Selma gets SNUBBED at the Oscars- Hollywood PIMP SMACKS Black Folks Yet Again.

 On January 15^th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Pimp Smacked Black America. And this time they Pimp Smacked Black folks with a Pinky ring and powder. The 2015 Oscars will be the first Academy Awards since 1998 to have no Black nominees in acting categories whatsoever.

With a 99% fresh rating from critics on rottentomatoes.com Selma directed by Ava DuVernay was expected to receive multiple Oscar nominations for acting. However, the film got no nominations at all in acting categories. The only nomination the film got was for Best Picture.

And this is in spite of the clout of wealthy Black producers Oprah Winfrey and Lee Daniels.  

Many are outraged. Some like Al Sharpton are crying racism.

But as Shawn sees it, this is par for the course with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The White Liberals in Hollywood are walking lock step with rest of the White Supremacists in Ferguson Missouri and Staten Island New York. Making a clear statement to the world that Black people do not matter to them.

I thought the message was clear to Black folks when Tina Fey and Amy Poheler took a moment to go on a thinly veiled racist rant against Bill Cosby at the Golden Globes disguised as comedy. But it took the Oscar nominations for most of the Black masses to see the truth about how White Liberal Hollywood really feels about Black people.

What made this Pimp smack symbolic was that the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who announced the nominations was a Black woman and that the slight happened on Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday. It’s a powerful statement about the Academy’s true feelings about the artistic contributions of Black filmmakers.

The liberal White Supremacists in Hollywood are showing their true colors to Black people. But clueless Black folks still think they can march n’ protest, shuck n’ jive and blame n’ shame their way into their acceptance into their film industry.

Black Hollywood has just had their NIGGER moment. Only most of the Negroes in the Entertainment industry are too busy putting their heads in the sand to acknowledge it.

What’s incredibly illogical about the Selma Screwjob is how these same Sellouts like Lee Daniels and Oprah Winfrey expected Academy to just change course and reward a positive movie like Selma with acting nominations after spending the last 15 years degrading the image of Black people to get those previous Oscars. That’s backwards thinking as I see it.

Black people have been producing minstrel shows like Monster’s Ball, Precious, The Butler, Tyler Perry movies, Soul Plane, The Help, No Good Deed, Scandal, Black-ish, Empire and reality shows like Real Housewives and Sorority Sisters for fifteen straight years. And after that decade and a half of producing minstrel shows degrading the image of Black people to win those Academy awards these same Sellouts who tarnished the image of Black people automatically expected acting Oscar nominations from White people for a positive depiction of the Black experience like Selma?

That kind of thinking is as crazy as that Black Lives Matter Slogan these Negroes carry when they go out to March and protest at Eric Garner and Michael Brown rallies these days.

Black people, how can you expect White people to value the artistic work of talented Black directors like Ava DuVernay when Black producers like Lee Daniels, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry have been presenting half-assed poorly done minstrel shows to the world as the standard for Black filmmaking for the past 15 years? How is the rest of the world supposed to believe that Black film matters when Black people THEMSELVES have dragged the craft of Black Filmmaking into the sewer by breathing new life into old stereotypes? What’s so special about a movie about Selma when we’ve had a decade and a half of Black folks buckdancing and cooning in similar Black period films like Precious, The Help, The Butler, and 12 Years a Slave?

The truth of the matter is even with a 99% fresh rating from RottenTomatoes.com the story of Selma wasn’t special from a cinematic perspective. How many Dr. King movies have we had in the last 40 years? How many Civil Rights period movies have we had in the last 40 years? Didn’t 12 Years a Slave win Best Picture last year? And didn’t we have Lee Daniels’ the Butler come out the same year as well?

One of the three questions a screenwriter like myself has to answer when they’re writing a screenplay is: Why should we CARE? And it’s hard to CARE about Selma from a creative standpoint. Yeah, we need films like this to teach Black history. But how about doing something truly CREATIVE? How about doing something DIFFERENT?

