Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
BY BABA LAWRENCE
BLACK EMPOWERMENT 2008: INCREASING QUALITY OF COMMUNITY
In the discussions to define the scope of this document, it was agreed that we would
focus on suggesting solutions rather than regurgitate Black economic and social
development problems.
Traditional approaches to Black economic development are not working for African
Americans. It’s time to suggest a new economic model, one that protects Black
enterprises from the difficulties encountered in past business endeavors.
It was also agreed that we would examine relevant strategies from a post September
11, 2001 perspective and in particular, we would concentrate on outcomes that
support:
INTRODUCTION
The times are chaotic. Corporate jobs are leaving America. Small businesses are
becoming the main fabric of the American economy. Dominant ethnic groups are well
represented in number of businesses and business receipts. They have self-sustaining
economies, where they employ others from their group. However, according to an
article by Jim Clingman, The Small and Minority Business Game:
“With most Black business owners, especially those in construction trades, having far
less in annual revenue, oftentimes no employees, and a much lower net worth, the
chances of them competing and winning contracts just got slimmer. To make matters
even worse, our Small Business Enterprise Program, which calls for 30% of the
business to go to "small" (there’s that word again) businesses, includes everyone.
That’s right. Even white males can participate in the Small Business Program now.
Let’s get this straight. White males get the 70% and then they can get in on the 30%
as well. They can even start front companies for their wives and daughters and get
even more of the 30% that way as well. What a deal, and guess what. We have black
(small "b") city council persons who approved this silly program.”
The number of Black businesses is small with meager receipts and to make matters
worse, jobs are not being created. Evidently, business development programs are not
working for African-Americans.
Africans in America are assailed by deplorable conditions, such as; lowest amount of
wealth, highest unemployment, lowest income, highest crime rate, and fastest death
rate. These conditions, according to Sociologists are the results of poor economic
development. This paper will discuss alternative approaches to developing the Black
community by establishing Black businesses.
THE PROBLEM
Our investigation of the deplorable conditions faced by the Black masses resulted in
discovery of a twofold problem:
The wealth gap is widening between mainstream White society and Black America.
According to the report “The State of the Dream 2004” by United for a Fair Economy,
African Americans were 13% of the population in 2001, but owned just 3% (including
home equity) of the median family wealth. If we adjust for 2001 dollars, that means
$121,000 for White households and $19,000 for Black households. Furthermore, it will
take until 2099 (98 years) to reach parity.
Unequal Wealth Distribution is not totally to blame for Black America’s lowly
economic status and accompanying quality of life. Another major cause is what
Anderson (2001) calls Inappropriate Behavior Patterns (IBP) (Actions that result in
Blacks participating in there own subordination or exploitation). [1] Inappropriate
behavior patterns stem from the social conditioning of slavery. Some say IBP results
from Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder.
“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.
“The Slavery Conditioning process was designed to instill in Blacks strict discipline, a
sense of inferiority, belief in the slave owners’ superior power, acceptance of the
owners’ standards and a deep sense of a slave helplessness and dependence. The slave
owners strove to cut blacks off from their own history, culture, language and
community, and to inculcate White society’s value system.” [3]
“The slaveholders conditioned Blacks to serve as good slaves. The effects carried over
into freed Black society and affected the general behavior of Blacks as a race of
people.” [4]
“The slaveholder’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 for the legal framework that allowed the conditioning
process to exist and operate for 250 years.” [5]
As a result, Slavery Conditioning gave birth to IBP that weakens the competitive
impulse in African-Americans. Competitiveness declines to the point where we
fabricate rationale to justify behavior of outsiders rather than ally with members of
their own group to compete against outsiders.
Moreover, Inappropriate Behavior Patterns teach Whites and others how to treat us. If
we want to be respected, then we must change what we are teaching our competitors.
Community Division
Attitude Towards the Family
Community Division
The major separation was between the house and field workers. The house workers
saw themselves as privileged. They had less physical labor, wore better clothes, ate
better and took care of the personal needs of the master and his household.
