Troy

Hey @ProfD you better watch yourself or else I'll have to ban you LOL! Seriously, THIS comment is "racist and hurtful?!" Actually, by definition, it is the Karens who are racist and hurtful! It was probably a Karen that requested that the comment be pulled.

Yes that is the video. I liked the spirt of the video and the variety of rappers presented. Professor Griff and Ice Cube are two completely different animals. Ice Cube is an entertainer, motivated by money. Griff is trying to uplift Black people. East coast riders created a similar video too featuring Ms Melody and KRS1 and others.

So while is can rock James Brown's hairdo he can't match his dance moves, but he was dancing and what is wrong with that? He is the leader of the Black community in so far as we have one today. Again I'm open to entertaining any others you like to suggest who have a bigger platform and larger fallowing.

Here is a list of other Black owned newspapers: https://aalbc.com/newspapers/ Regardless of what you think about the man, Sharpton is the most prominent Black leader of this generation. Yes there are Black leaders in communities across the country, but on a national no one else comes close to Sharpton's prominence. I listened to the 30 minute sermon above and is was delivered in the style of the Baptist ministers on my youth which is interesting because Rev Al is only 7 years older than me but presents as a much older man... I'm not sure if that style appeals to many young people. I'm from NYC and remember Rev Al when is was an obese, perm-sporting, medallion-wearing, jogging suit attired brother. He did not fit the mold of a leaders and was an easy target for ridicule. In his sermon he mention that a reporter told him that he was surprised Al would end up an a State dinner in the white house -- shoot I was surprised too! Of course Brother Al has modified his appearance conforming to the traditional mold -- indeed out dressing pretty much everyone. Obama's embrace of Sharpton over Tavis Smiley and others was deliberate and ultimately divisive to Black leadership. Sharpton roles was apparently to keep the Blacks under control. Others like Cornel West and the Black media were more interested in holding him accountable -- which Obama always avoided. One would think Obama would have assumed the leadership role, but I'm not surprised he hasn't...

Welcome to the forums @petersmths

Just Us Books, Nation's Leading Black Owned Children's Book Publisher, Celebrates 35th Anniversary Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson, Founders of Just Us Books (West Orange, NJ) September 22, 2023 ─ The average life-span of a small business is eight and a half years according to The New York Times. As Just Us Books prepares to celebrate 35 years in business, it's not only beating the odds, it's also continuing to blaze a trail, publishing children's books that center and celebrate Black stories, history and culture. "Just Us Books' 35th anniversary is not just a celebration of our company," says Wade Hudson, CEO and co-founder. "It's a recognition of 35 years of children reading, learning, growing, and being affirmed through stories that reflect the richness of Black culture and history, which is especially important in today's climate of banned and challenged books." The company plans to celebrate the milestone throughout its 35th year, which begins October 1, 2023, with special content and events, including a bookfair being planned for spring. "We're reminded every day ─ by teachers, librarians, parents, readers of all ages ─ that our work, our books are needed," says Cheryl Hudson, Editorial Director and co-founder of Just Us Books. "Their support has been such a big part of Just Us Books' journey. So we're looking forward to celebrating this milestone with our extended community throughout the year." The Just Us Books journey began in the early 1980s. Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson, who live in East Orange, NJ, were parents in search of children's books that reflected the diversity of Black history, heritage and experiences. Disappointed by the number they found and their limited availability, the couple embarked upon a mission: to create the kind of positive, Black-interest books that they wanted for their own two children. Combining their experience, Wade's in writing and marketing, Cheryl's in art and publishing, they developed ideas for books that shared universal children's themes from an Afrocentric perspective. The couple presented manuscripts to publishing houses but they were repeatedly turned down ― several publishing professionals even doubting the viability of a market for children's books featuring Black characters. So the Hudsons decided to publish the books themselves. The AFRO-BETS A B C Book was released in 1987 and Just Us Books was incorporated a year later. The success of the small press soon proved doubters wrong. Titles including Book of Black Heroes From A to Z and Bright Eyes, Brown Skin became classroom and library staples. And larger publishing companies followed Just Us Books' lead, publishing and widely distributing more children's books featuring diverse stories and characters. The company's 35-year history has been marked by numerous accomplishments including a production partnership with Crown, an imprint of Random House, which produced the three anthologies including the award-winning We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices; a 1999 marketing partnership with General Mills and the UniverSoul Circus; and the publication of In Praise of Our Fathers and Our Mothers, a book about the Black family that brought together celebrated authors and artists, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Virginia Hamilton, Walter Dean Myers, Jeanne Moutousammy-Ashe, Leo and Diane Dillon, Fred and Patricia McKissack. Its books, including From A Child's Heart, The Secret Olivia Told Me, I'm A Big Sister Now and Kwame Nkrumah's Midnight Speech for Independence, have earned numerous awards. Just Us Books has won multiple honors, including Small Business Pioneer of the Year, the Children's Book Council Diversity Award, and its founders have become recognized leaders in publishing and the push for diversity in children's literature, with the couple being awarded the prestigious Carle Honor for Mentorship in 2022. In 35 years of operation, Just Us Books has become more than a children's book publishing company; it's become an institution. It also remains one of the nation's few Black-owned publishers. And the company continues its mission grounded in the same belief that helped launch the company three and a half decades ago: Good books make a difference. Just Us Books' titles can be purchased wherever books are sold and via its website: justusbooks.com. Connect with the company on social at @JustUsBooks across all platforms.

