Black People : 50 Solutions To The Black Dilemma

[cherryblossom]

50 Solutions to the Black Dilemma
by Anthony Assadullah Samad
part 1

"..Clearly, a common theme across the country is that we all (or most of us, at least) know the problems, and have long grown tired of them. Most of us concur that prevailing tactics in black advocacy have limited effectiveness. And many of us agree that a major contributor to our problems is the convolution of self interests that conflict with collective interest goals and progress.

As long as money and notoriety are in the mix, somebody (Black) is going to go against the collective interest of African Americans, in pursuit of their individual self-interest. It presents a true dilemma, particularly when self-interest and collective interests are not congruent. So for the next four weeks, let’s explore, together, 50 solutions to address the debilitating state of Black America. We’ll deal with them 10 at a time, understanding
that space limitations don’t allow for full explanation, but serve as a springboard to future conversation. Who knows? This could start a national debate on how we solve (some of) black America’s problems. It is this generation’s dilemma, you know.

Let’s acknowledge out front that we will never be able to totally solve our problems and eliminate self interest totally. Certainly, we can no longer ignore that there is a “profit side”to black crisis, and a fame side for those who speak to black crises. That’s the up-side, and we always pay more attention to the up-side than the down side. The down side, however, is most damaging when our collective interests aren’t served, and most dangerous, when they are. But we can eliminate potential of conflicting self interest, meaning you can come up as long as, or in helping, the people come up—but you shouldn’t come up at the expense of the people. With that said…

Solution 1: Let’s acknowledge that we’re all different but experience the same
challenges. Black people are not monolithic and shouldn’t be expected to accept “cookie cutter” approaches to solutions. Malcolm X said 40 years ago that we don’t catch hell because we’re Christian or Muslim, Democrat or Republican. We catch hell in America because we’re Black. It’s still true.

Solution 2: Let’s acknowledge that racism isn’t over. Just because white people have
eliminated it from the public discourse, doesn’t mean that it went away. Race-neutrality, or “Colorblindness” is the new Jim Crow that allows us to be separated, mistreated and still unequal. We must address race inequities that are every bit as disparate as they were 50 years ago.

Solution 3: Stop playing to our lower self, or the worst in our society. We will never progress for as long as we allow others in the race to disrespect our women, our children, and call each other the worst thing our grandfathers could be called, ******. The pimp, thug, dawg, and gangsta mentality doesn’t serve our best interest either. It’s degradation and cannibalism—pure and basic, feeding on each other. Can’t we just be human, or more importantly, men and women?

Solution 4: Establish a “quality of life”survival level for our communities. Forty years of white flight and job relocations have created communities without sustainable economies. Minimum wage jobs cannot support the economy of any community. Identify companies that rely on the black dollar and demand work. Otherwise, don’t spend with those that don’t support us.

Solution 5: Engage in only responsive, action-oriented advocacy. Let others know we mean business. Target our advocacy to demonstrate that we are responsive enough to close a business, or vote someone out of office, when they betray our trust, or go against the collective interest. Back up the “twist and shout” with “Get ‘em out.” Others will respond when they see we can respond.

Solution 6: Identify and expose “interlopers.” Interlopers are those who call themselves part of the community, but show others how to exploit the community and take payment for it. They can work in corporations, government, elected office or in the church. This is currently black America’s biggest problem—those who will do a good deed in support of the community out in the open, but do two dirty deeds behind closed doors to undermine the community interest.

Solution 7: Take our children out of public schools, if they cannot be properly educated. If we haven’t figured out that public education is “dumbing-down” our children, we will never figure it out. I know this is controversial, but for as long as public education is broken, it is the biggest contributor to black adult illiteracy (now over 50% in some parts of the country) and the marginalization of black employment. Like 50 years ago, poor education is now our biggest threat.

Solution 8: Do not condone crimes against society, particularly our community. Blacks are currently the biggest criminal exploiters of other Blacks. We can’t (or even shouldn’t) expect the other man to do anything about this “black on black” thing. We have to solve this one ourselves.

Solution 9: Practice sound economics to lift our communities. Economics is not arithmetic. “Buy black” days and five dollar a month checking accounts will not build wealth in our communities. Massive wealth building strategies, like the Rule of 72, or REIT investment circles that double your money in 4.2 years, are the only solutions that will allow us to keep up with rising costs in housing and business start-up markets. Blacks must learn to live on 50% to 70% of what they earn, and save the rest. Looking good and being broke went out with platform shoes and jeri curls. Econo-practicality that emphasizes saving will close the racial wealth gap. Consumer mentality on quickly depreciable assets (cars, clothes, some jewelry) keeps us poor. Give it up.

