money to travel to distant lands and indulge their intellectual curiosities. In fact most people don’t have the ability to construct the sentences that you all do so effortlessly on this discussion board I say all this to say that when Kola says, this does not come as no surprise to me. Xeon, while you may live in an environment where Black men and women get married and have children, love and nourish them until them are grown. The vast majority of Black mothers do not experience this. This is an unfortunate reality and is supported by data. But you already know this, right? I would not equate West marrying a white woman to that of Douglas, they were from different times. Douglas was half white. I also suspect the prospect of Douglas finding an eligible Sister of his caliber was very slim.... I have to be honest when I discovered West was married 4 times, unsuccessfully, I like most people relate it back to my own experiences and can’t understand it. Sure marriage is not easy but surely someone as smart as West would figure it out after a few times. Tavis has never been married or raised a family. Obama clearly has a remarkably stable marriage – one that withstood intense scrutiny by folks who look REALLY hard to find some dirt. Few marriages including my own of almost 21 years could withstand that... If you want to evaluate these Brothers based upon character; my gut tells me Obama is probably stronger in that department than either Smiley are West. But that is beside the point. Smiley and West have a valid argument. West has been consistent for years. He was said we need to make sure Obama is accountable to the poor and working class – even when West was on Obama’s campaign trail. Xeon, I’m honestly at a lost to understand how you can say First Black people do not benefit from “Attempted” legislation. We can only evaluate Obama on results. Obama's actual legislation benefited big business. The data does not support any improvements for the majority of us. On every quantifiable level the working class and poor, which includes the majority of Black folk are worse off. Now we can debate over Obama’s motivations and feelings, but we can only evaluate him on this results. This is why his speeches won’t mean a lot in the up coming election. Voters now are forced to evelaute the man on what he has done.

Carey, "It's one big game" - and on so many levels. I do not think Obama's month will carry him as far as it did to get him elected. People will now include his actions as part of the equation for the next presidential election -- something I don't think many people did the first time around. The hall that “Hope” and “Yes we can” stuff will fall flat – especially to the working class. Maxine Waters really summed it up regarding Obama; "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired." Check out this video. Whether we like it or not many people voted for Obama because he was Black. There will be much less urgency for people to do the same for the next election. Obama’s biggest advantage is that he is a sitting president and the opposition have not asserted a strong candidate. Obama will have a very tough time getting re-elected and the reason will not be Smiley and West.

Cynique after seeing the movie do you undertand why some folks are all riled up over it? Nowadays your mom could have parlayed that connection into a nice intership while you were in HS and a fat job after college :-) Carey did you have a good copy? I'll eventually check out The Help when it becomes available on Netflix it (I guess it will be available within the year).

Happy Birthday Cynique. You know how I feel.

I guess time will tell what S&W real motivations are... Yeah the new format is more intuitive. I also disabled some of the lessor used functions like the image gallery. I'm going to reach out to some of the old posters and see if they will check it out the new format. I visited the old board the other day: http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus to pull email addresses and the board was down -- cause of 10,000 new accounts -- all spammers (somethings never change).

Boitumelo, I relocated this post from the Poets Discussion Board it is more appropriate for this board. I will relocate these as time permits but it is more likely that I will just delete posts which are completely off topic from forum's focus. Also you should your posts would easier to read it you did not use all caps and broke them up into paragraphs. What percentage of the Black population do you think falls into the catergory you've described above?

Fascinating point Cynqie. Rarely do I read something that actually calls into question the value of Smiley & West's actions without dealing with their unknowlable motivation. I tried to bring up a similiar argue yestersday, albeit in a more convoluted fashion, saying it does not matter what their Smiley & Wests motivations are or even whether Obama is a good president. Of course there efforts as well as out our could be used to deal with more important urgent tactical issues -- many of which, like many a quality education available, would reduce proverty. Smiley & West are never really called the poverty tour directly; 'cause who can be against a "war against poverty"? But hey this is a free country. I'm sure they will steer clear of NY City...

Xeon as always you are come across reasoned, thoughtful, smart and passionate. We don't always agree on points but we agree in the spirit of honest debate. Thanks for your contributions to the conversations. Not that that is out the way; you mentioned that "...no president has faced the number of personal attacks, distortions..." As if to imply that Obama is unique. This is in and of itself is an exaggeration. When Black people were lambasting Bush II, do you think they were more sensitive? More importantly you talk about Obama being threatened as if this is a big deal. ALL presidents are threatened -- this goes with the job. Regan was shot, other presidents where assassinated! Here is the thing Obama is under no threat of assassination because he is not pissing off the rich and powerful enough to warrant the action -- indeed they have an incentive to keep him in place.

