Troy

Whew! You had me worried there for a second LOL!😅

I graduated from Syracuse University and walked by a table Jim was seated at school reunion. I did not approach him. I just thought to myself "hey that is Jim Brown." as I walked by/ He wore #44 the same number as Floyd Little another SU grad, who I did get to meet and actually hang out with a bit. Ernie Davis also wore #44. SU retired the number and built statues for each of the running backs. May he R.I.P.

Thanking for sharing this timeline. The Greeks did not hide the source of their knowledge. That came later by others. This is a snapshot of the domain from December 2009, is it the same site? It does not appear to be. If it isn't, it is curious the Internet Archive does not have a snapshot the original site prior to 2004. The timeline deserves to be in a book (I'd be surprised if it isn't). It would be great to juxtapose what was happening in Europe concurrently. The migration of homo sapiens out of Africa populating the rest of the planet should have been included. Also check out the TIMELINE OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA 1501-1865

OMG! @frankster do you buy into the multiple Black race idea as well? Thie has already happened. Irish and other ethnicities where not considered white. Like @Pioneer1 I too hope this is not your last post.

Ok, that is not what I’m talking about. I tought you were talking about a news organization. Those guys are fine but they are not what I’m talking about when it comes to producing daily journalism on issues of relevance to Black people. I for example i learned about Jordan’s killing through word of mouth, here, and on a YouTube video all of this is basically gossip. I honestly don’t know what actually happened. Im in New York and a couple of people here understand why the guy was choked and don’t feel the intent was to murder the guy. i could probably check a variety of different sources and cobble together something close to the truth, but I don’t have the time or desire to do that. Where do you go to get news that is not opinions based, but fact checked reporting?

A few books on reparations: https://aalbc.com/books/category.php?name=Books+on+Reparations

@ProfDtell us more about NBM. I'm not familiar with them. Have uou ever mentioned them before on this site? I could of course do a search, but I rather read you take first.

@ireneearoyo welcome to the forums. Can can believe 8% of Floridians are former New Yorkers. However, I don't believe " Thirty-nine percent of Empire Staters packed up and moved to the Sunshine State, more than any year in history." I think that may have been misworded. Maybe 39% of the people who left the NY state went to Florida -- not 39% of the state.

African Americans need a platform (more than one really) that we own and most importantly use as a source for information and news. I don't think Black people have been silent -- y'all haven't been. Seriously, where do y'all get your news? How would you know how the Black community has voiced their concern on this killing? Are you relying on white folks to provide this information to you? I've probably ridden the NYC subway more than anyone on this forum, and I can't honestly tell you how I would have reacted. In the 70s, when the subway was a dystopian hellscape, you learned to mind your business. It was a survival tactic. When people started getting in each other's faces I would get up a move to another car. Breaking up an altercation between to grown men would not have occurred to me. Homelessness in our cities is a problem, though I'm not sure what this has to do with this killing.

@Pioneer1 As you know I'm about a pro-Black as they come, but that is in direct reaction to racism, not my inherent desire. In an ideal world everyone would recognize that there is only one human race and we would all behave as the genetic family we are. Of course, that is not our reality today, so we have to react accordingly to survive. See this is when so called "race" becomes a problem. There are, what you described as "near-White people running around wearing the Black identity," because they ARE Black. Blackness is not just one's phenotype, it is family and culture as well. My kids have my complexion "brown" but they have folks in their ancestry (on their mother's side) -- that I've met, who can pass for white -- but make no mistake they are 100% Black. You can't start throwing our family out of the Black community, because how they look. Racist white folks are not going to accept them. I don't consume as much mass media so I have not noticed the trend. @Chevdove Does Kim self-identify as Black? If a white woman has lived her life in the Black community, married a Black man, and reared Black children, then she may be more culturally Black than many Black women who look Black. We used to call those Black women "Oreos." Some Oreos are culturally white and have no interest in embracing the Black community. They will marry a white person and move through the world like white people, as best as they can given our culture. I think culture trumps phonotype when it comes to being Black.

The first Black-owned bookstore, in America, was operated in New York City by David Ruggles. It was burned down by a racist mob. The document below shows the memo ordering Black bookstores to be surveilled. The act of informing and educating Black people has always been considered a threat to this nation. The inadequacy of my own education is what drives me to share information about books and to promote other booksellers and Black publishers.

Six years old. What is that first grade? This little boy got a loaded gun from his house, safety off, carried to school in his Ninja Turtle back pack, pulled it out, aimed it at his teacher , pulled the trigger and shot her! Sorry, the mother, and the person she brought the gun from, should be imprisoned. Anyone remember being 6? How many people did you shoot to kill at that age. They better keep an eye on that little kid. He is dangerous.

I watched a portion of the video @Pioneer1 posted. How come people like this, who can invoke a near death experience at will are not on Oprah and more widely known? seems like her ability could be easily proven. Since neither of these things have happened i find it hard to believe. Is it just me? Now i would really would like to believe what he is saying is true, but i remain very skeptical.

@Pioneer1 yep. Note that I’m older and not quite as heavy I get called Darius Rucker. Why don’t you share some before and after photos 🙂

Look at you! You went back waaay back. I did not know they had color photography back then 😉 I don't think I have any -- other than the ones in the year book...

