Do Companies Look for the WORST people When they Hire for Sales and Customer Service Jobs?

At my performance evaluation back when I was working at City College of New York, The Chief Librarian in an attempt to take a swipe at me told me he was looking for someone with a Sales/Customer Service background.

Now I always thought people with sales/customer service backgrounds were supposed to be pleasant friendly, and professional. And when I worked at the counter of the City College Science Library I did my best to be pleasant, courteous, friendly and professional.

But after dealing with employees at retail and my fellow co-workers at City College of New York I’m starting to learn that Sales/Customer Service especially in retail means being rude, surly, and having the nastiest attitude.

Seriously, what are the actual qualifications for sales/Customer Service jobs?

 Employers say they want nice, friendly professional people, but seem to go out and hire the most unpleasant, unprofessional rude, condescending, and obnoxious individuals.  And all of these people seem to go out of their way to be to find new and exciting ways to alienate and annoy the people who do business there.

All while the clueless Managers who hired them just twiddle their thumbs.

Retail Employers also say they want their Sales/Customer Service people to leave a lasting first impression on customers. But when customers run into these types of employees it sure leaves a lasting impression on them.

One that makes them shop at a competitor after shopping there.

I have to wonder: What happens between the interview and the day these people are hired?  They can’t come into the interview with that kind of obnoxious attitude. Again, I ask: what happens to these people between the interview and the day they’re hired? Do they get any customer service training? Or are these people just this nasty and obnoxious all the time?

Now I’ve worked in retail and customer service in the past. And I still do sales/Customer service when I do book promotion. And I’ve always tried to keep it professional. While I understand that there are politics and other silly little passive/aggressive games managers play, I did my best to rise above their nonsense and leave a strong first impression on customers.  In fact, my customer service was so strong, customers came looking for me.

I understood my place in the bigger picture. That I represented the business. And that the customers’ first impression of me reflected on the business.

When the customer has a good experience with a business they come back and shop again. And when they have a great experience, they recommend that business to their friends.

Customer Service and Sales are about building a relationship with the customer. Earning their trust. Developing a personal connection with people that they correlate with the product.

That’s what I used to see when I shopped at Brooks Brothers. That’s what I saw at Orvis. And that’s what I tried to provide when I worked in these kinds of jobs.

Unfortunately the Brooks Brothers and Orvis shopping experience seems to be the exception and not the rule today.  Most employees who work Sales/Customer Service I’ve run into and worked with seem to have this spoiled entitled attitude. They feel people are annoying them by shopping there or asking questions, or doing things like actually shopping there.

Not understanding the customer pays their salaries by shopping there.

It’s these kinds of employees that I seem to run into at most supermarkets and big box stores like Target. And After dealing with the rolled eyes, sucked teeth and sales floor arguments I just wonder if the people in HR make a concerted effort to hire the WORST people they can find?

Or are Managers really THAT Clueless? Can’t they tell this person is just not a “people” person? Or do they really believe an online questionnaire is that great at finding people with the right personality for customer service?

Or are today’s college graduates that NOT job ready? Maybe they need the STRIVE program. Because the attitude I’ve seen from some of these people working sales/customer service is WORSE than the ex-offenders, addicts in recovery, single mothers and homeless people I worked with there.

Seriously, stores like Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Barnes & Noble look like they’ve made an effort to hire the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, to be sales and customer service reps at their stores.

When I asked about applying for a job at Toys R Us the woman I was talking to had a Chest tattoo on display.  A Chest tattoo. And this woman was working a front desk.

At Target I’ve been served by cashiers with neck tattoos. I’ve seen employees walking around with sagging pants. And at numerous supermarkets I’ve seen cashiers take a minute to answer their cell phones or text people. 

All of this unprofessional behavior transpires on the sales floor while I’m told there are no jobs available by their online system. Sometimes I’m told I don’t meet the qualifications for the retail jobs like cashier, stock clerk or customer service rep, even though I have over 5 years of sales/customer service experience with SJS DIRECT, and writers are full-time salespeople. 

But a chick with a ghetto attitude and a neck and chest tattoo who comes in 15 minutes late every day meets the qualifications for the job at most retailers. Or that group of dudes in sagging pants standing on the sales floor talking about basketball or what happened on the WWE last night, but scatter like a bunch of roaches when the lights are turned on when a customer approaches them meet the standard. These are the kinds of people managers consider quality salespeople.

Not Shawn who will try to answer the customers’ question. Not Shawn who will walk with the customer to the area on the sales floor and show them the item, and stay with them until they make a decision regarding their purchase.

When I provided this kind of service At the Food Emporium I worked at I was told I was being “too nice” and “people would take advantage of me”.

I guess the person who blows a customer off and just tells them Aisle 7 and then

walks away is what managers deem professional.

Clearly Sales and Customer Service must mean something different to employers. Because they say one thing in job descriptions but hire another. Either that or there’s something clearly WRONG with those personality questionnaires on those online applications retailers have. How do people this FUCKED UP wind up representing a business and decent people like myself are pounding the pavement looking for work?

Yeah, I know companies want a fast return on the dollar, And dysfunctional people spend money faster than regular people. But if a business keeps hiring unprofessional people as the face of their business they’re gonna wind up out of business. Because a business can’t BUILD or EXPAND with people who lack the ability to handle basic business skills such as sales or customer service.

Anyone Remember Circuit City? Comp USA? They hired a bunch of surly teens entitled twentysomethings, and hood rat chicks to work their sales floors and their unprofessionalism ran their retail business right out of business a few years ago.

Now I just want to get a retail job or any job so I can get the cash and go. Something to tide me over until I get my next regular gig or I can build up SJS DIRECT to the point where it’s profitable.  But looking at the people hired for retail jobs, it’s clear to me that I don’t meet the qualifications for the job. Instead of asking for nice friendly professional people, like myself, employers seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of workers. 

Isis Series books on Google Play!

I'm starting to experiment with Google Play. After figuring out their nightmarish interface, the first three books of the Isis series are now available there for sale:

Isis: Amari's Revenge 

Isis: The Ultimate Fight

Isis: The Beauty Myth

Also, the popular All About Nikki-The Fabulous First Season is on Google Play as well.

And The Temptation of John Haynes is also on Google Play!


I'd love to put the other Isis series books up there, but they're Kindle exclusive at the moment. But this is an experiment. If these do well, I'll expidite putting the rest of the SJS DIRECT catalog up there!

I hope to have the Simp Trilogy up there next!

The Helicopter Pilot-How Ex-Boyfriends try to Blow Up Your Spot

Guys when you hear a woman say she’s still friends with her ex, watch out.

In most cases when a woman breaks up with a guy even when she says it was on amicable terms, she makes an effort to not see this dude anymore. At all.

But if she’s still talking to this dude, watch out. And if she introduces you to him REALLY watch out. You may be putting your life at risk getting involved with these two.

This female may still have feelings for this dude. And he may still have feelings for her. That’s when the ex becomes a helicopter pilot, hovering over your relationship waiting to drop a bomb on it.

Most smart guys who hear a woman is still talking to an ex charge her to the game and keep it moving. Why?

Because they know that sooner or later they’re gonna have to deal with the noise and the drama of a Helicopter ex-boyfriend and his Cockblocker™ Missiles. Or a Lancelot White Knight™ on a Kamikaze run.