Just to be physically closer to the master gave the house slave a sense of superiority
over his fellow field slaves.
The slave master used his house slaves as a buffer zone against the field slaves. He
encouraged them to feel superior, be loyal to his cause and take his side during any
disputes. Because of this social conditioning, the slave master gained some slaves that
assisted and identified with him completely.
Community Division in the Black community persists today. Rather than house versus
field we have, establishment, grassroots, college-educated, non college-educated,
Christians, Muslims, Baptists, Methodists, fraternities, sororities, schools, white collar,
blue collar, republicans, democrats, neighborhoods and hundreds of other bases for
division. The origin of all these divisions comes from the same source as it did 400
years ago --- an outsider who profits from the separation.
Black Americans, just as we did 400 years ago, spend more time arguing and justifying
separate goals than we do working on common goals. Slavery Conditioning has psyched
us out to feel our separate problems are more important than our shared problems.
The African-American psyche was seriously damaged with respect to the Black family.
The family is the basis of personal, healthy, constructive, and community life. The
lack of a strong family leads to unstable individual and community life. Much
destruction came to Black America when the slave master destroyed our marriage,
fatherhood and motherhood institutions.
“The obligations of marriage are evidently inconsistent with the conditions of slavery,
and cannot be performed by a slave. The husband promised to protect his wife and
provide for her. The wife promised to be the helpmeet of her husband. They
mutually promise to live with and cherish each other, till parted by death. But what
can such promises by slaves mean? The legal relation of master and slave renders
them void! It forbids the slave to protect even himself. It clothes his master with
authority to bid him inflict deadly blows on the woman he has sworn to protect. It
prohibits his possession of any property wherewith to sustain her. It gives master
unlimited control, and full possession of her own person, and forbids her, on pain of
death, to resist him, if he drags her to his bed! It severs the plighted pair at the will
of their masters, occasionally or forever.” [6]
The Black man's worth came from his ability to work hard and make babies. The slave
master saw him as a stud and workhorse. The stronger he was and the more children
he could sire, greater was the expansion of the master’s financial means. The more
profit came to the master. Righteous principles such as being able to protect, support
and provide for ones offspring failed consideration as the mark of a man. In fact, if a
slave sought to stand for those principles, he was labeled a troublemaker and
immediately killed. After several generations of such inhumane treatment, the
Blackman adapted and began to avoid the role of a true father.
The Black woman bred or became a sexual depository for having healthy children.
Again, Goodell (1853) points out a newspaper advertisement for a female slave, which
promotes her desirable qualities:
“A girl, about 20 years of age (raised in Virginia), and her two female children, one
four and the other two years old, is remarkably strong and healthy, never having had
a days sickness, with the exception of the smallpox, in her life. The children are fine
and healthy. She is very prolific in her generating qualities and affords a rare
opportunity to any person who wishes to raise a family or healthy servants for their
own use.” [7]
Such abuse of Black womanhood began to destroy the natural dignity and nurturance
of motherhood. Today we find Black women choosing to become breeders in their
search for identity. Too many of those mothers are children themselves, lacking
parenting skills and leaving their children to grow up undisciplined and in many cases a
menace to society.
History has taught us that coalitions usually operate at the expense of the grassroot
Black majority. This type of inappropriate behavior occurs when Blacks partner with
other ethnic groups.
It is a problem because so many members of the Black establishment [8] use it.
Coalescing encourages Blacks to work with groups who already have articulated goals,
rather than organize goals of our own. Black participation gives credibility and
strength to sexual preference, ethnic, class, gender, disabled, and Spanish-speaking
groups, some of whom compete openly with us for wealth and power and openly
oppose Black gains.
During Collusion with the Competition African-Americans, lose by default due to the
inappropriate behavior of Black establishment leaders who seek cross-group alliances,
White approval, and corporate dollars at the expense of their own people. In
addition, if funds are available, the trickle-down theory takes effect and usually
leaves us with leftovers after sexual preference, gender, ethnic, religious, disabled
and Spanish speaking language groups receive what they want or need.
