Troy

Thanks for watching the video @Dee Miller Your idea to create this forum was a good idea. It is really important to note that we must actively celebrate our greatness. I have 27 hundred followers on YouTube and after 2 years the Tom Wood has been watched 87 times (YouTube does not report embedded views, as posted above because they want you to watch video directly on YouTube. The videos YouTube want you to watch at best don't serve us very well. YouTube's algorithm is designed to keep you engaged on YouTube, so that more advertising revenue can be generated. The video below which I only uploaded to YouTube to make it easier for me to share with a few people was watched 22,000 times in the first 12 hours. I can't afford to pay YouTube to show the Tom Wood video that many times. Again, we have to actively share our greatness. That is what made the magazines you shared so important.

When I was a kid Ebony and Jet were ubiquitous. 🙂 I learned about Freedom's Journal and Negro Digest after starting this site. For the publication of Black Arts creative literature, no magazine was more important than the Chicago-based Johnson publication Negro Digest / Black World. Johnson published America’s most popular Black magazines, Jet and Ebony. Hoyt Fuller, who became the editor in 1961, was a Black intellectual with near-encyclopedic knowledge of Black literature and seemingly inexhaustible contacts. Because Negro Digest, a monthly, ninety-eight-page journal, was a Johnson publication, it was sold on newsstands nationwide. Originally patterned on Reader’s Digest, Negro Digest changed its name to Black World in 1970, indicative of Fuller’s view that the magazine ought to be a voice for Black people everywhere. The name change also reflected the widespread rejection of "Negro" and the adoption of "Black" as the designation of choice for people of African descent and to indicate identification with both the diaspora and Africa. The legitimation of "Black" and "African" is another enduring legacy of the Black Arts movement. Read More about Negro Diget in this article ▶ I shared information about an article "Negro in Literature Today" in Ebony that I thought was a great issue for a magazine designed for the masses.

Thanks @harry brown I'd forgotten about this book. As America becomes more multicultural, Rich Benjamin has noticed a phenomenon: some communities are actually becoming less diverse. So he got out a map, found the whitest towns in the USA and moved in. The author of Searching for Whitopia, Rich Benjamin observes modern society and politics. Benjamin is a senior fellow at Demos, a multi-issue think tank, and is just completing a novel on money, loss and heterosexual melancholy.

This is a consequence of being subjected solely to western media. I'm surprised at you LOL! If it were not for Africa, France would be a 3rd world country -- seriously. Why Black American's feel such a strong desire to go France over Africa boggles my mind. But again, this is a direct consequence of a white-racist culture, that tells us everything European is superior to anything African. Going to Africa should be something that every Black American must do - like a Haji.

The coups we are seeing in Africa are in reaction to French colonialism. To this day France still has their hands in the pockets of their colonies and they are still colonies. The people in power in these nations have been tools of the French and they are being replaced. Trump's isolationism was actually helpful to Africa... this is worth discussing in more detail...

I'll have to listen to the entire video when I have more time. @Delano what do you think about the numerology of "AI?" "A"=1 "I"=9 1+9 =10 =1 = "The One" or God (assuming I remembered that correctly)

I first met Tom Wood two years ago when I shot this video. Wood was the first Black member of a major U.S. bank’s board of directors, when he became a member of the Chase Manhattan Bank board of directors under the chairmanship of David Rockefeller. This would be Tom's last interview. He passed three week later.

I always thought this Brother should be a household name in America. He is crucial to the Black Book Ecosystem. He publishers scholarly work and had to fight to be recognized as such. White folks simply did not want Black people validating scholarship on Black subject matter -- amazing! I first met Kassahun at least 15 years ago which is how old the video I shot below is: I sat down with Kassahun 3 months ago he has been in business almost 37 years. He is also a distributor a business that I use for my book, Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (well it is not "my" book, but I purchased all the inventory for the title from the publisher). I use him as a source for books to resell that really aren't available anywhere else.

Black people will have wealth and power one day. The wealthy people @Pioneer1 mentioned were all entertainers at some point being paid by others. Today they employ people and help create wealth for others. It takes time to accumulate and maintain wealth. You also have to be ruthless on some level. Virtually all of the fantastic wealth created in the US came from ruthless business practice. You can't create a monopoly without a wiliness to destroy the livelihoods of others. Wealthy people have family offices, foundations, and politicians looking after their needs, helping them become ever wealthier, often at the expense of everyone else. They don't even pay their fair share of taxes. This is the source of Power 99.9% of the rest of us are left to fight over the scraps. The situation can't last forever, at some people will demand more... and I'm not just talking about Black people. We eventually have to stop fighting each other and turn our attention to the real oppressor. Anecdotally, Black people seem more inclined to do things that try to make the world better and are less willing to take advantage of others. There is simply no money in doing that. Our broke behinds wanna setup not-for-profits... We also do things like trying to sell books in a world with Amazon; growing social media use; declining reading rates and proficiency 😉

With a market-driven-AI-fueled-social-media-addicted population, any communication is propaganda. @Pioneer1 Gary apparently committed suicide.... Trailer for movie on Gary Webb

I’m still waiting…. It is because the source is obscure and Unsubstantiated? As far as the drugs that got a LOT of attention.