For all the talk about diversity from Al Sharpton, the media pundits, and even the Black female AMPAS president, there has been next to no diversity on the creative side of Black cinema over the last fifteen years. Black filmmakers like Lee Daniels, Oprah Winfrey, and Tyler Perry have been making the same kinds of movies over and over again.

The Black experience goes FAR past the Slavery and Civil Rights period films that Black folks and White liberals in Hollywood love showcasing. How about a film about Black Wall Street? A western about Black cowboys like Deadwood Dick or the REAL Lone Ranger? A film about Marcus Garvey that’s as epic as Malcolm X? A film about Crispus Attucks or Benjamin Banneker? A film with BLACK Egyptians? A film about Hannibal? An adaptation of a Black superhero like Static? Or let’s truly get out of the box and produce a Black Sci-fi or fantasy movie adapting something TRULY DIFFERENT like my Isis series books or the Temptation of John Haynes. ?

Plain and Simple Black Cinema has been BORING for the last 15 years. As the Black elite in Hollywood have made efforts to desecrate the image of Black people in the hopes of fast-tracking Oscars for themselves, the craft of Black film has FALLEN OFF. Instead of picking up where Spike Lee, Mario Van Peebles, Robert Townsend and the Hudlin Brothers left off in the 1990’s, with unique stories and fresh perspectives from the camera, Lee Daniels, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry and Lee Daniels took the craft of Black film into the GUTTER.

Over the last 15 years most of the Black folks working in the film industry have gotten LAZY focusing more on box-office than art, craft, and story. And as a result of the financial success from bland romantic comedies, Tyler Perry coonfests, and period dramas, Black cinema have devolved into a series of bad movies with poor shots, uninspired to terrible acting, and horrible direction. Most Black movies aren’t getting nominated for Oscars because most Black movies today just aren’t any GOOD.

And when a truly exceptional Black film comes out like The Great Debaters, Pride, Black Dynamite, Night Catches Us, or I Will Follow, Black folks buying brands instead of STORIES REFUSE to support it.

The only difference between the movies I previously mentioned and Selma is that they don’t feature a story where Black people are shown as victims of White people or the racism of White people. So they don’t fit the narrative of the White liberals in Hollywood or the Race hustlers across the country. Again, how can Black folks ask for the Academy to make quality Black films matter to them when they don’t matter to Black people?

Black folks need to realize that in order for the rest of the world to see the value of their artistic works like film, they have to start seeing their value themselves. If the Black people producing images of Black people don’t love themselves enough to put the best images of themselves to the forefront, how can they expect the world to love what they produce?

Black People like me who value the work of other Black people don’t get upset when a White institution like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not acknowledge them. Because the White man’s Oscar is not our STANDARD for excellence and quality. No, we create work that meets our own standards for excellence and quality. For too many years Black people have been giving their power away to White Supremacists and working to meet their standard. It’s time we started taking it back. If India can have Bollywood, and Japan, and Latin American countries can have their own standard for films, then why can’t Black people establish one for themselves?

Video #1 on this issue: 



Video #2 on this issue: 

Reggie Mantle and the Pussy Beggars Anthem

 

 I was going through my old Archie Double Digests when I came across this old Archie Comics strip. In it we see a clear example of Pusssy begging. 

In the Idle Idol Idyll Reggie finds it ironic that Veronica spends time Archie when he’s willing to date her.

The better question: is Why is Reggie wasting his time being concerned about a woman who is NOT AVAILABLE? And why is Reggie wasting his time trying to pursue a woman who is ALREADY IN A RELATIONSHIP?

In the Idle Idol Idyll Reggie says Archie is below him. But the logical question a man has to ask is: Why is Reggie lowering his standards trying to pursue Veronica?

Reggie follows the flawed logic most pussy Beggars share that since Veronica is rich and he’s rich that they have something in common because they’re in the same economic class. And because they’re in the same economic class they should be dating each other. But relationships don’t work like that. Most people are attracted to people with similar values. Usually like attracts like. And if Veronica is attracted to Archie, then she has to be on his level.

