(CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced an initiative he said will give African-American students greater access "to a complete and competitive education from the time they're born all through the time they get a career."
Speaking Wednesday night at a National Urban League gathering in New Orleans, Obama said he has issued an executive order establishing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, saying, "A higher education in a 21st century cannot be a luxury. It is a vital necessity that every American should be able to afford," he said.
"If you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it".
This phrase which is popular within the Black community is often murmured at the sight of any perceived threat that might "trick us", dragging us back to the era of Slavery or Jim Crow.
As time passes by and the macro-condition of the Black community remains stagnant - I predict that more individuals will begin to see the applicability of these insightful words to the words heard from various individuals and "machine operatives" who compelled them to hand over their valuables just a few short years ago. There is no need to go back to 1912.
I ask that you scan through the "Black Press" for their commentary about Obama's "Plan For Blacks". The point that is certain is that none of them will remind the Black community of the occasions in the past where they were told the same thing. This is largely because the Black press would have to remind its present readers that THEY are the ones that vetted the message and they found it pleasing and then "Re-Tweeted" it to their loyal base of readers. When you control WHO gets targeted for a muckraking hit - you also get to decide to note muckrake yourself.
If there was one thing that I would wish for my people it would be for the to transition into a consciousness of an INVESTOR rather than a CONSUMER/TEAM MEMBER.
An INVESTOR has the consciousness in which he seeks to maximize the size of his portfolio, knowing that she will have to live off of its proceeds after her productive years have passed OR that this fund can be used to do good works for others as a lump sum is given as a spark to light a fire in a particular community.
The prevailing consciousness within the Black community does not act as an "INVESTOR", as proven by what we are seeing today after so many decades of the investment of the "Black Community Development Consciousness" into a directed strategy yet there is little interest by the leading forces or the rank & file to do a forensic audit of the managers of the investment portfolio and its holdings.
Staring boldly and audaciously in the face of the Black community is today's generation of educational & pubic policy experts, telling us what their plans for the NEXT INTERVAL OF TIME are for education for Black people. They understand one key point that allows them to tether the hopes of the Black community, leading them "FORWARD" - this same group of people have no plans what so ever to remind them of how they not only SET UP A GRAND VISION on a previous location - the Black community has the receipts from the previous purchases. When the community attempted to look for benefit expressed from these purchases - something strange was seen.
(I am going to document this correctly and not go for the easy ideological hit)
When the CONSUMERS saw that their purchased goods and services did not live up to the billing - they were so connected into the TEAM concept that they learned while playing the "Malcolm X Political Football Game" that they chose to TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM instead of running those who failed them out of power.
When it came to the schools - the masses of people grew satisfied by the number of Blacks the school system and the government had EMPLOYED rather than how many SKILLED AND SCULPTED FINISHED PRODUCTS (people) were produced as they matriculated through the schools and the public policy set that had been promoted in their community.
As I listen to a "Black Democrat on Black Democrat" fight in Atlanta over the jobs that will be created from a Local Option Sales Tax - I am made to remember the claims made by Rev Meeks of Chicago as he planned to run for mayor. Meeks focused on the presence of $1 billion in government contracts from the city that "The Blacks" were not getting their fair share of. I noted from my research that Chicago is a $53 BILLION LOCAL ECONOMY. Who in their right mind would accept the "framing of the struggle" to focus on a mere 1.9% of the the entire economy that is at play?
The claim that "Blacks work in government because the private sector is RACIST" is yet another in a long line of "Self-Chum" arguments that allow the failure to develop ORGANIC COMPETENCIES, within our people, THROUGH the INSTITUTIONS that have been under the control of FAVORABLE PEOPLE for an extended amount of time. These same "racist" corporation are hiring "melanated people" from overseas, many times at the expense of White employees. Are you sure that their "racism against Black Americas" - as was alleged in a recent statement made by the Economic Policy Institute to explain the higher Black unemployment over Hispanic - is the legitimate reason?
We always hear that "Education is the great equalizer".
It is clear that these words are used as a rallying cry as an "Occupation" is rendered against an external force that is being queue up as the "great denier" of Black community development.
This concept needs to be adopted as a focusing and limiting factor in the educational operations of the institutions within the community. The "equalizing effects" of education can only come if there is INSTITUTIONAL RESPECT from the parents and the students and INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY enforced by the school administrators and community.
In the current mindset the notion of "Prove that you love Black people by sending us money and minding your own business with respect to regulating what we do", on the surface sounds suspiciously like the arguments that a corporate polluter or finance house demands. While indeed they have a common spirit for their motivations, the Black community is not as intensely motivated to go after the schools that have failed to sculpt their children as promised. These institutions and their personnel become objects of veneration. The vicarious living through the superintendent or principal makes it so that an external regulator who exposes problems and seeks to force the favorable person out - has committed an attack up on the Black community. He will be asked "Did you ever force a WHITE school official out of power somewhere in our state? Surely WHITE people commit the same offenses that you are accusing OUR official of doing?"
This dynamic that goes on all over the nation, operated by individuals and organizations who have positioned themselves as the gatekeepers of Black community interests - shows that they are not interested in self-governance with the highest standards of results in mind. They are interested in retaining POWER.
The Black student is a "pawn and proxy" for so many other larger fights that take place in our society.
The disturbing point is when the Black community holds their own human resources out as a bargaining chip.
"If you want us to like you then educate our children".
Many can't see that the "YOU" in the above statement is actually THEMSELVES.
They have a problem with the "LIKING" component of the statement as well.
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