Black Capitalism

The only problem I have with Black consumption in America is the fact that we don’t support our own communities! It becomes evident that race and the economic construction are interwoven. What I will attempt to do is show how Blacks should separate their cultural identity from mainstream economic principles, values, and beliefs to become independent from White control. The economic system which Blacks have readily embraced since being freed from slavery has done nothing but help to enslave in another manner.
It is in the nature of African Americans to work collectively; an age-old tradition of building a village that is self-sufficient by reinvesting in your neighborhoods and communities so they flourish instead of border on extinction (James Oglesby). Through white supremacy, individualism has consumed the natural inclination in our community to share amongst one another and we no longer seek each others’ business. We have allowed for slavery, capitalism, Willie Lynch, Jim Crow, and American racism to overshadow our cultural bond. The bond allowing us the ability to spend our dollars where we live and work. . Over the past 30 years a strong dependence of White products and services has formed. Blacks consume the most in this country while producing the least. African-Americans willingly shop for products and services which are manufactured by another race, they allow for other systems like education and politics to be controlled by other races.
I believe the goal of integration was an economical move by the Whites. They were able to expand target markets thus increasing profits and revenues across industries. Why then, has the Black community not attempted to mimic that strategy for our benefit? Would we rather watch as our community collapses while subsequently helping build up another? It doesn’t make ethnic, cultural, cultivating, economical sense that something so blatant would be allowed!
Ghettos were created by the Germans during the Holocaust. Ghettos are the inner city area designated to confine the Jews before execution. The power measures taken by the Germans to assume total control over the Jews were skillfully executed. By relegating Jews to confinement in the most underdeveloped part of the town, they had control over physical and emotional comfort. The Germans made sure that the ghettos were overpopulated, without adequate food and water, and underdeveloped and unkempt. The same attributes signature to the Jew ghettos is evident in African-American populated ghettos in America. By being in these confined inner-city sites, control over freedom entitlement can be controlled just as easily as flipping a light switch. Everything that happens in the ghetto can be monitored and controlled from a distance by adding and subtracting necessities, threats, and decoys. What happens oftentimes in the ghetto has a lot to do with external forces. The place in which Blacks have come to identify as home, really serves as a means of confinement and control from Whites.
Blacks have not embraced this fact and attempted to improve the community they consider home; instead, individuals come up with a little money and move out to Whiter neighborhoods. Investing money into our community is what is needed in these instances. Onyeani states, “We continue to chase after “other” good neighborhoods when we could make our own neighborhoods better and increase our property values and in the process increase our equity in the home-which translates into more money from our investment.” When the dollar changes hands within a community, more wealth is established. Chinese, Indians, and Jews understand this logic and use it in their communities in America. Gaining independence is gaining control. African-Americans should use their economic worth to control what comes in and out of the communities in which they live. Producing and consuming amongst a particular group will only serve to benefit the community. Blacks must consider their communities little countries and attempt to export goods more than they import them. By doing this, Blacks will create the power to raise taxes on the goods that come into the community and sell their goods to others for exorbitant costs. The money gained by doing this should be pumped back into the community producing. Black America could live better as a whole with more investment into community through economic freedom.
There are ways in which Black economic power can be developed within the next 5 years. The Black community must lose its integration mind set and become Pro-Black. A concern for the survival of the Black community must take root.
Four steps will assist in creating Black Capitalism: 1) Word of mouth (an old African tradition) 2) Learn each others trades and skills-local action 3) History lessons on Black Wallstreet and areas where a lot of Blacks populate (Birmingham, Prince George County, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Little Rock, Jacksonville, etc.) 4) Change the function of HBCUs to produce entrepreneurs and Black business professionals.
The last step is especially worth noting. HBCUs produce nearly 60% of all Black college graduates in the country. What the HBCUs do though, is teach them how to get a job from large corporations and majority companies. There are thousands of African American industrial/service companies in America and their growth over the past thirty years has mirrored Black colleges. The top 100 Black-owned businesses in the country collectively grossed more than $27 billion in sales. This is where HBCUs should focus on gaining corporate sponsorship. The potential for creating an all Black corporate network is something that could help increase African-American wealth. As an HBCU this should be a major goal.