If Veronica is pursuing Archie then he must be her standard. And if Reggie believes himself to be a man of a higher standard, then he needs to start pursuing higher standard women than Veronica. Women on his level. Women who will actually see how great he is.

The problem with guys like Reggie is they don’t understand their value as men. And instead of seeing the women on their level, they lower their standards to meet that of women who are actually beneath them.

Many a Pussy Begging White Knight like Reggie here spends months, weeks and even years of their lives waiting for a female body to drop in a relationship. They hope, wish, and pray for the day where they can ride in on their white horse and save the day of a damsel in distress in the aftermath of a breakup or an argument. Eager to take any crumbs from the table of another person’s relationship instead of pursuing their own. Lowering their value as men.

What’s truly appalling is that in his quest for scraps from another woman’s table is that the Pussy Beggar like Reggie misses out on a full satisfying relationship with a single available woman.  The time he wastes trying to get scraps of attention from a woman already in someone else’s relationship like Veronica is time he could take to pursue a woman who had a lot more to offer him.

The saddest part of the Idle Idol’s Idyll is the amount of time guys like Reggie waste stalking other people’s relationships. Time is not on the Pussy Beggar’s side. Every second of life a man wastes pining over a woman that’s in a relationship with someone else is time he’s never going to get back. Many a Pussy Beggar like Reggie have lost years and even decades of their lives chasing the girl of their dreams. And in that quest they have missed out on the best that real life has to offer them.

A man who begs for pussy does not wind up getting the best in life. While they settle for scraps falling from the tables of other people’s relationship in the dating scene they miss out on all the great women who are interested in making a full commitment to them. If they’d wake up they’d see these Real Women have a lot more to offer than the woman of their dreams. The final question a guy has to ask is: Why settle for half a relationship with someone elses’ woman when you can have a relationship with a whole one of your own?

What happened to Pepper from Josie Comics?

Before Josie became a Pussycat with a long tail and ears for a hat, she and Melody hung out with a cool girl named Pepper. She had a short Italian haircut, wore cat-eyed glasses and had a KICKASS personality.

What happened to Pepper? It’s a question most comic fans want Archie Comics to finally answer.

Pepper from the Pre-Pussycats Josie was AWESOME. She had charisma, a sense of humor, and a “voice” that spoke loud and clear out of every word balloon. A beauty with a brain, she’s the kind of character who could easily carry her own book today.  

Then one day in Josie #68 everything changed. Josie and Melody formed a band with their new friend Valerie called the Pussy Cats. Josie got a new boyfriend named Alan, Alex’s sister Alexandra came along for the world tour and Pepper and Josie’s original boyfriend Albert just disappeared.

And no one knows where they went.

On the abrupt disappearance of Pepper old-school Josie readers were left to wonder: Did Josie and Pepper have a falling out? Did Melody and Pepper have a falling out? Did Josie catch Albert putting some Pepper on his penis? Was Pepper just a racist? Did she and Josie stop traveling in the same circles when Josie and Melody started the Pussy Cats? Or did she just move out of Riverdale?

It’s one of the biggest mysteries of the comic book world. One comic fans never got closure on.

Yeah, Josie’s part of Riverdale got a bit more diverse with the addition of her new Black friend Valerie. And future Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd singing the iconic Josie and the Pussy Cats singing the theme song made Josie and her new Pussy Cat friends household names. But I’d say someone great got lost in the new late 1960s Josie and the Pussy Cats revamp.

A girl named Pepper.

Pepper was one of the coolest female characters ever to appear in comics. Before Daria was ever a gleam in Jake Morgendorffer’s eye, she was doing things her own way and loving it. It’s a shame she got lost in the annals of Archie Comics.

What readers like myself liked most about Pepper from old-school Josie comics was the fact that she wasn’t afraid to be herself. She was comfortable in her own skin. She liked who she was. And that made us love her as a character.

Pepper belongs in of fame of super awesome comic book women with Harvey’s Black Cat, Phantom Lady, Patsy Walker, Kitty Pryde, Sue Dibney and Jubilee. These are the kinds of female comic book characters who are great role models for girls. They’re the kinds of female characters who girls and women can relate to and identify with. And they just make comics FUN. It’s a shame great characters like this get buried.