Slavery conditioning produces an inappropriate behavior that comes from the old
social or Southern racial etiquette. It occurs when Blacks, especially from the South or
Midwest, avoid situations that make them appear free, independent and about
determining their own destiny.
A Good Negro or “safe” African-American seeks White approval. They are perfectly
happy to go to work or to church, look at television and then go to bed. To them
whatever happens to Blacks in the community or anywhere else is not their concern.
Good Negroes want to appear happy, content, compromising and non-competitive.
Those who behave in this manner will neither speak up nor speak out on Black issues,
nor will they defend against Black injustices.
Another type of inappropriate behavior that manifests from social conditioning is the
belief that White Ice Is Colder. African-Americans conditioned by school, religion, and
all the mainstream social institutions believe that Whites are inherently superior. As a
result, the superior quality of the White man’s ice remains a commonly accepted
expression in the Black community. Anderson relates an incident where he was witness
to the behavior:
“Standing with a friend in front of his office building in Tallahassee, Florida, I saw a
Black man drive up to a Black-owned grocery store. He got out of his car and walked
over to the ice machine. He picked up several bags of ice, examined them, put them
back into the ice machine, and then walked across the street to a White-owned liquor
store. There, he went to the ice machine and took out two bags of ice. He examined
them, and then went to the drive-through window to pay for them.
My friend and I were so struck by the behavior that we asked him why he rejected
the ice at the Black store but purchased the identical brand from the White-owned
store. He said, ‘I don’t like Mr. Brown’s ice. It’s too lumpy. Jax Liquor’s ice is
better’. That day, I learned that not only was White ice colder, but apparently
‘smoother’ to at least one Black man.” [9]
Social conditioning has planted deeply rooted inappropriate behaviors in the psyche of
Black Americans. In this case, the reasoning is if Whites touch it, make it, sell it, or
talk about it only then it is acceptable to Blacks.
early childhood and continuing until death or total disability. To the slave, work did
not provide for his needs. Instead he worked, often under the threats of abuse or
death, to produce profits for the slave master. A good crop did not improve his life or
community; it improved only the life and community of the slave master.
Work, as any activity that bears no benefit to the doer, was hated. Seen as a form of
punishment, and as any punishment, those who are punished despise it. Moreover,
work was identified with slavery. Even today, Ebonics refers to a job as a “slave”.
Enslavement meant work and freedom meant avoidance of work. Work was viewed as
the activity of the pride-less underdog. Today, one hundred and forty four years
removed from slavery, it is difficult for many Blacks to view the long-term reward of
sustained work as being adequate to erase the stigma of the toil. Many of us will not
start a business because it is easier to work for someone else and get a regular
paycheck and the leisure of Emancipation–Friday evening through Monday morning.
Allowing the slave to own nothing or very little was social conditioning that spawned a
care less Attitude Towards Material Things. The slave master possessed property and
the finer material things such as, clothes, jewelry, fine house, beautiful landscaping,
etc. Consequently, the same way the slave hated and resented his master, he resented
and envied the master’s possessions. Those possessions were associated with freedom
and power to direct one’s life, family and economy.
On the other hand, Black Americans have an unnatural attraction to material things.
During slavery, wearing “Massah’s” old hat or “Missis’” old dress became a symbol of
pride and status.
A slave could play at being Massah or Missis for a few moments. Kenneth Stamp (1956)
vividly illustrates this idea:
“The elegantly dressed slaves, who promenaded the streets of Southern town and
cities on Sundays, the men in fine linens and bright waiscoasts, the women in full
petticoats and silk gowns, were usually the domestic servants of wealthy planters or
townspeople. Butlers, coachmen, maids and valets had to uphold the prestige of
their White families.” [10].
