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let’s Do It
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Bring Back Black . . .
Let’s Do It!
RATIONALE FOR THIS DISCUSSION
We won‟t mention any names; however let‟s say this, those who espouse answers for
Africans in America please remember the following,. . . . . enduring solutions must be
crystal clear and clarity comes from an age-old four step process:
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If we keep in mind that each step comes from its predecessor, we may derive
logically sound solutions.
The second reason for this discussion is to suggest a workable, race first approach
to overcoming Black America‟s challenges. Moreover, the suggested approach
illustrates use of the four step process.
THE PROBLEM
Other ethnic groups are well represented in number and business receipts. They„ve
built self-sustaining economies that mostly employ only members of their own
group. On the other hand, Black business receipts, employment and wealth
accumulation are relatively small.
This situation begs the question, if other ethnic groups control most small
businesses, and they hire their own, with African American businesses being
capacity-limited, where will our children work? Moreover, how will we handle the
racism stemming from others genetic insecurity? How will we deal with the
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Western world‟s non-white depopulation plans? Make no mistake; Black America’s
survival is at stake!
Black per capita wealth is $10,000/year versus White per capita wealth
of $55,000/year.
America has lost three million middle class, health insurance paying,
manufacturing jobs. This has had the greatest impact on African Americans
due to last hired-first fired discrimination. In addition, African Americans
are least able educationally to compete in this high – technology economy.
New York lost 520,000, Chicago 326,000, Philadelphia 160,000, and Detroit
108,000.
These jobs cannot be replaced with lower class jobs that do not pay health
insurance. Seventy-five percent of new economy jobs are in the service
sector which includes security, health aides, waitressing, janitorial, and
cashiering.
The Centers for Disease Control‟s National Center for Health Statistics in a
report entitled “Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the
United States”, showed that Black women are facing a crisis in their
relationships with Black men.
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According to this study, when compared to other races, Black women are:
least likely to marry, least likely to marry a long-term cohabiting partner,
most likely to have their marriages end in separation or divorce, most likely
to remain separated or divorced, least likely to remarry, most likely to see
their second marriages end.
THE CAUSE
Slavery Conditioning
Our glorious (Kamitic) ancestors told us that the unseen controls the seen, the mind
controls the body and the roots control the fruits, or lack of them. If we apply
that nugget of wisdom, any efforts to find the cause of our woes must first
examine its roots.
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Greek, non-Greek, democrat, republican, Christian or Muslim and so on, you know
the labels.
Slavery Conditioning was the process that slave masters used to psychologically
make a better slave. In his book The Peculiar Institution, author Kenneth Stampp
describes the four pillars of conditioning a slave; fear, loyalty, inferiority, and
hatred.
“When making a slave the first thing you do is to instill fear. Second, you teach the
slave to have loyalty only to his master. Thirdly, you teach them to feel inferior by
always showing Whites in a position of authority. Lastly, you teach them to hate
anything connected to Africa.”
The methods used to socially engineer Black people were horrific and showed the
vicious nature of the enslaver and the enslavement process. One example, cited
from the Cardinal Principles for Making a Negro, the writer says:
“Take the meanest and most restless nigger, strip him of his clothes in front of the
. . . [slaves], tar and feather him, tie each leg to a different horse faced in opposite
directions, set him afire and beat both horses to pull him apart in front of the
remaining nigger(s). The next step is to take a bull whip and beat the remaining
niggers to the point of death in front of the female and infant. Don‟t kill him but
put the fear of God in him, for he can be useful in future breeding.”
From Let‟s Make a Slave, by Robert L. Brock
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Norman Coombs in, The Black Experience in America, p. 40 wrote:
C. Clark in a monumental 1972 article for Black Psychology entitled, Black Studies
or the Study of Black People in R. Jones, states:
“In order to fully grasp the magnitude of our current problems, we must reopen the
books on the events of slavery. Our objective should not be to cry stale tears for
the past, or to rekindle old hatreds for past injustices. Instead, we should seek to
enlighten our path of today by better understanding where and how the lights were
turned out yesterday.