Solution 10: Pull your money out of banks that do not lend it back to you, pure and simple. Banks are strangulating our communities, taking money in but not letting it out, unless it’s in another community. Lending practices are highly questionable and we need to hold banks in our community accountable. We cannot allow economic redlining to persist, as leverage builds wealth.

These are the first ten solutions to the most common (and complex) collective problems in our community. The next ten will focus on personal behaviors, mental well-being and health....."

http://ipoaa.com/50_solutions_to_the_black_dilemma1.htm

 

[cherryblossom]

11-20

If you want to lay it at the feet of “the White Man,” then so be it. He certainly has done (and continues to do) his share. But I’m not so sure we can blame the white man for all our problems anymore. For instance, the white man doesn’t make us over-eat to the point that obesity has become a pandemic in the black community. With the average black man 20 pounds overweight and the average dress of a black women being a size 22, can we really say the white man is making us eat much of the “slave foods” (truly a vestige of slavery when we ate the scraps from the master’s table) that have now became the “delicacies” we call “Soul Food? Does the white man make us kill ourselves in the streets of America to the tune of close to 100,000 over the last 20 years? Does the white man make us sell dope to our people, or leave our women, or beat our seniors, and I can go on and on….The argument could be made that racial circumstance makes us “do what we have to do to survive” or make us so “frustrated”that we turn on ourselves. The response to that, of course, would be, “Isn’t that part of the plan?

Genocide is genocide, whether it’s orchestrated or self-inflicted. The point is the black “mindset” must be adjusted for us to fight that fight, and our health must become our wealth to the point of where we value it more than the things we kill ourselves over. That being said, some of our solutions must address our heath status. Here goes:

Solution 11: Admit that most black people need some kind of counseling to exorcise themselves from the demons that centuries of racial hate (white on black and black on black) has produced. Black America has serious self-esteem problems that, even when we succeed, cause many of us to hate each other and separate from the condition of the masses of our people. We can’t run from each other, and help each other at the same time. Nor can we ignore the condition of the masses. Nor can we wash the black off. None of us can escape the condition of the least of us.

Solution 12: Stop hatin’ on each other. Jealousy keeps us suspicious of each other, and envy is the mother of murder. Self-hate is environment under which our enemy operates, and confuses us to who our real enemy is. As long as black people are hatin’ and killing on each other, we cannot see the enemy from without due to the confusion caused by the enemy within.

Solution 13: It is time for black men and black women to call a truce. All black men are not triflin’ and all black women are not mean and evil. The dysfunction of the family that now has the new “black family” being 59% single female-headed households stems from the dysfunction of the black male-female relationship. The black community has lost its balance because the black family has lost its balance. We have to restore the black family unit where both men and women are present. Black relationships don’t have to be traditional to be balanced, but every household must be covered. Whether they are men-women, gay-lesbian, man-sharing, women-sharing, whatever they are, black men and women cannot raise a community distrusting/fighting each other.

Solution 14: We must become a community that raises our children again. We can’t leave it to just the child’s parent. When we see children do wrong, the community must correct them in the absence of their parents. Parents must give permission for the community to correct their child. And when their parents don’t know right from wrong, the community must embrace the fatherless and motherless child. “It takes a village to raise a child” must become more than a saying.

Solution 15: We must restore a position of prestige to our seniors where they can pass the best of our history to us, and help guide us through this storm. No race can survive without tapping into the wisdom of its elders. Young men for war, old men for guidance. Young men don’t get to be old without guidance. Our community mothers must teach our young ladies how to be women—not hoes, not b*tches, not rumpshakers, not shooters—women. We need the guidance of our elders.

Solution 16: We must change our dietary habits to extend our lives. How can we say we’re no longer slaves, but continue to eat slave foods that put African Americans at the top of every major health affliction; heart disease, hypertension/strokes, diabetes and certain cancers. The common denominator is our obesity. Blacks must eat less, and eat right to eliminate race health disparities. Then we must exercise regularly. Good health is the first step to black recovery.

Solution 17: We must eliminate stress from our lives. Stress complicates our poor health status. Stress relief comes in many forms, from prayer to mediation, to exercise to soothing music. We must find our quiet space where mind, body and spirit can come together and guide us in a constructive manner. Stress is the silent killer amongst us and makes us intolerant of each other.

Solution 18: Find a way to make a difference. Not just by writing a check, or having your job buy a table to the local black organization chicken dinner. Give time, money and resources to, at least, one activity or organization that is really making a difference. We can feed a child for a day, or teach a child to fish where they can feed themselves for life. The state of our communities are what they are because not enough of us do our part. If we spend as much time helping people as we spend fighting for positions of recognition in our social organizations, all our problems would be solved. It’s time to end tokenism. Each one, reach one, teach one, then save one. That’s what we used to do. If all of us just saved one…we could save them all. It’s better to be heard in private than to be seen in public.

