Dwight...
"Are we really so naive to think that we can show an individual with $1,000 to burn how he/she can become an energy magnate, or a communications giant, or make inroads in any of the monopolistic industries in which we currently have little or no ownership interests?"
Have you ever tried to?
Dayyum Dwight, you just hit a double whammy on two of the biggest coffin nails sealing the lid on Black economic development. I am deeply impressed brother.
1. We've all got the same resume from that standpoint, and with that said I hope and future conversation will not devolve into a discussion about what qualifies any of us to express our ideas. I say this upfront because one of the things that I find most troubling in discussions about economic development is the predisposition of many people (especially Black people, who I tend to interact with most often), to discount any information that doesn't come from an exalted source.
It has been my experience, and the experience of my colleagues here in KC - all of whom are moderately successful independent engineers, consultants, and businesspeople - that Black folks simply don't respect or trust other Black folks!!!
Case in point, Black athletes.
The Kauffman Foundation Urban Entrepreneur Partnership and the Midwest Minority Business Council have been struggling for three years to establish a venture capital fund backed by athletes.
No traction. Bottomline, the reason it doesn't exist today is because the overwhelming majority of these athletes don't trust other Black folks to manage any of their investment portfolio.
2. Kunjufu states that "the African American community is more like a colony than a community". I personally have been trying to get someone to identify to me a functioning African American community currently existing in the U.S. and have yet to get a reasonable response. Perhaps such a thing exists, though I sincerely doubt it, but the typical characteristics of a colony certainly persists in those areas where Blacks make up the majority of the population. Low per capita income, high birth rates, small/weak middle class, economy dependent on external markets, major export is labor, most land and businesses owned by Foreigners, and Limited indigenous entrepreneurship are hallmarks of many if not all of America's chocolate cities.
If we don't act like a cohesive community in the basic existentials, then it's highly unlikely we can aggregate around activites requiring effort and imposing operational risk.
This is why I asked the questions I asked on my post the other day, and which E.C. answered.
Has the mainstream media given you the information you need to get ready for what's happening all around us? If you know what time it is;
1. How did you get that way?
2. How many folks in your family and your community are up to speed?
3. What have you done to get ready?
4. What have folks in your family and your community done to prepare themselves for what's happening in the economy on which we all depend?
5. Have you organized or do you participate in a real world economic development crew in the locality in which you reside?
E.C. and I have spoken a couple times and corresponded to the exte
Have I ever tried? What, in your estimation would constitue a "try"?
As a matter of fact I spent a number of years trying. That I wasn't successful tells me only that there were things that I didn't know that precluded me from success.
Then I realized that there were some things that I didn't know that I didn't even know to ask about. See the problem is not what we don't know; the problem is all of the things that we don't even know we don't know.
@cnulan
We have got to hold our entertainers and athletes to a higher standard. Even though we don't buy the majority of sporting event tickets, without the support of the black collective, our superstars could not achieve the lofty heights on which they rest. But more than that, entertainers and athletes need to be made to understand that as they use their individual success to facilitate our collective success, they exponentially stregthen their own position. Is no one paying attention to how our best entertainers and athletes are more and more often ending up financially and morally bankrupt. Not just dying that way, but people less that 10 years from their last big hit are finding themselves virtually destitute. The solution to that is their investment in building a strong community to fall back on.
That's one of the programs that I am working on. Unfortunately, at this point there are only a fewways to get inside that group. If we can get rich using some other vehicle we will have the "proper credentials" to approach them on their level. We also need to network more outside of our professional comfort zones. There are less than six degrees of separation in the Black community. We may be closer to touching someone who actually can influence some of these individuals than we think. I also see us developing the type of people we need from the ground up. I'm fortunate that my daughter sincerely wants a career in entertainment and is blessed with a gift for singing. I intend to nurture her success and prove the blueprint for using individual success to foster collective empowerment. Along the way I will get with some of the young talent before they make it big and show them how to turn little money into bigger money and still live the good life. It's a process, but I haven't heard a better idea yet.
bears repeating;
But more than that, entertainers and athletes need to be made to understand that as they use their individual success to facilitate our collective success, they exponentially stregthen their own position. Is no one paying attention to how our best entertainers and athletes are more and more often ending up financially and morally bankrupt. Not just dying that way, but people less that 10 years from their last big hit are finding themselves virtually destitute. The solution to that is their investment in building a strong community to fall back on.and it's not necessarily just the money Dwight. Social capital, access and exposure - think about all the places that an athlete can easily gain admission to, from the boardroom to the links - and in the process - open doors for bright and enterprising others to gain entre and Work their Show, as well.
athletes and entertainers squander many of the benefits that accrue to their celebrity in this celebrity obsessed society. Just opening doors for folks would be huge giveback to the community and impose a minimum of risk on the celebrity who made the effort to do so.
(as an aside, it's astonishing how many doors elders can open in the community, as well - and that's the other reason I push for more active and extensive interpersonal communion. When the elders get to know you, like you, and trust you - they'll bend over backwards to help you out)
Commenting by HaloScan
