The thing is - even when I was working for someone else, I was never a slave on any plantation.
I've always seen a greater benefit in any job I've had - more than just the money earned.
I've always used my jobs as a means to make connections and contacts.
I've always seen myself as being more than just a slave.
The problem is that far too many Blacks see themselves as being doomed to fail. As being inferior. Most have just bought into the memes put forth by many within the mainstream media.
The thing about the television appearences and newspaper articles about me at my club is that a lot of people saw that I didn't even bother to compete with better financed and more established nightclubs - I just always outclassed them.
I always included other Black-owned business and organizations to help grow my crowd.
I have always hosted at least four benefits a month.
I have always poured a little extra into every drink in an effort to add value to purchases.
By giving more - I got more.
After my most recent appearence, I recieved cards, texts and e-mail congratulating me on the work done at the club from politicians and other business owners.
"Way to represent the fam.", was the voice mail I recieved from a young cat who owns a tax services franchise and a small record label.
We socialize and work together in a lot of programs and he considers me, a few athletes, a few media personalities a few business owners and himself as being part of the New Way here in this small town.
The club is just the epicenter of the activities - most of our work is done in areas having little to do with the nightlife.
Maybe we were brought up differently outside of Da' Souf.
Maybe we were brought up in a time when our media celebrities had substance behind their fame.
Maybe we had people who were not affraid to lead.
Maybe we had people who led by example.
I really don't know why so many are buying into the hype being sold to them by those who have no interest in their wellbeing.
I still can't understand why so many are so ignorant even though information and truths are readily availible on Google.
IMOHO - Most were never raised to be leaders nor to own their own lives.
Maybe I was brought here to initiate a change in thinking for those who were ready to thinjk for themselves.
Maybe all these people needed was someone to remind them that Black people CAN WORK TOGETHER.
Most people don't see nor understand how to use a job for their own benefit. When you see someone who actually does it and is proud of it it's shocking. You and I are the minority in this thinking. You know that when you give a simple solution and others can't accept simple and still look for the complex. As shit I'm even seen as being a fvcking revolutionary for teaching people what we can do for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteSomeone or something along the way created your current way of thinking. Mine came from being forced to do everything by myself so I don't see people as a wall but a obstacle that I'm willing to fight through.
Smart people seek knowledge but the Ignorant need Jesus! That's the truism you are missing in your understanding.
Nice post John!!!
ReplyDeleteMedia celebrities were fueled with more than substance they were surrounded by movements. Malcolm had already broken the floodgates of black sociopolitical thought. A growing radical movement created conditions for James Brown to sing “Say It Loud.” “A Change is Going to Come” is such a beautiful song but it didn’t come until Sam Cook saw Bob Dylan entering the fray. It heaped upon him a sense of responsibility and contribution. Marvin Gaye drop the album “What’s Going On” not because he was already up on it, but because what was already going on. Place R. Kelly in that time period and he may have been peeing on a flag instead of girls.
ReplyDeleteOppression was in bold print with all caps. The audience constructed the receptive “demographic.”
The atmosphere of oppression induced resistance, it induced the search for any religion other than the “white man’s” religion; it induced the search for any education other than the “white man’s” education. That quest to self educate, to self medicate was largely a response to conditions fueled by overt racism. Take out the racism part and the conditions won’t appear to be as bad. Get robbed at gunpoint for $5 and your response to the lost will be traumatic. Take away the gun and have someone hack your bank account for $500.00 and the lost will be way less traumatizing.
It’s not about the “readily available information,” it’s about those conditions that make it a necessity to actively seek out that information. Unfortunately those conditions are still there, the gun has just been taken out.