We should also understand that slavery should be viewed as a starting point for
understanding the African American psyche, and not as an end point. Therefore,
the study of the African American psyche should include psycho-history, but it
should not be exclusively concerned with events in the past.”
These steps were taken to ensure the continuation of slavery from one generation
to the next. Such social engineering manufactured culturally deficient clones,
generation after generation, over the last four centuries. Each successive
generation was infected from the time of inception with an ingrained cultural virus
that was designed to prevent them from reaching their fullest potential.”
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In Black Labor White Wealth, p.165, Dr. Claud Anderson points out:
“The slave owner‟s absolute power over Blacks allowed them to operate an efficient
and effective slavery conditioning system. Slaveholders constructed internal
controls on slaves that minimized the external force needed to control them. The
government provided the environment of legal framework that allowed the
conditioning process to exist for 250 years . . .
The effects carried over into freed Black society and affected the general
behavior of Blacks as a race of people.”
Jawanza Kunjufu, in his powerful book, Solutions for Black America, p.145 says:
“Affluent Whites who are valued in America and who have experienced trauma are
given treatment immediately. When they have been in stressful events – Columbine,
Kentucky, Oregon – the government sent counselors immediately to address the
survivors‟ needs. The fundamental problem for African Americans is that when
slavery ended in 1865, African Americans were not given counseling to address
post-traumatic slavery disorder.”
IBP refers to actions that result when Black folk participate in their own
subordination or exploitation, i.e. Community Division, Attitude Towards the Family,
Collusion with the Competition, Seeking the Approval of Whites, White Ice is
Colder, Attitude Towards Work, and Attitude Towards Material Objects.
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Lack of Black Wealth
businesses, equal justice, essential health care, personal comfort and length and
quality of life. Now consider this, 2004 per capital wealth of African Americans was
$10,000 versus $55,000 for Whites [2].
Why is there so little Black wealth? Before we answer that question let‟s look at
the primary ways wealth is accumulated:
1) Inheritance
2) Converting Income
Inheritance
Being the descendants of slaves, African Americans have inherited far less wealth
than Whites. White society owns or controls approximately 87 percent of U.S.
economic assets and passes them on from one generation to the next. Wealth is
frozen and stored inside their race – in their families, culture, businesses,
churches, communities, education systems and organizations in the form of stocks,
bonds, land, insurance policies, trust accounts and foundations. [3]
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Converting Income
Wealth also comes from converting active income (income from selling your labor)
to passive income (income from the ownership of property - businesses, churches,
communities, education systems, bonds, land, insurance policies, trust accounts and
foundations).
THE SOLUTION
As human beings, our limitations rest only in our ignorance. We are ignorant of who
we are and what we can do. We have the need to gain consciousness (awareness) and
only in consciousness is our true human capacity open to us.
Dr. Na`im Akbar
Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery
Maafa is the Swahili word for holocaust. Maafa Healing (MH) is a system of post-
traumatic therapy that yields African-centered consciousness by eliminating the
negative psychological residue lingering from the middle passage, slavery, Black
Codes, Jim Crow, sharecropping and institutionalized racism.
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This change will leave behind Slavery Conditioned, self-destructive, Eurocentric
based, Inappropriate Behavior Patterns and replace them with an African-centered
awareness.
“Freedom of the mind is our primary objective because once it is achieved it makes
other goals readily identifiable and therefore, easily attainable. The mind is the
conduit through which a person can access spiritual consciousness. If the mind is
constrained and filled with thought of negativity and inferiority, it is incapable of
tuning in spiritually empowering thoughts.
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MH allows us to see that our desires are not who we are but instead who we learned
to be. We can see that we are not the “recording” but the “recorder”. We are not
the “content” in the glass but the “glass” itself. We are not the software but the
hardware. Furthermore, MH enables Black folk to feel a new Group Orientation
that brings with it: common values, selflessness, trust and unity - the virtues that
represent Maat.
Maafa Healing was developed by a team of concerned Black folk in association with
psychologists from Howard University. MH uses a set of awareness, understanding,
disassociation, declarations and exercise techniques to remove the self destructive
influences (fear, Black inferiority, White superiority, hatred of Africa) of Slavery
Conditioning.