If there’s ever a character in need of a revamp at Archie comics, it’s Pepper. Lil’ Jinx got a really cool revamp a few years ago and Robert Hack is doing all sorts of awesome shit with the art on Sabrina, the teen-age witch. Pepper has sat on the Archie Comics shelf for WAY too long. It’s time to give her a second chance in print.

I think it’s about time comic fans learned out what happened to Pepper. In a world where Betty, Veronica and Cheryl Blossom have carried their own Archie Comics, Pepper needs to be given an opportunity to show readers how great she is. Come on Dan Parent, with all the awesome shit you’ve been publishing at Archie Comics give us a Pepper limited series!

Full Pepper Story! Click on it!

I wish I could get a crack at writing a revamped Pepper for Archie. Offbeat female characters are my specialty. Two years ago when I published the novel The Thetas readers around the world gave Colleen Anderson an incredibly enthusiastic response. And with the positive response I’m getting from the heroines in the Isis and E’steem series novelettes, I think I’d be a good fit for the character. I’d love to reintroduce readers to Pepper and show them why she adds some spice to their comic reading experience.

If you ever discover any old school Josie stories in an Archie digest or Double Digest, you are in for a treat! Any stories with Pepper in them are definitely worth a read!

Marvel in the 1980s Made Crazy Changes like DC's New 52…But They Got it RIGHT!

 After writing my blog about John Walker, the Crazed Captain America I had an ephiphany: Marvel in the 1980s had about just as many changes as DC Comics had with its New 52. Think about it:

Wolverine’s Brown costume

Spider Man’s Black costume

Jim Rhodes 30+ issue stint as Iron Man

Wasp divorcing Yellowjacket

Henry Pym quit being Yellowjacket and became just good ol’ Henry Pym

Hawkeye got married to Mockingbird

John Walker took over as Captain America

Steve Rogers put on a Black costume and became The Captain

Johnny Blaze gives up being Ghost Rider

Jessica Drew gives up being Spider-Woman

The Fantastic Four got new navy blue and white costumes when they came out of the Negative Zone

Sue Richards became Malice Mistess of Hate (More Sue Richards character development in one issue than in 20 years!)

The Invisible Girl became the Invisible Woman.

The She-Hulk Joined the Fantastic Four when the Thing left

Storm became the field commander of the X-men

Jean Grey came back from the dead

Julia Carpenter became Spider-Woman

Cyclops quit the X-men and formed X-Factor

The Hulk became Gray

Beast became human then became blue and furry again

X-Factor’s Angel became Archangel with badass metal razor wings

Iron Man got red and silver armor

Thor got a beard. Then he got an AWESOME suit of armor.

Captain Britain got the AWESOME Union Jack costume that became his ICONIC look

Kitty Pryde became Shadowcat

Vision became White

The Silver Surfer became shiny.

Cable took over the New Mutants.

Dan Ketch became the new Ghost Rider

And for all these changes most comic fans didn’t get upset. If you read a letters page of a 1980’s Marvel comic most readers just went with the flow. Some fans were even accepting of the changes. Others wanted more.

Why? Because Marvel did NOT blow up their universe and start over the way DC did in 2011. While they made changes throughout the 1980s, most of those changes came from the past history of a character. And for all the external changes like new costumes and new badguys, the mission and core values of the heroes remained the same.

And the becaue most of the stories were FUCKING AWESOME most fans accepted the changes and just enjoyed the comics in their growing collections. Many of the stories to come out of Marvel in the 1980s are now considered comic classics.

