(ThyBlackMan.com) Any objective assessment of the Black community’s current predicament will clearly show that Black suffering is a direct result of two things: First, many of us in the Black community have a pronounced tendency to follow self-serving poverty pimps and fools instead of thinking for ourselves, following truth wherever it leads, and thereafter, addressing the issues that the truth reveals. Instead, we’d rather stick our heads in a comfortable patch of sand and pay a poverty pimp to tell us that our problems are someone else’s fault. Secondly, we’re more interested in appearances than reality. We’ll go absolutely broke to make it LOOK like we’re living high on the hog instead of living more modestly and investing our time, money, and resources into actually obtaining the lifestyle that we’re willing to go broke to pretend to already have. So in short, many of us are broke and suffering because we refuse to face up to, and address our shortcomings, and we insist on living a lie.
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A perfect example of the first dysfunction is many of us literally worship people like Cornel West. Then if you ask them what is it about West that they most admire, they’ll say something like, “He speaks the truth.” But if you continue to question them it becomes abundantly clear that they not only don’t know the truth – or more importantly, a lie – when they hear it, but they know absolutely nothing about Cornel West. So the fact is, they actually admire West because he tells them what they want to hear, and what brings them comfort. But chasing emotional comfort rarely brings about an improvement in one’s life. In fact, all it generally does is provide a convenient excuse for failure.
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Because the fact is, people like Cornel West can’t afford to tell the people the truth, because the truth is, he himself is more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current suffering. George W. Bush won the 2000 election by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes, as a direct result of the Ralph Nader/Cornel West coalition taking away 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes. So in essence, Nader and West did more to elect George W. Bush President of the United States than the Republican Party. But of course, Cornel West defenders defense is, “No, the Supreme Court helped Bush steal the election.” But the fact is, if it wasn’t for the 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes that the Nader/West coalition took away, the election wouldn’t have been close enough to even go before the Supreme Court. Thus, Nader and West
were ESSENTIAL to Bush’s election. Thus, Cornel West is much more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current plight.
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And contrary to West’s mantra-like contention that Obama’s not doing enough for the Black Community, if were not for Barack Obama, the community would be in much worse shape, because America, and the world, would currently be in the midst of a second Great Depression. People don’t stop to think about that, or GOP obstructionism. All they think about is that things are rough. But when Barack Obama took office this country was hemorrhaging 500,000 jobs A MONTH.
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So when Cornel West tries to blame President Obama for our current condition, it’s the direct equivalent of his walking into a restaurant, crapping on the floor, and then calling the Health Department because the owner didn’t get it up fast enough. And considering Cornel’s Association with Tavis Smiley, the biggest corporate shill in the Black community, his complaining about the condition of the poor is like a man running down the street ranting about fascism after just having lunch with Mussolini.
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Another thing that many people fail to consider is, it’s not the President’s job to go from house-to-house handing out gift baskets. His job is to create an environment where we can help ourselves, and the Black community has a buying power of $1.1 trillion. That’s equal to the Gross National Product of Germany, the third richest industrial nation in the world. So there is absolutely no reason why we have to wait around for the White man to come and give us a job. Our problem is, we need to start taking care of business, and because we fail to do that, is not Obama’s fault – it’s OUR fault. Our biggest problem is, we’re doing more whining than we are thinking. And instead of acting like responsible adults, we’re acting like children waiting for our White daddy to come home and feed us.
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Think about this: “Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days and white communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at $1.1 trillion, and yet, only 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses.” That’s why we don’t have jobs. Is that Obama’s fault? I don’t think so. So the fact is, it’s not money that the Black community needs; it’s an education that we’re in most dire need of.
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One gentleman in the community told me the following:
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“All that you stated is all true, but how does it translate POLITICALLY? One can have a lot of consuming power, and that’s what you are truly pointing out, but at the end of the day NO TRUE POWER EXIST because WE are dependent on policies created by others to help US. WE ARE NOT SITTING AT THE TABLE; I think that’s what’s frustrating. The power of the POTUS becomes beneficial WHEN WE ARE AT THE TABLE. The only way to ensure that is to RAISE HELL, for he alone cannot bring us to the table. Our frustrations and dislikes must be shown and felt in order for any TRUE ADVANCEMENT. Seems that we are going backwards, when it comes to the Civil Rights struggle.
Those gains in the past did not take place by having our people sitting on the sideline NOT CRITICIZING what needs to be criticized. OUR president NEEDS US to step up our game, [but] so far whatever it is we are doing IS NOT WORKING. Look at how they are slaughtering us in the streets, STATE SANCTION TERRORISM, with no regards on how upset we get…for we HAVE NO TRUE POLITICAL POWER.”
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In response, I pointed out that the world doesn’t set a place for you at the table. We have to set our OWN place at the table by getting our OWN affairs in order. The world only allows those at the table who it respects, and it doesn’t respect us, because we don’t respect ourselves. So we’ve got to change our cultural mores and begin to recognize who we are, and begin to understand that the adversity that we’ve endured over the years is a valuable source of unutilized knowledge that makes us MORE rather than less.
In addition, we’ve got to learn how to leverage that $1.1 trillion at our command. The one thing that the White establishment is more enamored with than its passionate romance with racism, is money, and it’s not going to allow $1.1 trillion dollars – again, the gross national product of Germany – to slip through its fingers.
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That brings me to the second dysfunction that the Black community has to overcome, and that’s how we handle our money. Currently, the establishment doesn’t have to acknowledge the Black community, because we fall all over one another to take them every penny we have. But if we were more selective in how, and with whom we spent our money, they’d forget all about racism just to get their hands on it. If, for example, the community organized and decided that we weren’t going to put our money in Wells Fargo, or Bank of America, you can bet that they’d open up branches in the Black community that would be run, and controlled, by Black people. As a result, when Black businesspeople needed a business loan, they’d be talking to another Black face, which would lead to more jobs in the community. And the very same thing would be true of many other national and international franchises coming into the community.
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Then, as a direct result of the improved economic conditions in the community, our young people would see other young adults being hired and prospering in this new economic environment. That would cause them to begin to see the wisdom of staying in school so they too could take advantage, of this new prosperity. That, in turn, would lead to the building of new homes in the community, the stabilization of family life, expanded political clout, and a reduction in crime.
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So while peaceful demonstrations do have their place in calling the establishment’s attention to community concerns, we’ll never be able to scream, whine, or beg our way to a better life – and nobody will ever be able to give it to us, because even if they did, we wouldn’t have sense enough to hang on to it. So the only way that we’ll ever acquire, and then hold on to, the kind of life that we aspire to, is through careful though, planning, responsibility, and above all, education.
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Cornel won’t ever tell you that, because at $30,000 a speech, he makes a great living off your pain.