In these cases both parties may say it’s over. But they’ll still be talking to each other, going out together platonically, and sometimes they may even still be having sex.

With women, it’s not what they say but WHAT THEY DO. And if they’re still talking to an ex, their ACTIONS are telling you they aren’t available for any type of relationship with you or any other man.

Females who are still “friends” with an ex have unresolved feelings about them. And until they resolve those feelings about this man, they really shouldn’t be dating. If a woman can’t focus their undivided attention on you, they’re focusing it on that ex.

For example on the fifth season TV show A Different World., Dwayne Wayne an Whitley Gilbert had broken up because Dwayne had dinner with another woman. And Whitley had gotten involved with a candidate for Senator. And while she was trying to have a relationship with this candidadte, Dwayne kept popping up helping out on his campaign. Going wherever they were like campaign rallies and such. Whitley even slept with Dwayne behind dude’s back!

And the clueless senator, not seeing that Dwayne is in a Helicopter dropping bombs on him and trying to blow up his relationship proposes to Whitley after winning the election. And she says yes. And at the wedding Dwayne drops a bomb on the Senator’s spot marrying Whitley at HIS own wedding!

Now in 1991 this was an exciting event on TV. But looking at it in 2014 it was one of the biggest SIMP moments in TV history. The total emasculation of a Black man on live national television. Dude should have gotten a clue when she said “I just came out of a relationship” and “we’re still friends”.

If you ever run into this situation in real life, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE.

Seriously, when women use these phrases head for the door. If you look up, This ex will be flying around in the helicopter waiting for the right opportunity to drop that bomb on your spot.

At first he’ll buzz around and introduce himself. He’ll say he’s just a friend and things ended amicably between him and the woman. He’ll pop up at social events. He may even call to hang out with you. On the surface, his behavior will appear friendly.

But in reality he’s pissing and marking on his territory. These little behaviors are attempts to trying to control you and your time with this woman. He doesn’t want you to get close to her.

Because that means the relationship is truly over for him. And as he can remain a “Friend” he still has a shot at this woman.

You see, this ex knows he’s fucked up. He knows he’s lost a good thing. And now he’s trying to get her back.

And in some cases, she wants him back. That’s when she’ll introduce you to her ex. In these cases she’s using other men to make him jealous. To make him see what she can get and what he’s lost.

This game can go on for years between these two. Don’t wind up a pawn in it. This is how one man winds up dead, the other winds up in prison and she’s back out here playing two other fools.

If the Helicopter pilot’s Cockblocker™ Missiles can’t break through your game, he’ll come in with a Lancelot White Knight™ kamikaze run trying to physically attack you. In this assault, he’ll start a fight. And the objective of the fight isn’t to win.

He wants you to beat him up. He wants you to hurt him. All the while the ex will be looking to guage her reaction. It’s to see if she still has feelings for him.

And when she sympathizes with the ex and calls you a monster for beating him up, it’s game, set and match. She goes back to her ex and you wind up getting played.

For some couples, this is a cat and mouse game they play for years. They’ll talk and talk about how things are over, but when push comes to shove, they always wind up in a fight and back together with each other.

It’s a headache and pill situation. Leave these two to each other. It’s just not worth the grief.

Guys, getting involved with a woman who has an ex that’s still around is a waste of your time. And time is something you can’t get back in life.

Understand that your time is the most valuable thing out here. More valuable than women or even money. So when you hear “we’re still friends” charge that woman to the game and keep it moving. You don’t need to have your time wasted by a chick who’s just not into you.

Women who still are talking to their exes and talking about their exes are emotionally unavailable. Sure they may be physically there. But they won’t be able to focus their full and undivided attention to you in a relationship.

Why? Because they still have feelings for that ex. Feelings they haven’t dealt with. Sure they may like you, but in their hearts they can’t commit to you. Because they’re still waiting for the ex to make another move. One last plea to see if he’ll reciprocate feelings for her.

Again, in these cases it’s best to charge these women to the game and keep it moving. Let her deal with her feelings with that ex.

Most people who say it’s over after a relationship never have contact with that person. No friends, no just hanging out, nothing. That person has been charged to the game and they’re keeping it moving towards the future. People who are stuck in the past can ruin your future. So when you hear a woman say she’s still “friends” with an ex, leave her right where you find her. There are too many women out here who are focused on today to deal with a woman trying to get back the one who got away.

Black-Owned Businesses, Double Standards, And The Negro

Some people will complain about my book covers. But when I tell them that they have to support Black-owned businesses current products in order for them to get the money to improve their products or provide better products to them they balk.

However, these same Negroes who impose high standards on Shawn's Black-owned business will settle for far less from nonblack businesses in their own communities.

While Shawn wants to use the dollars he gets from customers to improve the quality of his books, these nonblack businesses who establish themselves as cornerstones in the Negro community could care less about the quality of their business or the products they sell. They continue to sell substandard product to the Negro masses for DECADES but no one in the Black community ever as much ASKS these businesses to improve their products or the quality of them.

Clearly there is a double standard when it comes what Negroes will tolerate from nonblack businesses and Black-owned businesses.

I have watched as the Negro will settle for substandard products from a Lebanese or an Arab owned grocery store for YEARS. They’ll buy spoiled, damaged, and expired grocery items from these merchants, and never once complain about them.

Meanwhile these same Negroes will complain about my hand-drawn book covers saying they’re a turn off.

The Negro will also go on to pay higher prices from these Lebanese and Arab owned stores than at supermarkets for those same spoiled and expired grocery items and never once complain about them.

But these same Negroes will tell me that $2.99 or $3.99 is too much for an eBook and $15 is too much for a paperback. Even though these are the market prices nonblack publishers charge for the same books in the exact same genres. No, the Black owned business has to give the Negro a low price like 99 cents or give it away free to get them to consider taking a look at it.

The Negro will also head into a Hispanic or White-Owned Supermarket established in his own community for DECADES. This will be a market that will INSIST he check his bags at the door out of fear he’ll steal from them. And after checking his bags at the door, This same Negro will be followed around by stock clerks and managers who fill the shelves in his neighborhood with more old product, damaged product, or substandard product all the while charging him more his White counterparts in the suburbs.

And the Negro will not complain about it. In fact, he accepts this abuse as “customer service”.

Now I spent part of my Jury Duty allowance, money I needed to eat with to make sure paperbacks are available on Amazon for readers last year. I’ve made every effort to make sure my books have next to no errors.

 But these same Negroes will tell me that one typo on page 337 is the reason why they can’t recommend my book to a friend. Or that because the cover is hand-drawn they won’t try the book.

On top of it, this same Negro while shopping at that Hispanic or White-owned supermarket chain will endure being disrespected by nonblack cashiers, who roll their eyes and suck their teeth at him, and give him an attitude when they ask a question about an item that scanned at the wrong price. The Negro will also watch as this same nonblack cashier puts their money up to the light or run it through a scanner to ensure it’s not counterfeit.  

These same nonblack cashiers will also tell the Negro that he needs to have a photo ID in order to use his credit card at this store and that there’s a $15 minimum purchase for debit cards.

Even though both of these practices are ILLEGAL. 

And these same Negroes will endure being told products on sale are out of stock ALL WEEK and that there are NO RETURNS on defective product or even if you pick up the wrong product.

But while he ACCEPTS this abuse as business as usual in his very own neighborhood some of these same dusty cheap ass Negroes will make an EFFORT to return one of my 99-cent eBooks on Amazon. 