Such experiences with property and material things have left a legacy that is
influential in our lives today. We waste large sums of money on items with no
appreciative value such as, electronic gizmos, flashy clothes, expensive rims,
expensive cars, jewelry and expensive liquor. Because we wish to look like the slave
master, we consistently drain our budgets and fail to use our money to accumulate
wealth.
While considering the attitudes, which come from social conditioning, please
remember that the resulting predispositions are only one aspect in determining our
behavior. Western materialism, imperialism and aggression also have an affect on the
African-American psyche. The bottom line is that we should be aware that
predispositions within us from our past might control our behavior in ways we do not
understand.
In our quest for empowerment, we are a group out of sync with the times. Instead of
working towards wealth parity, many of us are chasing detrimental myths and elusive
dreams. This section discusses several of our myths and dreams:
Integration
Diversity
Politics
Education
Religion
Integration
“The dream of integration has never come true for Black Americans. When we
pursued this dream in the 60’s we did not realize that the integrating group loses all
self-determination prerogatives, since the dominant society must process and approve
all goals and plans.
And, worst of all, under integration Black people have had to shape their goals,
values and behavior around White America’s standards, though White’ approval likely
will not reap financial or political gains for Black people.” [11]
Diversity
Another elusive Black American dream is cultural diversity. Cultural diversity can
lead to the Inappropriate Behavior Pattern of Collusion with the Competition. It co-
ops and weakens Black claims for national attention. In addition, it creates an ethic
that equates all ethnic group grievances with those of Blacks while it belittles and
neutralizes our efforts to resolve unique concerns.
For other ethnic groups cultural diversity has its advantages. Main streets in every city
have their share of Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, French,
Ethiopian, and Thai restaurants. The cultures of these groups stay intact if they
choose to assimilate into mainstream culture. At the same time, they can establish
other businesses, communities and their own economies.
Politics
The myth of Politics has kept Black Americans occupied since the end of slavery. We
know that political power is important because politics decides who is to have what
benefits in life. However, those who aspire to have it can only obtain and use it if
they have economic power as well.
We cannot allow our brothers and sisters to forget the words of Marcus Garvey, who
said:
“The most important area for the exercise of independent effort [is] economic. After
a people have established a firm industrial foundation they turn to politics . . . but
not first. . . to politics because the latter cannot exist without the former.” [12]
Then in addition, the fundamental rule of all politics is --- quid quo pro. This means,
“If you scratch my back, then I will scratch yours”. After you invest the time, energy
and resources in support of a political issue, candidate or political party, then expect
compensation in an equal manner.
Unfortunately, the political picture for Black Americans gets worse. We have not
demanded a quid quo pro relationship. Demanding a quid quo pro relationship with
its elected politicians enabled Cuban refugees to economically and politically surpass
and subordinate Blacks in Miami, Florida within one decade.
Thus, Black political power has yet to become an effective strategy for getting vitally
needed resources to Black communities. Though the rule of politics is “something for
something” Black Americans are never specifically rewarded for their overwhelming
support for candidates for public office. Back officials are skittish about using the
powers of their offices to specifically address the needs of Black communities because
they are concerned about generating a White Backlash. It is easier for them to propose
or support programs that are ambiguously designed to assist everybody rather than
just Blacks. For their political support, Blacks have always been denied quid quo pro,
or something in return for their votes. [13]
Education
“Education without self knowledge is training and no one benefits from training but
the trainer.” – Ni’am Akbar
Some Blacks pursue the myth of Education. They are hoping that if they or their
children get enough education they can overcome wealth disparity in America. Let’s
look at a few facts about education.
The architect of the common school system, Horace Mann, envisioned schools as
institutions for Whites, as he described public education as the “great equalizer”. He
felt that Blacks would attend schools for the less fortunate.
Years later, African-Americans gained access to public schools and Whites treated us
horribly. Moreover, as the saying goes, “If they don’t treat you right, then they won’t
teach you right.” America’s school systems spouted racism and collaborated with
social institutions to maintain the structural inequalities that predetermined Black
children’s life chances. Even today public schooling has not committed to providing
Black children with a truly quality education, instead social scientist and politicians
have spent years charging Blacks with inferior intelligence and poor educational
values.
