Black survival- What would it take?

Over the course of...  well..., forever, we've seen

• Black deaths by the hands of police

• Black deaths by the hands of citizens crying wolf from Rosewood to Emmitt Till, to Escambia County, Florida

• Black deaths at the hands of vigilantes (Michael Dunn and George Zimmerman)

• Acts of terrorism inflicted upon Black people due to the forceful removal of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina (see Dylan Roof, and the case where a Black family was threatened while celebrating their child's birthday party)

• The commodification of Black culture

• Cultural appropriation

• Manipulation of the masses via photoshop and fake articles

•  Land grabs initiated by mob justice.

• Extortion.

And since I've blogged about a lot of what's mentioned for over one hundred entries, the questions everybody would ask are, "You got any solutions? What are we going to do about it?"

Here's my answer.

Sometimes I think Black people need our own gated communities.* 

Communities with businesses as well as:

• private police

• hospitals

•  infrastructure (solar panel electricity, heating and cooling, control over our own sewer systems, collecting rain water if necessary. However collecting rainwater is illegal in some states, so a person might want to check with their state to see what they can find.

• private judges, lawyers, prosecutors, etc (an entire judicial system)

• post office

• media outlets (TV, radio, newspaper)

• grocery stores

• farmers

• psychiatrists

• grief counselors 

• credit unions (since banks charge a lot of fees)

• Private tax funds for infrastructure maintenance (roads, etc)

• a national legal team

ALLL located inside the gate, and operating without outside influence. That way the entire economy is controlled by Black people and for Black people. And there's only one way in and out and that's the locked gate.

It sounds extra crazy, but I think that's the only way we'll be able to be protected against White supremacy. We must also make our own laws and everybody must live in the community as well.  An armed private police officer must be present at the entrance at all times, and each and every member of the community has to live in that community. This means if somebody is embezzling money from somewhere, we will know where they live. If votes get rigged, we will know and actual justice will be served.

Where will we go you ask? Well, there are places to start. Any place where there is a high concentration of Black people would work, however, many of those areas are under very crooked local governments that don't have the people in mind, let alone private officers available to make sure justice is handled appropriately. Detroit looks like a great proving ground for such an endeavor. They already have their own private police force so why not start there? Check out this video. Aside from the "Cop Block" advertisement, this video is about starting a private police force, and how to do it successfully. People pay into the service. Those who can't afford it get free service. They can do this because affluent people pay a premium for their service since they're doing such a great job, which means there is a surplus in funds.

I recommend we start in the areas with the highest crime or the most blighted. The reason why I say that is because those are the areas the public police won't go during certain hours. Not only that, but a person could find a lot of vacant lots that could be used for farming and as long as the lot isn't squatted on by an absentee landlord, it could be bought for cheap. A person could put a tiny house on it, equip it with solar panels, and voila! a house with a farm on it that grows vegetables to sell to the local grocery store.

I know what you're thinking. That sounds like a reservation of sorts. Yeah. You're right. It does. But what the Native Americans don't have is complete control over their own economy. Black businesses exist, and we collectively have the buying power of  one trillion dollars. What would happen if we took that out of the current economy?

I hope you don't think I'm crazy for mentioning this. But I am desperate for solutions. I didn't want to wait on someone else to come up with one, so I came up with one the best I could. In a world where we keep getting killed and our lives are in the hands of people who really don't care for our existence anyway, what did I have to lose by trying to find a solution?

Long story short. We've got to survive. People say the whole thing is about class and not race. Well it appears otherwise. And before I protest about something like climate change, and animals getting killed by police or illegal poachers pressed to prove their manhood, I will say the following to those who feel otherwise. :

GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, SIT YOUR CALLOUS, IGNORANT ASS DOWN, AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME WITH THAT FUCKERY. For real. I have to secure my life before I can do any of that.

I'm not interested in becoming the next hashtag, or mural to be defaced with "All Lives Matter."

