Greetings Friends,
It has been a while but Regular Black man is back in the building….LOL. Busy with life new baby, work, and school has been keeping me very busy. One of my coworkers shared her blog with a few members of our team and reignited my urge to write about the things that have been on my mind. Have you every really sat and thought about why people can come to America and fulfill the “American Dream” with in just a few years; While much of Black America seems to have no hope of any such success after years of citizenship in this country. Well, I do and it seems that I am not alone in my curiosity. Almost every Friday night I follow the same routine. I leave work, head to the barber shop, and spend the remainder of my evening at a local(black owned) cigar bar where I have the opportunity to surround myself with a wide array of successful black men. Their backgrounds and professions include small business owners, lawyers, Doctors, real estate investors, and even local political leaders. We share ideas, opinions, and views on an array of topics that range from black business to Issues affecting the black community. This Friday conversations really left me feeling like things in black America are just not adding up. Yeah I know it isn’t always an even playing field but it seems to be so much more to it that just that one fact. I have just completed my second reading of The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Goodwin Woodson (great book, if you haven’t read it you might wasn’t to) and it really hit me again. The numbers just aren’t adding up! I Decided to do more research and what I found was shocking and very frustrating. In this Blog I will share with you some of my findings and my thoughts about them.
I knew that blacks spent a lot of money but when I looked at how much was a lot I was dumbfounded! Black buying power was $318 billion in 1990. But 18 years later, African-American buying power equaled $913 billion, and is projected to increase to $1.24 trillion in 2013. 45% of that amount is spent by the Affluent African American family(Households with an annual income of $75,000.00 usd per year) Impressed ? Well, lets look at a few more numbers…… If you have seen the news with in the last year you probably know that African Americans make up roughly 13.5% of the US total population. That breaks down to about 41.1 million black folks. Keep that number in mind. Now, out of 13.5% of the population blacks in America account 26.1% of people living below the poverty level. Black unemployment reached 14.9% vs. the National average of 9.4% in 2009. The African American school drop out rate in 2007-2008 reached 34.7%. Fewer than 41% of African American males graduate from high school and fewer the 4% go on to college. 46.3 million Americas don’t have health care, 19.9% of which are black 41.5% Hispanic. Ladies, wonder why you cant get a date? Maybe it because of every 100,000 black men 4777 are locked up vs. 727 of every 100,000 whites. These number where very disturbing to me and their must be something we can do to up lift our people.
Well, Lets take a look back at the $913 billion from Earlier. For those of use that have no idea of how much a billion dollars equals let me illustrate. If you spent 1million dollars each day for 2501 years you would have spent the 913 billion dollars blacks spent last year. Now lets take a look at 1 Trillion. It would take you 2740 years spending 1million dollars a day to spend 1 trillion Dollars!!!!!! Now , do you see why I am so dumbfounded by the current state of Black America? Do me a favor. If you live in a prodomitly black area no matter if it is considered high or low income take inventory of you surroundings. Walk into you bank, who owns it? Not who manages it but who owns it? Stop and get some gas at you local neighborhood gas station is their a black man or woman listed as the owner? When you need to get you hair done who owns the store where you spend so much of your money each month? When you shop for grocery in you neighborhood hood who controls the chain you prefer? When your cloths are dirty and you drop them off to the dry cleaners, who is behind the counter serving you? When you eat at your favorite restaurant near your home who controls and operates that? When you are ready to run to the ABC (RED DOT) lol who is listed as the owner of that business??When it is time to buy new cloths for work, school, and play how collects the money that we spend in that department? I know the answers to these questions in my neighborhood , but I want you to find the answers to these questions in yours. It seems to me that every other race is able to grow wealthy in our communities expect us. The people spending billions and soon trillions of dollars!!
As an ambitious back man that refuses to settle and now a father to a young black male; I often visualize our people as the strong independent race we will be once we begin to work together. In closing I will share just four of those visions.
1. I believe the first step to the empowerment of our people is the complete and customization of the curriculums of our learning institutions from preschool to College. Students should learn the history of their ancestry, life skills that will allow them not to just survive but thrive, as well as the traditional learning skills taught in a context that our children can relate to. One of the major areas of divisions with in our communities is the lack of knowledge about our TRUE cultural history. Without this lost link it makes it impossible for us to truly make the progress that is needed in our communities. Every other culture has privilege of having a great knowledge of there cultures history and practices. I feel this makes a big differences in the outcomes that we are seeing as far as the evolution of these other cultures.
2. A move to more cooperation vs. competition between black businesses, schools, and churches. I unity with in our community will do a couple of things. First off, it will make us a much stronger people. By stronger people I mean the type of people that can rely on themselves for their livelihood. Secondly, it will increase the changes of success of our businesses, schools, and congregations, which will in turn improve the conditions of our communities. Those improvements over time will insure that our wealth is being kept with in our communities. This is the only way that we can begin to uplift our people and communities out from the grips of poverty and political despair.
3. There must be a reestablishment of the black family structure. The state of the black family has been so drastically altered over the years its no wonder why we are so divide. In order for us to live in unity within our communities we must first learn how to unify with in our own family units. That unity and love of each other has no chose but to spill out into our communities. Eventually to where our communities will be some of the safest places to work, live, and play.
4. Last but not least . Blacks must learn and understand the importance of wealth accumulation within our own communities. This is the only way that we will be able to truly make a mark within this capitalistic society that we live in. Let me explain. IF you think about it, black business offer many if not more of the same goods and services that the majority and other minority owned companies do. So why cant we spend a major part of that 1 trillion to support the growth and advancement of our own businesses, schools, and neighborhoods? Think about the possibilities…….( I’ll leave it to your imagination!)
Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. I am in no way trying to be racist or promote segregation. This is simply an observation from a man shocked by the amount of financial power we have as a people. Yet if you look at where the majority of our people are in life it isn’t reflected. If we aren’t willing to work together to rise ourselves to the next level; reinvesting our resources in our own communities, we are doomed to mediocrity at best. We are descendents of greatness(not matter what facts our text books and media leave out) and the way we live here in America needs to reflect that. I am committed to doing my part in all of this. How about you???
Blackman out!
references
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20090722/16-percent-of-Americans-without-health-insurance.aspx
http://blackamericans.com/blogs/news/archive/2010/02/13/jobless-black-men-are-in-crisis-national-statistics-show-that-fewer-than-41-percent-of-black-males-graduate-from-high-school-and-fewer-than-4-percent-attend-college.aspx
http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/7541.pdf
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmcensus1.html
Friday, May 7, 2010
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