Now the fixtures in this White or Hispanic owned supermarket just like the Lebanese and Arab owned store will be dated, but The Negro won’t demand they improve the quality of their businesses’ appearance. That dirty vinyl awning or faded sign that’s been up for fifteen to twenty YEARS won’t repulse them and make them think of shopping someplace else. 

But in spite of the poor appearance of these White and Hispanic owned supermarkets, these same Negroes will tell me that they can’t buy my books because they don’t like the cover.

No, they’ll say that poor exterior of that White or Hispanic owned business in their own community and poor quality products they get from that nonblack business is due to where it’s located. If they had more money they’d do better.

All While those Whites and Hispanics takes 97 percent of Black dollars out of the Black community and spend them in their own communities. Never ONCE making an effort to do better by this Negro.  A Negro who just can’t put 2 and 2 together because they lack critical thinking skills.

These same Negroes will also head over to a Korean owned nail salon, vegetable stand, or beauty supply shop in their own communities. Stores that sometimes also sell them substandard import grocery products or in the case of the nail salon make them endure long waits.

These same Negroes will shop there enduring being followed by the Korean shop owners who will ask them what they are looking for, why they are here. Again, these same Korean shop owners will charge the Negro higher prices for products and services than what they’d cost in a comparable White suburb.

The Negro will endure the surly attitude of the Korean business owner. They’ll stand there as this individual scrutinizes their money for authenticity, rolls their eyes, sucks their teeth and throws their change at them and rushes them out. Then after they get all of this bad service, or poor product they’ll accept the fact they can’t get a refund. This will be more good “customer service” in the Negros’ eyes.

Again, in this same Korean-owned store, the fixtures and the awning will be at least ten to fifteen years old. But the Negro won’t be repulsed by these dated fixtures and display cases.

But a hand-drawn book cover from a business that’s barely been publishing five years turns them off.

The Negro will take a bus or drive to a shopping mall or a shopping district like Third Avenue or Fordham Road here in the Bronx or 125^th Street in Harlem filled with nonblack businesses to head to a Jeans and Sneaker Store such as Dr. Jays or V.I.M here in the Bronx or the local Foot Locker chain. And in the case of the Dr. Jays or the V.I.M. type store they’ll accept the fact that they’ll be forced to surrender their bags at the door.

And after they surrender their bags at the door, these same Negroes will endure being followed around by salespeople who will be literally breathing down their necks watching their every move to make sure they don’t steal anything.

And as The Negro buys his Air Jordan Sneakers, saggy jeans, baggy T’s and fitted cap, he smiles as he pays prices higher than what are charged in a White Suburb for comparable apparel.

The Negro will continue to smile as another surly nonblack cashier tells him that he needs to have a photo ID in order to use his credit card at this store. He’ll also buck dance and coon like the minstrel he is for these nonblack cashier as he is told that there are no refunds on his purchases.

But the dated fixtures, the unpainted security gates, the chains and alarms around the expensive merchandise he covets in this store won’t turn the Negro off. He won’t complain about the blatant disrespect done to him every day by this foreign-owned business.

But a hand drawn book cover from a struggling Black-owned independent publisher repulses the Negro. They’re so repulsed they don’t want to pay the market price for said book. Some don’t even want to pay 99 cents for it.

The Negro female will while shopping with the Negro will also head into a Boutique store in that same nonblack owned shopping district. A place like the Tick Tock boutique here on Third Avenue in the Bronx, Revolution, on Third Avenue here in the Bronx, or Bon Bini on Fordham Road, or Pretty Girl also here on Fordham Road or 170^th Street here in the Bronx.

The Negro Female will be told to surrender her bags at the door, and will smile while doing so.  While she’s in the store shopping for factory third jeans, irregular blouses, skintight club dresses so sheer that you can see their bodies through them, and shoes that fall apart after two or three walks down the block. All at prices far higher than they’re worth.

This same Negro female will smile as she endures being followed around by nonblack salespeople who are doing their very best to make sure they don’t shoplift their substandard merchandise which falls apart after one cycle in a washing machine.

And when the Negro Female buys her merchandise from this store she’ll have her money scrutinized, be told she needs a Photo ID with her credit card and that there are minimums for debit card purchases. They’ll also be told that there are NO REFUNDS on purchases, only EXCHANGES from a surly nonblack Cashier who will scrutinize every dollar they give them.  

Now the fixtures in these boutique stores and the façade of these boutiques will also be over 30 years old in some cases. But the Negro won’t be repulsed by the dated displays, dated fixtures or dated façade.

But these same Negro females are repulsed by a Hand-drawn eBook or paperback cover from an indie publisher in business less than five years won’t be repulsed by the store owner who has made NO EFFORT in 25-30 YEARS to improve the business serving the Negro.

*FACEPALM*

This is the double standard that exists in the Black community. Black people expect the Black-owned business to be PERFECT from DAY ONE, but allow the nonblack business to be SUBSTANDARD from DAY ONE.

And the nonblack business can continue to be SUBSTANDARD for DECADES and is allowed to serve the Negro generation after generation but the black owned startup has to have everything PERFECT for the Black customer from DAY ONE or they won’t shop there EVER.

What’s illogical about the Negro is that while they want PERFECT product from a Black-owned business, they don’t want to PAY for it. In their eyes PERFECTION either has to be NO COST or FREE in order for them to consider even trying a product by a Black person.

And while they don’t understand that quality product COSTS money for a Black business owner to produce, these same Negroes will continue to accept SUBSTANDARD products from a nonblack merchant like an Arab owned grocery store or Korean beauty supply store and pay HIGHER prices for it.

The crazy thing is that my nonblack and foreign customers actually UNDERSTAND what I’m trying to do. They UNDERSTAND that when you start out it’s not going to be PERFECT. They still support the books I publish because they know that everyone has to START somewhere.

And they also understand it’s not where you START but how you FINISH.

If one looks at the history of any business from caps to cars in the world they’ll see they all started out rough. Product was imperfect. But as customers continued to support the old, imperfect products, the producers continued to refine their processes. They learned new skills. And in a few years they made better products. Which those customers continued to buy. Because they understood that if a company is going to get the capital to expand a business, they must support existing product until the new product comes to the marketplace.

Unfortunately the Negro never gives Black-owned business like mine a chance to grow or build its reputation is because the Negro refuses to support Black products at inception. They choose some superficial reason like not liking the cover for not buying it and let the product die at retail.  

That prevents business owners like myself from learning new skills. Hiring employees or having the capital creating better products. That prevents business owners like myself from creating jobs for other Black people.  And it keeps the Black community in a perpetual state of poverty.

All while the Nonblack foreign owned businesses Black people NEVER impose any standards on take 97 percent of Black dollars out of the Black community and invest it in their own communities.

The Negro goes into a Black-owned business with a list of demands for a Black business owner like myself who just opened up. And instead of being patient and waiting to see if this business will try to address their requests and concerns, they storm out insisting on never shopping their again.

Not understanding that it takes time for a business to provide product for them. And in order for a business to provide new product for them, they need to support the current products.

 It takes money to make money. Business 101.

Every other person in the WORLD understands this. But the Negro.

And over the past three years I’ve tried to address my customers’ requests. Those YA books like All About Nikki, the Isis Series, The Thetas, and the Sneakers? All requested by a customer at the Harlem Book fair looking for books for tweens and teens in 2010. The books for Black boys I want to plan? Requested by a reader.