Secret Wars

Walt Simonson’s entire run on Thor

Hulk: Ground Zero

The Black costume saga on Spider-man

The Sin-eater murders in Spider Man

Peter Parker’s wedding

Iron Man’s Iron Monger storyline

Iron Man: Armor Wars

Captian America: The Captain

John Byrne’s run on Fantastic Four

Joe Fixit Hulk

The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

The introduction of Venom in Spider-man

Acts of Vengeance

And the main reason most didn’t mind the changes at Marvel: In spite of all the change going on with new costumes the characters remained the same. Spider-Man was still the same Peter Parker with the same problems. Only he wore a Black Costume when he fought crime. Steve Rogers was still fighting the good fight as The Captain but with new colors on his mighty sheild. Iron man was still Tony Stark but in a red and silver suit. Wolverine was still the best there was at what he did but he was just wearing a brown and tan costume to do it in. The Hulk was still the strongest on there is and still breaking shit. Only he was a gray dude and not a green one. The Fantastic Four were still a family of adventurers but in blue and white costumes. And instead of a big orange guy they had a green girl on the team.

For all the change going on there was a lot of growth in Marvel’s characters too. Tony Stark man overcame alcoholism for a second time. Steve Rogers was rebuilt his character and resolve after breaking away from his Captain America identity. Janet Van Dyne became a leader. Henry Pym overcame his inferiority complex and his inner demons and became a confident man. Bruce Banner became more aware of his father issues and how they related to his rage. Sue Richards actualized her potential as a heroine. Storm became a leader. Kitty Pryde was on her way to becoming her own woman. Jim Rhodes stopped being a sidekick and became a superhero. Wolverine got a little better at what he did. Peter Parker got married.

Many of Marvel’s characters changed and they changed for the better. The storytelling at Marvel in the 1980s was top notch. Because the changes came from the stories organically and built on the characters’ existing history, most comic fans accepted them. Many like myself were eager to see what was going to happen next, anticipating the next issue.

Thanks to all the great storytelling Marvel created a bunch of new characters who became household names in the 80s. Apocalypse. Baron Zemo II. Crossbones. Hobgoblin. Rogue. Terrax.  Gambit. Jubilee. Forge. Nova (Frankie Raye). U.S Agent. Venom. Cable. Deadpool. And we wouldn’t have gotten any of these characters if it weren’t for creators changing things in the story paradigms of Marvel’s classic catalog of heroes.

If you read official websites and blogs, Jim Shooter was hated by many comic creators and some comic fans the way Dan Didio is today. But under his leadership Marvel Comics grew into one of the number one comic publisher in the world at the time. Most of the comics he published then are now considered CLASSIC stories today that every comic fan must read.

Most people remember the Changes at Marvel in the 1980s fondly. I even own quite a few marvel Legends action figures based on those changes in my collection. And I wish Hasbro would make more 80’s Marvel looks. I’d love for Hasbro to make an Armored/bearded Thor, Kitty Pryde in her Shadowcat costume, a Captain Britain in his Union Jack costume or a Dr. Pym in his red jumpsuit to join my Brown n’ tan Wolverine, U.S. Agent, Silver Centurion Iron man, Black costume Spider-man and Joe Fixit Hulk on the shelf. 

Marvel in the 80s was a lot like the DC’s New 52 today. Only it was done a LOT better. While there were a lot of new ideas, it was the execution of those new ideas that made those comics published the fresh and exciting. The numerous changes at Marvel in the 1980s, made the characters better and redefined their mission and values for a new generation of readers. Comic fans don’t mind change when change is good.  

Black Men’s Lives Matter…To Everyone But Black Men

At every protest for Eric Garner and Michael Brown I see Black folks carrying signs saying Black Lives Matter. But the only people speaking on the issue of Black lives Mattering are Black women like Eric Garner’s Mother, Eric Garner’s Wife, Eric Garner’s daughter, Michael Brown’s Grandmother, and Michael Brown’s mother.

Can anyone tell me what’s WRONG with this picture?

If Black men’s lives mattered then why aren’t young Black MEN at the forefront of their own movement?

Black Lives Matter needs to be a Young Black Men’s movement. And young Black MEN need to be leading the way.

Not Black women. Not Compromised Pimp Pastors. Not old Civil Rights Dinosaurs like Al Sharpton and the NACCP. Not disingenuous politicians like Barack Obama and Bill De Blasio. If young Black men are the ones being killed out here by White cops and other Black men, then young Black men need to be the ones showing their lives matter by taking the lead of their own movement and speaking for themselves.