We are literally trying to stay alive. And when I use the term "literally" I'm not speaking figuratively.

That is all for now.

We'll see. 

We'll see.

*Updated: 9/28/15 okay, maybe not a literal gated community per se, but we would need our community to be as tight as one without all of the ridiculousness of HOA restrictions.  We can police the areas we already have. We have already created several villages of sorts. We have online presence, and we've linked up with Black owned businesses. All we need is distribution companies, the things mentioned above, and a way to keep funds in Black hands longer (because we know we're subject to city and state tax, water, and utility bills.  As a result, there would be no way of stopping them from raising taxes and or utility costs in order to drive us out like they did in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit).). 

Black Survival- What would it take part 2 (concerns and solutions)

I've privately vetted this idea to a bunch of different people, and they had several questions and concerns, so I decided I'd answer them in another blog entry:

When it comes to biracial people and non-white spouses and stuff like that, how would that be handled?

That's the biggest obstacle I've come across. I am not sure how to handle that, BUT Detroit could serve as a proving ground to see if the idea works. If it works, then people could follow that model and create cities like that all across the country (with a few tweaks of course). 

Imagining the black community as a network, and participants as nodes in that network wherever they are, rather than requiring us all to be in the same place, is very workable in the current environment (given the internet, etc.) and already happening to a certain extent. Efforts that work to build on that community and empower it can find lots of support.

This could definitely work. I think it would be crazy to uproot everybody in the country and send them to Detroit. However these nodes can work if tied together through. I believe if we get Black distribution companies that cater to us by air, rail and truck then those nodes can work to our advantage.

My one worry is that it would go down exactly like all of our other attempts to build something for ourselves. Every Black Wall Street and business district and university has been burned to the ground at least once. And with the new paradigm of anti-"terrorist" rhetoric and legislation, as well as the resurgence of white supremacy, I could see us realistically getting nuked into the Stone Age.

That was my worry as well, BUT if we use Detroit as a proving ground just to see if it will work, then it could be implemented all across the country! We could have black hubs everywhere.
But whatever we do, we need an organization with 501c3 status. This will give rich people the incentive of donating to us and making it tax free for everybody. From there, we could control what the money goes to and where. We will need chapters of this group all over the country. This would be used to fund hospitals, infrastructure, social services, and any other functional elements that require a large amount of capital.  We may also need to do this in secret, meaning no press releases, no going to mainstream media outlets in order to further the cause. We have to do this through conferences, through natural hair expos, etc since these sorts of events are examples of current Black spaces we have at the moment. If we do go to a media outlet, it must be one hundred percent ours. For example, The Final Call is a media one hundred percent Black owned media, and is one of the oldest in the country. Even though some of us might not identify with NOI, we must look past that sort of thing and ask ourselves, "What kind of good do they do, and how can we use that to our advantage?" The same goes with any other outlet ,organization, or group.

Get Oprah and other people to help invest in some type of industry/factory that can employ a bunch of black people and fulfill some type of market niche in the US. There would need to be investors for nice housing developments near the factory.

That sounds like a great idea. It would create reasonable paying jobs and housing for those who want to migrate. A variety of jobs to choose from would definitely be necessary. This may also be where the 501c3 organization would come in. If she donated to it, the tax write off would work for her benefit.

Who is going to be in charge? Police force, judicial system etc. are well and good but who are you suggesting for leadership? 

I think the members of the 501c3 organization will be made up of said people. I'd like it to include a lawyer, a judge, an accountant, a doctor, etc. Basically representatives from each city would work. For example if there are 2 hospitals in each city, then a board member of each hospital will be appointed to meet up wherever the meeting will take place. The accountant from each 501c3 organization will have to go as well.

What happens if people do something corrupt?

Complete transparency is a must! Meaning everybody will receive a quarterly notice of all expenses, including how much everyone makes. This way, all citizens know where the money went, who it went to, why, what, when, which and how it was spent. And they have to live in the city. Once they move, away, they relinquish their position, and another person will be voted in.

