The Distorted Paradigms of African American Culture
The Distorted Paradigms of African American Culture ~ As a person who has made it their work to find, develop and create solutions that will address the multitudinous enigmatic issues that African Americans face in America, I have to admit that a significant portion of the problems within the African American collective is the direct result of an erroneous collective thought process. In other words, the distorted paradigms of African American culture actually work against us as a group. Some great minds, such as Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois, Dr. Na’im Akbar, Frantz Fanon and more have pondered the dilemma associated with breaking the conditioning of the black mind.
The Systematic Conditioning Associated with Racism
Both, Frantz Fanon (Fanon, 1952) and Dr. Na’im Akbar (Akbar, 1976), have gone into great depths to explain how slavery impacted the thought processes of blacks as it pertains to their perception or work, community, property, money, relationships and more. The conditioning processes used by white slave owners to ensure that their slaves remain docile served to create an individualized mindset in which slaves were unwilling to work together with one another, except to accomplish what the master desired, developing a mindset that viewed others who needed help in a negative light.
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In a time in which community living, group economics and cooperative business are so essential, the vast majority of blacks will not support other blacks. I read a post on a social media platform several days ago in which a person who makes it a point to promote crowdfunding campaigns for other blacks stated that they would no longer be doing so. The reason given was that while many of the campaigns were legit, i.e. paying for medical bills of funerals, too many people had started crowdfunding campaigns in order to support their entrepreneurial endeavors. This person’s assessment was that they had worked hard and took losses until they figured out how to keep their business afloat, and basically they considered it lazy, and less than honorable for blacks to be looking for help in funding their business.
Distorted Paradigms of African American Culture
Probably what is most ironic here is the fact that crowdfunding has its roots in creating alternative funding sources for business endeavors in which traditional options are not possible or too expensive. Yet, blacks see something wrong with using it as a source for creating and sustain black businesses, whcih are so desperately needed. In a time when the vast majority of aspiring black business owners will not be able to get traditional business loans, crowdfunding will be one of their best alternatives. However, because the vast majority of blacks don’t understand business and alternative financing, they only see crowdfunding as a way to help poor families pay for what they consider to be absolute necessities like funerals and medical expenses. The truth is that crowdfunding was created as a means to fund businesses, because businesses generate revenue that can be recirculated through the community economy.
While other groups are growing their economies, through multitudinous modalities, including crowdfunding, sponsorships, and cooperative business endeavors, blacks are more focused on making sure that no one gets a break that they should not receive.
The Need for Internal Financing Mechanism and Community-mindedness
Over the course of my life I have invested a significant amount of my money into fledgling businesses in which I saw promise. I understood that I could have easily been the difference between business growth and shutting down for these businesses. When traditional white banking institutions refuse to loan to aspiring black business owners, this should not inhibit black ownership. We should have a developed financial infrastructure that is capable of underwriting new black businesses endeavors. Instead of penalizing black business owners for needing financial help, we should be there to invest as business people and as a community.
When we invest in a black-owned business, one of the stipulations of the contract should be that they will invest a certain percentage of their profits dichotomously, with 25 percent invested back into their business and 25 percent into the black community wherever it is most needed. As a Cofounder of the Society of Black Professionals and Entrepreneurs, one of the things that I initially suggested is that for a black-owned business to be considered a legitimate asset to the black community, we would hold them under contract to give back a certain percentage of their profits to the black community, with a specific designation of where the money would be invested — ensuring that no area of need would be left unattended to.
A Paradigm Shift is in Order
There is an old African proverb that I share often, which says, “If there is no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside can do us no harm!” While white supremacy racism is a formidable opposing force, I agree 100 percent with Dr. Uma Johnson in that white supremacy is absolutely nothing without black compliance.
Our greatest problem is an internal one. We lack unity and collective thought. We still suffer from self-hatred. And, although we refuse to admit it, our untreated trauma is wreaking havoc on our functionality. We must shake free of the individualistic mindset that refuses to see the need of our brothers and sisters. We must embrace the idea of our greatness — not to serve some egotistical obsession — but it is necessary to embrace the idea of our invaluable worth as a collective.
With all that I do, my goal is simple — to see my people united and empowered, and this is where it starts. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.