Troy

President AOC is feasible in 5 years.

Well plenty of people are moving to the continent. But I not sure we’ll escape the influence of AI fueled social media anywhere electricity is available.

I answered Yes. I even have training on how to build a PC as recently as 2017.

I'm beginning to see more of these AI generated sales pitches (see below). The use of the word "delved" in the first sentence is a tell. The service itself is AI driven. AI is already being touted as tool one can use to craft and read unique bedtime story to your kid. What happens to a culture when there are no shared stories -- when all the stories are unique to the individual? Well, we already know; the AI powered bots on social media give people completely different world views, and we losing cultural cohesion as a result. --------- Hi Troy, As I delved into the fascinating world of African American literature and book festivals, I was struck by your dedication to promoting and celebrating Black writers and publishers. Your work on publishing book reviews, author interviews, and sharing information about black-owned bookstores resonated deeply with me. It's remarkable to see how your efforts have helped to amplify the voices of Black writers and publishers. I was particularly intrigued by your article "Supporting Independent Black Publishers and Presses" and how it highlights the importance of Black readers supporting Black presses and publishers. As someone who has spent years working in the publishing industry, I appreciate the significance of this initiative. As we kick off the new quarter, I'd like to explore how [company name]'s AI-powered sales platform can support your mission. Our platform utilizes AI agents to enhance customer engagement through personalized emails, ensuring efficient delivery and interactive ad decks. I'd love to discuss how our services can help streamline your operations and drive revenue growth. Let's initiate a chat to explore how [company name] can help amplify your impact. [Attachment] AALBCcom material. _____________________ [name of contact] Head of AI Sales

No, I don’t have any tech from the 70’s there wasn’t much personal tech to speak of back then just a TV, radio, Variety of devices to play music, a calculator, and maybe a digital watch. Yeah, that laptop did not have a hard drive. One of the floppy disks held the operating system and other held the program that you were running. I’m not sure they called that device a laptop back then might’ve been called a portable computer, but I could be wrong. I did not answer the question because I did not know what you meant between computational and physical elements. Are used to build and sell personal computers back in the early 90s.

Hi Dee that clearly is not true, as there would be entire genres that would not exist if that were. Now if you are writing about the real world (people, places, and things) it is helpful to know something about the subject otherwise your story will ring false to readers who know something the subject. Sure, story telling is an art and it requires skill. Some people are naturally better that others at doing it.

I have a low pop culture quotient; who are we talking about here? Seems like it can be almost anyone in Hollyweird.

@ProfD When I was a kid whenever two more black women got together, they were usually gossiping about someone. Sometimes it might get a little mean spirited, but usually it’s just folks judging others for entertainment. On some level, I think this is part of human nature. Gossip magazines took this to another level. Celebrities Who the average person might know allowed even larger groups of people to stand around the water cooler and gossip about the likes of Puff Daddy and TD Jakes as if they actually know them Social media has put all of this on steroids now any knucklehead’s two cents, If it feeds the algorithm correctly, can now be heard by100s of thousands or even millions of people. that same dopamine hit you get by being the first to reveal a juicy piece of gossip to your girlfriends just become so much greater when a few hundred thousand people “like” your comment. So now people are chasing likes, bringing out the worst of us. @Pioneer1 they now have video of Puff Daddy Kickin that “foine” young lady’s butt. So now every man can call puffy a “bit@h as$-ni88er” and prove to the Metaverse how righteous they are. Our culture is off code, our people are just rejecting this.

Footsteps echoed. No one was there. Child's laughter. No children lived here. Doll blinked. Batteries long dead. Three AI generated. Humanity mercifully euthanized

Hi @Valerie RJ. Welcome to the forums!

There were a few hiccups with the book, but I will begin promoting, in earnest, The Savion Sequence. It is available in Hardcover and Paperback. Ebook and audiobooks are coming. I'n also experimenting with an AI tool that generates display ads and runs them on Meta and Google's display network. The ads and their placement are continually monitored for optimal placement.

Black Mirror was great. I did not know it was back on. Seems my NetFlix recommendation engine is not work very well. It is always pushing The Chi and other Black stuff to me...

I just checked and see @Pioneer1 has not visited the forums since April 27. While that is not a long time, relatively speaking, it is for him. Well, I trust all is alright with my “incorrigible Brother.”

I’m in dc now @ProfD spent all day at the airport suffering from ridiculous delays. You ever go to Mike’s in Annapolis? Barry was a beloved figure a true man of the people. Right up there with Chuck Brown. BTW the “bit@h” did set him up

Ok I see everyone's point. You can't come to a reasonable conclusion based upon an out of context clip -- I should know better

Yeah I heard about this and curiosity got the best of me. The whole situation was embarrassing. Marjorie Taylor Green Should have been immediately disciplined for the initial insult. It was childish and mean spirited. I’ll go as far and say it was raciest as I suspect there is no evidence of her disrespecting a white person like that. It is disheartening to know people like Green are elected and help craft our laws. Rep. Crockett’s response, while humorous, was also out of place. As former First Lady Obama said when they go low we go high.

