The Appreciative Servant

 

It is a joy serving God & Humanity. I believe in the Divine in all beings. Let's live up to our promise, potential, & purpose.

(c) Kamau's Qu!ps

Is Being A Christian Counter Revolutionary? A Response To Sistah Sheree

Thank you for always keeping us abreast of the issues with Afrikans globally. I grew up in a conservative Black Christian Church similar to yours Sis. Sheree. I too noticed what I read in the Bible (I read it from cover to cover about 4 times) was a lot different than the sermons I heard in church.

In my search to find a Christian activism to empower Black Afrikan peoples I met people like Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. James Cone who wrote "Black Theology & Black Power," Dr. Gayraud Wilmore who wrote "Black Religion and Black Radicalism," Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Charles Barron, the Black United Front, the Afrikan People's Christian Organization, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, and others who taught me and I worked with to bring progress towards liberation of our people. I hope you continue down your path of being a faithful revolutionary Christian.

Part Of Me Would Love To Move To Afrika Or The Caribbean.

Am I the only one who would move to a nice part of Africa or the Caribbean if possible? If my daughter wasn't here I'd be out peeps.

We got Jim Crow 2.0 going on in Texas, Florida, and about 250 other areas of the US where the GOP is making voting more difficult because they got their arses kicked in the last election even with record turnouts for them.

White wealth is 10 times Black wealth in the US. Black college grads make less than white high school grads.

Blacks get on average get $48,000 dollars less for their comparable real estate to whites collectively losing $153 billion in wealth just based on our skin color. They are projecting by like 2043 the median Black household will have zero(0) wealth if things don't change.

Blacks get less than 2% of government contracts and high finance for our businesses. Police kill us at will and heavily police our neighborhoods to drive revenues into local governments with auto related penalty fees.

Usually the only way to really become wealthy is work for a white owned business or companies for decades, invest in largely white businesses in the stock market (which wipe our our businesses because they corner markets and are better financed), or buy real estate and go to college which takes you decades to dig yourself out of debt -- to banks and colleges.

And sadly Africa is in bad shape because France, the US, and European powers prop up despotic leaders to rape Africa of its natural resources. I heard 70% of the worlds natural resources creating wealth like oil, gold, diamonds, and metals going into making smart phones and computers come from Africa while all too often African people live in squalor although about 1/3 of Africa is now middle class. SMH

Am I am product of reading too much critical race theory? Nope, I haven't read much on it. I just hate systemic white racism and privilege. And it is pretty obvious we are steeped in it here.

I respect Black service and military people. But how the hell you love and put your life on the line for this country I'll never know. But happy Memorial Day. You deserve it. Sigh

Is Voting A Waste Of Time For The Black Community? My no nonsense answer.

Recently I saw a post on social media probably from right wing shrills or bots in Black face saying things like: "The truth is that voting is nothing more than INTELLECTUAL MASTRABATION . . . you get to get your vote off, but when it is all over and said if our true needs and wants are not spoken to as a BLACK PEOPLE!"

You know it is economic suicide not to vote.  Black people are probably forced to pay about $300 billion dollars a year in taxes based on a yearly aggregate income estimated to be about $1.3 trillion a year.

How smart is it for us to pay around $300 billion in taxes a year and not get a return on our investment? That makes no sense whatsoever!

What we need to do is vote in more people starting locally that can control our governmental budgets and make sure Black businesses get more government contracts, jobs, and grants for community organizations. Black communities like Atlanta, Houston, and Queens NYC have middle and upper middle class Black communities because they have Black politicians that make the local governments get the Black community more government contracts and jobs.

BTW if you do research you will see more recessions are experienced under the GOP especially the last 40 years, which adversely impacts the Black community economically. Not voting is political and more profoundly economic suicide because the federal government budget is about a few trillion dollars a year and little of that money will go to the Black community if we don't vote and control politics on different levels. 

Are Married Families The Starting Point For Black Wealth?

I saw this post on social media: "Generational wealth starts with the married family."

While I think it is almost essential for more Black people to become wealthy on the foundation of stable viable families (because 2 incomes or people working together is better than one) I think it starts with individuals getting financial literacy.

If you have a married family of shop-a-holics and people who don't save, invest, and endeavor to own businesses and multiple streams of income - you're going to have a broke married family. I do agree more of us could acquire wealth if we could stay married and work together informed on how to build wealth.

Should Black Men Pay All The Bills In A Family?

This post is in response to a meme of a Black male claiming he pays all the bills and his woman shouldn't have to pay for anything.  This is head of the household thinking from back in the 1950s. 

Today Black men and women have to work together to get ahead.  We live in an economic apartheid in the US.  Black wealth is on average only 1/10th of white wealth.  Whites own $100 trillion in wealth to Blacks only owning $4 trillion.

This society sucks all the income out the Black community in taxes, undervalued property, and controlling the economics in our community. They take all the money from our 401Ks, pension funds, and stocks and invest it in white owned corporations and startup companies.

Most Blacks will need 2 incomes just to get ahead because we only get paid 60% of what whites get paid for the same jobs.  The average white high school grad gets paid more than a Black college grad.

I think if Black couples really understood the economic racism against us we would work together more.  We have to work together harder and smarter.

Why Many Black Businesses Need Multiple Streams of income

Me and My 2 Sisters

Black people usually need multiple streams of income because they get very little (less than 2%) in venture capital or angel investing equity financing to expand their businesses. So they are many times looking for other ways to generate income.

Our families also have less money to help us invest in businesses. The truth be told we get very little small business loans and federal contracts to grow to scale. We also get less job income statistically.

For instance the average Black college grad makes less money than White high school grads in the US. So you have to be looking for multiple streams of income constantly.

I definitely have income streams that make a lot more now than when I started in business. I am scared to think what would have happened to me if I wasn't looking to expand into multiple streams of income in the past. I'm still looking at ways to expand today.