But the issue of covers for some continues to be an issue for some. And I’ve been working on this issue since 2010. It costs money to hire artists or to photographers and models to set up a photoshoot. More money to do Photoshop post-production finishing.

But explain this to the Negro and you are met with resistance. You explain to the Negro it takes money to make money and they become belligerent. They want product to be perfect NOW not understanding better is going to come later.

Hard work can pay off. But only if the Negro race supports the Black people working for them, not against them.

I have a five-year plan for SJS DIRECT. And I can’t fulfill that five-year plan for my business without the support of the Black community. All I’m asking Black people to do is be patient. Better books with better covers are coming.  Seriously, if Black people can sit there and ACCEPT substandard product and poor service from Nonblack merchants such as the Indians, Arabs, Hispanics and Koreans for 40 years in some cases then can’t you wait four or five more for me to take things to the next level? 

Monroe College is NOT a “Hood” College!

I recently had a commenter try to take a jab at me by saying Monroe College was a “Hood” College in a recent blog where I explained why I had a hard time finding work.

That’s not true at all. Monroe College is not a “Hood” College.

Monroe College in the Bronx and in New Rochelle produces some of the best quality students and provides a one of the best college educations out there. I dare to say that an education at Monroe College is the equal of any Division 1 University in these United States.

The degree I got in 1994 in Business Administration has enabled me to start my own publishing company SJS DIRECT. Thanks to my degree I gained the business skills to publish over 30 paperbacks and eBooks.

It has also helped me gain business skills like those I acquired in 2000 working at STRIVE 14 years ago.

In addition, my degree from Monroe College helped me to become a better writer and a more critical thinker.

What I learned at Monroe were the essentials of business management. I learned about business contracts, what a manager does, and about finance. I even learned the essentials of Human Resource law and Human resource policies. 

One class I took, Organizational Behavior back in 1994 I still use to this day. The tools I learned in that class showed me why many businesses fail, and why many companies like DC Comics are on a downward spiral.

Moreover, it was that Organizational Behavior class that taught me about the changing economy. 20 years later everything I learned in that book has come to pass regarding the job market. That book stated we’d have two classes of workers: The educated types and the minimum wage types.

If more people took that course they’d be prepared for the economy we have today.

My education from Monroe College was the primary tool I used to write the novel A Recipe For $ucce$$. All that knowledge of businesses and business policy and procedure came from my Monroe College education.

I have nothing but good things to say about Monroe College students. many of the Monroe college students I went to class with back in 1993 showed a strong work ethic and a dedication to learning about their profession. The environment was extremely professional and most people there were focused on doing their classwork.

I’ll contrast my Monroe College experience to a family members’ experience at Columbia University. Most people at that so-called prestigious Ivy League school weren’t focused on classwork. They were focused on getting laid, drinking and partying. Not to mention buying term papers and bullshitting their way through school.

And I’ll further contrast that same family members’ experience at one of Columbia University’s graduate schools. Professors using group projects to pad work out to avoid grading individuals, people being petty with grading (A professor extorted her paper for grade in class she needed to graduate) and more people bullshitting their way through school.

I’ll also contrast it to another family members’ experience attending Fordham University. Again, more people mostly focused on getting laid, smoking weed, drinking, partying, buying term papers and bullshitting their way through school.

And I’ll continue to contrast my Monroe College experience to that I observed working at the City College of New York’s Science Library. More lazy ass kids half-assing their work bullshitting their way through school while Mangina and Simp Professors enabled them and made excuses for them.

While at Monroe College we were made to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for our EDUCATION. Everything from our term papers, to our tests were ON US. There was no coddling, excuse making or handholding like I’ve seen at colleges today. Either you brought your work to the table when it was due, or you FAILED. 

If I had a choice of who to hire, when I expand SJS DIRECT in a couple of years it’d be the Monroe College graduate. Why? Because at least I know the Monroe College graduate will be ready to work and be productive.

While the “brand name” university types will only be on the job to deflect, kiss ass, chase pussy, serve up pussy, and talk lots of shit while consuming company resources. Talking about what I can do for them instead of what they can do for me.

Some may see Monroe College as a “Hood” College.  But I know in this world it’s not where you went but where you’re going.

And if you want to go somewhere in life you need people with the right work ethic and the right attitude to take you to the next level. Having a bunch of people with brand name degrees who can’t do a God Damn thing but talk in 50 cent words, parrot a professor’s INTERPRETATION of a book, and tell you the difference between a Pale Ale, a Dark Ale and a Pilsner isn’t going to take your business to the next level.

I know many a person who went to a “brand name” school like those in the CUNY system, universities like Fordham, and even Ivy League schools who aren’t as professional as a Monroe College graduate or as skilled as a Monroe College graduate. Outside of a cocky attitude many of these people bring nothing to the table for an employer but the ability to say they went to such-and-such University.

Plain and simple these are the people who when the pressure is on, have no character, backbone, or resolve. These are the people who when pushed a smidge quit their jobs and RUN for the exit. These are the kinds of people who go to work to pose, preen and pretend to work while hiding all the problems in the workplace they encounter or blaming them on others. The kinds of morons who go to work to be happy.

One of the lessons I learned at STRIVE is that work sucks. Work is about pain. And without pain there can’t be growth.

And most of the people I encountered at the so-called Brand name universities and colleges both young and old need to grow, because the colleges they’re going to are SPOILING them. When someone wears pajamas, tank tops and flip-flops to the office, talks on their cell phones like it’s their house using profanity, and uses cyberspeak like LOL in a business e-mail, they may have gone to college, but they sure haven’t LEARNED ANYTHING in those four years they were there. 

Working with people from the “brand name” schools at jobs over the years are I’ve noticed a lot of them show the LEAST amount of COMMITMENT in the workplace. Why?

Because they come into the workplace with a sense of entitlement. They feel the job owes them, and they don’t have to WORK for anything. They’re SUPPOSED to be in this job because they have such and such degree from such and such school and the employer is SUPPOSED TO GIVE THEM A CAREER.

And if the employer does not give them the career they want in the way they want it, they feel they have the option of leaving and going someplace else.

Because they went to such-and-such college or such-and-such university.

This is the primary reason why most businesses in America are FUCKED UP TODAY. Too many people from so-called top colleges brandish their degrees like a Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, or a Gucci label.

They’re nothing more than Consumer whores with no sense of what the words COMMITMENT or HARD WORK mean. Yeah, they can write a term paper (or just buy one) but they don’t know what it is to stick out a tough period and work through hardship. Again, when things get hard, they’re the FIRST to PACK UP and LEAVE for greener pastures instead of CLEANING UP THE MESS THEY MADE.

These same people will call Monroe College a “Hood” College but are actually lazier and more shiftless than any of the crackheads I’ve ever encountered in the South Bronx in my entire life. They’re lazier and more shiftless than the ex-offenders, single mothers, addicts in recovery or others deemed unemployable I worked with at the STRIVE program.  In both those places I’ve met more people with a work ethic than I ever saw from someone who went to a private college.

I’ve got family members who went to Fordham University and Columbia University. One with a Master’s and another with Two Master’s degrees.

And when they need help, they come to ME, the Monroe College graduate for advice. The guy from the allegedly “Hood” college.  The degree no one values because it’s not a brand name university.