The only person who knows the issues of a young Black man is a young Black man. And because he doesn’t speak for himself he will NEVER get his needs addressed when attention is brought to a forum or a protest.

When Black women and nonblack people are the primary people speaking on Black men’s issues it shows that Black men are coming from a position of WEAKNESS. And when you come from a position of WEAKNESS no one takes you seriously.

This is why for all the marching and protesting over Eric Garner and Michael Brown’s deaths NOTHING is getting done. Everyone is speaking for young Black men but young Black men themselves.

No one can speak for a Young Black man but a Young Black man himself. If a young Black man wants to show that his life matters then he has to take ACTION to SHOW that his life Matters.

How can anyone in the WORLD believe that a Young Black man’s life matters if Young Black men are killing each other in Black-on-Black crimes?

For the last 40 years Black men in general have not valued their own lives. Every weekend I read about homicides, stabbings and shootings in neighborhoods across the country like the South Bronx one I live in over Air Jordan tennis shoes, leather jackets, Beats headphones, Little Debbie snack cakes, pieces of chicken, what rapper/ballplayer/celebrity is better, women, or whatever nonsense Black men use as an excuse to justify murdering another Black man. And in the face of all these black-on black homicides over the last 40 years we’re supposed to believe that Black men’s lives matter to Black men.

BULLSHIT.

Again, how can we believe that a Black man’s life matters it the Black man HIMSELF does not SHOW that a Black man’s life matters? How can he convince White and nonblack people to believe a Black life matters if he himself doesn’t value the life of another Black man?

Here’s the problem: A Black man does not value his own life. And because his life does not matter to him he can kill another Black man like killing a fly.

As long as young Black men like Eric Garner and Michael Brown are spending their time participating in bum ass lowlife behavior like standing outside of foreign owned stores from 8am-closing selling illegal loose cigarettes, smoking weed, and begging for change, how can the world SEE that a Black man’s life matters? How can we believe a Black man’s life matters if he’s sitting on his mother or his girlfriend’s sofa playing XBOX or PS4 all day long, or sitting up on his parents’ computer or a cell phone on watching YouTube videos, going to social media like Facebook and Instagram and making thirsty pussy begging comments to women halfway around the world that don’t give a FUCK about him?

If a Black man’s life mattered to HIM he would understand that his OWN LIFE is PRECIOUS. He would understand his TIME is precious. And he’d be out here making every MOMENT of his life count. Instead of standing outside of that foreign owned store from 8am-closing, he’d ask for a job there. And if they wouldn’t offer him one he’d take himself and his money elsewhere.

TIME is MONEY. And if someone isn’t helping you MAKE MONEY they’re out to TAKE it. The time he takes to BEG for change outside of a foreigner’s business is the time he could take to WORK for DOLLARS at HIS OWN.

If a Black man’s life mattered to Black men, they’d be starting businesses in their neighborhoods to compete with that foreign owned stores to serve his own people. He’d be in school getting an education. He’d be out using the Internet as a tool to MAKE MONEY for himself instead of getting into idiotic beefs with other Black men across the globe on YouTube or making thirsty comments to women on social media who could give less than a SHIT about him after getting his like.  

Black men need to understand: Black women’s lives matter in AmeriKKKa. And because her life matters to HER, people in AmeriKKKa she cannot speak for a Black man.

When we look at the court system American Black women can get justice from it. Renisha McBride’s murderer is in prison. A college professor who was roughed up by police was able to get those officers FIRED after they assaulted her.

At the end of the day it’s Black men who TELL THE WORLD that lives that don’t matter by their ACTIONS. Because Black men REFUSE to take the lead in their own cause, George Zimmerman is free after murdering Trayvon Martin. Darren Wilson is free after killing Michael Brown. Daniel Pantaleo is still free to collect his NYPD salary after choking Eric Garner to death. 

