The Howard Dean Campaign: Black Progressive Lessons

Revisiting for Relevancy. First published May 2012.

Opportunity for Progressive Black People

My name is Marlin Adams. I'm working on the Howard Dean for President campaign as an Outreach Coordinator. My primary area of operation is Harlem, New York. This is my first presidential campaign, and only the second political campaign that I've worked on since a local activist ran for Manhattan District Attorney back in the mid-80's.

My reasons for working on this campaign essentially boil down to two key issues: 1) the active pursuit of a "new world order" by this country's right-wing which has resulted in an unprecedented level of corporate corruption and monopoly control over the dissemination of information which facilitates everything from Enron to the Iraq lies; and 2) the level of grassroots activism that Dean's campaign has inspired.

I specifically want to talk to you about the second issue and how it may impact the nature of Black politics from this day forward.

I am an entrepreneur and everyday I faced the challenge of waking up and trying to figure out how to create cash flow. Out of this experience I have come to know what most Black entrepreneurs in most businesses find out sooner or later: you need an affinity-based business infrastructure in order to be relevant in the business world. A business infrastructure is simply the ability to 1-finance, 2-produce/manufacture, 3-distribute to retail, 4-retail your goods, services and ideas.  Not terribly complicated stuff but without such infrastructure, you lack the components to be competitive and relevant.

I'll give you an example: as an entertainment attorney, my ability to attract clients has everything to do with my ability to plug my clients into an infrastructure that can help them achieve their goals. For Black and White clients alike, the knowledge that Black people don't have a business infrastructure that can finance and ascribe value to film, music or television products makes all Black professionals irrelevant unless they bear the imprimatur of corporate America. Take a tour of the major companies in Hollywood and witness the virtual absence of Black professionals. As a career option, the entertainment business provides unacceptably low opportunities for Black professional employment (this category doesn't include talent).

As a Black entrepreneur, my business ventures have also been inexorably linked to this goal of developing a business infrastructure committed to the prosperity of the larger Black community in terms of jobs, careers and civic efficacy. Unfortunately, this is the road less traveled. It is an unpaved road, overgrown with weeds, trees and bush that requires a machete to advance in baby steps. The paved road that is traversable quickly and conveniently does not lead to the development of a Black infrastructure. It certainly makes the Sony's and Warner Brothers and the IBM's stronger but it does not give Blacks the ability to create value for our goods, services or ideas. There are plenty of diamonds, gold and oil in Africa but the presence of those first-world resources has not changed the third-world status of Africans worldwide.

This absence of a business infrastructure makes Black people worldwide volunteer slaves to a system of valuation that devalues our contributions and exploits our needs. We are essentially permanently dependent on this system of valuation run by Wall Street, the Corporate media and the two dominant political parties. In an interdependent world, Black people are simply dependent. The only way to break this cycle of dependence is through the concerted efforts of an engaged and determined grassroots activism and cooperative competitiveness.

 

Which brings me back to where I started. I support the Howard Dean candidacy because it is being driven by grassroots activism. The thousands of Internet savvy activists that have raised money, created websites, distributed flyers, created commercials and recruited their friends, family and neighbors represents the type of catalyst that can put the phrase "we the people" back into local and national politics. It can, by the way, be the beginning of a Black political movement away from dependence politics. We don't have to depend on the political parties and the corporate media to determine our priorities, our values or our candidates. We don't have to settle for media and self-appointed "Black leaders" who spend more time in front of the camera than they do advocating and  building an infrastructure that can assure the prosperity of the worldwide Black community. A franchise is nice, but if you don't own the formula for Coke or make Cadillacs, you simply have a job and you can't feed the aspiration of a great people with a few jobs for the select few.

 

Irrespective of what ultimately happens with the Dean candidacy, it does presents a national opportunity and a framework for progressive Black people who recognize the need to shake off this terminal dependency and act on those things that can develop important components of this business infrastructure that we need. The grassroots group, NYC for Dean asked me, a political neophyte and social activist, to be involved with their efforts to reach out to the grassroots of the Black community because they are not part of the game of dependency that characterizes the political landscape locally, nationally and internationally. They are open to ideas from "we the people" and are enthusiastic about the possibilities inherent in an engaged grassroots. Dean's candidacy provides the framework, we the Black people who believe in our ability to be players in the international flow of goods, services and ideas, have to step on up! Our time has come to shape a new political and economic dynamic informed by our role as American citizens, and our aspirations as Black people for freedom from dependence politics.

 

Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Strategy Revisited

 

If you haven’t heard, the big news about Dean isn't Dean, it’s the rash of White, middle-class, educated, youngish, underemployed and without jobs volunteers that are setting up websites, holding meetings, planning rallies and raising money. This effort is totally self-initiated. These Deanites did not get a call from Dean asking for support. They showed up at the campaign with the sweltering desire to defeat the Bush Junta.

 

Not since Jesse's '84 run has the Black community been as energized as the Deanites are now. I don't think Dean can generate that type of enthusiasm among Black folks. But I do think that Black people can take advantage of the Dean phenomena.

 

The political energy in this country is rising daily. The Deanites are on the move and they are not letting traditional politics stand in their way. The grassroots African American community can ride this wave to infuse our own political lives with this grassroots do-it-yourselfism. Not only do we have a chance to introduce a New Candidate to New Progressive Voices in the African American body politic, we have the opportunity to build long lasting networks of regular folks that can make self-initiated activism an ongoing part of our lifestyle. It’s the only way to address the deep-seeded Dependency that continues to plague our collective efforts to progress.

 

So, our appeal is not based on what Dean will do for us. Our appeal should be based on what we want to use Dean's campaign to do for ourselves. I think there is a stronger audience of AAs in the community that want to hear that message. I think we can energize both regular voters and new voters with a 21st Century message that emphasizes Black action on Black problems.

 

We have our own agenda, money, troops and resources. We intend to pursue public policy that benefits our needs and accomplishes our goals. We will decide who gets our support and who will benefit from our collective efforts, and WE WILL CONTACT THEM! We will not be waiting for anybody to court us because we are tired of waiting around in someone's back pocket. We are an activated constituency that intends to pursue our agenda along with every other American constituency. Our loyalty is to our families, our communities, our nation.

 

The Dean campaign is our first opportunity in the new century to revamp our traditional relationship to power and politics. Those of us on this site should consider developing the group into an "Executive Committee" that takes an overarching look at our politics, our lives in the various cities on an ongoing basis, create a fund, develops agendas and use that money and people-power to empower our local person to pursue our agenda. We can motivate our troops with an ACTION MESSAGE.

 

We can't out promise the major parties, or out rhyme the local soothsayer. We can, however, put our energy, our money, our ideas, IN ACTION, with or without support from the usual suspects.

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Entrepreneurialism in Africa

 

I'm a Black man from Harlem, USA, and I've been in, on, involved with the People of Africa for 30 years. First as a young film distributor trying to fulfill the organizing moto of his ambitious Startup to bring "Three dimensional Images & Stories from the African Diaspora" to the wider diaspora audience, and now as an Angel Investor in the Digital Economy currently burgeoning in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa and a few others.

My efforts are focused on Esports. I'm bringing my 30 years of business experience as an Entertainment Attorney, Producer and Film Distributor, and a few dollars to bear on the rapidly developing esports ecosystem that is growing in Accra and other regions of Ghana.

