Tavis Smiley has a discussion forum sometimes called “State of the Black Union” that comes on CSPAN. The forum discusses issues regarding the black community. I have watched for at least 6 years. I haven’t seen this year’s, but I have seen the 2009 forum. The forum panels are made up of intellectual superstars. It is always great fun, entertaining, educational, & inspiring to watch.
However, it’s pretty much preaching to the choir; a panel of the highly educated talking to an audience of the educated & church-going folk. It can be esoteric, which is perfectly fine, however every year I hear startling statistics of high STD’s, high school dropout rate, low scores, high unemployment, and high pregnancy rates of the black community. I hear the phrase “They are building prisons & closing schools” often enough that it’s becoming a classic. I doubt that the audiences of these forums make up these statistics, being educated & church-going folk. The bountiful wealth of knowledge that the forum offers need to be disseminated to the masses, to the population that actually contributes to those devastating statistics.
In the 2009 forum, Tavis brought this issue up when asking Dr. Lani Guinier about the bourgeois blacks & working-class blacks. This is not a new idea. Spike Lee’s “School Daze” explored this issue with the educated, light-skinned Laurence Fishburne being confronted by the unemployed, dark-skinned Samuel Jackson at the local MacDonalds & accusing him of stealing jobs. This dichotomy goes back further to the house slave servants & the field slave laborers. The only comparable dichotomy that I can see in the white community is brunettes vs blonds. Not the same thing at all, but the only dichotomy I can recognize that is similar. Tavis has tried to spread the issue with the black community & working class with his books. Yet there is still is a disconnect. And how do we get connected?
Maybe they should also have smaller forums of the intellectual superstars to go to high schools. Not the over-achieving high schools, those kids will be all right. I’m talking about the “Lean On Me” high schools because those are the schools that have kids who make up those high statistics. I’m sure Tavis & others already go to schools & speak, but they could break it up to smaller forum groups to local schools under the “State of the Black Union” title that would coincide with the national forum that shows on CSPAN.
In the 2009 forum, Tavis brought this issue up when asking Dr. Lani Guinier about the bourgeois blacks & working-class blacks. This is not a new idea. Spike Lee’s “School Daze” explored this issue with the educated, light-skinned Laurence Fishburne being confronted by the unemployed, dark-skinned Samuel Jackson at the local MacDonalds & accusing him of stealing jobs. This dichotomy goes back further to the house slave servants & the field slave laborers. The only comparable dichotomy that I can see in the white community is brunettes vs blonds. Not the same thing at all, but the only dichotomy I can recognize that is similar. Tavis has tried to spread the issue with the black community & working class with his books. Yet there is still is a disconnect. And how do we get connected?
Maybe they should also have smaller forums of the intellectual superstars to go to high schools. Not the over-achieving high schools, those kids will be all right. I’m talking about the “Lean On Me” high schools because those are the schools that have kids who make up those high statistics. I’m sure Tavis & others already go to schools & speak, but they could break it up to smaller forum groups to local schools under the “State of the Black Union” title that would coincide with the national forum that shows on CSPAN.
At these high schools they can YouTube the event, since the kids today are children of the internet. They are also infatuated with celebrity culture. To take advantage of this, showcase self-celebrity and award 1 good student & 1 thuggish-ruggish kid who made a positive impact.
Hopefully the kids will be proud of their awards & being on the YouTube internet surrounded by intellectual celebs. If they are, then they will share the YouTube video with their family & friends throughout the web & hopefully it will spread virally linking these working-class kids to the forum panel’s message & speakers.
One my favorite parts of the forum is when the panel speakers start challenging the audience. Over the years, these challenges are usually led by Professor Cornel West & Professor Michael Eric Dyson.
Just a little side note.
What is Cornel West doing in the Matrix movies? What’s up with that?
Anyway,
To paraphrase, Prof. West & M.E.D, goes something like this; “We shall demand equality for our people!” Then the whole audience would stand right up & applaud. Then the speakers would continue, “… including equality for our gay brothers & gay sisters also!” Then just like that, about 75% of audience stopped clapping & sat back down. That always made me laugh, that the audience would flip their support for equality so quickly. Maybe my memory exaggerates for dramatic effect, but that’s the gist of what I remember. Still, it was a good challenge to the audience. To let the audience know that equality means equality for everyone.
One of the greatest leaders that came from the African-American community, for that matter from the American community is Martin Luther King Jr. There is even a park in Amsterdam named after MLK. Regarding the Chris Rock joke, this park named after MLK is actually safe to be at night time. MLK used the same nonviolent techniques that Gandhi used to liberate his people from British rule in India. But MLK never met Gandhi & around the time of the Alabama bus boycott, he has never traveled to India yet. How did MLK learn the nonviolent techniques of Gandhi?