I'm interested in this idea of transparency, not so sure about the lack of privacy. When you say 'how much everyone makes etc.' are you saying the council or everyone in the community? You don't think that this type of information will cause problems? 

The Council would be subject to that. The rest of the citizens would be exempt. 

What about non leaders who commit a crime--will they be expected to leave?

However if they compromised the integrity of the community via corruption, fraud and or embezzlement, then they would have to leave,but not before paying the funds back. Otherwise, they may be subject to trial, hearing etc in order to figure out how they will pay the funds back.



So far, these are the main concerns and issues that have been brought to the surface. Surely, there will be more, and I'll keep adding responses and solutions.



*Update: 9/28/15  I figured that we would not be able to make this work if we excluded people. That being said, the "gated community" idea will have to be scrapped, BUT the cohesion would be kept. This means we don't have to have an armed guard available. The community could still function without, but we will still need to make sure our resources stay in Black hands. 

Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America? - Sure, let's go over that one more time.

I had the opportunity to get behind the scenes look at my local college radio station. I noticed they played the same songs each week, but in a different order each day. They would rotate a new song or two in the regular playlist from time to time. As a result, the listener gets pummeled with the same message over and over and over, which desensitizes them. As a result,some people seek out the life depicted in the songs, and some don't. This same effect could be seen with Rock and Roll. For a while "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" was the mantra for the genre, and may still be. Some people succumb to it, and some don't. People use music as an escape, and as a result, they are listening to the radio and wishing they were in that life (just like watching TV sitcoms did for a lot of people). It gets perceived as how life should be, and so it's imitated. Since Blacks make up a small percentage of the population, a larger section of that group will appear to succumb to it more often than others. Other ethnicities will display a broader selection of people who have bowed to certain ideals presented to them because there are more of them to draw from. I feel that is why it looks like American Blacks in general are doing far worse than other ethnicities in this country. Thanks to the media, we have seen the American Dream being shoveled into our faces through various outlets, and as a result, people are bragging about getting: money, sex (in various ways and methods), drugs,material possessions... you get the point. People desire these things, and will stop at nothing to get them. So before we accuse hip hop of doing this to a select group of people, we must recognize that America has been doing this to the WHOLE. WORLD., for quite some time, and this is just a cog in the machine, so to speak. The poorest of the poor come to North America in search for some of these things. They flock here because in some way, shape or form, media has told them that America is the place to be if you want to be somebody, meanwhile America's poor (and not so poor) people are seeking this out as well. The American Dream does not help Blacks at all because the same media that touted riches for everybody who entered, is the same media that systematically and continuously crapped on that particular ethnicity for so many years, in various ways and told them to shut up about it at the same time. Could you blame them for screaming for the American Dream, since it seems like everyone has it and they don't, especially when statistics are routinely made in order to drive the message home ? We have kids and adults from poor to upper middle class backgrounds that want to be "bad bitches", and want to be associated with BIG MONEY, and if they can't get there, they can at least look the part. As a result, you have people all across the board, regardless of race facing foreclosures, people going to college expecting to make BIG dollars straight away after they just put themselves so far into debt they have to live with their parents, we have for profit colleges, people with ATV's, Boats, RV's, cars, and stuff like that they can't pay for, broke folks with six hundred dollar cell phones, and really high cable bills. People are reading Better Homes and Gardens, entering the Publishers Clearing House (if that still exists),and scratching lottery tickets in hopes to "make it big" right now because if "so and so can do it, then I can too, because that's the American Dream, right?"

 People like to point to hip hop and say, "Look at what those people are saying with their music, that's destructive! :o ". but it's just a cog in the whole machine. The whole culture it represents is destructive, and no matter how it is spun, that is NORTH AMERICAN culture. Who decided that was American culture? You can't lay baited mouse traps in a room with mice, then turn around to pontificate why those particular mice got snared up, then collect data about it while shaming the mice for "being so self destructive". People must recognize the what, when, where, why, which, and how a situation got to where it is at the moment before they make accusations regardless if it is about self degrading music, or whether issue you may feel strongly about. Once the issue or issues are turned over and looked at from as many angles as possible, then and only then will a solution be found and things will be able to change.