For those who are ready, now is the time to break loose from thinking like those
who have enslaved us. Now is the time to awake your consciousness and surpass the
alien conditioning that has held us back for so long.
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“We must redistribute the wealth and natural resources of this country or Black
people will continue to be slaves.”
Dr. Claude Anderson
In order to create wealth, one must first own and control natural, processed or
human capital resources:
Of the options available, control of human capital is the most practical for most
Black Americans. From astute management of human capital, business ownership is a
means to manifest wealth. Although risky, business ownership can redistribute
wealth many times faster than real estate, or stocks and bonds.
We must control what resources we can to produce wealth for Black people. The
majority of African-Americans control no significant resources - we have jobs.
There is no wealth potential in a job. It is the owner and producer of the job who
has the wealth potential.
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One way to provide technical assistance for business
ownership is to establish inner city entrepreneurship
schools that produce our own entrepreneurs. These
schools teach the essentials to operating a business
(marketing, accounting, and technical skills) to
grassroot masses so they can become business owners.
The entrepreneurship school‟s focus is to seed the community with businesses that
exchange goods and
services needed by the
community. Next, these
businesses ethno
aggregate and vertically
integrate to increase their
collective
competitiveness. No more
“rugged individualism” (Make
as much profit as
possible for my business). Other features of our entrepreneurship school include
lessons on avoiding pitfalls unique to Black business owners, “virtual” incubator e-
commerce businesses, purchasing portal operation and follow-on finance, business
coaching and professional services.
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Entrepreneurship schools help economically revitalize our inner-city communities by
establishing hundreds of consolidated businesses per year. Revitalization occurs
from the synergy between community, smart technology implementation,
cooperating businesses and secured inner-city markets.
The ICCP operates as a hub for purchasers of goods and services, suppliers of
goods and services, economic revitalization agencies and employment service
providers.
The purpose of the ICPP is to provide the opportunity for businesses, government
and Non-Government Organizations to blend economic and social return in their
every day goods and services procurement.
The idea for the ICPP is based on the very successful Social Purchasing Portal in
Canada (see http://www.sppcanada.org/). This concept provides a practical
approach to our vision of wealth accumulation in economically distressed inner city
areas. Another effect of the ICPP is that it transforms the employment
development process from supply-based (where the focus is solely on training for
employment) to employer-demand where the focus is on creating employment
opportunities for long-term unemployed and hard-to-employ persons.
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The objective of Inner City Purchasing Portal activity is to generate more buying
from the participating inner city sellers. From the increasing business activity, the
seller‟s business grows, ultimately creating demand for more employees. The
purchases directed to businesses located in the inner city bring new wealth into the
area, and the demand for new employees creates opportunities for local residents
to enter the work force.
IMPLEMENTATION
The Solution outlined above can be implemented on the Internet via a network of
web-based portals. Each node portal can address Maafa Healing and wealth
accumulation. A central informational website can facilitate node portals in urban
areas such as, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los
Angeles, Houston, Dallas, etc. Each portal shares overall purpose, common branding
and services and use a single national database.
Based on locally-identified needs, each urban area will develop and operate their
own portal.
Maafa Healing
Gain the interest from community leaders and service providers who concur
on the need to raise local „Black consciousness
Gain commitments from organizations businesses, , private sector leaders,
and potential funding sources which will help Maafa Healing evolve.
Identify the lead individuals that will provide design, development and
organization [This is usually the convener of this first step.]
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2) Procuring Funding For Prototype Development And Web Programming-There Are
Two Funding Needs:
1. Procure funds for staff time for initial prototype development, meetings,
planning sessions, and consultation from Howard University professors.
Prototype development is currently done in kind by KMT United staff, Dallas.
However approximately $5,000 to $10,000 is accurate funding depending
upon travel costs and number of visits averages. Local staff time at this
stage is usually in-kind from personnel interested in facilitating an expanded
African-centered consciousness in inner city communities.
2. The start up costs for Maafa Healing prototype development varies from
$3,500 to $6,000 depending upon the extent of functionality.