And when they follow my advice, they take their careers to the next level or get themselves out of a jam at work.  

In fact, I the Monroe College graduate made one of those same relatives, a graduate of Columbia University with a Bachelor’s degree in English re-examine the what she learned about Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God when I presented her with a different perspective on the book.

Shawn can deconstruct Zora Neale Hurston’s literary classic and can refute the argument professors like Alice Walker have presented as the true interpretation of that novel. But most people still see him as coming from a “Hood” college. Not good enough to work in a Target, Rite Aid or even a place like City College of New York.

Now I graduated Monroe College in 1994 with a 3.95 GPA. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, was on the President’s list and earned a plaque for being at the top of my class. I normally don't even discuss those accomplishments. Why?

Because I don’t wear my self-esteem on my sleeve or hang it on a wall like most of today’s college graduates do. 

I’m a man of ACTION. And ACTION speaks louder than the 50-cent words many have learned at these brand name colleges and universities. While they’re talking, I’m DOING and GETTING IT DONE.

Throughout my career from STRIVE to City College of New York, and my writing career I have a reputation for excellence and producing top quality work. If employers and people are too busy looking at where I went instead of where I’m going then I truly feel sorry for them. Because they’re missing out on a great employee.  

Why Shawn Has a Hard Time Finding Work

Recently a commenter told me that if I wanted a job I should apply for a retail job if I wanted to pay for things like art for new book covers. Now I’d love to take a retail job for the interim. But retailers will NOT HIRE ME.

Here’s the deal with Shawn and Retail jobs he’s applied for over the last two years:

I’ve applied at Target four times in 2013.

I’ve applied at Toys R Us three times in 2013.

I’ve applied at CVS four times in 2013.

I’ve applied at PathMark four times in 2013.

I've applied at Fairway three times in 2013. 

I’ve applied at various small businesses several times.

Before that I’ve applied at stores such as Macy’s, Stern’s Barnes & Noble, and the Gap. No one was interested in what I had to offer even with a college degree.

No one in retail hires college graduates. Especially college graduates with entrepreneurial skills like myself. This is why they have elaborate online applications so they can weed people out.

The goal of most retail businesses is to make money. And they want employees they’re guaranteed to make their money back on. Dumb, dysfunctional people spend money faster than intelligent people.

This is why the hood rat or the ghetto dude can get the job over the college graduate like myself. These consumer whores are money in the bank for a retail business.

Sure I’ve got sales experience. I’ve sold thousands of eBooks on the Kindle and Smashwords. I’ve sold paperback books online. I know how to develop a promotional campaign. I have solid customer service skills, skills better than Bonequisha or Jontavious.

But there’s no return on the dollar hiring Shawn.

Your average Hood Rat or ghetto dude will take the hundred and fifty dollars a week in that part-time job they get and spend 99 percent of that money in at that same store they work or other stores in that shopping district, especially if it’s a retail business selling trendy clothes like the Gap. I’ve actually heard of some Gap employees actually running a balance there that has to be paid off.

In places like Target, and Toys R Us employees will use their employee discount to buy everything in the store. Again, sometimes running up a balance at the end of the day on a credit card.

Not to mention items from other retailers in the area such as Air Jordan sneakers, fitted caps, sports jerseys, expensive skinny jeans, Playstation and Xbox games and Cell phones. And when it comes to the ladies, they spend their checks on Korean weaves, and elaborate nails.

Hiring a Hood Rat or a ghetto dude is money in the bank for a retailer, especially a nonblack one. It’s guaranteed they’ll get 99 percent of the money they invest in them BACK plus interest.

Hiring Shawn who owns a publishing business on the side means he’ll spend his money on things like his Lightning Source maintenance contract, hiring artists to design his book covers and save his money and pay for a Verizon Smart Router.  

Not to mention he’ll make an effort to participate in Group economics by supporting OTHER Black-owned businesses in his community and participate in Black-owned trade shows like The Harlem Book Fair, Circle of Sisters and the Black Expo.

Giving Shawn that retail job takes money OUT of a nonblack retail business. And with retail businesses such as Target having a razor thin profit margin, they don’t want to take a LOSS on Shawn.

In addition to the LOSS they’d take on the paychecks on the front end, retailers don’t want to lose more money on the Back end. Why? Because Shawn will last longer than the 90-180 days most of their employees will due to his strong work ethic. Shawn comes in on time and puts in a full day of work. Shawn keeps it professional on the job.

But that’s not the kind of employee they want in retail jobs. The surly hood rat you see at the register with a stank attitude or the sales clerks standing in a circle talking about the basketball game then scatter when a customer approaches are what management wants.

Why? Because they know these people will be GONE once the make enough money for an iPhone or a pair of Air Jordans. And once they’re GONE they can’t COMPETE with them for their jobs.

Now I don’t want these managers’ jobs, I just want to make the cash and go. Shawn understands that most retail and fast food jobs are ENGINEERED to turn over in 90-180 days. Why? Because retail business owners don’t want to pay for Unemployment insurance. Nor do they want employees to COLLECT unemployment Insurance.

Again, that’s another LOSS on their books. Shawn understands the psychological tactics retail managers use to weed out people they don’t like such as cutting hours, changing work duties, asking employees to do tasks like cleaning bathrooms, and the enforcement of harsh disciplinary action and contradictory rules and regulations which lead into Paradox Traps where NOTHING an employee does is RIGHT. The retail workplace is a mind-fuck designed by HR Manginas to frustrate people into quitting.

And when people QUIT a retail job, they don’t qualify for Unemployment. And when they stay on a job past 180 days, the employer has to start paying Unemployment insurance on that employee.

No one in business wants to LOSE money. So they won’t hire me. I’m guaranteed to COST them MONEY.

The same commenter says I could go work in a Restaurant.

Here’s the deal on restaurants here in the Bronx: They’re all Hispanic owned. And with me being a Black man, that means NO CHANCE.

Most restaurants here in The Bronx here only hire Hispanics. And you need to know how to speak Spanish in order to wait tables or work in the kitchens there.

Most Hispanic-owned restaurants here just like the supermarkets here in The Bronx usually pay their employees cash off-the-books. That’s how they maintain their razor thin profit margin.

Sure I can wait tables and stock shelves with the best of the Mexicans and Dominicans. But no one in management wants a big college educated Black man there disrupting that flow of their business with his W-2’s taxes, Unemployment insurance, ObamaCare, and requests for a direct deposit into a bank account.

Now there are McDonald’s, Burger Kings, Wendy’s, and other fast food places like Dunkin Donuts. Hell, we have an Indian-owned Popeye’s and KFC here in The Bronx.

But these foreign-owned franchises don’t hire Black men like myself to work their counters out of fear that the Big Black boogeyman will scare off customers.

 Moreover, they don’t hire college graduates. These business owners fear people like me discussing things like work conditions, minimum wage and health and safety regulations with their employees. And they fear me using that dreaded U-word UNION in their businesses.

Now I’m just a brother who wants to make a buck. The kind of guy who will mind his business take his pay and leave. But to a retail business I’m considered a threat.

And because I’m considered a threat I can’t get hired at any of these minimum wage jobs. It’s the main reason why I’m forced to go into business for myself. If I didn’t work at selling books these last five years I wouldn’t be eating.

