Managed Mobility

I've been looking at some census bureau numbers lately, and the picture they paint regarding Black capacity for economic mobility is pretty dismal. Yes, even in the age of Obama, there are some challenging issues that will determine the real "hope" quotient for Black folks.


Here are some stats that best sum up the Black self-sufficiency challenge: 75% of all Black businesses in America gross less than $25,000 per year (yes, total income before expenses); Black folks making grown-up money, $92,000 and up, number a mere 600,000+, roughly 17% of all Black folks with at least a four year college degree (compared to about 12.5 million Whites, or 27% of Whites with a degree). Black owned businesses with at least $1m in income number only about one-percent of all Black owned business in the country. Approximately 49% of all Black people with income make less than $25,000 per year.


What these numbers mean is that 0ur upward mobility is being managed. The number of Black folks making decent money is small and the threat of economic regression so large that it scares the shit out of anyone too-black-and-too-strong enough to even think about challenging the control that White folks have over our lives and priorities. And without the confidence and impetus from this investment class, the grassroots Black entrepreneurial class will continue to fight a withering and debilitating battle to build a business infrastructure that would help Black people worldwide compete in the global economy.

Black people in America are terminally dependent on White people for their jobs, incomes, livelihoods, and opportunities. Very few Black people in this country are secure, and fewer enjoy any real personal sovereignty. Personal sovereignty is what frees one up to define one's own future, plant one's own seeds, cultivate values that reinforce rather than obscure one's existence, and allow one to harvest the power to ascribe value to the economy of our existence: the goods, services and ideas emanating from our collective experience, our tribal connections.

In a world where the White elite, who have benefited mightily from the social contract with American society, its law, military prowess, and economic power, are allowed to take the booty and run offshore along with the middle-class mobility work that was the trade-off for the American public, there is no sense of allegiance to any one thing or entity. There is no "American Business" there is just Business. And that business is being controlled not by nations but people; people connected more by corporate tribal affinities than by national ones.

In a world composed of tribal competitors, our erstwhile benefactor is releasing himself from the obligations that come with great "nations". Simply put, White folks are moving on. In the words of Snoop Dogg, "if ya can't swim ya bound to drizzown."

It is apparent that the Black Tribe is going to have to compete with these other global corporate tribes for our own piece of the rock. Taking control of the "economy of our existence" is our only option.