An "Angel Investor" comes right after Friends and Family on the investment totem pole. We bring a lot of expertise that, quite frankly, is as if not more important than money in the beginning life of a good idea. The term "Angel"  is used to represent the leap-of-faith that it takes for a third party to invest in an entrepreneur with what sounds to the Angel investor like a good idea. The idea could just be a well thought-out business plan, or it could be the Organizer of a large group of enthusiastic Gamers, who, with the right advice from people with the right expertise, could become CEO of a million dollar Esports company in three years.

Esports is a new industry. It started with Gamers playing on consoles against the computer. Then the Internet allowed players from around the world to play together. The industry has gotten a lot of traction in the United States, Europe and Asia, with multi-million dollar prize pools, major consumer goods companies, big time Venture Capital firms and famous athletes investing millions as Team Owners, Publishers, Game Developers, Stadium and Venue Owners, Marketing and Advertising Agencies, Broadcasters and more.

Esports in Africa is gaining traction. The ecosystem of Players, Publishers, Platforms, Audiences and Sponsors, is beginning to come together, particularly in Ghana where there is already a steady diet of events, tournaments and competitions that are attracting audiences and local business. The opportunity is ripe for Angel Investors that have expertise in law, accounting, logistics, telecommunications, project management, corporate operations, advertising and marketing, sales, talent management, and more.

As an Angel Investor from the United States, the currency differential allows me to invest money that goes a long way in Ghana. For instance, the median (half working people make more, half make less) monthly salary in Ghana is roughly 4500 cedis, which converts to about $800.00 US dollars. In a business that is people driven, you don't have to be a billionaire to have a substantial impact on the efforts of a serious and committed entrepreneur with a plan. 

My basic income allows me to contribute substantially to the operations of the ventures with which I am involved. It is almost like getting in on the beginning of famous sports franchises like the NFL or the Premier League. Yes, we own a Team, and a Broadcast Media company that produces programming assets, sells advertising, engages audiences and monetizes the activity of our Players. The value of these assets is going to accrue. It's just a matter of time before the telecommunications infrastructure connecting African countries to each other and the rest of the world is state of the art. It's just a matter of time before we get a universally accepted payment system all over Africa. It's just a matter of time before the on-the-ground business infrastructure of business-to-business and consumer credit advances. It's just a matter of time before governments and teleco providers work together to invigorate the digital economy by reducing the cost of mobile data, thus allowing the large population of cell-phone users to fully participate in the global digital economy.

If you are living in the Diaspora and have been wanting to "be in" Africa, Angel investing in serious entrepreneurs is an effective and efficient way to "Grow in Africa, Grow with Africa" (sorry GIPC). I look forward to arriving in Accra, getting picked up by a company vehicle, feted at company headquarters, meeting and talking with the many professionals and administrators and working men and women employed by a homegrown African company.

Cannabis Is Black Business Opportunity

Wanda James and her husband Scott Durrah, first-movers in the birth of Colorado’s recreational cannabis business, just a short time ago were talking and writing about the dearth of Black folks participating in what has now emerged as the Cannabis Industry. Well, judging by the number of Black participants at the recently concluded “Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo” trade show held at the Javits Center in New York City, Black folks have heard the message.

(Reprinted from CulturalGrassroots.com 7/2016)

There are more of us than was expected preparing to participate in this new, still highly volatile and unpredictable industry being plagued by a patchwork market built out of a patchwork of legal minefields spread throughout these not quite united states, where in some localities, those with a particular penchant for the “good ole days” that have never quite faded away as we’ve learned from the Prison Industrial Complex where the 13th Amendment simply ain’t relevant, Black people are still more likely to be arrested or harassed for possession of what everyone now reliably knows, is actually quite good for you personally, and judging by Wanda James’ and her fellow Coloradoans, society as a whole. Who knew? Well, We Did!

When an activity gets to the point of having trade shows, you know the boat has sailed on an industry and every enterprising entrepreneur on the planet is going to have a look to see what opportunities are there and how their existing strengths and infrastructure can be adapted to reduce the cost of entry and increase their chance of first-in success. In attendance, there were people in on-line education now giving classes on every aspect of the cannabis industry; there were food processing companies with their latest and greatest tech for extracting, mixing and consuming cannabis extracts, the key form for the medical industry; there were brokers and dealers on the run from the algorithm monster conquering the trading floor on Wall Street, repurposing all of their financial wizardry into new-fangled schemes to get around hostile tax and banking laws. And naturally, the people that know the most about growing stuff where there with their neat, clean and efficient indoor growing operations known as greenhouses that promise a steady, reliable and, depending on your access to knowledge biological, whole new custom strains of cannabis that will blow your mind. Or, my personal favorite, the guy with the vacuum sealer used with plastic food storage packaging now repurposed to keep your weed oxidation free!*

I made it my business to talk with every Black person I saw at the expo. I met students from southern agricultural colleges, successful small business people from more traditionally available “black bidnesses” like office and residential cleaning operations, a baller or two from the record industry, a Corporate Black Guy with all the right connections, an avantgarde couple of sistas with a vertically integrated, horizontally connected, strategically timed tactical plan that transported them from east coast urbania to the mid-west where the laws and attitudes were open for business. There were diverse angles of attack that included some who were planning growing operations, others planning for distribution and sales , and still others contemplating the direct pipeline from seed to dispensary. And while money is always an issue, legal status, banking regulations and federal fickleness were bigger problems for most. The corporate brother had raised over a million dollars through a group of Black investors; the brother from the record business was walking with his own dough from his Brooklyn based pancake franchises, and a couple from the DC area were looking to transition some of their loot from the cleaning business.

What’s at stake here? Well, the legal cannabis industry is made up of three parts: industrial hemp (a wide variety of uses including as paper, fabric, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation biofuel and more), extracts used in the medicinal industries (50% of medicinal market uses eatables, not smokables), and recreational use. According to a Wikipedia entry, globally, in 2013, 60,400 kilograms of cannabis were produced legally. In 2013 between 128 and 232 million people are thought to have used cannabis as a recreational drug (2.7% to 4.9% of the global population between the ages of 15 and 65). There are now 26 states (including DC), half of the United States, where there is some type of legal framework for using and selling cannabis, with the promise of more to come and, not sooner than we all hope, a federal law decriminalizing the drug is inevitable. Once that happens the financial people are estimating that $45 billion in yearly recreational demand is ballpark, and the overall industry will explode when the big boys storm the beaches with their marketing prowess and inclination to dominate the supply chain.

Back in the early 1990’s scientist cloned what they call “endocannabinoid receptors” that are located in the human brain and throughout the body and are part of the “Endocannabinoid system” (ECS), which is involved in a variety of physiological processes like sleep, appetite control, immune system functions and pain management. The psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol, “THC”, is attracted to these receptors and when they interact not only do you feel good, or, “high”, turns out these chemicals are responsible for keeping critical biological functions in balance. When stress throws those functions off, the endocannabinoids move in to restore balance. Voila! The medical cannabis industry now had the science to back up the reported experiences of so many pain sufferers, cancer treatment patients, and seizure victims. Advocacy groups shot up like wildfire and before anyone could blink, big dog social engineer George Soros was funding advocacy umbrellas like, Drug Policy Alliance, and other billionaire evangelist including former Facebook founders, Sean Parker and Dustin Moskowitz, insurance mogul now deceased, Peter B. Lewis, and Pay-Pal founder, Peter Thiel, were all involved in providing much of the money that has gone into the professional organizing effort responsible for the legalization/decriminalization wins on the state level.