So my little toddler loves to have books read to her and as you might imagine she has a ton of books. Recently, she indicated she wanted me to read a specific book. So, she hopped off my lap and went to one of several stacks of and struggled to pull one from near the bottom of the stack. The book was Corduroy by Don Freeman. Corduroy was originally published in 1968 and features a young Black girl named Lisa, who has to empty her piggy bank to buy this less than perfect stuff bear. I did not learn about the book until recently, as it was present. I thought the book was well done given the year it was published. I figured more books had to have been made featuring the cute little bear and the adorable young lady Lisa. There were several more Corduroy books published, but Lisa was "disappeared!" Intrigued I had to find out the heck happened to Lisa. I stumbled across Jen Bradbury's Youth Ministry blog when she wrote an article, "Whatever happened to Corduroy's Lisa?" Jen, a white woman, explains: "At this point, I cannot help but wonder if racism is at work here. How else do you explain the complete disappearance of a black family from a beloved children’s series? ... Perhaps you think I’m making a big deal out of nothing. But erasing black people out of a children’s book isn’t nothing. It’s racism." Don Freeman based Lisa on a neighbor's child. Who knows what was going on in the mind of the publisher. The publisher has their own built-in biases which they use to inform their understanding of the market and the books that they produce. This would naturally be informed by racist attitudes of the day. Fortunately, times have changed, and things have improved dramatically when it comes to books featuring Black children. One particularly lovely book, Big by Vashti Harrison was just long listed for a National Book Award!

I just read about the March on an issue of The Afro American. i knew it was a big anniversary but for dinner train it was lost on me that there was an actual March. Not a commemoration, but a continuation. It was organized by the leader of black america, in so far as we have one, Al Sharpton. Editorial in the paper indicated turn it was low. I’m firmly convinced the days of a black leader are gone. We are off doing our own thing. Maybe that is the result of “progress.”

@Pioneer1 I don’t think people who are locked up are factored into the poverty figures. The poverty rate also measures income versus a defined figure fora location as more blacks move out of cities where the threshold for poverty is higher to place where the threshold is lower poverty rates will decline (assuming local rates are being used in the graph above. People were still getting stimulus checks, PPE money, extended unemployment in 2022 right? with inflation, rising the cost of energy from utilities to gasoline. The Increased cost of money I can see gains in 2022 being erased.

that is always the case — the media hypes everything. It is one reason I don’t to listen to “the news.” Funny, when I first read the title of this post I thought it was about the insurrection.

