Let's Stop Playing: Part Two

I intimated in Part I of this article that we have adopted an approach to our problems that would suggest to the broader community that we are not really a serious people, and that entertaining others and making other people laugh at our misery and our personal and social defects is fast becoming our claim to fame.

Furthermore, our apparent acquiescence to the level of self, family and group destruction in our community is, to put it mildly, a historical disconnect. Once upon a time, we resisted the logic of white supremacy and black hatred. Once upon a time, we did not kill each other over a street corner, drugs, tennis shoes, name-calling or a reputation. And, once upon a time we valued our elders, our history, education, family life, healthy rituals and our children. Without a doubt, it is time to return to a level of Black consciousness that will restore and reaffirm our belief in our ability to develop our selves, our families and our communities to a maximum level of psychological, intellectual, spiritual, economic and social development.

The following suggestions, which I have paraphrased, and that are provided by some of our greatest thinkers, past and present are, I believe, critical first steps. They are offered to demonstrate to ourselves, first and foremost, the level of seriousness needed to change the current destructive course of action that now affect both our actions and behaviors toward each other and the myriad problems that preclude optimal self, family and group development. Therefore, we must:

1. Set high standards for everyone in the Black community and hold everyone accountable - no exceptions.
2. Reduce our dependency on white wealth and white social agendas.
3. Create a master plan for self-sufficiency and empowerment.
4. Make as a top priority self-sustaining black communities.
5. Muster up the courage to patrol and protect our communities.
6. Send a message to everyone in and out of our community that the optimal development of black children is non-negotiable.
7. Develop an internal information network to broaden educational, scientific, economic, and technological cooperation within black communities.
8. Develop strategies to compete in domestic and international markets.
9. Develop a highly, self-supporting infrastructure that focus on developing short/long-term strategies for optimal family/community development.
10. Develop a methodology to discern and counter the new "color blind" and race neutral racism.
11. Become politically active and not crisis oriented.
12. Become organized, systematic, efficient and diligent.
13. Become frugal, that is buying mainly on need basis.
14. Reward independent and courageous black leadership.
15. Become study oriented: read, evaluate and debate books and newspapers.
16. Accept the challenges of technology and scientific progress.

Let's stop playing and make the aforementioned suggestions our mission to ensure our survival and the future survival of our children. The choice is still ours to make.

Click here to go back to
Let's Stop Playing: Part One

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