Blackonomics

James Clingman

Are you ready to Bring Back Black?

I know I am. I am ready to connect with brothers and sisters who are unwavering and unapologetic when it comes to who they are and what their obligation is to our people. I am ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with Black folks who are unafraid and unflappable when attacked from without and from within. I am ready to work with a new cadre of Black leaders, not new in experience but new as it relates to their current unsung status, their active youth status, and new in respect to what they have done and are doing “under the radar screen” so to speak. There are many “new” leaders out there, and I am ready to follow them as we Bring Back Black.

The new book by W.D. Wright, The Crisis of the Black Intellectual, which I highly recommend you read, contains the following passage on page 311. (Get your copy from Third World Press, Chicago, IL)

“Today there is no general Black leadership and the Black political body is fragmented isolated, individualistic, fanciful, delusional, susceptible to posturing, and has no real sense of engaging with Black politics that are designed to help Black people in America, specifically those millions still ‘stuck at the bottom.’ What could interrupt this situation and force Blacks back to a general leadership and to a consciousness of Black politics would be the emergence of new and differently oriented local Black leaders. This would include some individuals drawn from those ‘stuck at the bottom.’ There are enough Black local leaders, community organizers, and activists who could initiate this new and different leadership across the country and who could consciously and actively seek to recruit and train individuals ‘up from varied misery’ for local leadership.”

The weekend of December 8, 2006 was the first step on a journey some of us have taken before. It was the weekend when strong, dedicated, determined, and consciously Black brothers and sisters gathered to begin the Bring Back Black movement. We came together because we know W.D. Wright is correct in his assessment of Black leadership. We came together to find one another, to meet one another, to connect with one another, to support one another, and to work with one another.

The Bring Back Black gathering comprised stalwart and resolute Black folks, some of who have been working for decades empowering our people. No need to name them; they are not looking for the spotlight. No need to number them; they are not looking for accolades. This group, as well as those who wanted to be there but could not, simply works to overcome the psychological barriers that now prevent Black people from moving forward together as well as individually.

They do their work quietly and without fanfare, in the same manner that Frederick Douglass described Harriet Tubman and the work she did. They work by building their own businesses, opening their own schools, and being serious about their political involvement. They do their work by meeting payrolls from which their Black employees take care of their families. They do it by standing up and speaking out against injustice and inequity. They do it by sacrificing their time and their resources for the collective cause of Black people. That’s why they came to the Bring Back Black gathering, which was held in the city Kwesi Mfume called “ground zero”: Cincinnati, Ohio.

I want to publicly state my gratitude to all who came, and those who could not, for your trust and confidence in me. Yes, I made the call, but you came, and it was all of you who made our gathering a milestone in the annals of our history in this country. It was you, all of us, who have etched a new thought into the minds of our people, a thought that if nurtured and promoted, will surely take root and spring up as the movement we have searched for during the past 40 years.

In the 1960’s we had the Black Power Movement, in which our songs, our products, our language, our clothing, our hair, our gestures, and our love of self, displayed a new thought, a new resolve, and a new dedication. What happened to it? Those were the first stages of what could have been a most powerful movement for Black people. The remnants are still with us, but the substance of collective progressiveness and prosperity are far lacking.

Shortly after Martin Luther King’s death it seems Black folks were more susceptible to being bought off; they were more pliable and, thus, easy targets for political and social program positions and handouts. During that period, in which strong, fist-in-the-air, Black men and women capitulated to the temptations of betrayal, we heard the death knell of our movement. It was sad to see strong Black voices silenced by the lure of “jobs” “grants” “sponsorships” and appointments to “Advisory Boards.” But to many in 1960’s, I suppose, it beat the alternative of being ostracized like Tommy Smith and John Carlos were, or even murdered like Fred Hampton was.

So what do we do now? We seek and follow new leadership; we take more control of our children’s education; we get serious about politics by playing to win rather than just playing to play; we take better care of our bodies; we use technology and commercial media, to its fullest, to tell our own story, because he who defines you controls you; we connect with our brothers and sisters in Africa, in Haiti, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands, and in Brazil’s Bahia, and in London, and throughout the world. And finally, but importantly, we pool some of our money and invest in our own projects.

Those are the things we did at our Bring Back Black meeting. Now, I ask you again: Are you ready to Bring Back Black? See www.bringbackblack.org for more information