Not to get to deep in the woods with the scientific (Wikipedia provides a good overview), but there are three species of Cannabis: Indica, Sativa and the less significant, Ruderalis. On average, cannabis indica has higher levels of THC compared to CBD (Cannabidiol); and Sativa has lower levels of THC to CBD. CBD is the other active ingredient that plays a balancing role in the psychoactive effects of the leaf. Generally speaking, the Indica high has been described as a “body buzz”, whereas, the Sativa high has been described as “spacey, stoned”. Manipulating these levels produces different types of highs. Remember the Acapulco Gold from Mexico that energized you and the Kush that was heavy and drug like, well, those are examples of the differences between Sativa and Indica.

This kind of differentiation could be the only way for the mom and pop to compete when the big dollars are unleashed. Microsoft is in with its inventory tracking and transactional systems being peddled through a software company named, “Kind Financial”; and Philip Morris is in with, believe it or not, a marijuana cigarette marketed under the brand, “Marlboro M”; Big Pharma led by Monsanto and Bayer AG, are in trying to lock down any and every patentable product they can conjure. In some ways, the longer the feds take to decriminalize, the stronger the foothold the smaller entrepreneurs will be able to establish. One guy is unlocking the genetic sequence of the cannabis plant in order to keep the big guys from flooding the patent office with bogus claims on natural sequences and admixtures. As the middle-class continues to try and claw back bits and pieces of the economy of its existence from the rapacious corporate dogs -- the buy local movement, coops and urban gardens, anti big-box zoning, craft beer movement, crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies -- the opportunity may be in the localization of the ecosystem, like the neighborhood bartender, local green garden and the milkman. I can see the possibilities of developing localized boutique brands that compete with the bigger corporate brands that will become household names (“Marlboro M’s”, a reality, not a dystopian projection).

But, it will take money. Once upon a time (pre-2009), the average homespun entrepreneur would have to rely on friends, family and personal business associates in order to raise startup funding for a new venture. Today, crowdfunding has unified this “friends, family and business associates” network into a large, interconnected, efficient and effective funding juggernaut accessible to all of the thinkers, tinkerers and entrepreneurs looking to create and innovate.

Silicon Valley has been the biggest winner in the crowd funding space because they have enough self-confidence to create a whole new solar system! It’s a small group of self-confident and capable people that are getting together to encourage the best and brightest to innovate and create the world they envision. These Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and their supporters are not trying to proselytize the whole world, they aren’t waiting until every last man, woman and child has joined hands, or waiting on that one big-dog angel investor to anoint them into the club of the rich and infamous. Through crowdfunding, the Silicon Valley crowd has essentially moved on from Wall Street and their last in most out predatory predilections, and have empowered themselves to achieve great and useful things. Kickstarter and Indiegogo did not exist in 2008 when Obama won the presidency. A mere eight years later, they are now responsible for billions of dollars in transactions that Wall Street has nothing to do with. Crowdfunding has liberated the brainiacs from the sociopathic money men whose motto is: “Too Much Is Not Enough!”

And crowd funding can liberate “Black folks with a self-centered, historical view of the world” from their terminal dependence on this same political and economic elite that will exploit its own shadow for being slightly behind. In a surreptitious and brilliant way, Barack Obama has handed the collective Black community a mechanism that can be utilized to accomplish tactical and strategic goals aimed at making our community more competitive across the globe. Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Section 4(a)(6) creates a securities-based crowdfunding market. What that means is that instead of getting a t-shirt proclaiming your status as a "donor", you can now get an ownership share in the company -- equity -- and share financially in its potential success.

Here we have two pieces of a business infrastructure emerging contemporaneously -- Cannabis and Crowdfunding -- that are heretofore unencumbered with the traditional barriers to entry, which gives us an opportunity to be competitive. This is big for us!

“When the script is written about this particular time in history, the fact that the first Black president of the United States was the one to usher in this revolutionary piece of legislation won't seem at all coincidental. It will, in fact, be looked at as a master stroke of strategic and tactical planning and execution in the never-ending competition for civic efficacy amongst social groups. Obama will look like a genius in 50 years ... but only if we seize this moment, this opportunity, to turn our collective pennies into investment dollars to Fund The World We Want To See!”

Black folks have long been associated negatively with weed, from the abusive arrests that fed the cheap labor needs of corporations and municipalities throughout the United States, to the local weed dealer that always seemed to be a Rastafarian with a record store. Can that negative association be transformed into a strategic asset? Does the rush to legalize being funded by these billionaire social engineers mean that the business opportunity train has already left the station? There are a couple of indicators that I will be monitoring to determine whether we can flip the script on the negative association and turn it into a competitive brand that can fuel opportunities to build an infrastructure of self-sufficiency. First and foremost, money. We will have to take serious the ole’ adage, “you’ve got to pay the cost to be the boss.” Crowdfunding via the Internet is a game changer; equity crowdfunding is a nuclear strike against the house of Wall Street. I am personally promoting the crowdfunding proposition, CulturalGrassroots.com, as the best approach to building a portal focused on increasing Black competitiveness worldwide. If we can get past asking ourselves questions like, “Why Do We Need a Black Crowdfunding Portal?”, that will be a significant sign that important segments of our community are thinking strategically about our collective progress.

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*List of industries represented at the Cannabis trade show: Accounting & Insurance Services, Advertising & Marketing Agencies, Banking & Payment Processing Services, Botanicals, Containers, Bottles, & Packaging, Dispensing & Vending Machines, Displays & Fixtures, Grow Lights, Hemp Products, Hydroponics & Cultivation Products, Infused Edibles & Beverages, Inventory Tracking, Lawyers & Legal Resources, Licensing Services, Medical Resources, Paraphernalia (Head Shop & Smoke Shop Goods), POS & Management Software, Private Equity & Investment Resources, Professional Training & Education, Security Services & Equipment, Seed Banks, Testing & Lab Services, Tinctures Tonics & Topicals, Vaporizers.

Africa and the Next Iteration of Human Existence

FB @nyctranshuman

We are a quarter of the way into the 21st Century and human evolutionary forces are being accelerated through the concerted efforts of scientific and technological exploration and manipulation. There is the expectation that the next iteration of human existence will be characterized by a faster, stronger, smarter, longer living, more efficient human being engineered artificially but who will naturally reproduce the Next Iteration of Human.

Man manipulated evolution -- Transhumanism -- is transforming our existence, the contours of which are slowly beginning to form with the infiltration of artificial intelligence into our everyday routines. The urgency of the situation is apparent to many; the powers-that-be have nothing but enticing conversations about a universal basic income, and Hollywood bromides to keep the smart and smarter middle-class achievers vaguely interested in holding up an Empire of fake jobs. The real conversation about the transformative possibilities that are at the tip of the spear of human technological development are reserved for the Initiated amongst the rich and powerful in business, government, and the leading universities.

But not so fast.

Drs. Maggie and David Clark, former DARPA scientists, have gone into business for themselves ostensibly producing some of the over-the-counter genetic fixes that have now become part of the norm. In reality, however, they along with a coterie of international bio-hackers and open-source activists, are leveling the social and political playing field through the secret distribution of advanced human enhancement technologies Government and Corporate collaborators (the “Corporatocracy”) are trying to sequester.

