Blackonomics…Power Talk III

At this year’s Power Talk Three, there should be something that has taken place over the past year as a result of the information and instructions discussed at last year’s event. Doesn’t that make sense? I was one of the Power Talkers last year and have been invited to come back this year; as many of you know, I am a “doer” even more so than a talker.  So, during my speech last year I noted 16 things Black folks can do in response to my words.
I posited that some of our people are waiting for the world to end; some are waiting to be put into FEMA camps; some are waiting for racism to end; some are waiting for reparations; some are waiting for political fairness; some are waiting for equality; some are waiting to be rescued by who knows whom; and some of us are just waiting to be exterminated by the powers-that-be.  My question was: “What are we doing while we wait?” As Red said in the movie, Shawshank Redemption, we had better “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin.’” Thus, I offered the following things to do while we wait:
•Work to raise our consciousness to a level of “unconscious competency;”
•Leverage our collective dollars against injustice and inequity by withdrawing them;
•Use our collective consumer dollars to create conscious Black millionaires;
•Leverage our collective votes against “politricksters;”
•Establish more viable, professional, well-managed businesses, and support them;
•Establish Black-owned and controlled trusts, equity funds, revolving loan programs, legal “offense” funds, and endowments;
•Form strategic alliances and partnerships that can take on larger projects;
•Scale our businesses to the point of being able to hire our own people-our own youth;
•Teach our youth the history of Black business, even before we were brought here;
•Teach entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking to our young people;
•Make our demands on politicians from a position of economic strength;
•Vote as a bloc for those who publicly state and commit in writing their support for our interests;
•Withhold our votes from anyone and any party that does not support our interests;
•Hold ourselves accountable for our own freedom;
•Organize ourselves around practical economic and political solutions that benefit us; and
•Commit some of our time, talent, and treasure to the uplift of our people, while we wait!     I will add one more: Join the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors at www.iamoneofthemillion.com
To the attendees of Power Talk Three, commit to being “Power Doers” when you leave.  That way, when it returns next year, we will have much to celebrate.  And to the Power Talkers, as my colleague, Amefika Geuka has proposed, commit to joining the Harvest Institute Think Tank, and use your collective talents to help us actually solve our problems.
(Jim Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. He can be reached through his website, blackonomics.com.)
 
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