The more education you have the more wealth you are supposed to gain, however
there is practically no relationship between Black peoples level of wealth and their
educational experiences. During the years 1865 to 1895, Blacks cut their illiteracy rate
by 50% (from 98% to 48%). Following the Civil War nearly 25 million immigrants came
from Europe with approximately the same illiteracy rate as Blacks. During the next 30
years, Blacks reduced their illiteracy rate twice as fast as the European immigrants
did. In contrast, as Europeans immigrants achieved educationally, they moved up in
wealth, income, political empowerment, social acceptance and business ownership.
Blacks started on the bottom and are still on the bottom today. There was no direct
correlation between astounding Black educational achievement and benefits.
The reason for the freeze on upward mobility is not difficult to figure out. Public
education was predominantly Euro-centric with little to no information about African-
Americans. As Akbar (1998) points out, education without self-knowledge is merely
training, and people who are trained can only serve those educated people who were
their trainers. [14]
Census data indicated, as late as the 1950’s that a White high school graduate earned
more than a Black college graduate. A Black person earned only 54 cents for every
dollar a White person earned. In the mid 1970’s Black, earned income went as high as
67 cents for every dollar that Whites earned. It fell back down to 56 cents for every
dollar the Whites earned in the 1980’s. Black Americans are not wrong for wanting an
education; we just have to understand that education by itself is not enough.
“Wealth and other inequalities continue primarily because the planned inferior
education provided to Blacks was never designed to give them countervailing power to
offset the racism to which they would be exposed in mainstream society.” [15]
Religion
Eurocentric interpretations of the Bible have created religious myths that impair Black
empowerment. Religion was one of the first tools used by slave masters in Slavery
Conditioning. They hoped Christianity would encourage slaves to be “Christ-like”,
obedient, justify their own bondage, and control the hearts and minds of Black slaves
in general.
Whites produced self-serving explanations of the Bible, alleging Blacks were a cursed
people, destined to be the slaves of whites (the curse of Ham). They tried to focus
Black aspirations on “the next life” to the extent that some Blacks wished they were
dead. When Black preachers were allowed to preach to Blacks, they were urged to
teach that:
1. When the Bible referred to “slave and master”, it was referring to the Black
race and the White master here on earth.
White seminary schools approved Black ministers who encouraged Blacks to collude in
their own subordination and exploitation.
These religious dogmas persist in Black churches today causing many to accept or
ignore Black injustices.
4. Using what we find to establish programs and procedures that benefit our
communities.
5. Using Internet technology (Web, Email, Radio, and TV) to implement and
market the programs
It is through consciousness that a group knows whom they are, why they are and how
to behave. Moreover, from one’s consciousness comes culture, from culture comes
attitudes, from attitudes come feelings, and from feelings come actions. We can
reverse-engineer the harmful effects of Slavery Conditioning by reawakening our
consciousness in a totally new context. . . . MAAFA Healing.
MAAFA is the Swahili word for holocaust. MAAFA Healing is a form of post-traumatic
slavery therapy that moves our Level of Consciousness from the self-destructive
effects of Slavery Conditioning and Inappropriate Behavior Patterns to appropriate
behavior patterns. This is accomplished by going back to go forward and erasing the
negative influences from the subconscious mind and replacing them with positive Black
consciousness principles (wisdom teachings). Much the same way Neuro Linguistic
Programming conditions a smoker to become a non-smoker.
accurate facts, concepts, theories, and perspectives about ourselves, about others,
and about the world based on our African cultural and intellectual heritage.
Without some form of MAAFA Healing, most Africans in America are unconscious:
constrained by Slavery Conditioning to confusion, seeking unidentifiable and
unattainable goals. Most significantly, an unconscious mind leaves us unable utilize the
melanin in our bodies to tune into spiritually empowering thoughts.