David and Maggie are African American scientists at the most forward thinking agency in the USA, and have decided to give up their careers to embark on an ambitious project to manufacture competitiveness from their worldwide headquarters on the Southeast Coast of Nigeria, in order to balance the distribution of power worldwide, and make the world a better place for their children.

Is this story true or false?

The answer to the question is irrelevant, really. The fact that most of us could not say without equivocation that the story is too way out to be true is the point of the thought exercise.

My background is as an entertainment entrepreneur that has represented talented artists and innovative companies as an Attorney; discovered and distributed groundbreaking films and filmmakers as a Film Distributor, and as a Producer that has created Evergreen programming for a mainstream broadcaster. 

"The Next Iteration",  an exciting, mind-bending Series that will attempt to capture the visceral feeling of techno-bio acceleration, social compression, political conflict, and cultural upheaval that defines our global existence in the age of Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Nano processes.

More importantly, TNI will be an opportunity to talk about how transformative human enhancement technology will impact the relationship between social stakeholders at every level. Our series imagines a group of non-conformist scientists and innovators committed to a vision of humanity that strives for prosperity of spirit and discovery and actualization, and understands human enhancement technology as an opportunity to flatten the curve of artificial inequalities and prepare society for the next iteration of our existence defined by these transformative technologies.

The Next Iteration is part thought experiment, part forecasting exercise exploring the question, "with this power, what is our vision of the future and what would be an actionable path to realizing that vision." 

In TNI, the Series, our protagonists, two "exceptional" Black people working in rare, privileged environments, insulated in an elite world with visions of its own cosmic grandeur, is where the revolution in how we think about our individual accomplishments in these exceptional worlds begins. This couple is  eschewing the accolades and perks that come with elite success to embark on a life-changing struggle with people and institutions they never knew existed, to achieve goals anathema to the dark-side of the national security state. 

This is not a Hollywood story because it raises troubling implications for the Imperial Court of financiers, myth-makers and their acolytes. These challenges are mirrored in the real world challenges that Africa has in overcoming years of underdevelopment of it's principle resource, its People. These international legal, administrative and philosophical structures that produce underdevelopment, are not going away and can be depended on to act consistently going into this new technological future. 

The Next Iteration redefines success for these elite scientists and innovators, people who otherwise remain hidden figures to their communities not only as popular celebration, but as leaders, and people that provide opportunity and vision.

Controlling their Images & Stories, Projecting a Plausible and Progressive Future is the 4th  Industrial Revolution for Africa. Africans owe it to themselves, and the World, to be the masters of their images and stories; to be the voices that their children hear and the faces they see in their dreams and that manifest into their reality.

[TNI Social Media Promotion]

Crowdfunding The Dream in ... (reprint)

2017 marks the three year existence of the crowd funding proposition, CulturalGrassroots.com (now defunct). Our goal is to register 50,000 Black people who want to use the collective financial strength of like-minded Black people to fund the goods, services and ideas created by the Thinkers, Tinkerers and Entrepreneurs amongst us.

Crowd funding is an opportunity! I still maintain that if a small group of Black folks with a self-centered, historical view of the world work collectively, we can accomplish big and substantial things!

       Challenges remain, though.

       Recently, there was a study of all Kickstarter projects led by women ("Gender Dynamics in Crowdfunding"). The scientist used a custom built algorithm to identify all women led projects and their contributors. What the study revealed is that women back women-led projects more frequently than do men, and vice-versa. They called these patterns, "taste-based discrimination", which simply means that people are more inclined to support projects led by people they relate to, that look like them, have similar backgrounds and experiences.

       I know, you're thinking, Duh! but not so fast. The experience of talking about crowdfunding and promoting CulturalGrassroots.com, has put me in hundreds of conversations with a complete spectrum of Black people and it's clear to me that what seems like a no brainer -- Black support for Black projects -- is not a slam dunk.

       It appears that Black people, even the so-called "Consciousness" crowd, are concerned, I dare say, scared! of the "exclusionary factor", which, according to an article reporting about the demise of yet another of the few Black crowd funding efforts ("Black Entrepreneur is Broke"), is a fear by Black people of being excluded from the benefits of the larger and richer pool of White investors.

       Of course this reasoning is circular because any discussion of investment in Black capacity is always a discussion about the dearth of opportunities for Black people to get funding from traditional investments sources.

       No, my experience is pointing to something much more insidious and deeply seeded in our psyche: We don't want to appear to be competing AGAINST White society. Black folks with their own survival routines, whether upwardly mobile or mediocre, do not want to give the appearance of not wanting White money, jobs and support. Apparently, White people view Black-led community empowerment as "separatist movements", "reverse racism", etc. (see "Black Entrepreneur is Broke" article). And this scares Black folks because advocating Black competitiveness specifically, becomes a zero-sum game: either you are with them or with us.

       This is obviously a false choice and Black folks with a self-centered, historical view of the world dismiss such specious arguments out of hand. Increasing Black competitiveness will make the whole system better. Competitiveness brings out the best in people and society, it solves problems and recognizes real accomplishments and talent. Competitiveness leads to innovation, innovation leads to better lived lives.

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Apparently, White people view Black-led community empowerment as "separatist movements", "reverse racism", etc. And this scares Black folks because advocating Black competitiveness specifically, becomes a zero-sum game: either you are with them or with us.

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CulturalGrassroots.com is about increasing Black competitiveness worldwide through the development of an infrastructure of self-sufficiency rooted in the economy of our existence.

        Our individual successes in the White world are spectacular! and their countries, cities and communities have benefited from these achievements (think about Annie Easley, NASA scientist in the 1950's)  We have done a good job of integrating into the fabric of civil society but yet civil society is still producing vast disparities in racial life outcomes. Our individual successes don't seem to impact this reality despite our best individual efforts.

       Crowd funding, as a mechanism, creates an umbilical cord that re-connects Black accomplishment to the Black body politic from where these success stories originate. The largest pool of contributors to crowd funding campaigns contribute between $10 and $25. Fifty thousand Black folks chipping in $20 is $1 million dollars, which, if some of the Kickstarter campaigns are any indication, can happen in 24 hours, certainly in 30 days. So here we are on any given day with a million dollars ready to invest in goods, services and ideas that can succeed on a number of levels. The first level is the basic business proposition, can it succeed on its own terms? The second question is whether the project can benefit from the network of people that we've assembled in terms of the services necessary to succeed: in a crowd of 50,000 contributors is there a potential manufacturing, sales, marketing, and distribution apparatus?

       The next big challenge is to get on the same page with regard to strategic entrepreneurialism -- businesses where our objective relationship provides a competitive advantage. Two good examples of strategic businesses where our objective relationship of being Black gives us a competitive advantage: natural hair (see, "Natural Hair: Ascribing Value to the Economy of Our Existence") and images and stories. Images and stories includes books, television shows and films, web series, plays, life-style games, etc. No one can do us better than we can do ourselves. This is an objective relationship that gives us a competitive advantage in the content production, distribution and sales business worldwide! So now we have a business infrastructure capable of investing, producing, marketing and distributing our images and stories, a multi-billion dollar, global industry with millions of eager customers we know about.

       I can think of any number of stories about how we navigate the modern world that I would like to see made by us. I don't want to see Hollywood make the Assata Shakur story; I would love to see an international thriller from the perspective of a Black protagonist trying to protect his/her country's assets from illegal exploitation. There are visceral differences between Raoul Peck's "Sometime in April" and Hollywood's "Hotel Rwanda", that can only be explained by the point of view of the makers: Raoul Peck steeped in a self-centered historical world view that informs our humanity; Hollywood shape shifting culture to make the case for its own cultural and political dominance. "They are only movies!" No! This is the information upon which we build our lives and ambition.