There was a man named Bayard Rustin. He has traveled to India & picked up the ideas of Gandhi. Then he later came to Alabama to school MLK nonviolent techniques in 1956. But we never hear about Bayard Rustin or read about him in school textbooks. Why is that?
For one thing, he was black, gay, & communist; make it three things. That does not mean that MLK or Gandhi were communist. I repeat, MLK & Gandhi were not communists; and for that matter they were not gay either.
But Bayard Rustin was a gay man & he was the conduit between these great men.
In the 2009 forum on CSPAN, the panel speakers did not disappoint with another challenge to the audience. This time it came from Theologian, Emily Townes. She remarked, “You need to get prosperity out of the Black Churches.” I like that. I like that a lot, to get the money changers out of the church. She continued, “I see some of you all stood up & clapped, but most of you didn’t clap.” Wow.
There is a stereotype of working class blacks, a.k.a. people of the urban Ghetto, as lazy & taking advantage of government programs. Well, one can argue that Defense contractors are dependent on government handouts such as building F-22 fighter planes that are obsolete & not needed anymore. That’s just government waste. The workers at these companies are highly skilled & productive. They just need to manufacture a product that serves the market need. Are there any defense contractors willing to step up?
Contrary to the ghetto stereotype, there is such an untapped thirst of capitalism throughout the black community. You can hear it in the music:
In the 2009 forum on CSPAN, the panel speakers did not disappoint with another challenge to the audience. This time it came from Theologian, Emily Townes. She remarked, “You need to get prosperity out of the Black Churches.” I like that. I like that a lot, to get the money changers out of the church. She continued, “I see some of you all stood up & clapped, but most of you didn’t clap.” Wow.
There is a stereotype of working class blacks, a.k.a. people of the urban Ghetto, as lazy & taking advantage of government programs. Well, one can argue that Defense contractors are dependent on government handouts such as building F-22 fighter planes that are obsolete & not needed anymore. That’s just government waste. The workers at these companies are highly skilled & productive. They just need to manufacture a product that serves the market need. Are there any defense contractors willing to step up?
Contrary to the ghetto stereotype, there is such an untapped thirst of capitalism throughout the black community. You can hear it in the music:
In NYC, with Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M: Cash Rules Everything Around Me” and AZ’s “Doe or Die.”
The West Coast's DJ Quik’s “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”
And to the South with Outkast’s “Git up, Git out & Git somethin.”
Even the drug dealer, Stringer Bell on “The Wire” was pursuing a MBA & even had a copy of “Wealth of Nations.” I saw Stringer on Jill Scott’s “No.1 Ladies Detective” show. I find it funny, that no matter if it is Baltimore, Maryland or Botswana, Africa; Stringer Bell is still Stringer Bell.
Not all government programs are government waste. I was a free lunch kid. That means my family was so poor, that the government had to feed me my school lunch. Now without food in my belly, I would not be able to concentrate & study hard enough to progress to eventually obtain a Masters of Economics degree. Consider that government program as a long-term investment that paid off well.
There are a lot of repetitive small businesses in the local black communities: Wing Shops, Rim shops, barber shops, beauty salons, sneaker shops, car wash centers, fashion clothing shops. Many of these small businesses fail because the local customer base is not large enough for all these repeated goods & services. There has to be differentiation, diversification & innovation of goods & services, instead of businesses copying each other.
Entrepreneurs need to study & observe of what are the needs of the market & the needs of the community & start a business to fulfill those needs. Social Entrepreneurs should try to find a combination of community “need” & a market “want”. Are there any social entrepreneurs out there who can step up?
Not all government programs are government waste. I was a free lunch kid. That means my family was so poor, that the government had to feed me my school lunch. Now without food in my belly, I would not be able to concentrate & study hard enough to progress to eventually obtain a Masters of Economics degree. Consider that government program as a long-term investment that paid off well.
There are a lot of repetitive small businesses in the local black communities: Wing Shops, Rim shops, barber shops, beauty salons, sneaker shops, car wash centers, fashion clothing shops. Many of these small businesses fail because the local customer base is not large enough for all these repeated goods & services. There has to be differentiation, diversification & innovation of goods & services, instead of businesses copying each other.
Entrepreneurs need to study & observe of what are the needs of the market & the needs of the community & start a business to fulfill those needs. Social Entrepreneurs should try to find a combination of community “need” & a market “want”. Are there any social entrepreneurs out there who can step up?
For example, I see working-class families who can’t afford cars, shop at the neighborhood grocery store & take the shopping carts to transport their groceries back home. Before my family had a car, we would take the bus to Cub Foods on Covington Highway, but my mother would not let us take the shopping cart. People who do take the shopping carts then abandon them all throughout the neighborhood: at the middle of the sidewalks, at the entrances of apartment complexes, & I see shopping carts stacked up at the bus stop.