Solution 19: Stop making excuses for why we can’t do anything “as a people.” Because past efforts failed, doesn’t mean future efforts can’t succeed. Nobody is going to save Black America, but Black America. If we don’t believe we can do it, nobody else will. Let’s “just do it.”

Solution 20: Let’s start listening to each other, and accept valid criticisms. Black people are too **** sensitive. Sometimes, criticisms aren’t valid, but letting people express themselves (sometimes) serves as a bridge to better communication. We need to check each other sometimes, but we don’t need to always be checkin’ people and we don’t always have to be right. Let’s develop a sophistication to our interface that allows us to disagree agreeably, and move ahead.

These solutions were meant to help us deal better with each other. The third ten will focus on our politics and our spirituality. Hold on to your hat—I feel a hellava holy roller comin’ on.....

 

[oldiesman]

50 solutions...

these are good points all but isn't this why we're here at[DESTEE]in the first place? i'm gonna tell you why we don't do more to help one another because we're to SELF ABSORBED,yes my people now let me run it down to you...most of us here work someplace[either for ourselves or for someone else]ok now we come home and those of us with school aged children have to deal with their little daily problems-homework-chores being done-bullys-the prom,now on top of that we have to deal with ourselves and whatever things we have going on,now the point that i'm making and believe me i'm just as guilty as anyone here is that should someone even from the neighborhood come to our door talking about getting together to solve some problems unless it directly effects us WE DON'T WANNA BE BOTHERED not all of us but most,although we will for the most part stand and listen and want to get involved we don't and that my people is the problem...brothers let me ask you something-how many times have your wife said to you when you got home[SOMEONE WANTS TO HAVE A MEETING ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE SUCH AND SUCH]and you say[WOMAN I JUST GOT HOME AND I'M GONNA SHOWER EAT AND WATCH THE GAME]..sisters[DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAD TO DEAL WITH TODAY ON THE JOB AND THESE KIDS ARE DRIVING ME NUTS AND YOU WANT ME TO GO TO A WHAT???]see what i mean,it takes alot to really find time to look at issues involving our improvment as a people and my hats off to those of you that do,that more than anything is what really keeps down a grassroots coming together of black minds and ideas.

 

[Keita Kenyatta]

".

.Clearly, a common theme across the country is that we all (or most of us, at least) know the problems,

I disagree with this in the context that "most of us know the effect not the problem because the problem has a cause. We are suffering the effect of a process that hasn't stopped and did not begin with us.

Solution 1: Let’s acknowledge that we’re all different but experience the same
challenges. Black people are not monolithic and shouldn’t be expected to accept “cookie cutter” approaches to solutions. Malcolm X said 40 years ago that we don’t catch hell because we’re Christian or Muslim, Democrat or Republican. We catch hell in America because we’re Black. It’s still true.

This is no longer true and lost relevancy with integration just as the slave in the house did not experience the reality of the slave in the field. Their challenges were entirely different and they viewed themselves and their perspective of life differently. As it was then so it is today.

Solution 3: Stop playing to our lower self, or the worst in our society. We will never progress for as long as we allow others in the race to disrespect our women, our children, and call each other the worst thing our grandfathers could be called, ******. The pimp, thug, dawg, and gangsta mentality doesn’t serve our best interest either. It’s degradation and cannibalism—pure and basic, feeding on each other. Can’t we just be human, or more importantly, men and women?

This also is the "effect" of something that began a while ago. Any doctor worth their salt should know that the only way to attack an illness is to find out what "the problem is, not the effect" and the "cause hasn't been addressed here at all".

solutions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are all part of the "effect" also.

If you want to lay it at the feet of “the White Man,” then so be it. He certainly has done (and continues to do) his share. But I’m not so sure we can blame the white man for all our problems anymore. For instance, the white man doesn’t make us over-eat to the point that obesity has become a pandemic in the black community. With the average black man 20 pounds overweight and the average dress of a black women being a size 22, can we really say the white man is making us eat much of the “slave foods” (truly a vestige of slavery when we ate the scraps from the master’s table) that have now became the “delicacies” we call “Soul Food? Does the white man make us kill ourselves in the streets of America to the tune of close to 100,000 over the last 20 years? Does the white man make us sell dope to our people, or leave our women, or beat our seniors, and I can go on and on….The argument could be made that racial circumstance makes us “do what we have to do to survive” or make us so “frustrated”that we turn on ourselves. The response to that, of course, would be, “Isn’t that part of the plan?

