Booker T. Washington was a great black leader who really wanted us to focus on economic empowerment and self-help. He was the founder of Tuskegee Institute, which is still educating black students today. He also raised funds for other schools. One of Washington’s more profound comments was an appeal to fellow Blacks to take advantage of our opportunities. He said, “We must never allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.”
Warts and all, the United States provides a number of opportunities. No African, Islamic, or Socialist country on the planet provides us with as many opportunities as the United States. The personal journeys of Oprah, Barack Obama, Tyler Perry, and countless others are examples of people who started out poor and made it to the top. In no other country would those stories have been possible. Unfortunately, too many African Americans have not practiced what Washington warned us about. Too many of us have allowed our grievances to overshadow the many opportunities in front of us.
Though we are the most educated black people on the planet, still, too many of us no longer make education a priority. We have at our disposal more access to educational resources than previous generations of Blacks could not have imagined. But, again, too many of us see America’s “glass” as being half-empty rather than half-full.
Don’t know algebra, Excel, Word, fractions, how to spell, how to write a book report? You can access the Internet and learn all of those things. Even if when our schools are substandard, we can supplement what’s missing by using these other resources.
Malcolm X self-educated himself using a measly prison library. We he spoke and expressed himself, you could tell he was a highly intelligent man. If he could do that with a prison library, imagine what we can do with a full library and the Internet. The good news for us, we don’t have to go to prison to self-educate ourselves.
Every year, African Americans rake in over $1 trillion dollars. But you wouldn’t know that if you listened to most black leaders. After you listen to these poverty pimps, you’re convinced we’re a social, political, and economic basket case. We are a basket case only to the extent it’s in our heads; not reality.
Mildred Gaddis once commented on these poverty pimps. She said, “There have been folks who’ve become millionaires prostituting black misery. They’ve done well and they’ve got the big house in the right zip codes and everything else. But the people that they’ve used to get there are still where they are.”
Gaddis was right. In addition, if we are a basket case, we cannot place all of the blame on others.
Instead of seeing ourselves as a victim, we could just as easily change our focus and see ourselves as victors. Instead of seeing ourselves as victims, we could embrace what Washington told us and refused to allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
Are we willing to go beyond lip service and make education a true passion? Are parents willing to teach their children to value education and how education can transform a poor person into a high-achieving person?
Are we willing to re-learn the lessons we learned during segregation?
During segregation, a dollar turned over several times before it left the black community. That’s because we had black businesses, clinics, hospitals, gas stations, convenience stores, shoe repair stores, dry cleaners, movie theaters, clubs, restaurants, and more. Look around today. You don't see that.
Are parents willing to teach their children to respect others and to refrain from being so inclined to harm each other over the most trivial things?
Immigrants to America, particularly Africans, Jamaicans, Haitians, and others of African extraction, come to America, they see nothing but opportunity, and they go for it. But we’ve allowed poverty pimps to cripple us with a victim’s mentality.
Our struggle for freedom, justice, and equality has been almost exclusively focused outward. Maybe, we should focus inward more.
Warts and all, the United States provides a number of opportunities. No African, Islamic, or Socialist country on the planet provides us with as many opportunities as the United States. The personal journeys of Oprah, Barack Obama, Tyler Perry, and countless others are examples of people who started out poor and made it to the top. In no other country would those stories have been possible. Unfortunately, too many African Americans have not practiced what Washington warned us about. Too many of us have allowed our grievances to overshadow the many opportunities in front of us.
Though we are the most educated black people on the planet, still, too many of us no longer make education a priority. We have at our disposal more access to educational resources than previous generations of Blacks could not have imagined. But, again, too many of us see America’s “glass” as being half-empty rather than half-full.
Don’t know algebra, Excel, Word, fractions, how to spell, how to write a book report? You can access the Internet and learn all of those things. Even if when our schools are substandard, we can supplement what’s missing by using these other resources.
Malcolm X self-educated himself using a measly prison library. We he spoke and expressed himself, you could tell he was a highly intelligent man. If he could do that with a prison library, imagine what we can do with a full library and the Internet. The good news for us, we don’t have to go to prison to self-educate ourselves.
Every year, African Americans rake in over $1 trillion dollars. But you wouldn’t know that if you listened to most black leaders. After you listen to these poverty pimps, you’re convinced we’re a social, political, and economic basket case. We are a basket case only to the extent it’s in our heads; not reality.
Mildred Gaddis once commented on these poverty pimps. She said, “There have been folks who’ve become millionaires prostituting black misery. They’ve done well and they’ve got the big house in the right zip codes and everything else. But the people that they’ve used to get there are still where they are.”
Gaddis was right. In addition, if we are a basket case, we cannot place all of the blame on others.
Instead of seeing ourselves as a victim, we could just as easily change our focus and see ourselves as victors. Instead of seeing ourselves as victims, we could embrace what Washington told us and refused to allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
Are we willing to go beyond lip service and make education a true passion? Are parents willing to teach their children to value education and how education can transform a poor person into a high-achieving person?
Are we willing to re-learn the lessons we learned during segregation?
During segregation, a dollar turned over several times before it left the black community. That’s because we had black businesses, clinics, hospitals, gas stations, convenience stores, shoe repair stores, dry cleaners, movie theaters, clubs, restaurants, and more. Look around today. You don't see that.
Are parents willing to teach their children to respect others and to refrain from being so inclined to harm each other over the most trivial things?
Immigrants to America, particularly Africans, Jamaicans, Haitians, and others of African extraction, come to America, they see nothing but opportunity, and they go for it. But we’ve allowed poverty pimps to cripple us with a victim’s mentality.
Our struggle for freedom, justice, and equality has been almost exclusively focused outward. Maybe, we should focus inward more.