Black Unity means financial independence and happiness

@Mike Williams, this pie runs through infinity. We can ALL feed our families for generations to come if we fix that hole in our pocket!

I had a client to tell me that she is so afraid to open her front door because she’s wanted for murder. I said WHAT! She said yeah girl I have killed so many Presidents…Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson…by not being able to control all the money running through my hands.

This is one of my clients who started a business less than 10 years ago after being laid off her job and now nets about $225K annually. She’s under 40, has never attended college and says that it’s a crime shame that she works so hard and has nothing to show for it but a mountain of debt!

When the real estate market collapsed, I advised her to purchase a commercial condo to conduct her business from. There was a commercial condo that listed at $28k, 1200 sq ft in the heart of downtown with a management fee of $250 monthly. The real estate developers were cash strapped and selling commercial condos at basement prices with the property taxes abated for 10 years.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t in a position to capitalize on the deal which would have allowed her to own the commercial condo at far less than the office space she was renting to conduct her business. Since then, she’s been trying to deleverage which is a task in and of itself because she is by no means a money conscious person.

Totally Agree!! I hire mostly black people but all my marketing Reps in public are white. Most do not know my businesses are black owned. But dont everyone go starting businesses then I wont have employees. Im just saying.

There are many ways we can begin to remedy the issue of sustaining wealth in our community. I won’t say ‘create wealth’ because obviously from these figures we’re not lacking in acquiring money; only on how we spend it. And a lot of that has to do with our collective mentality.

One thing we can do is get more into owning businesses as opposed to being content working in someone else’s. It always amazes me when I talk to the young Korean dude at the local wing spot, and others like him, when they tell me how they went to college to get graduate degrees, and flipped that education back into opening a wing spot, laundromat or nail salon.

Most black people of higher learning would scoff at such an idea, until they realize the local nail salon they frequent brings in $40000, $50000, and upwards of $100 thousand bucks a month. Every month. And those are actual figures.

Its funny because after slavery, starting ones own business was every black man and woman’s dream. We went out, worked like dogs, saved our pennies and bought whatever piece of land we could acquire and worked it. And prospered mightily. My own family amassed over 2000 acres of land in Alabama during the 1800’s; a chunk of which we still own to this day. My family for the most part never knew collective poverty.

But somewhere along the line, blacks bought into the Disneyland fantasy of working for somebody else in their factory or office; and we forsook ownership for convenience and the appearance of prestige.

A part of it had to do with events like what happened to Black Wall Street in Tulsa back in 1921. Segregation forced us to do business with each other, so we prospered exceedingly and made ‘them’ envious. Most of the race riots back in the 20th century were sparked for economic reasons. Blacks were turning over so many dollars in our own communities that white banks were even borrowing money from black banks to stay open prior to the depression.

This is also the main driving force behind desegregation in the 60’s. White business owners wanted some of the lucrative black business too. Boycotting stores was a vital and little talked about tool we used back then to break the back of Jim Crow. But thats another story for another day.

Now the tables have turned. And its time for a paradigm shift. Work your job, live as frugally as possible, save your pennies and open your own business. Look at where we spend the most money and open a business along those lines. You don’t even have to hang a banner out front declaring you’re a ‘black owned business’. We all know some black folks won’t shop with their own kind because they still think if you’re selling ice that ‘the white man’s ice is colder’. So be tactful and discreet about it. Hell, hire a white woman to be the secretary if you have to!

Use that money and enrich your family with it. Bank black. And contrary to assumptions, most black megachurches DO bank black. Just not exclusively. Some have even opened their own credit unions for fellow church members.

And the funny thing is: when you get the money game right, the politicians break their necks to serve your interests. Because money fuels politics, and not the other way around.

Funny how you never hear about the Asian vote during election cycles. And they seem to be doing just fine. Why should Obama or any politician listen to us when we don’t even organize our money for basic survival purposes?

Again: great, great article.

Double thank you for the link to Black Bank info!

I love your comments about African people. You are totally right. It is the Africans who have post-PhDs in the U.s. We definitely need to emulate them!

(See U.S. Census & the Journal of Blacks inhigher education)