Now grocery stores lose money with their property, the shopping carts are taken & discarded. What some stores have done to deter losing their carts is to put electronic devices on the wheels of the shopping carts. When the cart leaves the perimeter of the grocery store parking lot, the electronic device will automatically lock up the wheels.
I always thought this move by the stores is such an adversarial action against their own customer base. The electronic device strategy did not even work. When working-class people removed the shopping carts outside the perimeter of the parking lot & the wheels locked up, they just pushed the carts harder. Working-class people will do what they got to do in order to get by.
Instead of an adversarial action there could be a more constructive relationship. It’s obvious that there is a community market need for people with no cars to transport their groceries back home. In addition to the regular shopping carts, why not have some durable shopping carts for this segment of the market, so customers can transport their groceries to bus stops & apartment complexes & other residential areas from their nearby grocery stores. You can put collection cart receptacles by the bus stops & in front of apartment complexes so people can return the durable carts so they won’t litter the neighborhood with abandoned shopping carts. In order to provide an incentive to return these new carts & to recoup the costs of manufacturing these new durable carts, stores can use the airport luggage cart model. In order to use the new carts, customer has to put 50 cents & with that includes a 25 cents deposit. And when they are finished using the cart they can return them to a collection cart receptacle & get their 25 cents deposit back. Or another idea could be design & manufacture a whole new type of shopping cart that is durable for outside use & can be detachable or something. Companies can sell to those who need it.
Instead of an adversarial action there could be a more constructive relationship. It’s obvious that there is a community market need for people with no cars to transport their groceries back home. In addition to the regular shopping carts, why not have some durable shopping carts for this segment of the market, so customers can transport their groceries to bus stops & apartment complexes & other residential areas from their nearby grocery stores. You can put collection cart receptacles by the bus stops & in front of apartment complexes so people can return the durable carts so they won’t litter the neighborhood with abandoned shopping carts. In order to provide an incentive to return these new carts & to recoup the costs of manufacturing these new durable carts, stores can use the airport luggage cart model. In order to use the new carts, customer has to put 50 cents & with that includes a 25 cents deposit. And when they are finished using the cart they can return them to a collection cart receptacle & get their 25 cents deposit back. Or another idea could be design & manufacture a whole new type of shopping cart that is durable for outside use & can be detachable or something. Companies can sell to those who need it.
There is money to be made here. The first company to do this will have competitive advantage & a loyal customer base.
Another example is drinking wells called Play Pumps being distributed in Africa by a British Social Entrepreneur. Africa certainly has a community market need for better drinking water. The Play Pump filters drinking water & doubles as a children’s merry-go-around playground. The Play Pump is actually powered by the circular motion of the merry-go-around. A pump that is powered by the playfulness of children, such an ingenious idea! You can watch the story here:
Another example is drinking wells called Play Pumps being distributed in Africa by a British Social Entrepreneur. Africa certainly has a community market need for better drinking water. The Play Pump filters drinking water & doubles as a children’s merry-go-around playground. The Play Pump is actually powered by the circular motion of the merry-go-around. A pump that is powered by the playfulness of children, such an ingenious idea! You can watch the story here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frow03pab2
This is such a good idea that that former President Clinton & the former First Lady Laura Bush worked together to give a government grant to the Social Entrepreneur to help expand.
It’s obvious there should be basic finance courses in high school. Start off with mock stocks, have a friendly competitive contest of who can make the most gain, or under recent conditions, who can minimize their losses.
This is such a good idea that that former President Clinton & the former First Lady Laura Bush worked together to give a government grant to the Social Entrepreneur to help expand.
It’s obvious there should be basic finance courses in high school. Start off with mock stocks, have a friendly competitive contest of who can make the most gain, or under recent conditions, who can minimize their losses.
This could possibly motivate kids to do research on their investment selections because better research means better investments. Hopefully the kids doing research would discover a world beyond the 3 mile radius of their apartment complexes & city blocks.
They need to know the difference between Check Cashing spots & a proper Checking & Savings accounts. The bank will pay you money, interest, for having a savings account. That’s better than going to Check Cashing spot & paying them to cash your check that you worked very hard for.
They need to know the difference between debit cards & credit cards. A credit card is not free money. If you pay your whole balance every month, you will build good credit over time that will give you amazing purchasing power. With my little part-time UPS check, I was able to buy for my 1st car, an Infiniti G20 because of the good credit I was able to build over time. Plus I had very low interest rate because the good credit I built, I controlled instead talking the high interest rates that shady banks & shady car dealerships would give me.