@Delano okay, yes when you post information that you think can help someone and it is recurved in a way that others find beneficial then you are teaching and that is not self centered. i was replying to the statement made in this conversation, not about you in general. I don’t think you are a selfish person 🙂 speaking of propaganda. Some feel man-made climate change is propaganda.

@Delano I think you stated your position quite clearly you are "focused on my learning." We communicate for different reasons as Delano stated we communicate to learn as well. You can't learn if you are fixed on trying to get someone to see things your way. Similarly, no one can benefit from your knowledge if you don't inform others and help them understand. The trick is knowing when you should be learning or teaching. 😉

In the last 150 years human productivity has increased astronomically. Robots, computers, and AI will continue to replace jobs. At this point we should all have 20-hour work weeks and making $100K with a HS Diploma, but all the financial benefits have accrued to a handful of people. The rest of us are placated with legalized weed and an iPhone. You can use the tech or be used by it. Believe what you want about HIV @Pioneer1. In the US more Black people have died from Covid in the last two years than have died from HIV in the past two decades. Using your logic Covid was crafted to kill Black people too. We've had this conversation before; when I mention the fact that more white people have died from AIDS in the US than Black people, you dismiss this and say it is collateral damage, acceptable loses toward to goal of Black destruction. At the start of the aids epidemic whites made up 83% of the country today they are 61% meanwhile Black people are have grow by a full percentage point to 12.7%. But this whole conversation about Black and white is silly because it has no scientific basis -- because race is purely subjective and racist. This is on the level of reasoning of flat-Earthers. At least with Crack we have Rick Ross and the "Dark Alliance" series from Gary Webb where he shared government documents, but with HIV you have nothing... Again, if you have something to share please do so.

@Delano and @Pioneer1, you are not opposite, but are looking at it from a self-centered perspective. Let's consider the broader community: We have people who do not believe in adverse impact of man-made climate change causing the planet to become increasingly in hospitable to human life. We also have people who believe it but are uninterested in doing anything about it. For the sake of future generations, it is important they we change the way these people think and ultimately behave. Thats is just one example what the skill of getting someone to change their way of thinking is important to humanity. How to get someone to change what they believe is actually well understood. Marketers take advantage of this knowledge, for profit, every single day. From a marketer's perspective and benefit or harm to their mark is unimportant. Too bad we don't leverage this knowledge to better serve the world.

Hi @Dee Miller I've decided to change the name of the forum. I want it to be crystal clear what the forum is about to anyone who stumbles across it. I also made you a moderator of the forum. I you happen to see something negative posted feel free to delete or warn the user. I'm not expecting you to do all the work, as I'll be moderating as well. Let me know if you have any questions. I'll make an announcement in the next newsletter.

I’ve always wanted to grow food. One of my grandfathers was a farmer and at least one of his children maintained a vegetable garden. I don’t believe any of us grandchildren picked up the skill. @Dee Miller share a link to you the newstory and/or FarmaSis

The HistoryMakers is a national 501©(3) non-profit research and educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans. Through the media and a series of user-friendly products, services and events, The HistoryMakers enlightens, entertains and educates the public, helping to refashion a more inclusive record of American history.

Yeah, @Dee Miller each item in the Blacknificent newsletter would be a good post for this forum. I agree @richardmurray positivity help, but it is just not very popular.

OK I failed to understand your answer. Please help me out and just reply with your choice option 1 or 2 (as described above). Thanks.

This is a misleading characterization of what Chat GPT is. Viewing it this way would lead to false assumptions. One would be foolish to believe this. Do you believe everything you read in the web, in a social media post, on Wikipedia? I use Chat GPT every day, but I use it is domains where I aware where it is making a mistake and or where the risk of a mistake is low. In the almost 40 years I've been on the internet (yes, predating the web). I've not seen anything as useful as these Generative AI tools. I was not aware of this and doubt most people accept this as truth. If anyone else other there believe this is true, please tell me where you are getting this information.

@Pioneer1 was unaware of the racial/racist component of the crusades. My understanding was that it was over religion which is a proxy for power. Again if you can show me something (which seemingly you can't otherwise you would have done it by now) I'd be happy to read it. I never brought into the Yacub stuff. None of the African scholars I've read from Williams, to Clarke, to Van Sertima, etc ever espoused the Yacub stuff. I've only known the NOI to promulgate the Yacub story. You are wiley one @richardmurray 🙂 You did not answer the question. It was a binary decision pick the best option, based upon the two. It does not mean you agree with the choice; consider it choosing the least bad option. In life we are often presented with these types of decisions. You can refuse to choose but let's be clear that is what you are doing. So, which is it; (1) the 6,000-year-old Yacub myth or (2) "...tied to the European colonial period and the transatlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century?"

Really, show me a credible source that says that. @richardmurray I appreciate we are on different frequencies, but again I ask, because you may have missed my question: Of the two explanations; (1) Chat GPT's and; (2) the Yacub story; which one would do you prefer. I'm not saying to have to buy into it hook line and sinker, I'm just asking which one seems most plausible.

@richardmurray it sounds similar because there are a finite way to say the same thing. what do you think about @Pioneer1’s explanation? Which answer resonates with you more Chat GPT’s response or the Yacub myth.

Well we know that from slavery days the harder you work the harder they expect you to always work. Same strategy amazon uses —they know how fast you can work and they expect nothing less. They know when you are slacking.