In this AmeriKKKan job market over the last 20 years I’ve learned it’s not about degrees. It’s not about experience. It’s not about what you know or whom you know. If you’re a Black man, especially a Black man with a college education and a strong work ethic you aren’t valued appreciated or even wanted.

People like me aren’t bad for business because of our skin color. We’re bad for business because our values don’t allow us to spend money in a way that warrants a return on the dollar to nonblack people. A retailer can make twice as much money off a Coon, a Baby Mama or a Hood Rat than he ever would on an intelligent Black man like Shawn.

The E’steem series

What would Monster high look like all grown up?

Imagine a world where Draculara, Clawdeen Wolf, and Cleo De Nile all graduated Monster High, went to College and started careers.

That was what inspired me to start writing E’steem stories.

E’steem was the former villain turned Heroine from Isis and The Temptation of John Haynes. While I wanted to use her in the Isis series, I also wanted to develop her in her own stories as well.

While John Haynes has his struggles with Lucifer, E’steem has hers as well. And since their conflicts with The Devil are both distinct, I couldn’t write about them both in a Temptation of John Haynes sequel.

So I spun her off into her own series.

My original plan was to make E’steem stories short vignettes in the style of Monster High videos I watched on YouTube. Short simple stories with a heavy emphasis on humor. I felt that the humor and the light tone would make for a nice contrast to the dark subject matter of demons and Hell.

I always thought the concept of a demon the idea of a grown up monster making her way in a world of human monsters was fascinating. After all corporate jobs are Hell, Bosses are demons and some people we run into in life act like they’re possessed by demons.

Readers will notice E’steem’s character has gone through a lot of changes, changes I started in The Temptation of John Haynes and continued in the Isis books. The reason I gave E’steem a new vivacious devil-may-care personality is because she’s found freedom in Jesus Christ and is enjoying life. After four thousand years of misery in Hell, I felt it’s time E’steem had a little fun.

This summer I kicked off the launch of the E’steem series with E’steem: No Good Deed, (a short TEST Book to see how people would react to the character and to establish the story model for the character) E’steem: Deadly D’lilah (a book to establish her post Temptation of John Haynes continuity) and a tie-in with Isis: My Sister, My Frenemy.

To date E’steem: No Good Deed has over 2,5000 downloads on Kindle and Smashwords and their affiliates’.  And Deadly D’lilah was downloaded over 2,000 times on Kindle and Smashwords affiliates.

And while some readers don’t “get” where I’m presenting in E’steem stories,  (some have called them weird, others have issues with them being too short,) most of the feedback has been mostly positive to E’steem’s spin off books. It’s clear to me people like these stories based on how many downloads I’ve been getting on the free samples. I haven’t had this kind of response to a book since All About Nikki’s sneak preview two years ago.

I have plans to continue E’steem’s series alongside Isis’, and I plan on using the same story model for those books that I used for Isis.  Each story will lightly reference events in previous stories, but will be it’s own self-contained entity with its own beginning, middle and end.

One of these days I’ll get to that Temptation of John Haynes sequel. But until then, readers can check out the third story in the E’steem series, Demons Anonymous on Kindle.

Critical Thinking About Tamera Mowry-Housely’s EXTRA EXTRA SALTY TEARS

I had a moment to think critically about Tamera Mowry-Housely’s emotional breakdown on the Oprah Winfrey show.

On the show Tamera Mowry-Housely specifically calls out Black men as the internet trolls who are attacking her and calling her the “White man’s Whore”.

What most people who don’t think critically don’t know is that this is a two-part stunt. The first part is to get Tamera Mowry’s name back out there. The second part is of this is race-baiting to get people riled up against Black men. When one deconstructs the story they see that the ultimate goal is to malign the image of Black men in the media.

First off Black men have never really cared about interracial relationships Black women have had with White men. Most Black men like myself knew Tamera had been dating Adam Housely for years. In fact I’ve known that many Black actresses like Kerry Washington, Persia White, Salli Richardson, Tonya Pinkins, Karyn Parsons and Halle Berry have dated White men or are dating White men.

Many if not most of the famous Black actresses in Hollywood have dated White men at some point in their careers. And over the last 20 years while these Black actresses had their relationships with White men, Black men for the most part just kept it moving.

Here’s a logic bomb that deconstructs the entire emotional tirade on Oprah: There are four Black women for every Black man out here. Why would they waste time hating on Tamera when there were three other available Black females out there for them?

What people need to understand is that it’s a slow news cycle. And when it’s a slow news cycle the media goes out for its favorite boogeyman: THE BLACK MAN.

And Tamera Mowry-Housely’s story is just one of several out in the media meant to malign the easiest villain in AmeriKKKan media: the Black man.

Over the past few months we’ve had the Knockout game, Street Harassment and now this. All meant to target the Black man as the bad guy.

And one has to understand: Oprah Winfrey has made it a point to bash up Black men like a demolition derby on her misandristic network and her TV shows for over 25 years. This is why I found the entire Tamera Mowry situation to be SUSPECT.

All one has to do is look at Tamera Mowry’s behavior on the Talk show The Real to know this is bullshit. On that show six months ago (Broadcast on the Monday after the George Zimmerman verdict) we can see Tamera laughing and bragging about her marriage to a White Man and her baby with him.

If you watch her on that FIRST EPISODE bragging about her marriage to Adam Housely, Does that look like someone who was tormented by Internet trolls for three years?

What’s going on here is a part of the White liberal media’s plan to malign the image of the Black man. Make him a bad guy. Look at him as a troublemaker and a shit starter.

Black folks, when you watch this media you cannot let your emotions get involved. The goal of stunts like the Tamera Mowry-Housely situation are to get you emotionally involved. So you can see Black men as the bad guy and attack them just for being Black men.

Many people who run websites and message boards such as myself have to deal with “internet trolls”. And internet trolls come in all races. And from what I’ve experienced writing a blog for the past five years, I get trolls from all races. I get a lot of women coming to my blog getting upset over content. But I don't say it's Black women. It could be a White woman making those comments.

I hit the block button, delete the comments and keep it moving. If the comments are really vicious, I leave them up there so people can see how STUPID these people are. And if they’re really STOOPID comments, I do a blog deconstructing the nonsense while having a laugh at THEIR expense.

For Tamera Mowry-Housely to just single out Black men shows that there’s an agenda behind this. And that agenda is to make the Black man look like a monster in the eyes of AmeriKKKan public.

Again, most people, especially Black people hadn’t heard about Tamera Mowry’s decade long relationship with Adam Housely. And those who knew like myself were too busy to care about it. So all this talk of internet trolls reminds me of the Street Harassment Propoganda broadcast by these Black feminists out here.

Again, this whole stunt sounds like Tamera is trying to get some of the fame Kerry Washington has received for playing the Black Jezebel on Scandal. And while she plays the victim of “internet trolls”, the White Liberal Media takes another swipe at Black men.

Portraying Black men as bad guys for picking on a poor defenseless interracial couple. An interracial couple no one has given a crap about over the past decade. Because they don’t fit the White Liberal’s narrative.

And again, because it’s a slow news cycle, they trot out Tamera Mowry. Why? Because her victimization by alleged internet trolls fits within the White Liberal's narrative to make the Black man a Boogeyman and a villain.

Black folks you have to read between the lines of AmeriKKKan media. Not everything you see and hear is the truth. It’s not until you deconstruct the messages presented to you that you see the truth behind them.