I have think about this one… I like the stop the violence video out of the west coast. Michael Jason videos were like feature films 🙂 but it is hard to discuss music videos without talking about Hype Williams very talented… here he demonstrates less is more

I was not aware of Vivien Theodore Thomas! The film title sounds vaguely familiar though. This for sharing!

@Dee Miller you should be good now. Again, feel free to delete anything not positive, if i don't get to it first. This will be the only forum moderated with a heavy hand.

Yes that is wrong. And financial compensation should be made in these cases.

Stop! We have been over this before @Jeromex If you continue to say things that YOU KNOW to be factually untrue I will ban your account for simply being a straight up spammer. If you'd like to continue simply acknowledge what you've written is false, and we can move on. You may reference the FBI's data; they provide a handy tool. It is not perfect (there is no perfect data set), but one can see the arrests for white folks are more than twice that for Black people in 2021. @nels statements about DC crime is factually accurate, but his conclusion that "...this will never change" is his opinion. Which you are free to express. The information Nels provided and his conclusions are biased and misleading. The fact is Blacks make up a larger percent of the population (based upon 2020 census) so of course more Black people make up more of the victims and offenders of crime. if you factor in income the numbers will be more pronounced. This unfortunate but not unusual or unique to Black people. I seriously doubt that Black people go to white websites and write, "Hey there is a serious problem in Montana with white-on-white crime! You white people are responsible for +90% of the crime and you are +90% of the victims! White crime in Montana is higher than the national average something must be done about this!" The media don't talk about the problem of white-on-white crime. Instead, we focus on Black folks and create the false impression that we are worse than white folks. Even some brainwashed Black people buy into this propaganda. This, as the good @ProfD often reminds us, is a direct consequence of living in a white racist society -- we are all affected. Sadly, some more than others.

@frankster, yeah that was classic Farrakhan! The minster brilliantly exposed the hypocrisy of American's most esteemed media platform -- 60 Minutes. Involuntary servitude coupled with the explosion of the prison population tells you something about America when you compare it to other nations. The American propaganda machine creates a great deal of cognitive dissonance in the population which is why many people reject any critique of America. They can't handle it... I echo @ProfD's comments Frank, you are a tremendous resource and a bastion of sanity.

@nels I removed our entire last exchange as it is a meaningless distraction.

I was doing some research on Black-owned websites and stumbled across this -- 70 years of marriage wow! Happy 70th Wedding Anniversary to The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, who were married on September 12, 1953. Read More.

@Cynique you are amazing. 🙂 but you have insulted garbage collectors 😉

Sources matter. It is hard to take a source like Brietbart, that runs ads like the ones below, seriously. Even AALBC does not have to run that kind of crap. SMH….

So present some evidence. You waste time. Present information to prove your assertions to her idiocy. fact of the matter is that you can’t otherwise you would have done it by now. Look reasonable people can disagree with her behavior or her decisions—I actually do, but what gives you the gall to call her an “idiot.” She is a sitting Vice President what have you done? You sound irrational.

@nels OK, so you don't hate Kamala, seemed like a reasonable conclusion based upon the incessant verbal's insults you've hurled against her. I stand corrected. Still rather than calling her an idiot, which she demonstrably is not, why do you state something that she did that you find idiotic?

I'm still unclear @nels are you talking about success versus showcasing success?

@Pioneer1 I'm listening, for the first time, to the video you posted last December. I had just made a post where I wrote, "The motivation of trolls never made sense to me." Tariq addresses this in his program. His explanation is as good as any... Welcome to the forum @Eddie .... Don't let me regret it 😉

LOL! You see what Jeromex is doing? He made an obviously false statement to justify a previous false statement. When he is called on it, he changes the statement. Now he states that 99% percent of the police homicides are justified. Of course, he does not know this to be a true, he is just conjuring it out of thin air. But he misses the point. Black people are unjustifiably killed by white police officers far too often. This is what makes the news. The snuff film that was the police execution of George Floyd (RIP) devastated a nation -- and for good reason -- it was sadistic. If a Black police officer kills an unarmed white man and it is videoed -- that will make headline news too. But of course people like Jerome will say he George brough it all on himself.... a callous, sick mentality.