And because Black men’s lives don’t matter to them because most Black men don’t MAKE THEM COUNT. Most Black men today are some of the softest, sorriest men in the world. It’s sad state of affairs when Gay Men are stronger leaders than Black men. Gay men over the last 25 years have shown that their lives matter because at least they speak for themselves on Gay issues. They pool their money. They form an economic, social and political platform to get their agenda in the face of politicians to show that they matter.

Thanks to their ability to take the lead on their own cause, Gay men can get themselves married in almost every state in the Union but a for all the marching and protesting other people do for them, Black men can’t even get an indictment against a White cop who shoots them. Hell, they’re so God Damn cowardly can’t even get a White cop to arrest another Black man who shoots them.

Black men have been too busy being putting themselves LAST to understand that you have to put yourself FIRST if you want to be HEARD. Black men have been too busy hiding behind the skirts of Black women to understand if you do not LEAD you are FOLLOWING. And when you FOLLOW you get what’s given to you.  Maybe when Black men start TAKING CHARGE of their lives and making them matter then maybe the rest of the world will start seeing that a Black man’s life matters.

Black man YOU are the only one who can make your life MATTER. If YOU do not SPEAK FOR YOURSELF then you will not be able to TELL the rest of the world what YOU WANT. 

The Shawn James Black Group Economics Challenge

My name Is Shawn James. And I’m issuing a Challenge to the Black Community: Spend money at Black owned businesses like mine.

Every year $3.3 trillion dollars in cash and credit flow throough the Black community. And 97 percent of that money winds up in the hands of Whites and nonblacks making them richer. Allowing them to send their kids to private schools and private Universities and live a middle class lifestyle.

All While Black people remain the poorest in the industrialized world.

The Black Group Economics Challenge works like this: Spend money with a Black-owned business like mine. Then tell your friends about that Black-owned business in your community. Then get your friends to spend money with that Black-owned business and other Black-owned businesses in the community.

What’s the goal of this challenge? To get Black people to start supporting their own businesses. To get them see the direct impact Black dollars have on Black people when they’re spent with other Black people. And to start getting Black people to start putting Black first when it comes to spending their money.  

If thousands of everyday people and hundreds of celebrites can go out and pour buckets of ice water on each other to raise money for ALS, how many Black people can spend as little as 99 cents to support a business or two in our own community? We’ve got time to march and protest, but we take no time to invest in ourselves and put money in our own pockets.

Then we scratch our heads as we struggle to make progress.

If the Black community is going to move forward Black people have to start paying themselves first and putting themselves first. Economic power is the only way to get social change in America. Show the world the power of your money in 2015. 

2014 Year in Review (Progress Report)

I’ve been really busy on a couple of projects. So I haven’t had much time to blog. More on those next year! But here’s a rundown on 2014.

One of my BIGGEST Accomplishments of 2014!

2014 was a rough year for me. I ran into a lot of challenges and a lot of obstacles in my efforts to keep SJS DIRECT afloat. But in the face of all those challenges and obstacles I had to learn how to adapt and try new things in order to work towards achieving my goals.

Due to quality control issues I was forced to pull back on the number of titles I published this year. In 2013 I published a record 13 paperbacks and eBooks. This year I published half that number of books. The titles I published for 2014 included:

Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess (Paperback & eBook)

Isis: Power of the Princess (Paperback & eBook)

E’steem: The Beast From the Bowels (eBook)

E’steem: Faerie Tale (eBook)

All About Nikki-The Sensational Second Season (eBook)

The Thetas (paperback edition)

Why 70 Percent of Black women are single (eBook)

In an effort to continue to improve the quality of the books I’ve published I began taking more time to line edit my manuscripts, and even read passages and dialogue aloud to make sure they sounded right. And the results of more delibate editing have led to better quality. Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess and Isis: Power of the Princess were two of the cleanest books I’ve ever published. Almost error free. Almost.