Here are some comments from my Facebook page (names changed): RJ I posted this as a status the other day... Looking at Tavis & Cornell on their "Poverty Tour" bus I'm wondering if their clout could be put to better use if they lobbied corporations for internships/training and community endowments, and worked with non-profits to drum up private funding instead of going town to town to sympathize with people that are unable to help themselves. Maybe its a precursor to the 2 of them running for a political office. 8 hours ago · Like · 2 people. QAC I think they should have been out there touring during the last President's 8 years in office!!! 8 hours ago · Like · 3 people. YB www.barackobama.com (Are you in? ) Obama for America Barackobama.com is the official re-election campaign website of President Barack Obama. Visit the site for the latest updates from the Obama campaign, 2012 election news, campaign videos, local events, and ways to volunteer and donate. 8 hours ago JS I was just talking to a friend about this kind of thing. Crabs in a barrel. 8 hours ago · Like · 1 person. GH I'm just not sure what they hope to accomplish? It's great to shed some much needed light on this countries poverty issue, however, I have heard nothing about any solution. Neither Tavis nor Cornel are making any moves towards eradicating poverty, all I hear are their rants and put downs towards our President, this behavior is not condusive in solving the problems of the American citizens and their behavior only solidifies the assumptions of white america that black folks cannot unite, that all we can do is drag each other down! Crabs in a barrel mentality is real! 7 hours ago MM I read the transcript. Travis has never gotten over being slighted by the then candidate, Obama. Obama refused his invite to appear on his talk show. Michele was ready to take his place but she was turned down by Travis. And West is a follower. Whatever Travis says, West dots his "i" and crosses his "'t" Bravo, Holly Green. 3 hours ago Troy Johnson ‎ :-) I was attempting to get folks would visit AALBC.com and comment there. I should have been more explicit. That said, my thoughts re Smiley and West have soured as a result of the poverty tour: http://aalbc.it/rqqATD 2 hours ago PM Travis and West have their issues. You can shoot the messenger but the message is still valid. I am a Obama fan but you cannot deny that he has been timid as concerning a jobs program that can be seen as helping the poor (minorities). Obama's timidness to outlay a definite plan to put people back to work in a bold way like Franklin Delano Roosevelt has led to the Republicans to be able to change a job creating message to a debt and tax message. I hope he still has time to change the debate. about an hour ago · Like. Troy Johnson I see two issues here; What is the real motivation behind Smiley and West’s (S&W) harsh critique of President Obama -- is it mean spirited or sincere attempt to remedy a bad situation? i.e. Are S&W good or bad Has President Obama been an effective leader, living up to his campaign promises? i.e. Is Obama good or bad There are only 4 possible situations (S&W Bad, Obama Good, or S&W Bad, Obama Bad, etc, etc). At the end of the day, none of it really matters. Smiley and West will have negligible marginal impact on Obama's chance to win a 2nd term. Obama's chances will really be determined by the narrative his team comes up with to get people to come to the poles and vote for him. If the midterm elections are any indication, Obama has a tough road ahead of him. His story of hope and change will not resonate the same way it did when Dubya was in office. I say “narrative” because I have little confidence that Obama (any person) will take any “actions”, that will benefit anyone but the Plutocrats and Oligarchs (to borrow West’s phrase). 3 minutes ago

As an aside: I used the Facebook button to share this conversation on facebook, in an attempt to get people to comment here. Instead everyone just automatically, and perhaps more naturally, posted replies on facebook.

"Jack-offs" ,"Coons", my, my what harsh words for two Brothers simply trying to bring attention to the suffering of the poor at the hands of the "plutocrats and oligarchs". Seriously, maybe I need to re-think Tom Joyner's assertion that Tavis' issue with Obama is "personal". I don't think Smiley and West are jealous of Obama's presidency. Maybe they are upset at the lack of access and even more pertubed that Al Sharpton is Obama's go to guy regarding the Black community. At any, rate I don't know enough about what S&W are actually doing on the poverty tour to be too critical of it. I have to believe there is a better way for S&W to get their point across to Obama than the approach they have taken. More importantly this dysfunctional political system is really a reflection of a culture in rapid decline. Obama is merely a symptom of the problem not THE problem or even the cause. "...Babylon. Rome. America..." is right.

A year ago I may have disagreed completely with your comment Carey. I will never agree with the idea of calling West & Tavis "Coons" because they are doing something you disagree with. Last December I even touted Tavis' achievements blogging about it last December. Today I too am a little unsure what Tavis and West are attempting to accomplish. I assume they are being paid to speak, will sell a lot of books, promote their radio programs and other platforms, do some damage control for their respective images and have good time hanging out with each other while strongly criticizing the country’s first Black president. All of this begs the question what are those two really trying to accomplish? Now I've read what they said the the tour will be about, but it just does not reasonate with me. Something is just not adding up. I can't provide proof it is just my intuition. Xeon I assume you did not write this piece (you should at site the source -- even if you have permission to repost). The article is clearly biased, but is no different than the rest of the stuff that gets passed off as journalism today.