Many of these high school kids are undisciplined because they come from undisciplined poor neighborhoods. Teachers need to teach, they all can’t be social workers to every kid. Maybe that’s part of it; involve more social workers to handle the social needs of the kids. The solution I usually hear is these undisciplined kids need a more disciplined family household. I do not agree with that, because there is distinction of being a poor undisciplined household & being just an undisciplined household. Because they are people who came from undisciplined & financially well-off households & turned out to be fine. Actually, some of these well-to-do folks are encouraged to be undisciplined, but they came from environments with financial resources that helped them get by. You can write off these kids in poor neighborhoods as undisciplined, but if you observe the same kids in the gym class when they play team sports whether it’s football, basketball, or volleyball. They abide to the rules of the game; they compete & strive for excellence to win legitimately. They do not strive to win in gym class for financial gain or even for a trophy, but for simple accomplishment of bragging rights. And to earn that bragging right they want to win legitimately by following the rules of the game & calling out others who break the rules.
Reading, writing, & arithmetic is different from athletics. In my high school, I have seen 9th grade students who could not read a complete sentence. But if you ask that same kid the latest song getting radio-play, they are able to repeat every lyric down to the beat; some lyrics with words that they don’t even know the definition of, but able to repeat verbatim. We need an innovative way to translate this to the classroom.
Many of these high school kids are undisciplined because they come from undisciplined poor neighborhoods. Teachers need to teach, they all can’t be social workers to every kid. Maybe that’s part of it; involve more social workers to handle the social needs of the kids. The solution I usually hear is these undisciplined kids need a more disciplined family household. I do not agree with that, because there is distinction of being a poor undisciplined household & being just an undisciplined household. Because they are people who came from undisciplined & financially well-off households & turned out to be fine. Actually, some of these well-to-do folks are encouraged to be undisciplined, but they came from environments with financial resources that helped them get by. You can write off these kids in poor neighborhoods as undisciplined, but if you observe the same kids in the gym class when they play team sports whether it’s football, basketball, or volleyball. They abide to the rules of the game; they compete & strive for excellence to win legitimately. They do not strive to win in gym class for financial gain or even for a trophy, but for simple accomplishment of bragging rights. And to earn that bragging right they want to win legitimately by following the rules of the game & calling out others who break the rules.
Reading, writing, & arithmetic is different from athletics. In my high school, I have seen 9th grade students who could not read a complete sentence. But if you ask that same kid the latest song getting radio-play, they are able to repeat every lyric down to the beat; some lyrics with words that they don’t even know the definition of, but able to repeat verbatim. We need an innovative way to translate this to the classroom.
Don’t misinterpret me, I am not recommending that teachers should start rapping their lesson plans in class. That’s just corny. But these kids need to recognize that we are doing this education thing for them, so they can make loot. Provoke their self-interest in a constructive manner toward education.
My 1st freshman semester at college I had to take chemistry 101. It's a required class. The professor assigned the class to memorize the periodic table. Most of the class scoffed at the task, including me. Our viewpoint was that most of us do not plan to be chemists so why should we have to memorize the huge periodic table since probably we will never use it again.
The professor was prepared for this question. He remarked that it's not that you know the periodic table, it's the ability to memorize something so big as the periodic table & that ability will be a marketable skill in the job market. That advice has stayed with me to this day, even though I completely forgot the periodic table by now.
Why is this important? Why should we care about the black working-class? According to Dr. Lani Guinier’s book “The Miner’s Canary”, the economic struggle of the working-class black community is a significant, portending indicator to the economy as a whole. Whatever the economic woes the country is going through, it has hit the working-class black community first & harsher. So, if the working-class black community is productive, then the whole country will be productive. It just makes sense.
The professor was prepared for this question. He remarked that it's not that you know the periodic table, it's the ability to memorize something so big as the periodic table & that ability will be a marketable skill in the job market. That advice has stayed with me to this day, even though I completely forgot the periodic table by now.
Why is this important? Why should we care about the black working-class? According to Dr. Lani Guinier’s book “The Miner’s Canary”, the economic struggle of the working-class black community is a significant, portending indicator to the economy as a whole. Whatever the economic woes the country is going through, it has hit the working-class black community first & harsher. So, if the working-class black community is productive, then the whole country will be productive. It just makes sense.
Hopefully then the free market would increase the demand to build schools and decrease demand for building prisons then making the phrase “They are building prisons & closing schools” classically passé. Of course, we need a regulated free market, of course.
Back in my high school days, kids used to wear T-shirts saying “It’s a black thing. You wouldn’t understand.” I’ve always hated that shirt. I would change that shirt to say, “It’s a black thing. You should try to understand.”
Back in my high school days, kids used to wear T-shirts saying “It’s a black thing. You wouldn’t understand.” I’ve always hated that shirt. I would change that shirt to say, “It’s a black thing. You should try to understand.”
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