Posted by As I mentioned a year ago, let’s repurpose the period of time from Memorial Day (the anniversary of the destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa) and Juneteenth, all the way to the 4th of July, as Reparations Season. We know that these days have not been the best for our ancestors. But why let these days go to waste?
Every summer, as we travel and celebrate, let’s also reflect on how to regain the vast wealth stolen from our people:
- Let’s not forget what happened to our ancestors who owned the land that became the multi trillion-dollar piece of land called Central Park in New York
- Let’s not forget the ancestors who were drowned out to make way for Lake Lanier in Georgia
- Let’s not forget the race based ethnic cleansing atrocities of Rosewood and Ocoee, Florida, which led to loss of land
I could go on and on around the country. They told us the white mob story so that we get distracted from the 1% elite who quietly took over those lands their ignorant mobs pushed us out of. The mobs died off, but the land we lost is still owned by the descendants of the elite puppet masters who hired the mobs and used their news media to fan the flames of manufactured race wars that enriched them while destroying us. Let that sink in…
So from now on, don’t let the 4th of July go by because this land was founded by genocidal thieves. Let it be a reminder to get back what was stolen from us. We should be more affluent than we are if we get restored to us what is owed. It is not impossible. Don’t let others deter us.
But one thing we have to do is stop over relying on a political answer to this. First of all, our political strategy has proven to be very ineffective. We are the only group in the history of democracy who thinks that voting one party for over 160 years works for us. If that 16 decades of trying the same thing doesn’t prove overwhelmingly that this approach does not work, than we are doomed to repeat these mistakes and get nowhere. Neither party cares for us, so we have to pimp both of them to do our will. Again, this is not impossible if you put your minds to it. I have yet another article on this topic coming up.
Also, we have to start taking the period of time between 18 and 24 years of age more seriously. Before our kids turn 18, we have to equip them with the knowledge to pick better college majors and technical trades. No more passion majors and jobs! Billionaire Mark Cuban said something recently in a CNBC interview that I want you to pay close attention to about “passion”:
“For [Mark] Cuban, it’s seemingly personal: He built his career by analyzing where he’d get the most reward for his effort, instead of following his passions and seeing where they led him.
“The things I ended up being really good at were the things I found myself putting effort into,” Cuban said in a 2018 Amazon Insights for Entrepreneurs video. “A lot of people talk about passion, but that’s really not what you need to focus on. You really need to evaluate and say, ‘OK, where am I putting in my time?'”
Did you catch that? I 100% agree with this. Look, there’s nothing wrong with having a dream based on passion. But given that we have the lowest median incomes and net worth, we simply don’t have the luxury of hyper focusing on passion jobs, businesses and majors. Many of our people have wasted lots of money going down this path, especially going deep into college debt for majors in criminal justice, fine arts, sociology, etc. No offense, but these simply don’t pay.
And if we find it hard to get bank loans and investments for businesses, that leaves us no choice but to get money from our labor. But if, after high school, we end up in dead end low-income fast food, fashion, beauty and retail store jobs, for instance, we won’t have enough disposable income to improve our wealth. Why not focus on doing higher paying STEM careers and technical trades instead?
I keep hearing that many of us get scammed by get rich quick scammers who look like us, trying to help you start questionable businesses based on your passion to get rich. One of those alleged scams involves the husband of Steve Harvey co-host Shirley Strawberry, Ernesto Williams. There are other alleged scammers tied to reality TV personalities that many of us worship.
Also, a lot of us got caught up in the PPP and income tax scams, paying a lot of money only to get nothing but legal trouble. Stop that people. If you don’t know how to do business and need help, not only am I educated in business and computer technology, but you also don’t need to pay me an arm and a leg. Let’s set up an appointment online and we can do a 30- or 60-minute consultation to get you started on your own, based on what you can afford. Trust me, I know way, way more than these scammers as I’ve owned my S corporation since 1996 and I have receipts.
Anyway, use Reparations Season as a time to turn your life around and get focused on how to not only improve yourself, but also how to get back the wealth that was stolen from your family long ago. Many of us were already here before the enemy came, as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King tried to hint. It was Malcolm, 60+ years ago, who warned us about the white liberal, and yet we still haven’t learned.
But going back in time, our ancestors have an interesting tie to this land now called America. Why do you think we had so called “free men” in racist America. Those were those of us who were never enslaved or acquired their freedom. How many free black people existed? Were they far more numerous than our whitewashed history would admit? Find this out during Reparations season, and let’s make the 4th of July the date for which we expect payment for the theft of our land, wealth and labor. Until next time, take care, brothas and sistas.
Affluent Blacks of Dallas 