From my standpoint, the image of the snake eating its tail comes to mind. I feel that hip hop is not the culprit here, it's this gangster ass pyramid scheme of a culture that belongs to North America.

Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America? - Sure, let's go over that one more time.

I had the opportunity to get behind the scenes look at my local college radio station. I noticed they played the same songs each week, but in a different order each day. They would rotate a new song or two in the regular playlist from time to time. As a result, the listener gets pummeled with the same message over and over and over, which desensitizes them. As a result,some people seek out the life depicted in the songs, and some don't. This same effect could be seen with Rock and Roll. For a while "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" was the mantra for the genre, and may still be. Some people succumb to it, and some don't. People use music as an escape, and as a result, they are listening to the radio and wishing they were in that life (just like watching TV sitcoms did for a lot of people). It gets perceived as how life should be, and so it's imitated. Since Blacks make up a small percentage of the population, a larger section of that group will appear to succumb to it more often than others. Other ethnicities will display a broader selection of people who have bowed to certain ideals presented to them because there are more of them to draw from. I feel that is why it looks like American Blacks in general are doing far worse than other ethnicities in this country. Thanks to the media, we have seen the American Dream being shoveled into our faces through various outlets, and as a result, people are bragging about getting: money, sex (in various ways and methods), drugs,material possessions... you get the point. People desire these things, and will stop at nothing to get them. So before we accuse hip hop of doing this to a select group of people, we must recognize that America has been doing this to the WHOLE. WORLD., for quite some time, and this is just a cog in the machine, so to speak. The poorest of the poor come to North America in search for some of these things. They flock here because in some way, shape or form, media has told them that America is the place to be if you want to be somebody, meanwhile America's poor (and not so poor) people are seeking this out as well. The American Dream does not help Blacks at all because the same media that touted riches for everybody who entered, is the same media that systematically and continuously crapped on that particular ethnicity for so many years, in various ways and told them to shut up about it at the same time. Could you blame them for screaming for the American Dream, since it seems like everyone has it and they don't, especially when statistics are routinely made in order to drive the message home ? We have kids and adults from poor to upper middle class backgrounds that want to be "bad bitches", and want to be associated with BIG MONEY, and if they can't get there, they can at least look the part. As a result, you have people all across the board, regardless of race facing foreclosures, people going to college expecting to make BIG dollars straight away after they just put themselves so far into debt they have to live with their parents, we have for profit colleges, people with ATV's, Boats, RV's, cars, and stuff like that they can't pay for, broke folks with six hundred dollar cell phones, and really high cable bills. People are reading Better Homes and Gardens, entering the Publishers Clearing House (if that still exists),and scratching lottery tickets in hopes to "make it big" right now because if "so and so can do it, then I can too, because that's the American Dream, right?"

 People like to point to hip hop and say, "Look at what those people are saying with their music, that's destructive! :o ". but it's just a cog in the whole machine. The whole culture it represents is destructive, and no matter how it is spun, that is NORTH AMERICAN culture. Who decided that was American culture? You can't lay baited mouse traps in a room with mice, then turn around to pontificate why those particular mice got snared up, then collect data about it while shaming the mice for "being so self destructive". People must recognize the what, when, where, why, which, and how a situation got to where it is at the moment before they make accusations regardless if it is about self degrading music, or whether issue you may feel strongly about. Once the issue or issues are turned over and looked at from as many angles as possible, then and only then will a solution be found and things will be able to change.

From my standpoint, the image of the snake eating its tail comes to mind. I feel that hip hop is not the culprit here, it's this gangster ass pyramid scheme of a culture that belongs to North America.