The success of the Maafa Healing is dependent upon, offline advertising and other
Internet marketing techniques.
5) Design, development and refinement - The final stage of the Maafa Healing is:
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consciousness to critical mass. This requires marketing, sales, and
relationship maintenance.
Supporting and enhancing the relationships with visitors keeps the energy of
the site going. This includes search engine optimization, bulk emails,
publishing articles, online consciousness newsletter, and conducting
consciousness raising programs for the community.
Wealth Accumulation
1) Conceive SU
2) Recruit partners
3) Funding applications submitted
4) Funding received
5) Administrative Assistant hired
6) Recruit staff
7) Confirm Partnerships
8) Develop marketing materials
9) Secure venue
10) Promote SU
11) Conduct Streets University curriculum
12) Hold awards banquet
13) Hire web developers
14) Gather e commerce requirements
15) Recruit Business Coaches, and Service providers
16) Design, develop, implement e commerce websites
17) Beta test e commerce incubator
18) Launch SU e-commerce incubator
19) Hold SU press conference
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1) Introduction And Interest To Move Forward With Local ICPP
Gain the interest from community leaders and service providers who concur
on the local „added social value‟ concept
Gain commitments from initial businesses, organizations, private sector
leaders, and potential funding sources which will help evolve the ICPP.
Identify the local lead organization that will provide site leadership,
maintenance and organization [This is usually the convener of this first
step.]
2) Procuring Funding For Site Development And Operation-There Are Three
Funding Needs:
1. Funds for staff time for initial local meetings and planning sessions and
consultation from existing ICPP sites. Consultation is currently provided
without cost by ICPP Dallas, but averages around $5,000 to $10,000
depending upon travel costs and number of visits. Local staff time at this
stage is usually in-kind from a local group interested in investigating the
potential of an ICPP site in their inner city community.
2. The start up costs for site development varies from $3,500 to $6,000
depending upon the extent of changes in the existing site template and
added database functions and fields.
3. The on-going cost is approximately $75,000 per year to cover the expenses
of one person to manage and promote the site, as well as office and
marketing expenses.
Funding sources vary from inner city community to inner city community. In the
Canadian model sites have received funding from foundations (BC Technology
Social Venture Partners, Be a Light Foundation, Community Economic
Development Technical Assistance Program and the Vancouver Foundation),
United Way, private sector partners (Van City Credit Union, Coast Capital
Credit Union), and government (Western Economic Development Canada,
Province of Manitoba, Vancouver Agreement).
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3) Site Development and Launch
Each local site requires the localization and adaptation of general content and seller
search criteria. A content template for the ICPP site exists, so most of this is a
general editing of each page's content and preparing information on the local site
objectives.
After the content is prepared and the other technical issues addressed, it takes
Phatboy Media about 3-4 weeks to build the site. The initial portal ICPP Dallas
works with each local site through this process and provides training on the
database management system.
The launch is the public release of the site to the web. Since the sites initially
involve just a few partners at the time of the launch, it is not necessarily a major
event. Some may hold a press conference around the launch, garnering good
exposure for the site. Others may include the launch within a series of other
events around small business week.
Still others may include the launch as part of a larger organizational development
process.
The success of the local ICPP is dependent upon the initial business and inner city
community engagement. In the first three Canadian site developments, there was
clear evidence of the importance of commitment by an initial group of businesses,
both buyers and sellers. The higher the profile of this first wave of participants
the better the start.
In Vancouver, the early support of key IT industry leaders set the tone for further
business interest and engagement. In Calgary, the early engagement of the United
Way and Downtown Foundation led to funding to support their site development.
The number of businesses, buyers and suppliers is not as critical as the scope of
their profile and the breadth of available goods and services.
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5) Maintenance, growth and sustaining - The final stage of the process is:
FOOTNOTES
[1] Solutions for Black America, JAWANZA KUNJUFU, African American Images,
2004, pp.1-13
[2] Solutions for Black America, JAWANZA KUNJUFU, African American Images,
2004, p. 5
[3] “Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America”, Claud Anderson,
Ed.D., Powernomics Corporation of America, Inc., 2001, p.7
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