       Crowd funding is a mechanism that can be utilized by a small group of committed people to fund the initiatives and projects they want to see! Fifty thousand represents approximately less than 1% of working age Black Americans. The process is transparent and uncomplicated. We know from Kickstarter and others that the Crowd is just as smart as the professionals when it comes to picking winners, and avoiding fraudulent schemes. There are no monthly tithes or dues, you don't have to believe in witchcraft or learn a secret handshake. You simply need to have an open mind and a week's worth of specialty coffee money and you too can be an "angel investor" (see, "Strategic Entreprenurialism: We Are Our Own Angles") in projects that have as their goal, increasing our competitiveness as a community through encouragement and support of our best and brightest Thinkers, Tinkerers and Entrepreneurs to innovate on our behalf!

Financing the Dream in 2016!

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Ending Black Dependency: Images and Stories

"At this stage of advanced technological development, part of the answer to ending Black Dependency is very simple: Images and Stories. The more we hear and see about the true nature of the way We live inside the belly of the Western beast, but particularly how we live in Africa, the closer we get to ending our dependency. We need to see the details of the social, economic and geo-political relationships that our countries in Africa have amongst themselves, but particularly how they relate to the world." 

Dependency is the condition shared by all Black folks worldwide. We are up against forces that will not go lightly, and the impact they have on our psyche, which struggles with the desire for modernity as defined and bestowed by the West, and being "independent" and often poor and deprived of the technological and logistical convenience associated with the West. "You have to crawl before you walk" is the most appropriate aphorism for Black people worldwide trying to end their dependency, a dependency responsible for the retarded growth of Black human capital and civic development. But our Best and Brightest and Boldest won't wait; their self esteem demands the best of what the West has to offer, which is why it is so easy for them to be co-opted by the West -- Hollywood stardom playing or producing depressing stereotypes, illegal resource extraction, capital flight and tax evasion, willing western proxies in Resource Wars that destroy Black society and enrich the West --- some do it out of impatience, some do it out of ignorance, some out of pure selfish greed.

At this stage of advanced technological development, part of the answer to ending Black Dependency is very simple: Images and Stories. The more we hear and see about the true nature of the way We live inside the belly of the Western beast, but particularly how we live in Africa, the closer we get to ending our dependency. We need to see the details of the social, economic and geo-political relationships that our countries in Africa have amongst themselves, but particularly how they relate to the world. Western media is so very good at recognizing the impact that images and stories told in various genres from comedy to thrillers, have in preparing and informing the body politic for the realities of life. We don't see that range of images and stories from a Black perspective, not in Africa and not in America. It's beginning to happen, particularly on the Internet. Check out "African City" a series modeled on the American show, "Sex and the City", about 5 African women returning to Ghana after living and working in the West. One can tell that the creators are conscious of the work that has to be done in the realm of Images and Stories that reflect our internal realities. They are reflecting the dialogues and concerns and challenges of the modern Ghanaian world. Likewise for the movie "Viva Riva", which was really about the indigenous struggle to benefit from the natural resources of their country, but packaged in a fun and adventurous genre.

• In the end, Images and Stories are vital information that once in the consciousness of the Black body politic, will begin to reflect in the things we talk about, the agenda's we set and goals we pursue. CulturalGrassroots.com is where we are gathering to Fund The Images and Stories We Want To See!
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Daughters of the Dust and KJM3: Dispatches from a Culturalpreneur - Part 2

We didn't realize, however, how much infrastructure was needed and the fact that we, as a community didn't have it. Except for the top cities in the top media markets like the East Coast corridor from Boston to DC, there were no Black publicist that knew anything about film or the people involved or the language of the trade. There were certainly no Black owned daily newspapers, or competent weeklies for that matter, that were relied on by any significant audience of Black people that we were targeting. Even in NYC, we had to rely on general market dailies like the NYT, Daily News and the notorious NY Post to get the word out about the insurrection. We were naive, but enthusiastic about the cultural momentum that we seemed to be part of: small films getting big attention, the Spike Lee thing, the Hudlin Brothers, we were absolutely part of a Zeitgeist and everything we did or said became a trademark or service mark: we had a new fangled "marketing system", that we used to stir up the natives called "SMM", or "Surgical Marketing Model"; we created new fangled pithy sayings and slogans as a way of overcoming, in one quick slash of the pen, some deep seeded structural and psychological deficiencies that plagued our tribe. And for the most part, it worked to contribute to the success of Daughters, and it operated to keep us climbing the mountains of tribal competitiveness. "We Can Do This Thing," was a rallying cry and war chant designed to ward off the bogeyman of reality, for a time.

Moi, Kathryn, Michelle, Mark

The deal to do Daughters was our first project. We had all screened the film together at the Anthology Archives on Second Avenue and Second Street, a bastion of "out" films and other visual arts and a popular screening venue for all of the indie distributors in town. We were pretty excited about being there as a "company"'. We weren't just bystanders or the cinephiles that usually weaseled their way into these industry screenings. We were "industry". I can remember a wistful feeling of pride and joy in the quality of the accomplishment that was Daughters. It had won a Best Cinematography Award at Sundance and the lush settings, the elegant costumes and the lyrical quality of the camera work, certainly demonstrated why. You didn't see many films, independent films, that stood out like this. You could screen 200 films and not see one with this level of visual artistry, and a story that made you cry. It made you wistful and it made you, in the end, proud. It was the story of African Americans making a choice about how they wanted to live their future. They were contemplating in a setting that was theirs, on a time frame that was theirs. It was idyllic, it was the beautiful in us. We knew immediately this film was a hit. We could barely contain ourselves when we left the screening room. This had to be our debut project.

The screening had been arranged by the distributor, Kino International. Michelle had been talking to Julie for sometime about the film and when the deal was done with Kino, she knew Julie was not happy about Kino's distribution plans. Apparently, Kino was having a hard time booking the film at some of the premium arthouse screens. In particular, the Film Forum in New York City. In my mind, this was not surprising. White folks, by and large, particularly those in the boutique cinema world, didn't understand the significance of the images, the poignancy of the story, the existence of a “Cultural Grassroots”, and how famished it was for the psychic nourishment that comes with seeing shimmers of what your authentic self might look like, on the big screen of life. That's what movies and culture are all about, telling your story in bigger than life ways so as to anchor your identity to a true representation of who you want to be, to the center of social consciousness. Daughters had won a significant production award from the most prestigious film festival in the country, but sat on Julie's shelf for almost two years. When Don Krim of Kino stepped in, it was almost as a favor to someone that he knew that knew Julie or Joy Huckaby or both. Don knew the film was a worthy film, he just didn't know who would value it or how to get them to see the film.

Don Krim was a stand up guy who ran a solid company with a good reputation and good people working for him, Jessica and Gary, his two main employees. Don himself had film pedigree. His uncle or cousin was Arthur Krim, a co-founder of United Artists, and he attended Columbia University Law School. Don was a player in the steady-money-is-plenty-money world of non-theatrical distribution. Colleges and universities and media centers were the market for all of the product coming from a nontheatrical distributor. Occasionally, they would get a film that would open one of the subsidized arthouses that existed largely in the biggest cities in small towns all around the country, and naturally, in all the big cities like New York and Los Angeles. The "Film Forum", "Coolidge Corner", "The Detroit Institute" etc. These were small venues for small films. It was not the venue., in the first instance, that a film as powerful as Daughters deserved. After we all saw the film at Anthology, the next day we met and discussed the film. We were all very excited and that excitement and the little bit of knowledge that we each had, was enough to really sup us up. We felt like we knew the answers to Don and Julie's question: how do we get people to discover this great film?