The actual cost for Shawn to Publish a Book

How much does it cost me to publish a paperback or an eBook? $300-$500. And if you factor in the value of my time writing, revising, cover designing, photoshopping, and promoting it costs me close to $50,000 a title.

But I don’t pay myself for labor.

I’ll let you in on a couple of facts. Most of the paperbacks I published have not broken even yet.

Isis after 11 years has barely made back its $200 investment.

The Cassandra Cookbook never made a profit. I lost over $1000 on that book.

The Paperback edition of All About Marilyn only made 25 percent of the money I invested in it.

The Paperback edition of the Temptation of John Haynes barely made 33 percent of the money I invested in it.

Most of the newer Isis series books while selling as eBooks are still waiting for their first paperback sale.

The Paperback edition of All About Nikki never sold a single copy. I lost over $300 in ISBN and print fees along with on that title. I was forced to take it out of print due to absolutely no sales on it. I put in over three months designing the page layouts for that book and no one outside of two book clubs saw the work I put into it.

The truth of the matter is it costs a lot of money and even more time to produce the over 30 titles you see in my catalog on amazon. Over the last five years I’ve been up till 2AM some days writing some books, then I get back up at 7AM to start work on promoting older titles along with the blog.

And after writing comes revising. Page layouts in Acrobat. Finding typos in the PDF. Revising. Creating another PDF. Coming up with a cover concept. Drawing inking and coloring. Then cover design in Photoshop. Uploading the paperback to Amazon. Ordering a proof. Checking for typos. Revising. Creating another PDF. Then Uploading to Kindle and Smashwords. Finding more typos. Uploading again to Kindle and Smashwords.

Before any of my books shows up on Amazon or Smashwords for sale, it’s been scrutinized for about 200-300 hours. Again, if I had to put a value on that time It’d be worth about $50,000 for the $15 paperback that winds up on Amazon.

On eBooks I’m forced to charge 99 cents because that’s what most will pay. And some people are too stingy to even pay that these days.

I’ve lost a lot of money over the last few years on some books like All About Nikki, and trade shows like the Harlem Book fair. But I’m still trying to hang in there. I’m still trying to keep going like God told me to.

The publishing business is a marathon, not a sprint. I knew walking in I might take a loss on a title or two. But back in 2007, before I got the job I lost, my goal was getting my box of manuscripts to publication. I didn’t come into this looking to get rich. I came into publishing because I love writing and I’m looking to share my work with readers. The financial cost is minimal compared to what I’ve gained reaching an audience of new readers.

Writing and Publishing was my second job while I held down a job. When I’d get back home from work when I had a job, I’d go right to the computer and start working on editing scripts. There’s not a day that I don’t sit in front of a keyboard and write 1000-2000 words a day.

Writing and Publishing became my job when I lost my job in 2008 and while I looked for other jobs since October of 2008. I’m trying to make a living at writing until I find that day job.

The truth is it takes money to make money. And each step I take is one step further away from the place I was back in 2007 when I was living on $2 a day. Looking back at being that broke, I appreciate the opportunity God has given me to get my work to the marketplace.

I’m working hard to get to the next level where I can hire out artists, and refresh covers. Trying to get SJS DIRECT to profitability.

But I can’t do that without readers. I have to see a return on the investment in order to produce new products. That’s business 101.

People come to me talking about covers, the content of my stories like the Isis series and the success of other authors. And while I listen to people’s complaints, they need to understand again that it takes money to make money. And it’s not where you start, but where you finish. The SJS DIRECT book with the hand drawn cover people scorn now might become a collector’s item one day. 

To My Critics: If You Want Better Covers On My Books, BUY THE BOOKS!

I recently had a commenter say that my covers on my books look like they were designed for children.

Now I draw and design my own covers. And the reason why I design my own covers is because I just don’t have the money to hire out an artist. So I have to take matters into my own hands if I want to get product to the marketplace.

What people don’t know is that a quality artist such as Bill Walko, Josh Howard, Darryl Banks, Ron Frenz or Terry Beatty usually costs over $300-$400. And a painter like Alex Ross or Joe Jusko STARTS at $3000.00.

And that’s for a single figure drawing, no backgrounds.

On top of the high prices and the high risks, have to be interested in taking on your project. Artists are extremely picky and can PASS on a project. Some of the more popular artists such as John Byrne and George Perez have lotteries for commission work.

All of this is money spent BEFORE you make it. With books both paperback and eBook having a 90% failure rate, this is money lost before you spend it.

I’d love to hire a professional artist to design covers for my titles. I see lots of artists who would be a great fit for my stories. For example I think Bill Walko’s art would look great on covers for the Isis series books. But right now, I just don’t have the money to bring someone on. I’m just not selling enough books.

Nor do I have a day job right now to pay an artist. So unless I get the books to sell, I can’t change the covers. And unless my critics want to donate to the blog, hire me for a day job here in New York City, or they want to hire me to work for them freelance, I’m gonna be forced to design the art for my covers for the foreseeable future.

Now those who complain about my books I say this: If you want the covers to change, put your money on the table. The royalties I get are directly invested back into producing more books.

And I have it in my five-year plan to refresh all the old covers. But I can’t do that without money.

To all the critics of my covers: Here’s the deal: artists don’t work for FREE.

They have bills just like I do. And their time is money. And when Shawn hires people for a job he pays those people for their time. In full. So they can pay their bills and eat. So they can take care of their families.

And without money from paperback and eBook sales, I can’t hire artists. It’s a chicken-or the egg scenario.

Oddly enough there are some people who DO like my art. I had a woman on Twitter tell me how much she liked the art on my covers. And one reader on Smashwords who later became a Facebook friend told me that she discovered the Isis series based on how colorful the covers were.

The reason why I draw my own covers is this: I feel my readers deserve the best. My readers deserve better than bullshit photoshopped stock photos seen on a dozen other books, or those gaudy covers I see on those Street Lit covers with wanna-be model hoodrats plastered all over them.

For me the art a cover tells a story. It gives the reader an idea of what’s between the pages. And I feel that art should be a unique piece of art to that book. Each piece I design is distinct to that book or that series of books.

And when I draw a cover, I take as much time to design that art as I do writing that story. For example, for the second Isis: All About the Goddess cover I studied numerous 1950s and 1960s pulp fiction covers. For Amari’s Revenge I studied numerous Young Adult covers before I sketched up an image. For Isis: My Sister, My Frenemy, I took an old family photo of me and my brother and used it as the basis for the two sisters.

It’s easy to complain about my covers but it’s harder to DO something about it. Talk is cheap ACTION speaks LOUDER than WORDS.  This is a BUSINESS. And it takes money to make the money that's invested back in the business.

To my critics I say this: If you want better covers on my books you have three options:

1.BUY THE BOOKS. And while you’re at it, tell your friends to buy my books.
2. DONATE to the PAYPAL button at the top of the blog,
3 HIRE ME TO WORK AT A DAY JOB SO ICAN HAVE THE MONEY TO HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO DESIGN NEW COVERS.

One of my goals is to refresh all the covers on my books. But in order for me to do that I need the money from paperback and eBook sales. If you want me to expand my business so I can go out and hire artists to put better covers on my books, put your money on the table.

The critics of the art on my covers will spend $200 on a pair of sneakers, $500 on a video game system and another $240 for games and $60 more for a subscription to a game network, but If I ask these same people to spend 99 cents on an eBook and $10-$15 on a paperback these same people all of a sudden ain’t got no money. Talk is cheap. Put up or Shut up.