MAAFA Healing gives us grounds to be a confident and proud people. Our new cultural
context will promote the following ethics:
We are the original people on earth who built the first civilizations from
whence all others came
We were a strong communal society that believed in the value of the extended
family
We have awesome intelligence that was the source of mathematics, physics,
astronomy, medicine, civil engineering, religion, agriculture and most other
disciplines of today
We have made the most spectacular educational achievement on earth. (After
300 years of forced illiteracy, we reduced our illiteracy rate by half in 30
years.)
Our ancestors were hard workers who built structures and accomplished feats
that no one else has been able to duplicate
According to Anderson (1994), Black Americans spend 95% of their annual disposable
income with businesses located in other communities.
Of the five percent that remains in Black communities, another three percent is spent
with non-Black owned businesses. It is difficult, if not impossible for Black
communities to maintain a reasonable quality of life and be economically competitive
when only two percent of their annual disposal income remains within Black
communities. [16]
Others have lived luxuriously (improving their schools, building new businesses,
obtaining essential healthcare and generally improving the length and quality of their
lives) off our generous, do-for-others, spending habits.
With our culturally enlightened psyche, the time has come for us to stop going along
to get along and do-for-self. Do-for-self means giving to ourselves. . . . giving love of
self and love of race. As a result, cooperation with more encouragement, support, and
giving and buying Black is possible.
Wealth derives from ownership and control of natural, processed or human capital
resources:
We must control what resources we can to produce wealth in the Black community.
The majority of African-Americans own or control few 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.
Therefore, it is necessary to connect with our brothers and sisters around the world
who own and control land, such as in Africa and the Caribbean. These connections can
take the forms of customer, raw material supplier and manufacturer.
Of the resource options available in America, control of human capital is the most
practical for our African Americans. Astute management of human capital leads to
successful businesses and a viable means for wealth accumulation. Although most
risky, wealth generated from business ownership can be acquired and redistributed
many times faster than from natural or processed resources.
Programs are defined by goals and the strategies implemented to meet those goals.
Our empowerment goals should be based on unmet community needs. After using
community representatives on a team to brainstorm valid goals, make a list of
prospective individuals and organizations that will help meet the goals.
Next, the team should make an inventory of the resources (people, equipment,
supplies, and information) available from those on the list. Next, the brainstorming
process should be used to come up with situations outlining how what we have can be
used to achieve our goals. These scenarios are called strategies. Resource availability
should be used to frame the strategy necessary for accomplishing the previously
outlined goals.
Any strategy outlined should be broken down into doable tasks, person/s responsible,
due dates and cost. Last but not least, strong management is required to monitor
program performance and make sure tasks get done in a timely manner.
Americans, 14 to 16 years old. In addition, the Hope Takes Root program in Detroit
employs homeless men to grow food for local meals programs for the poor.
Second, a community that moves toward self-reliance is often rewarded with a higher
economic multiplier. Economists sometimes assert that a community should be
indifferent about whether a new enterprise produces $100,000 worth of apples for
export or $100,000 worth of apples consumed locally, since each injects $100,000 of
productive activity into the local economy. There is a difference, however. In both
cases, the producer realizes $100,000 of gain and re-spends it in the local economy. In
the latter case, however, consumers also spend $100,000 locally that they otherwise
would have had to spend outside the city to import apples. Every time a community
chooses to import an item it could just as easily make for itself, it's giving away
another piece of its multiplier.
Finally, a self-reliant community enjoys greater tax receipts. Again, the business
taxes from the $100,000 exporter and the $100,000 import-replacer are identical.
However, in the latter case, the higher economic multiplier in the rest of the
community means that taxes from other enterprises in the city will be higher. Plus,
the city can enjoy sales tax (the U.S. constitution bans sales tax on interstate or
international commerce). Higher tax revenues mean better schools, police, roads, and
so forth.”