We lived through one Trump presidency. I'm not very concerned about another. Based upon my gut, a second Trump presidency seems unlikely. The media's collective opinion, based upon years of experience is no better than mine... I called the first Trump presidency. The only wild card is that I have no clue what the impact of the gerrymandering over the past 4 years will be. Can Trump loose the popular vote by 3, 4, or 5 million votes and still win the office? I was talking about people of all races. But you know the trope; when white American catches a cold... We have a great many things to be concerned with that transcend race. Abortion laws hit poor people the hardest. The impact on education as a result of the Covid Pandenic can begin to be calculated (those chickens will come home to roost) -- again poor people hit the hardest here too. Inflation despite what the numbers and talking heads say is WAY up in every city I've visited and lived in. The cost of living in suburban Tampa has increased dramatically since I purchased a home here everything is noticeably more expensive. We have TikTok and inexpensive strong weed, so the masses are largely placated. I don't think it is a "perception" on every measure the matters the comparison is apropos. I have faith that our government will not allow Trump to become the dictator of America. Pence was just one example. Trump picked Pence for a reason and Pence stood firm when it mattered most and so did many other republicans. I think Pence deserved a medal and Trump should have been tried for treason. @aka Contrarian we live in different information silos. I suspect you are exposed to far more Trump hysteria than I am, so you are much more of an alarmist on him than I. We should be more concerned about so many guns in the hands of the public, the wealthy people (and corps) who don't come close to paying their fair share of taxes, and out impact on climate change to start.

@Veronica G. Henry, thanks for sharing information about your upcoming book with us!

I’ve been stopped countless times for speeding over the years but much less in recent years. My Florida state drivers license actually says “safe driver,” but there was a time I was in a high-risk pool and my insurance was higher that my car. The last speeding ticket I got I was doing 74 and a 55. The ticket was $700, it was in some shitty town in the middle of nowhere in South Carolina. the officer said he could throw me in jail and actually would not let me drive the car away. Fortunately, my ex-wife was with me and she drove the car. this past weekend in Palm Coast, Florida I was stopped for doing 52 and a 35. I didn’t realize I was speeding. I was in the flow of traffic. The officer asked me when the last time I was stopped for speeding. I said I didn’t know, she asked was it last month last year? I said no it’s been years. I was carrying out of date registration documents, but the car is registered and everything else was fine. The office came back told me the expired registration was $160 and the speeding ticket was 250 but she said she would give me a warning this time and sent me on my way. Like I said, I’ve been pulled over a lot sometimes I’m completely innocent and I’ve been treated badly and the other times I was completely wrong and was treated with respect and kindness. I relate countless stories. From my perspective driving while Black is really a thing. But what I can say is that does not seem to be a correlation between the north and the south offices are individuals and behave as such. My only advice would be to comply. Don’t curse. at an officer of the law maintain your composure. telling a trooper “get out my damn way” is not gonna work. It is just stupid to do that. as far as the question at hand, I think the future for Black people is relatively good again this is relative to prior years. However, I think the country as a whole poor and middle-class people in general will be worse off. We are in the midst of a new Gilded Age. The only difference is that the poorest of the poor today are far better off than they were 100 years ago.

Thanks @Delano, as you can probably tell this is an AI Video. Someone, who did not know this was an AI video, asked me about the Brother in the video. They were "interested."

Yeah, it is very much "south park" like in humor @ProfD, but south park is, if you can believe it, less base. Like South Park there are celebrity appearances Trump. Elon Musk, one of those rich white girls, maybe Paris Hilton (or it could just be the archetype). At any rate, the series if humorous and I'm not offended as the show does not reflect me or Black people in general. it is playing on exaggerated stereotypes. It has nothing to do with the original Good Times thought there are some references to it that would go over anyone's head who did not see the original. Any white person stupid enough to think this is an accurate reflection of Black life was already lost. Any Black person offended can cancel their Netflix subscription and watch something else. In 2024 there are many programs offering a realistic and intelligent representation of Black life. Most comedy will offend someone, that is the nature of the art.