I shared an evaluator ride with him once and he reminded me of you in terms of how he looked. Plus you two are artists. Not really too concerned with what other people think when it comes to how you live -- you do you. Would you elaborate on this, because the analogy is lost on me. Physicality and Spirituality are indeed different, otherwise they would not be on different ends of a continuum. Darkness and light are on opposite ends of a continuum and are different. The difference is not just perception, but reality. Unless you are saying our perception of reality is artificial and that the differences we perceive are not really there at all...

Thanks @Chevdove i hope to post new video of Kassahun later this week. That video is about 15 years old!

“At IBPA PubU, Black Indie Publishers Call for Audacity and Advocacy“ and an article from Publishers Weekly about our panel from this weekend in San Diego. In my opinion, the best quote from the article was: Everyone on the panel “came out of the struggle” for civil rights, said Coates, who opened Black Classic Press in 1978. “Wade as a young man was involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Louisiana. Haki is still one of the foundational members of the Black Lives Movement. Kassahun was with the Eritrean Liberation Front. Myself with the Black Panther Party. These are people who carried the struggle forward and had it bloom in publishing.” Walter Mosley, Troy Johnson, Wade and Cheryl Hudson, Andrea Fleck-Nisbet (IBPA CEO), Karen Pavlicin (IBPA Board Chair), Paul Coates, Haki Madhubuti, Ayo Sekai, and Kassahun Checole. Thoughts on the Legends of Black Independent Publishing. Originally shared on TikTok.

The photo above popped up in a completely unrelated search on Google for a book. Completely distracted from what I was I was originally looking for by this photo I had to see where it was posted which brought me back here. I also felt compelled to share an updated version. This photo was taken a few minutes ago. I'm in my current office. My high school diploma is above my right shoulder in both photos. I suspect most people don't have their HS diploma framed and hung on a wall. I guess that is why it is called an "Ego Wall." Then again, if you went to my HS, you'd probably get it. Am I right @Mel Hopkins? Troy in the photo above could have never imagined Troy in the photo below. Anyone who has been an adult for more than 25 years can say the same thing. I guess that is why I find older people so fascinating. What will the next 25 years hold for us? Google knows really knows what will engage you... I miss the days when Google was just a good search engine.

Hi @Yvonne Blackwood I'll add the book to your page on the site. Let me know if you would like to share an excerpt.

Hi @Kathleen I see this your 4th post, but the first one I've read, so please excuse my tardy welcome to the forums 🙂 College teaches you how to work for someone else, to be an effective corporate tool. Learning to change the system, or even understanding why it needs to be changed is not part of the program. @Pioneer1 your comparison between the past and today's opportunities resonates. I also believe there is some grade inflation going on: Someone who graduated from high school in the 50's is as well "educated" as someone with a college degree in the humanities today. Don't ask me to cite a study or prove what I just wrote; it just seems that way. Maybe @Cynique can provide some insight on this observation. Meanwhile, colleges have lost their way; for example, It is obscene what many schools spend to field a football team, while charging exorbitant tuition and fees to students. Many of these students don't graduate or come away with a degree that does not server them in the marketplace or for staring their own business. I have two masters degrees (engineering and business). I have never had a job that actually required anything I learned in college. For me the degree was a credential required to get in the door -- one many of my white peers did not require. I learned everything I needed to know on the job.

yes that is more accurate, but rather that confusion perhaps it is ignorance or being out of touch with your spiritual nature.

Please, sent it to me at AALBC 15130 Amberly Dr Ste 250 Tampa, FL 33647

Welcome to the forums @CannabisLover1 In the years since the conversations was started a lot changed, but not really... Instead of locking up Black people for minor drug offenses and throwing away the key. Folks, mostly white, are now profiting from weed sales which is legalized for medical use or completely outright in most of the country. The number of deaths from drug over dose has increased substantially largely due to the criminal activity of the Sackler family's Purdue Pharma. The Sacklers literally got away with murder and are immune from lawsuits... Prohibition is not the cause of the holocaust greed is.

That resonates. Spirituality, also, as Frankster stated... This in my mind includes not just all other people, but the rest of the universe. I hear you. I used to feel that way to until I learned more. I used to believe anything of value came from Western civilization from the Greek. That is what I was taught, but as I got older and learned more I realized this was simply factually in accurate and that he true has been deliberately hidden, obfuscated, and distorted. I recently shared information about Ancient African Writing Systems. European historians know that the Greeks learned from Africa. But our public schools teach us nothing about the African origins of Western knowledge including religion. Everything we've learned from the West has been perverted primarily for the financial benefit of a few. Pioneer wrote. Some religions teach you that you must go through a man (always a man) to get to God, to experience the Divine. Again, the West has stripped out the most important aspects of religion. As a result, you have a culture of people who are spiritually vacuous. The Western world is increasingly nonreligious for this reason. We will never address any of the worlds most serious problems wars, climate change, poverty from this position. Interestingly, Octavia Butlers Parable series examines, thought fiction, the potential consequence of a lack of spirituality and religious based fascism to grow unfettered. In the second book in her series, Parable of the Talents, the presidential candidate, a Christian, issues a call to "Make American Great Again!" Parable of the Talents was published in the 1998, long before Trumpism. The spiritual emptiness of the world's most powerful nations is, in my opinion, the planet's most serious problem.