Black Men : Have We As AfroAmerican Men Become Spoiled?

[Dual Karnayn]

Kemet Kind

What a wonderful thread...though it's direction would need to evolve for it to become truly powerful.

There is a lot of holding the mirror up and being frank (and eloquent) about what we see going on in our communities...but the poetic, intellectual types among us are always good at that.

We can rattle off what we see as our problems (and virtues) incessantly at town hall meetings, poetry slams, threads like this one etc.

But the final phase of transition from thoughts to action is MISSING (most of the time).

Yeah we need the fancy verbiage to raise the consciousness and arouse awareness and motivation to do something; but if you don't follow up with planning and execution, or figure out ways to pass the torch to those that do plan and execute well, it's just rhetoric that loses impact over time.

I think after Oct 95 we came back inspired and took ACTION in our communities spurred by a true spiritual awakening. I did - and I saw it from brothers across generations in my neck of the woods. But over time the focus faded and we've gone back to maintaining the imbalanced ratio of talkers to doers.

So how to solve this? Make the ending action item of any gathering of black thought the "how do we implement specific solutions," and "who will work with me to get started" and "when!"

Maybe cut-throat free market corporatism isn't our best long-term economic model, but do enough of us have as an action item to understand its inner-workings before developing an improved more communal/co-op one?

I think too many of us that are results-oriented have given up on collective action and are focused on getting (and consuming) our piece of the pie.

The future of our people rests in our ability to master our economics and our technology. We have tons of black talent in this space but it doesn't seem a critical mass of those types are getting hooked up with the ideological ones to create black businesses, institutions, etc.

Pre-civil rights era we were somewhat better at this as a community out of necessity. Maybe it's so easy to "get yours" and "get by" now that we are spoi...err....complacent...comfortably delusional.

So here's an action item possibility from this thread.

Could the community here at Destee create a "Virtual--> to--> Reality" Forum aimed solely at creating real institutions and businesses benefiting our people? I'm talking about having only a few concepts in the pipeline which are comunally proposed, refined, and ultimately financed and built using the intellectual and economic capital of Destee members?

Maybe we create a new school for our young-uns with a new business model that interfaces with the technology sector but also teaches Afrikan history and philosophy?

Maybe we propose and start a new black web-based business around this social networking phenom?

Maybe we invest in this site and figure out how it can touch a broader audience?

Whatever the concept the approach would be to focus all these minds around collaboratively proposing to build one SOMETHING, refining it, rehashing it, doing the work in phases to make it progress and ultimately birthing it into the real-world before moving on to tackle the next idea.

Ideological discussions like this thread could be finished off by materializing into ideas and feeding them into the Virtual to Reality forum where the thoughts are laser focused on real-life planning and execution.

It sounds idealistic...maybe cheezy...but with the right minds and the right purpose shouldn't it work?

Is this a round-about way of saying we should focus more on the SOLUTIONS than the PROBLEMS?

 

[Monetary]

I agree with the second part of what Isaiah said and what KemetKind has said. For, those two things, to me, are the same. At least, they are the same in actions if not in words.

I don't believe that Black men are "spoiled." I believe that we have a lack of vision...and that our focus is now placed on other things. An argument can be made that our "vision" has changed as well...not that we don't have a vision or are visionless.

 

[Monetary]

Kemet KindIs this a round-about way of saying we should focus more on the SOLUTIONS than the PROBLEMS?

How can you focus on a solution to a problem if you do not focus on the problem? How can you focus on the solution to a problem and the problem without focusing on who or what is causing the problem? Your question seems to place all focus on one or the other. Please clarify.

Just asking.

 

[Dual Karnayn]

Monetary

How can you focus on a solution to a problem if you do not focus on the problem? How can you focus on the solution to a problem and the problem without focusing on who or what is causing the problem? Your question seems to place all focus on one or the other. Please clarify.

Shouldn't you be asking HIM that instead of me?

 

[kemetkind]

I think my point was that there is an imbalance of over-analyzing the problem(s) without doing much to solve them.

It's much easier to write a poem or a snazzy post than to do something concrete that makes a real difference in other's potential.

Not to degrade poets and pontificators - just saying if that's all our progressive minds can deliver we'll be still flowing about the same problems in 2050.