I don't really think that the writer of this actually wants me to address these points...although it does reveal something about the mentality and visions of the well meaning person.

solutions 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 equally are the "effect" of a "cause"...simply taking this back to the "Doctor analysis" I mentioned. You see, the way it goes is like this; A spade is a spade is a spade and we ain't been calling the spade what it is. That comes from fear on many levels. As long as we are afraid to address the external issues that have an internal effect and reality then what hope do we have of simply trying to address the reality from an internal aspect while the external reality continues unabated?

 

[cherryblossom]

21-30

"The next ten solutions seek to tackle what, in my opinion, is the crux of the African American problem and the real key to solving the problem of the black collective. They are two areas that are least susceptible to black criticism and the two areas most suspect when seeking to address the question as to why Blacks haven’t progressed any further than they have. They claim to be the most independent segments of the African American leadership to speak out, but they hardly ever do— unless it’s on safe issues, or after the horse is long out of the barn. Solving our problems in these two areas will put us half way there to solving “the Black Dilemma.” I’m talking about black politics and black religion....."


Solution 21: Learn to separate your spirituality from religion. It helps you separate the hypocrisy of the pulpit, and the church, from your need to stay connected to God. So when you quit the church, or “church-hop” (as most do) in search of spiritual guidance, you don’t quit God. Stay connected to your source of spiritual light and wisdom. God is in you, not in false prophets or bricks and mortar. For those who need church, make the church—don’t let the church make you.

Solution 22: Remind politicians—on a right regular basis—that they serve you, you don’t serve them. Most of them have forgotten that (and many never really understood it). When they forget, tell one, every now and then, to “kiss your a**.” That tends to shock them back to reality.

Solution 23: Be a witness for God. Not just a “closet witness.” Take it to another level even. Be a soldier for God, or as some of the youth say, “A Gangsta” for God. Advocate for what is right, and what is just. What is right isn’t always just, but what is just is always right. Our community’s condition is due the absence of witnesses for God. Plenty of churches, few soldiers. Solution 24: Let’s stop playing with our franchise, the right to vote. This year is the 40th Anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Blacks are voting at the same levels, and in some instances—lower, than in 1965. Our voting sophistication must improve, and there are millions of dollars to educate voters that, somehow, never seem to make where they’re supposed to. Demand voter education between elections, not just before—when they want you to vote somebody. Our loss of societal respect is tied to our unpredictability at the polls. We are not equal without voting.

Solution 25: Stop looking for perfect people. There are none, just people striving to do right, be right, and act right. Our imperfections, our faults and our flaws, like the prophets, are demonstrations that God uses ordinary people to show others that those “on the right path” receive blessings, and perform “miracles” as they strive to stay in God’s grace. Those who can’t see that are not in God’s good graces. Look for the best in people, not perfection, Seek redemption where redemption is given and avoid judgment from those who are not in a position to judge.

Solution 26: Attend a city council meeting, County Board of Supervisors meeting, School Board Meeting, at least once a month. And show up in Washington, D.C. or your state’s capital every now and then. Politicians tend to be more accountable when they know people are watching.

Solution 27: Challenge your preacher to open the church to the lost, the despised and the rejected on a day other than Sunday and Bible Study night. As many churches as we have in America, three million homeless should not have to sleep on the streets. Housing the homeless, or battered women and children every now and then won’t take the polish of the mega-church floors.

Solution 28: Challenge yourself to understand the relationship between politics and money. Give a campaign contribution to prevent our politicians from having to become captive to outside special interest (part of the reason they can’t speak out)and pay to play schemes. Money is a necessary evil of politics. There’s no getting around it. If we want political independence, we have to pay for it. If we don’t, others will and they call the tune our politicians dance to.

Solution 29: Make your faith real. Faith without works is death. People claim they believe, but if you can’t put your faith into action—you don’t really believe. If you believe our communities can come up, believe they can be safer, believe God will bring the man or woman of your dreams, that faith should become real. God says in the Qu’ran, “You shall know the true believer, for they are the successful ones.” God knows the true believer’s heart and makes their desires manifest if their faith is real. If you’ve been praying all your life and nothing’s changed— don’t check others, check how you act out your faith.Those who don’t act on their faith, don’t have faith. You are not what you say you believe. You are what you act in support of your belief.

Solution 30: Practice the politics of moral suasion, and challenge both politicians and preachers to do the same. Find somebody that’s doing nothing about conditions of the poor and disadvantaged, and challenge them to help you make a change. Convince them that they cannot separate their communities circumstance from ours. We’re in this together—they can’t forget that