Interestingly I did not hear of this program until this campaign -- and I'm a Netflix subscriber (or someone in my family is...we share accounts) I just watched the first two episodes. Perhaps the most striking this was the use of the word "Motherf*cker" which I don't recall ever hearing in a cartoon. They have a bunch of Black comedians participating J B Smooth, Wanda Sykes... There was one Joke thar made me laugh out loud. I would not put this cartoon on the same level as Birth of a Nation -- on any level. I would not judge the series on a trailer either. However, if people feel strong enough to cancel their Netflix subscription I'm all for that, we need to be doing more of this thing. I think we should be boycotting McDonalds, Amazon, Newport, etc. It would be interesting to hear what anyone else who has seen this cartoon thinks.

An Open Letter to Ted Sarandos Co-Chief Executive Officer of Netflix CEMOTAP Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People 135-05 Rockaway Boulevard South Ozone Park, N.Y. 11420 (347-907-0629) Ted Sarandos Co-Chief Executive Officer Netflix Corporate Headquarters 100 Winchester Circle Los Gatos, CA 95032 Sir, the purpose of this letter is to express outrage at your ill-advised and ill-named release of “Netflix Good Times Reboot.” This insulting cartoon has only the most superficial and negative relationship to the original Good Times TV series. The claim by some of the creators that this is satire is so bogus as to not warrant response. The great satirists took on powerful people, not the people in the ostensibly less powerful position. When powerful people such as yourself and Seth McFarlane portray African people in this way you are ridiculing us not satirizing the powerful. Historically such ridicule has often preceded actual violence against the people ridiculed. Hollywood’s “Birth of a Nation” preceding the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and Red Summer of 1919 in which more Black people were lynched in America than in any other year of its history, is just one example of that sequence. If you do not understand this reference, google it. It is not the purpose of this letter to educate you comprehensively. However, we will take the time to review with you seven of the specific offensive messages delivered in your trailer for this series. Message 1. Black People are Ugly: Portraying the father figure’s face with small cranium and wide jaw in such a way as to fit the template of Magilla Gorilla is not funny. It is a part of a longstanding trope of whites making simian references to African people. Ironically Thomas Jefferson made similar reference in his Notes on the State of Virginia. We would have thought you would not be guilty of the exact same hypocrisy. Message 2. Black People are Stupid: Having a father ask his son, is it possible for his daughter to get disability for her face is not funny. It is ridicule and in the tradition of another long-standing trope. Message 3. Black People are violent and criminal from birth: Portraying Black babies as selling drugs and shooting automatic weapons at each other is not funny. It is all too real. Message 4. Black People are rude, crude, lewd and hypersexual: Portraying a bug-eyed dog watch a man with the profile of a gorilla have sex with a Black woman doggy style while slapping her bottom is not funny. It is not satire it is ridicule. Portraying the Black teacher as an alcoholic (sipping from her flask), nicotine addict (cigarettes in her pocket), pedophile, making sexually loaded comments about one of her students (a child) is not funny. Message 5. Black People's Struggle for Freedom, Justice and Equality is a joke: Using Rosa Parks name as a rebuke is not funny. Portraying Harriet Tubman having sex with Gwyneth Paltrow as McFarlane did in earlier cartoons is not satire. It is ridicule and the recurrence of a sick McFarlane theme. Message 6. Black People are worthless: Portraying a Black Father telling his children he was dumb for not wearing a condom when his wife conceived them is not satire it is ridicule. Having your characters calling a Black woman the B word or a Black boy the N word is not funny it is offensive. Message 7. Black People have nothing sacred that whites are bound to respect: Superfluous reference to our ancestors, ridicule of Jesus portrayed as white, ridicule of Jesus portrayed as Black and ridicule of God with a Black voice portrayed with lavender and turquoise fingernails, superfluous reference to the Ancient African God Anubis and to Ancestor Rosa Parks is sacrilege to the main objects of worship of Black people in America. Please note that It did not go unnoticed how you did not make reference to Muhammad Ibn Abdullah or the God Allah in this trailer. You have obviously learned the lesson taught to Salman Rushdie in his ill-advised attempts at humor. True satirists don’t generally spare foes they consider dangerous. Bullies do. Since you have released all 10 episodes of this atrocity, already and appear to have the intent to leave them available to the public indefinitely. There is no room for negotiation. We are going to exercise our right as free people to withhold our dollars from your enterprise for as long as you show this outrage and to withhold our dollars for at least an equal amount of time after you stop. James C. McIntosh, M.D. and Betty J. Dopson Co-Chairs CEMOTAP

Also, take our 2-Minute Survey to Benefit Black Authors: https://qualtrics.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eh543jnw9wZUveS (survey closes May 25, 2024) The survey results provide crucial insights and interesting disparities within the publishing industry. For example, full-time self-published authors invest three times more in marketing than their traditionally published counterparts. Download survey results: https://aalbc.com/pdf/Authors-Guild-AALBC-US-Published-Black-Author-Income-Study-12072023.pdf