In actuality, we did have the answer: our collective intuition was the answer. Between the four of us, we had the answer to many of the questions that would come up over the next six years. Except, for the one big important question: where is the money coming from? Our individual experiences and training was a well balanced mix of arts administration, non-theatrical film marketing, media sales and contracts. And there was plenty of "insight" and so-called connections to go around but not one road led to money and back to KJM3.

It was a real pleasure working with Don Krim and his crew, Gary and Jessica. They were laid back, confident professionals, knowledgeable and a bit off-beat. They admittedly knew nothing about the Black market, and were glad to have us around. They treated our knowledge and ideas with respect and deference, but were masters at not reaching beyond their own capacity. You were not going to talk Don into anything his business instinct was against. He had good instincts. And his people skills were dry, straight forward in a passive kind of way. Don carefully managed relations with mercurial filmmakers that were Julie and A.J., and four very different personalities in KJM3. Kathy and Michelle were in charge of the day-to-day relationship; they spent a lot of time working with Jessica and Gary shipping prints, setting up press and publicity in each city, etc. Mark and I were doing various and sundry things to help get the word out. Mark's connection to the NBC morning host, Bryant Gumble, was big; my working of a clergy network for group sales and announcements was significant. Each of us found ourselves doing a little of everything, with all of us digging deep into our social networks in order to penetrate as broadly as we could into the Black grapevine. It really was a Zeitgeist at work: this film, this collection of activist entrepreneurs, in this City at this time. There wasn't a city in the country that the film needed to be in that we didn't know someone who in some way or another was connected to the Cultural Grassroots grapevine.

Just like that, we were in business. Well, it wasn’t just like that. We spent a considerable about of hours drawing up a marketing and distribution plan for Kino. We didn’t know for sure what Kino’s capabilities were, and we were really concerned about overplaying our hand. We focused on what we knew best first: NYC. We didn’t know enough about the business to put together a plan for a 3-5 city rollout. Sure, we knew something about publicity, marketing, and we had knowledge of many of the bigger city film programs and institutes through Michelle and Kathy’s work. But this was our first experience with what was clearly a hit film. Even so, we did maintain our composure, and our focus when finally meeting with Don and his crew. I remember the meeting being casual as we all sat around the conference table. I kind of remember saying something that I thought lawyers were suppose to say, but Michelle did most of the talking with help from Mark, who had a nice, low-key corporate persona, the kind of disposition that seemed appropriate for a Black guy in the very White corporate world.

Without much fanfare, the meeting was over and we had a deal. Don drew up a contract and faxed it over to our temporary office the next day. Within a few days, we were leaving Don’s office over near Hell’s Kitchen with a check in hand for the first installment of our retainer fee. We were in business. These were the best moments during my time with KJM3, when things were going well. Kathy was such a genuine and passionate person who had seen it all and probably done some more, but who had the enthusiasm of a little kid, and when things were going our way, she really bubbled. The kind of youthful optimism and wide-open belief that makes some parents get three jobs. I didn’t want to see her disappointed. I felt responsible for her happiness but not just her happiness, it was everyone’s happiness. It was the beautiful sista that I met at the Black film screenings at the Adam Clayton Powell state office building with the natural hair, luscious lips and juicy butt, who had come to NYU’s film school feeling like an African princess, only to have her choices ridiculed by the circumstances of wealth, and race, and the feeling of being on your own, without a Tribe, without a place. It was for the many regal sistas, my mom, that were being forced to humble the selves that they knew in order to get a job taking orders from some lesser being who meant you no good, who was in fact intimidated by your unwillingness to conform.

(final installment, shortly).

Daughters of the Dust and KJM3: Dispatches from a Culturalpreneur

An Autobiography

To Be Young, Gifted, Black and Committed: 

The story of a young Black man's rise from the

impoverished ghetto to the impoverished elite

Prologue:

I was surrounded by Black fear and White indifference. Black people feared the consequences of challenging the status quo. White society was generally indifferent to the counter narrative of a sub-national malcontent. As a young man, it was really hard to appreciate or understand this fear. I didn’t feel it deep down. I wasn’t concerned with making a living; wasn’t ready to accept that I would need “them” for a job down the road. I was a job: I had useful skills, I was resourceful, knew how to get things done. I knew nothing of the dependency. I didn’t understand low finance. I took serious the rhetoric of the day about the equality of our existence, the righteousness of our struggle to equality. I was sure it was just a matter of defining our own ‘I’s and T’s’ and that if people like me, “young, gifted and Black”, would just commit, we could end the dependency, claim our own voice, project our own power.

Passing information along about experiences that you will not read in magazines like, "Black Enterprise" is a service because of the truths they reveal. There is a price to pay for being an "unsanctioned" Black Advocate and we need to hear about it so we can stop all of the rhetoric and get down to work or just leave it alone.

If I recounted the activities of J.Edgar Hoover and his COINTELPRO program to sabotage Black people involved in the Civil Rights/Black Power movement of the 1960's, you would nod your head and dream about how it would've been different with you; how you would've seen through the lies and half-truths and supported the Righteous! Well, you don't have to dream about what it would've been like back in the day. 

The Black Lives Matter social activism is as much about protesting the police killing of unarmed Black people and the system that protects them, as it should be about the silent killer of Economic Marginalization, which is like a massive radiation leak, you can't see it, smell it or touch it, but it kills nonetheless. And the reality of this economic marginalization is that solutions to problems big and small become complicated and philosophical because so much is at stake. Simply advocating for a better Black future puts you on the wrong side of today's Job-Bots, the algorithms that scan resumes, analyze names, and life histories to eliminate undesirable, or "incompatible" people. And in a world that feigns indignity at the mere utterance of the phrase, "White Privilege" a Black advocate is automatically dis-qualified, meaning, 'you were qualified until we found out where you are coming from'.

We need to prove to ourselves that information like this, efforts like this, will not lead to individual despair; that we value genuine efforts by genuine and capable people to go forward, leapfrogging off the shoulders of those that came before and building the missing pieces that lead to the next level of progress.

The highlight of this biography for many will be the time I spent with KJM3 Entertainment Group, Inc., a film distribution and marketing firm started by four Black folks with an undying and visceral commitment to changing the dynamics of our existence. This is the story of the business behind the success of the film, Daughters of the Dust, and the people driving the business. In the heady days of Daughter's success, we traveled the world as the tip of the spear of Black redemption. We weren't just people in the film business, we were advocates for three-dimensional images and stories from the African Diaspora, which was like challenging Hollywood to a knife fight.

For others, most interesting will be my African exploits, particularly in Zimbabwe during the heady days of the Mugabe administration, complete with infiltrating US intelligence operatives, agent provocateurs, and other opportunist, but also including creative and enterprising and successful Zimbabwean entrepreneurs with vision and commitment.