In an effort to improve the quality of my covers I contacted Bill Walko of the webcomic The Hero Busine$$ (great strip I never miss) to commission a cover. Bill did a GREAT job on the Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess cover. He captured the spirit the characters in his art I’d love to work with him again in the future. I just need to get the funds together. If I can find a day job…

It was a lot of work to get the funds to pay for the Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess cover. That project taught me a lot about perseverance in the face of adversity. When my Kickstarter failed, I had to regroup to get the money to pay for the cover. I searched my closet and put parts of my action figure collection, toy catalogs from the American International Toy Fair and even a vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pie wrapper up on eBay to raise the funds to pay for the cover.

I had to sacrifice a lot of my childhood collectibles to build towards my future as a publisher, but if you want anything in life you have to give up what you have to get what you want.

While I made a lot of progress on quality control it’s been a struggle to sell paperbacks and eBooks these days.

I recently had to discontinue the Lightning Source editions of All About Marilyn and The Temptation of John Haynes. You can still buy paperback copies of those books on Amazon through CreateSpace now, and those editions are pretty much the same as the original.

I’m in the middle of a sales slump and I’m trying to regroup. Recently I just put The Temptation of John Haynes and Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess on Kindle Unlimited in an effort to get people buying books. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can borrow those titles right now. With every borrow I get royalties.

Due to the sales slump I had to delay Isis: All About the Goddess going to Smashwords. Quite a few eBook titles had to go back to Kindle Unlimited like The Thetas. I hate making books Kindle Unlimited exclusive, but I have to go where the money and the readers are. You can still buy those books in paperback at Barnes & Noble, in order for me to take an eBook to other online booksellers like Smashwords or Nook, I need sales in those venues!

I started a new novel, and I’m building towards plot point one on it. I also am in the middle of an E’steem series story and an Isis series story. If you like Goths and Vampires, next year’s stories will be chock full of em!  

Still working towards a REAL All About Nikki Sitcom. Stuff is in the works. Due to poor sales on the eBooksI had to stop at Season 2. But I did start a Season 3 episode. I may just finish it and release it. If the response is strong, there might be a season 3…But right now I’m in the middle of the Isis series. Ten books in and I’m just getting started on the run. Wonder Woman fans…these would have been some of the kinds of stories you would have gotten in my proposed run!

Next year I will be doing more blogs on on Fantasy, Sci-fi and comic books. I’m redoubling my efforts to get Black children to start reading African-American science fiction and fantasy. I believe the earlier we get kids seeing Black characters in fantasy and science fiction stories they’ll start seeing themselves in those kinds of careers when they get older.

And there will be more blogs focused on comic books. The recent feature on Simpin & Trickin in Archie Comics and John Walker the Crazed Captain America were a test of a new feature I’m planning.

The new feature will be about Comic storylines that meant a lot to me as a kid growing up. A Marvel 80’s feature comparing and contrasting all the changes to DC’s New 52 is finished and ready to go and all I have to do is take the picture.

Pictures are a new feature I’m adding to blogs in the hopes of getting readers’ attention.

I’ve been doing a lot more videos on YouTube as well. Some have been about the African-American community, but what I’ve seen from the stats is that the videos I do talking about Black fantasy and science fiction get a lot more hits than the ones I do on Black issues. That’s going to be my primary focus for 2015. Again, I want to do more to get Black children reading Black fantasy and science fiction. There’s a growing audience for those videos, and I’ll be creating more content to get people focused on books like the Isis series and the E’steem series.

I did a video about how Salli Richardson-Whitfield’s acting influenced my work and she favorited on it Twitter! It was also shared by friends in her network! That made me smile! One of the high points of my year. Salli Richardson-Whitfield is the inspiration for E’steem and I’ve always wanted to tell her how much her work influenced mine, and I finally met one of my personal lifelong goals.

Oh, and the blog is getting closer to the millionth hit. Avergaing between 2,000 and 3,000 hits a day. Some days are at 4,000 to 5,000 hits, but that’s a long way from the days of just 100 hits five to six  years ago.

2014 was filled with a lot of challenges. However in spite of all my struggles I continued to make progress. Every goal I set at the beginning of the year I accomplished, and that meant a lot to me. I’ve been working on a shoestring for the last couple of years and doing my best to make something out of nothing. Don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this, but I’m going to do what God says and Keep going…