Thoughts on Tamera Mowry-Housely’s EXTRA EXTRA SALTY TEARS On Oprah

I was reading about Tamera Mowry-Housely and her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show where she was crying over people calling her the White Man’s Whore for being Married to Adam Housely, a white man and being attacked by internet trolls about her interracial marriage.

Now I don’t condone people making personal attacks on anyone about who they want to date or marry. Any of you sistas want a white man, go right ahead and date them and marry them.

Just don’t complain when things don’t go as you expected like Tamera Mowry is  right now.

But I find this appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show to be extremely suspect. What most in the public eye don’t know is that Tamera Mowry has been dating Adam Housely for over a DECADE. And she’s been married to him for the past three years. She’s probably heard everything and worse.  Especially dating a man who works for FOX News over a decade.

So why is she whining about your interracial marriage to a White man on a Black-owned network now? Why cry the EXTRA EXTRA salty tears to the Black community about being criticized by alleged “internet trolls” about being married to a White man TODAY?

Because White people won’t listen to her whining. And she hopes if she can get Black people to talk about her, then maybe the Mainstream White media will pick up the story.

It’s a gambit for attention. And a poor one at that.

Black people are the LEAST to care about an interracial relationship between a Black woman and a White Man. Black folks didn’t bat an eyelash when Halle Berry had her Baby Mama Drama with French Canadian male Model Gabriel Aubry a few years ago. Nor did they care about her marriage to Oliver Martinez and the birth of her second child to Martinez.

Nor did they care about Garcelle Beauvais getting cheated on by her White husband. And they didn’t say much when Tonya Pinkins lost her entire fortune and custody of her children to her White ex-husband over 20 years ago. And right now not a word has been said about actress Persia White and the younger White man she’s been dating.

If anything it looks like Tamera seems to be a little sour about not getting any of the Press or the fame Kerry Washington is getting from starring in Scandal, and the press Halle Berry enjoyed for her numerous interracial relationships in the White-owned mainstream media.


After all, Tamera has had the interracial relationship longer than any of the people I’ve mentioned, but it hasn’t made her as popular as either.


And there’s a reason for that. Why? While alleged internet trolls (codewords for Black men) on the internet have called Tamera Mowry the “White man’s whore” She has never PLAYED the White Man’s whore like her contemporaries Halle Berry and Kerry Washington have on film or in television. And unless you play the role the White man’s whore, in AmeriKKKan media, no one is going to care about you or cover the story of your life.

So Tamera comes to Mammy Oprah and starts crying the EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA salty tears to the Black community about being mistreated by “nasty internet trolls” (codewords for Black men) in an attempt to get attention. Desperately waving to the Black female masses to let us know she’s still here.

Playing the victim card in Attack mode and the Race Card in defense mode in an attempt to shame Black people into paying attention to her and her relationship with a White man.

Not understanding she’s invisible to the White-owned corporate media for a REASON.


I find it interesting that Tamera Mowry like Most so-called biracials likes to be Black. But only they only want to be Black when it’s only convenient for them.  And they only want attention from Black people when they can’t get it from Mr. Charlie.


Well, Tamera, you’ve got Shawn’s attention. And as a fellow Christian, I was going to keep my mouth shut. But since you want attention I’m going to give it to you.


I remember watching you on The Real last summer bragging to everyone how you were married to a White man and watching you being totally ignored by your co-hosts and the audience. Now you lob this Hail Mary in another desperate attempt to get attention.


Here’s the deal: Tamera, this is AMERIKKKA. And I spell it with three K’s for a reason. This country does not like Black people like you and I. It has never liked Black people like you and I. It has no use or purpose for Black people like You and I except for slave labor in its prison industrial complex.


No one in White Supremacist AMERIKKKA wants to promote happy, healthy interracial relationships. It just doesn’t fit the narrative of the White Liberals who control AmeriKKKan media at the big six.


Now I know you want to have a happy, healthy interracial family relationship just like your mother and father had in Germany, but The powers that be who control the White Supremacist AmeriKKKan media doesn’t want White men to see Black women as their wives or their mothers. The rich White people who control this country have these fears of genocide by interracial relationships. And they don’t want to promote relationships like yours because they fear it’ll lead to the extinction of the White race.


No, here in AmeriKKKa, White Supremacists only Want White men to see Black women as whores, mammies and side pieces, who serve them and their perverted sexual appetites. They don’t want to promote the idea of a good Christian girl like you having a successful marriage to a White man. It’s bad for business.


Here in White Supremacist AmeriKKKa, the White woman is the PRIZE for the poor male salarymen. The ideal standard of beauty. The female of all females to be coveted. The woman that every man has to have.  Selling that fantasy to millions of White men, Black men, Latino men and Asian men is a multi-billion dollar business.


And White Supremacy doesn’t need beautiful Black women like you creating competition for that business.


Tamera will probably be surprised to hear that many of the “internet trolls” attacking her aren’t Black men like Oprah and many in the media believe them to be. No, most of those “internet trolls are actually White Women. White women who hate the idea that this clean cut black woman is married to one of “their” men.


These are the same kinds of White Women play sweet and innocent in the public eye. But behind the scenes make Nigger jokes to her husband at the water cooler when they see him at the job at FOX News.


All while they laugh in Tamera Mowry’s face.


Tamera, your attempts to gain attention and sympathy from the AmeriKKKan masses are only going to fall on deaf ears. Why? You’re not telling the story they want to hear.


There’s only one story that White AmeriKKKans, especially White women want to hear about Black women married to White men: The one regarding their divorce.


Seriously, Tamera, in a world where Black children like Trayvon Martin and Renisha McBride have been murdered by white men just simply for the color of their skin, it’s hard for people to sympathize with you for being attacked for by internet trolls (again, codewords for Black men but actually White Women) for being married to a White man who works for Fox News. In most Black peoples’ eyes you are sleeping with the enemy. And whatever happens to you, happens to you when you go behind enemy lines.


Again, You chose to have a relationship with this White man for over a DECADE. You chose to go public with that relationship a few years ago. Your parents had to have told you what the consequences were for being in an interracial relationship in an institutionally racist country like AmeriKKKa growing up.


You should have known that things weren’t going to be easy. And that you would encounter all sorts of racism and prejudice from all sorts of people varying from dirty looks to racial slurs and even physical violence. If you truly love this man, you have go with God and let Him protect you. If it’s in His will, it’ll work out.


But don’t play the victim. Don’t go begging for attention like this. Don’t put your business out in the street like some desperate chick. Don’t be like that Retarded Black woman who called the Dr. Laura show a few years ago expecting sympathy from a White Supremacist media structure.


You took vows to be with this White man for better or for worse and you should have known what you were getting into before you got into it. These are the good times; it’s only gonna get harder from here. If you can’t handle the little barbs people are taking at you now, then your marriage is destined to fail like Tonya Pinkins’ and Garcelle Beauvais’.

Just don’t come running back to the Black community bitter and angry with a sad story when things don’t work out. You’re not a victim. You made the choice to be with this man for Better or for Worse. The only person responsible for the success or failure of your relationship is staring  YOU in the mirror.


Seriously Tamera, Black people are dealing with a whole lot worse in this world like the George Zimmermans in it. If Internet trolls are the least of your worries, then hit the block button and keep it moving.