When i ask people, did Integration in the 60s do more harm to Black America than good, and did if hurt the Black Communities, many fail to understand the reasons why. With anything theres good and bad, thats just life. But now decades later, were seeing the real results of Integration and its effects on Black America. While Integration had some benefits, it also came with the decline of black businesses and black business ownership in America. Without owning businesses, the black community stopped spending their money inside their own communities and circulating their money. Think of this, every other race and culture spends money among themselves because of the amount of businesses owned by their own race. Another example i like to give people is Chinese Restaurants or Beauty Shops. These are two common businesses found in most black neighborhoods across america. When you go spend your money with them, at the end of the night when they close, they are taking that money back across town to their own neighborhoods and communities to spend among themselves or another economic group of people. They are not spending the money we spent with them back inside our communities. These same business buy materials or products they may need to function as a business, they are bought elsewhere. Another thing to think of is 98% of most beauty shops in black neighborhoods make their money from blacks. Shouldnt you start asking yourself, why dont blacks own and dominate the beauty market within their own communities being they spend the most money in these markets? Have you ever stopped and asked why is there not a soul food restaurant in an Asian community or other community. And dont get me wrong, i love good chinese food, but this is an economic talk at the moment. Understand with the creation of wealth and ownership also comes with the ability to have and own resources(ex. banks, land, property, oil, water, mineral rights, farming, livestock, forest for wood, the production of goods and services, etc).. We then are able to provide and offer opportunities within communities. Also with the creation of wealth and resources, you now have the ability to have political representatives to represent the needs of our communities AND hold them accountable as our representatives. Politics are ran, influenced and controlled by money... period.. When you have these basic elements, you now have bargaining power as a group and we as a people will begin to be taken serious, but more importantly... wed be in a position to compete in the economic markets and political structures of this country. Its all about ownership. With ownership, you dont have to ask other cultures and groups for jobs to support yourselves and your families. With ownership, you dont have to play by their rules and tap dance to keep a means and ability to feed, cloth and take care of yourself. We have a 1.3 trillion dollar spending power in this country.. Its been long overdue to start paying attention to who and where your money is being spent. Heres a simple exercise you can do, look around your home and kitchen and see if you can actually count the number of black owned products in your home? You just may be shocked and surprised. We have to become owners and practice ownership in order to compete with the world.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 20:36:15 +0000