Then there’s the whole church and party thing… once upon a time, we made up a whole body of church music (known as the Negro Spiritual today) that served the purpose of getting TOTALLY free, mind, body, and spirit (and as I have written elsewhere, almost the whole body of profit in the music industry for 100 years derives from that music we created; if we get that wealth back and use it properly, much of our poverty problem could be just about DONE). And it used to be that we used party time to at least pay some rent. Not any more; most of us our spending our talent and energy just to get things we can enjoy in the present, with no deeper sense of purpose. That we will have to get over, and the time was YESTERDAY.

I experienced something very important last week which really opened my mind even more about our slave mentality. I went to a seminar (from Robert Kiyosaki’s school) of Rich Dad. It was opened to everybody in my city for free. It was announced for several weeks on hotmail. So, everybody saw the ad including our people. There were few people who came and Blacks were a minority. It speaks volume about how brainwashed we are. I am convinced if the ad was about church or a party many of our people would be there. We really don’t have our priorities at the right place. I was placed in front for the seminary. The speaker looked often at me. It was this kind of look: this one contrary to her people is looking for financial independence. She is not relying on the mainstream anymore. As Terrance Amen wrote: Black Unity means financial independence and happiness. I am certainly not masochistic like too many of our people who still expect Whites to save them even if they always exploited us and always will. It is time for our people to wake up and smell the coffee! I don’t understand also why we behave like glue jars towards White people. They never helped us. I have a great and smart Chinese friend who is giving me a lot of information about business something that I never got and never will from White people. I got a lot from the seminar which never happened with Whites. A free small business dictionary with a CD-ROM about valuable and informative chapters from the last book of Kiyosaki. Do I have to remind you that Kiyosaki is Asian?

Terrance — yes, I do think we as Black people seem to wait until we think someone has a chance of success before we line up behind them, but that begs the question: why do we still need so much proof that we are capable of success? Why do we need to see a White woman falter before we believe in a Black man’s ability to triumph? To you of course the question is rhetorical; you have posited an answer in your book more than worthy of consideration. But I post it anyway for the rest of us. We need to stop waiting for White validation — either in their approval or in their stumbles — to invest in our own success. I am not saying in this that the election of Barack Obama equates to wholesale Black success — by no means. But, our behavior relative to his first campaign ought to suggest some instruction for our future.

Black Unity means financial independence and happiness