And for some, the work I've been doing around the Next Iteration of Human Existence will be the most interesting because there is no one else talking about Transhumanism and a positive Black future! The Genetic, Robotic, Artificial Intelligence and Nano processes revolution is now and the implications for our survival are such that the Transhumanist community has been uncharacteristically quiet on the topic, save for the dystopian science fiction writers, and we all know how that ends for us. The Next It is a brilliantly conceived near-future drama featuring a Black scientist trying to flip the script on our demise through the secret distribution of advanced human enhancement technologies. Brilliant because it allows us to project a plausible, heroic Black future! Plausible because of the convergence of our biology with our technology and the ubiquity of the knowledge of how to manipulate matter and processes.

Well, anyway here we go with my KJM3 moment, the first of three planned installments.

KJM3
My early accomplishments in life had nothing to do with the amount of money earned by the films I distributed or how crafty I'd been in negotiating a client's music publishing deal. I internalized a different standard, one based on what needed to be tried, what needed to be said. As an educated 20th century Black man who has chosen to stand on the shoulders of runaway slaves who drew strength on the shoulders of kings and queens that weathered the defeat of Kingdoms, I was compelled to be about us, our growth, our self-sufficiency. KJM3 was the right thing to do, and the historically right time without being that moment. In historical terms, the effort to own our images and the scenes of our future was not new but resurgent in KJM3, yet another determined effort to take a big swing at the challenge of ascribing value to the stories and images that reaffirm our existence.

"Daughters of the Dust" was a beautifully shot celebration of our mythic selves. The us not consumed by them. A community of semi-free slaves living in limbo on the outskirts of the main engine of domination; people who defined themselves in relation to themselves and not to the crushing day-to-day pressure of physical and mental subjugation. This film also represented an opportunity to draw attention to the possibilities inherent in controlling the process and mechanisms for ascribing value to our images and stories. The story, the virtuosity of the production, KJM3’s involvement all conspired to elevate this whole experience into a cultural event.

Daughters experienced this flurry of success because theretofore, nothing like it had been popularized for this audience unknown to the mainstream movers and shakers. Daughters was like a cultural clarion call for the spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic and economic awakening of this subset of Black folks -- the Cultural Grassroots – that completely surprised the gatekeepers of Black “middledom”, and certainly shocked the indie media movers and shakers. This film, this company and this effort, was galvanizing a whole community of quiet resisters: proud people woven uncomfortably into the fabric of Black accommodation, a nappy head in a crowd of perfectly coiffed perms.

The Cultural Grassroots community in late 20th Century New York City represented some of our best and brightest committed to the social competitiveness of our own tribe. This is the place where regular people were creating and legitimizing whole lexicons, putting the drum to work in popular culture, spreading the word of not revolution, but of re-creation, a bastard creation – “my nigga” -- a mutation born out of an inclination to resist, but also to survive the here and now. I remember the scorn heaped upon those folks in the South Bronx with all those Q’s in their names, wearing those big, fake ass gold stenciled earrings, and those fly, fly hairdos that only the Ghetto-fabulous would dare wear to a job interview. And while the new be-boppers were leveraging their bare-asses to the masses, the sisters and brothers on the blocks of Brooklyn were locking their hair in the never ending struggle to unlock the subtle and complex realities of who we were, who we are now, and hoping like hell that somebody would say something about who we are going to be tomorrow. Out of this cauldron of cultural resisters came KJM3 Entertainment Group, “a distributor of Three-dimensional Images and Stories from the African Diaspora.”

In KJM3, you had four very distinct personalities, each a different but similar experience with the Great American Experiment. We had all been part of a concerted effort by post 60's America to acculturate and expose Black kids to the normalcy of White community life. An innocent enough social experiment meant to bring young people together and increase understanding. I suppose. Some folks reacted to this type of stimuli by becoming exactly what was presented to them; some of us, driven by the "why" in these circumstances, headed for something more reaffirming, something that didn't require so great a transformation. “Too Black, Too Strong”, is often how it is referred to on the street.

The Gang's all here: Moi, Kathryn, Michelle, Mark

It could only happen in NYC. The four of us had a lot in common. There was only about a ten year age difference between the youngest, me, and the oldest, I believe Kathy. We were all educated at prestigious educational institutions and we all had the experience of dealing with White people as "exceptional" members of our race. The other significant thing we all had in common was our worldviews, more particularly, we shared in a certain rootlessness; we were abstract creatures uncomfortable in the Black world of mediocrity and "place sitting" that was the Black church and our employer of first resort, the “gubnit”.

Of course, for me, it didn't start in college. No, it started in third grade when my mom put me in the local Catholic school, which at that time, late 1960's, was still a place where the White middle class sent their children. I got to see then the stark differences in how we lived. Not just the large ranch house out in the suburbs, but the cosy neighborhoods and little single family houses in the city. Contrasted with being in a public housing project in the forgotten part of town, or even "moving up" to a semi urban "garden" apartment located on the fringes of White ethnic neighborhoods, where I began to meet more diverse groups of White people, those that lived in apartments and had only a mom or a dad. Yes, I had grown up in a transforming America where Black folks were now being "integrated" into mainstream White society. The experience left many of us feeling socially malnourished, but energized about the possibilities for self-transformation.

By the time I got out of college. I was like the Sidney Poiter character in "Raisin In the Sun", "White boys are doing big deals, Mama!". I was determined to take my shot. All of us, this "post affirmative action" crowd of Black folks wanted to take our shot, defined by most of us as working in Corporate America, or getting a good government job. However, out of this critical mass of newly ambitious Black folks, came another crowd that defined our ambition not in terms of getting a job with Corporate America but in terms of what we might contribute to the uplift of the race -- not out of altruism but out of self respect. We live on the fringes, unable to form a countenance comforting to the integrated mainstream. We reek of insurgency, noticeable even through the mask of glistening teeth and Pollyanna banter.

We were very conscious of what we were trying to do. It would be unprecedented for Black folks with such different dispositions, so we thought, to form a cohesive business. While our backgrounds were very different, what we shared was a collective sense that as a community, we had to be stronger and that our coming together was part of what needed to happen: the Corporate Negro, the Light-bright Bourgeoisie, and the Urban Angry Man, if we could make our collaboration work, then we could in fact, do this thing!

We Can Do This Thing!

"We can do this thing" was more than a company slogan, it represented an attitude, a mantra that would help us through the myriad of race-based distractions that make it hard for Black folks to collaborate: lack of access to investment capital, getting past our individual "specialness" enjoyed in the White social circles in which we each traveled. ‘We Can Do This Thing’, meant that we could get over all of the social-political-ideological baggage that stands ready to separate us. It meant that we could actually take what we learned from our individual mediation of mainstream society and combine to successfully challenge its control over our images and stories, both lived and recorded.

The idea of getting involved with the dissemination of this material was something Kathy and Michelle were actively working on before they met Mark and I. In fact, Kathy and Michelle already began talking with their friend, Joy Huckabee, who was also an attorney about starting a company. They felt strongly that a lot of Black talent and projects were not getting the marketing and promotions support that could help them succeed at the theatrical level. This was a time when there was a lot of activity from little, idiosyncratic boutique film distribution outfits that were cropping up with interesting films and creating a scene, along with Sundance, for indie films. People like Bingham Ray and the Lipsky brothers at October Films; Ira Deutchman and Lizz Mann at Fine Line, The Wiensteins at Miramax, and free agents like John Pierson, who wrote about a number such deals in which he was involved in the book, “Spike, Mike. Slackers and Dykes”, were spearheading a whole industry out of lower Manhattan and we were right there in the middle -- of Manhattan -- in proximity to their business. Kathy and Michelle, out of the four of us, were the senior people in this world through their work at two indie support organizations, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, and Women Make Movies. Mark and I were relatively new to the world of film making, although both of us were working around it, Mark in television syndication and me just getting started working in entertainment and getting most of my clients from the Columbia University run non-profit legal services group, "Lawyers for the Arts". In fact, it was Michelle Materre that referred my first paying client, video installationist, Shu Lea Chang, who had just received a half-a-million dollar film grant from the new PBS funding arm, the Independent Television Services Corporation (ITVS).