Grassroots entrepreneurs will need business services. These services include business
coaching, accounting, legal services, loan packaging, insurance, web development,
graphic design, credit clearing, and merchant card services.
Before these services are provided to the grassroots entrepreneur, he or should join
virtual business incubators. These incubators are Internet powered (web, radio, and
TV) cooperatives designed to consolidate incoming business owners into improved
economic position. Improvement comes from the efficiency of working collectively
such as, cooperative buying, referral arrangements, business-to-business transactions,
bartering, mentor/protégé relationships and easy access to the network business
services.
Incubator activities will be designed to create internal cash flow and avoid Collusion
with the Competition. In addition, each cooperative member business is evaluated by
a business coach for strengths/weaknesses and expert guidance offered.
It is not difficult to see how a Coming From Outside the Box approach can possibly
produce prosperity in the Black community. In addition, the approach has personal
benefits as well:
Many financially successful individuals have gained wealth from owning businesses.
They have accumulated wealth by effectively deploying their resources and winning at
the marketplace. At the end of the day, a business and financial legacy transfers to
future generations.
The current economic downturn has seen the downfall of some corporate icons. As a
result, many good, hard working people are without work, through no fault of their
own, especially if they were African American. Becoming a business owner allows one
to take charge of their destiny. They are permanently on the payroll.
In addition, their employment is not a management decision, as it is when the
termination of 20 staff members insure one executive’s golden parachute.
For a long time, wage earners have suffered heavy tax burdens, while business owners
have kept money in their pockets. Becoming a business owner will allow African-
Americans to legally manage their tax liability – through depreciation, credits, and
other tax incentives. A business owner can save substantial funds from taxation.
CONCLUSION
Our research tells us that the central problems facing Black Americans are Unequal
Distribution of Wealth and Inappropriate Behavior Patterns (IBP). The expanding
wealth gap becomes an important issue when we realize that wealth accumulation
determines quality of life. IBP are actions that result in Blacks participating in their
own subordination or exploitation. Inappropriate Behavior Patterns stem from the
social conditioning of slavery. Examples of destructive inappropriate behaviors are:
Community Division
world and ourselves. Moreover, they’ll supply us with a new set of historically
accurate facts, concepts, theories, and perspectives about ourselves, about others,
and about the world based on our African cultural and intellectual heritage.
4. Using what we find to establish programs and procedures that benefit our
community.
An initiative that is modeled after the coming out of the box approach will be a
valuable asset in empowering the Black community.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Anderson, Claud. Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America,
(Powernomics Corporation of America, Inc., 2001) 7
[2] Akbar, Na’im. Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery, (New Mind Productions,
1984) 8
[3] Anderson, Claud. White Wealth, Black Labor: The Search for Power and Economic
Justice, (Duncan & Duncan, Inc. 1994) 165
[6] Akbar, Na’im. Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery, (New Mind Productions,
1984) 27
[7] Ibid., 29
[8] T Shaka, Oba. The Art of Leadership, (Pan Afrikan Publications, 1991) 287
[9] Anderson, Claud Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America,
(Powernomics Corporation of America, Inc., 2001) 29
[10] Stamp, Kenneth. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante Bellum South, (New
York, Vintage Books, 1956) 289
[11] Anderson, Claud White Wealth, Black Labor: The Search for Power and Economic
Justice, (Duncan & Duncan, Inc. 1994) 54
[12] Clingman, James. Blackonomics: The Way to Psychological and Economic Freedom
for African Americans, (Milligan Books, Inc. 2001) 200
[13] Anderson, Claud White Wealth, Black Labor: The Search for Power and Economic
Justice, (Duncan & Duncan, Inc. 1994) 35
[14] Akbar, Na’im Know Thy Self, (Mind Productions & Associates, 1998) 2
[15] Anderson, Claud Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America,
(Powernomics Corporation of America, Inc., 2001) 94
[16] Anderson, Claud. White Wealth, Black Labor: The Search for Power and Economic
Justice, (Duncan & Duncan, Inc. 1994) 52