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

New Year-New Strategy-Blackonomics

Blackonomics
By: James Clingman

New Year – New Strategy

For those of us who were blessed to see it, another year has arrived and brings with it another opportunity to start afresh with new ways to move our people closer to economic empowerment. The New Year brings a clean slate, so to speak, since we like to make resolutions and promises regarding things we would like to change. So what will we write on our 2007 slate? What will be our agenda this year? What strategy will we employ to empower our people? Will we stay on the endless circular path that has led to where we are today? Will we follow a new path? Will we adopt a new strategy?

Whatever we decide to commit ourselves to will certainly not be new; everything we need to do in 2007 has already been done by our ancestors who lived and survived in this country for centuries, under the worst treatment human beings could suffer. But 2007 will be new, and it’s always good to look at our commitments in a new light, with a new resolve, and out of a renewed strength. Are you ready?

Here we go. Don’t fall for the same old tired rhetoric we hear everyday from self-appointed “leaders” who do what James Brown described as “talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothing.” Don’t continue following folks that are only sending you deeper into the woods of poverty, while they relax in the lush fields of prosperity.

Don’t get hood-winked by pandering politicians and pontificating preachers who are only interested in what they can get for themselves, and how they can use you to get another pair of “gators,” a Bentley, a mansion, or elected to public office. Don’t be lulled to sleep by intellectual banter that makes you feel good but never tells you how to do good, or do well, for that matter.

Don’t succumb to celebrity claptrap, which only excites the Paparazzi rather than enlightens our people. Don’t get down in the muck with entertainers who strut their stuff by denigrating themselves and their own people. And please don’t subscribe to the same old “okey-doke” that has literally and figuratively programmed our people to such a degree that some of us are still waiting to be rescued by people who really care very little about us. Please stop the nonsensical behavior in 2007, and let’s get down to the business of taking better care of ourselves.

What must we do? First, raise the level of your Black consciousness by reading, by studying, by listening, and by associating with brothers and sisters who are serious about doing the work of liberation and unashamed to proclaim their Blackness. Connect with other individuals and collectively establish economic initiatives that benefit Black people; trust me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that; other groups do it all the time.

Be prepared to make the small individual sacrifices required to move the masses of Black people forward, both locally and nationally – and then let’s move on to internationally. Always define yourself, and do not accept definitions like “minority” and “person of color.” Terms like those really lose something in translation, namely, us.

Stand up against injustice and wrongdoing, no matter who the perpetrator is, white, Black, or any other color. Follow through on your commitments to one another and the commitments to yourself. Get fired up, but stay fired up long enough to get the work done. Teach your children how to navigate through this world; that’s right, you teach them. If you don’t know what to teach them, get some help for yourself, and then teach them.

Take better care of yourself. Find something physical that you can do and keep doing it for the rest of your life. Yes, it will hurt sometimes, but it’s worth it. I ride a bicycle, and I plan to ride as long as I am physically able to pedal and hold the handlebars. Besides that, I love it. Anyone out there want to race? Try not to eat so much of whatever you are eating. Just eat less of everything and get up and do something to burn some calories.

Do kind things for those less fortunate than you. It doesn’t always have to be money. It could be an encouraging word, a hug without words, some baked cookies, a small gift just because, or a few hours spent with a child who may not have a father or a mother. You don’t need a program to do this; you just need yourself.

Seek out new Black leadership, authentic leadership, or be a leader yourself. There are young folks all across this country waiting to step up to the task of leadership, many of who are leading right now. Find them, especially you old soldiers out there; you can’t hang on forever, you know. Teach the young and pass the baton to them, not to someone on the other team.

Start viable businesses, grow those businesses, and create jobs for our people. Build economic enclaves throughout this country, like our relatives did two hundred years ago. Identify industries where we have the competitive advantage because of our consumerism, and build vertically integrated businesses within those industries. James Brown also said, “Let’s get together and get some land; raise our food like the man. Save our money like the mob; put up a factory and own the jobs.”

Boycott prisons! Stay out of the cells and get into sales, the legal kind. And finally, do all of these things under the Bring Back Black mantra, because the time is long overdue for us to take our rightful place in this country, politically, socially, educationally, and most of all economically. Have a wonderfully blessed year in 2007.

12/30/06 www.blackonomics.com