New York City was electric with film buzz in the 1990’s. All of the east coast based indie film startups were working right there in lower Manhattan, and even as a young company, we felt as legit as the rest of the lot because the indie film business is mercurial and unpredictable. One minute you are trudging along unknown, ignored, the next minute you’ve got the hot shit. What fundamentally separated us from the indie infrastructure that existed at the time, was our focus on the three dimensionality of the images and stories coming out of the African Diaspora. The fact that all of those companies making their mark, driving the early stages of this new thing called “Indiewood”, would opportunistically look for “Black audience” product that fit their self-serving understanding of the Black ethos, you know, those Coon Comedies, the Urban Malaise, and the Up-from-Slavery Panegyric, was affirmation of the business sense that it made to be in this space at this time just because of the attention Black film was getting. The films Indiewood would produce, however, were a direct refutation and in conflict with the consciousness of the effort we were making, serious differences that inevitably showed up when serious discussions about money were being had. What we understood as a competitive advantage, the Cultural Grassroots as an energized market opportunity for three dimensional images and stories from the African Diaspora, was a silent deal breaker in most meetings with money. Indiewood films, underwritten with Hollywood money and co-written by Black folks hawking a black ethos Hollywood understood and valued, set an inflated standard of financial investment and success that only their money and business infrastructure could facilitate. Smart people had a hard time thinking ouside this box, in particular, Black folks with money.

The day I remember most during our incipient stages was the day we were all sitting in the conference room belonging to the primary tenant of an office share that Mark was using. By this time we had all spent some time talking and had developed a good sense of each other’s style and temperament. Everyone was in the room except Joy Huckaby, who was the "J" in KJM3. Joy was rolling in the big leagues as general counsel to Maurice Starr, the maestro behind then boy group sensation, "New Kids On The Block", and ended up part of the company in name only, although she was the key figure in bringing Kino together with Julie. But we were there to talk about incorporating and finding a name for the company and to talk about what the company was going to be. Without a lot of fanfare, the initials of our names emerged as the choice for the company name, Kathy Joy, Michelle, Mark and Marlin (M3), primarily because it had a nice hip-hop flavored ring to it, giving us some connection to the then current cultural phenom that was hip-hop. The conversation about what we wanted to be took a little more time. Michelle and Kathy had envisioned a company in the nonprofit mold reflected by the companies they worked for. Mark and I were absolutely certain that we wanted to compete in the for profit marketplace. I was new to the business world but I knew I didn't want to get caught up in anything that reeked of begging for money, playing on White folk sympathy for Black under achievement.

Looking back at the experience of trying to raise Black money, going nonprofit would've been the smart thing to do. It would’ve put us in a mindset that would've appealed more to the sensibilities of both the commercial and philanthropic White world. They understood "helping" Black folks trying to "help" their plagued communities pick themselves from the floor of destitution and underdevelopment. They had no reference point, however, for "investing" in Black business people committed to making their communities competitive, turning our objective relationship into currency, the currency of independence and relevance; currency you could spend to influence the minds of men, women and children that had become accustom to seeing themselves as victims or perpetrators of pitifully small social no-no's.

Good example of what I'm referring to is a deal we were asked to be part of involving, ultimately, the Rockefeller/Ford Foundation. They were interested in some type of video diversity initiative and were apparently talking to a number of media companies that were in the space as potential partners, at least that is how it was sold to Michelle, who knew a Black woman high up in the world of philanthropy and who always seemed to be on the scene, particularly when we were overseas. In any event, we attended this meeting with high hopes of being in on this philanthropic foray because this money was untethered to the burden of a strict financial return. Mark Walton, our master of corporate presentation speak, would be our lead presenter, with Michelle adding color commentary. Kathy and I both tended to be reserved and quite frankly, not that interested in talking with these folks always looking for some "good minorities".

We arrived at the offices of, I believe, an established video distributor that was one of many at the time stocking the legion of video stores that occuppied every neighborhood in America. The job of being a video distributor was not rocket science, and most of these so-called distributors were, in reality, using a handful of essentially "rack-jobbers", operations that accumulate product from everyone calling themselves a distributor which can range from someone with a extensive library of titles to an independent video-maker trying to distribute his personal opus. In addition to the people from the foundation, our team and the host, there were two other people, both "ivy league", who were starting a new video group. So far so ok, but there is something about this meeting that doesn't seem consistent with what KJM3 came to do, which was pitch our services to be considered for this grant to distribute a new video line featuring classic films from the Black filmmography like, "Nothing But A Man". This room is set up for a workshop type of interaction, complete with an elaborately catered food table and butcher paper and markers, etc. This is not a "business meeting", this is a brain-drain!

As Mark went through what was a masterful presentation of our backgrounds, accomplishments and vision for this project, weaving in personal stories and references incorporating the college and early professional experience of certain members of this vain crowd of decision makers and money people (yes, we researched their backgrounds), it was starting to become clear that the decision had already been made to give the deal for this philanthropy funded video label intended to target a "diverse" marketplace to the two "other people" at the table. KJM3's contribution was to be this meeting and what could be gleaned from us about the Black market; our compensation: being in the room with the Masters of Culture and Money. The other folks with the startup video label would get the contract to release the first of these "diverse" classics, which helped them leverage that infusion of money and capacity to pick up the contract to distribute the biography series by Arts and Entertainment network.

It was very clear to the people assembled in the room that KJM3 did not think of itself nor was it involved in remedial education. We were a company with a sophisticated understanding of the business of images and stories that had succeeded in talking to a large audience of Black people the mainstream didn't know existed and in language they did not understand. By the time we took a break from all of the passive-aggressive jousting over issues of culture and hegemony, they had clearly gotten the message that KJM3 was not there to be brain-drained, that we took polite exception to the attempt to pat us on the head and pass the money onto their chosen few.

Kathryn and Michelle both knew the limitations of the non-profit world. They understood that the same thing that stands in the way of success for so many Black business plans, is the same thing that would hamper growth of a non-profit: the absence of capital, vision and courage from the Black elite. The money was really not the hard thing; the hardest thing was vision and courage. The Black elite simply do not have the courage to envision a world without a White paymaster. So many business ideas generated by Black entrepreneurs are ideas that are rooted in solving some aspect of the Black malaise. Black people like any other group, do want to make their communities strong, give their children better opportunities. These social-preneurs are not motivated by business for business sake. KJM3 was certainly no different in that respect. We were different in that we were not "scurred" to take on the task of infrastructure building. We were about to house a strategic asset; plotting to jack into the broadcast apparatus and operate a forward strategic offensive outpost in the high intensity war on the minds of Black folks. ... Part II.

Here is a link to a good video of the 20th Anniversary Panel Discussion with KJM3 and Julie Dash -- I can be found about one-hour and six minutes in?