Too many of us have a parasitic view of the black community

[JasoRockStar]

Been feeling this way for a minute, but the Kanye discourse brought this thought altogether. Is it just me, or do a lot of us spend way more time talking about how the community can benefit them and people they like, but not the opposite?

"Support my music"
"Support my business"
"Support this artist I love"
"I'm getting held accountable for some nonsense I spewed, black folks need to back me up"

It's always about what the community can do for them. And if it doesn't support them to their liking, then we ain't shyt, crabs in a barrel, etc. But what are you doing for the community to think you should be entitled to its resources?

What businesses do you support?
Have you ever stuck your neck out for somebody?
Are you involved in community projects near you?
Are you helping those in need around you?
Did you give that homeless guy the $3 he needed?

We don't ask these questions enough and then we get mad when we don't get the support we don't wanna give to others. Some folks talking about how we're "wrong for not sticking up for Kanye". My reply is, what makes him entitled to our support? The only folks that are supposed to support you unconditionally in this world are your parents. A community's support gauges on what you can offer to it, or what you have done for it in the past.

Folks who ain't putting nothing in the account always wanna talk about drawing money out.

 

[Kokoro]

Precisely

I haven’t heard yet, not one of these wealthy black persons open a small commercial bank in a black community, which could help the black dollar circulate and stay around longer in the black community

It’s precisely why black capitalism is necessary in the immediate future but ultimately not going to save the black community.

Black people need collectivism, as we see putting that much capital in a small number of black people only furthers stratification of black society

 

[JasoRockStar]

Precisely

I haven’t heard yet, not one of these wealthy black persons open a small commercial bank in a black community, which could help the black dollar circulate and stay around longer in the black community

It’s precisely why black capitalism is necessary in the immediate future but ultimately not going to save the black community.

Black people need collectivism, as we see putting that much capital in a small number of black people only furthers stratification of black society

Collectivism is what any community needs to survive long term. People being concerned with only their own interests, not content with sacrificing anything, has been the greatest internal obstacle for us going back to slavery times.

The black "elite" has shown us that their power is severely limited. They could never do to someone what Jews have done to Kanye. Honestly, as a collective, the black working class can influence more change than all of them.

 

[SunnyD]

I love black folks and I’ll die on that hill. I agree with a lot of what you said. I volunteer my time/ resources to make sure folks that look like me .. get their educations. When I see a homeless person if their not black I’m not helping them. Being born white is already a privilege .. so boot straps. The thing is I don’t support the community blindly. I can’t get behind Kanye or any person I feel is .. a perpetual black line stepper. Kanye , is just that . I don’t think it’s a hive mentality folks stepping away. .. sometimes it’s just necessary.

 

[kevm3]

Most of those people who scream that 'support me because I'm black' never end up hiring anyone black or putting anyone on that's black after they get the money. Most of them use that rhetoric to get to the bag before they disappear off into the night. Realistically, you should help the black men and women that you know personally and know to have stand-up character. There will never be this mass collectives of blacks just supporting each other out of everywhere. There's way too much division. The best you can do is link and network with the standup members you know personally.

 

[The Fade]

you should always start with [Black] people you have an intentional, VETTED, symbiotic relationship with. Because when one of you prospers, all of you prosper because you create obligations and trust. Anyone outside of the group who you see as a good oppurtunity for investment is something you grab immediately and rope under your influence. Your power level as a single person is only as strong as the working relationships you have with others and their capital, no man is an island. Other groups are born with man power. This community is born with the man power of only one additional adult, usually their single mother.

"I dont want to make another nikka rich" mentality is a dumb mentality. If I have a DIRECT working relationship with someone and I can make them successful, that makes me successful because that person is obligated to me and obligated to hear me out. And it makes my word bond and my resume look good. I benefit from that person, and I have leverage with that person, because that person benefits from me more than anyone else.
Group economics works.

If you cant build relationships, you are useless to any community and also you will never go far, you will never have access to vast reaches capital to go beyond your limits. And you shouldnt complain about the community not doing anything for you because what skin in the game do you have? You shouldnt get access to group economics or manpower if you have no value to leverage. If you have value(s) you can leverage MOST communities worldwide.

Or Self Proprietorship your self away so you can come home and drink your juice after you're done tricking.

 

[TEH]

Been feeling this way for a minute, but the Kanye discourse brought this thought altogether. Is it just me, or do a lot of us spend way more time talking about how the community can benefit them and people they like, but not the opposite?

"Support my music"
"Support my business"
"Support this artist I love"
"I'm getting held accountable for some nonsense I spewed, black folks need to back me up"

It's always about what the community can do for them. And if it doesn't support them to their liking, then we ain't shyt, crabs in a barrel, etc. But what are you doing for the community to think you should be entitled to its resources?

What businesses do you support?
Have you ever stuck your neck out for somebody?
Are you involved in community projects near you?
Are you helping those in need around you?
Did you give that homeless guy the $3 he needed?

We don't ask these questions enough and then we get mad when we don't get the support we don't wanna give to others. Some folks talking about how we're "wrong for not sticking up for Kanye". My reply is, what makes him entitled to our support? The only folks that are supposed to support you unconditionally in this world are your parents. A community's support gauges on what you can offer to it, or what you have done for it in the past.

Folks who ain't putting nothing in the account always wanna talk about drawing money out.

If they don’t support us they don’t love us

And

They wished they were someone else …

Poisoned / conditioned / convinced to think that the grass is greener elsewhere

 

[JasoRockStar]

you should always start with [Black] people you have an intentional, VETTED, symbiotic relationship with. Because when one of you prospers, all of you prosper because you create obligations and trust. Anyone outside of the group who you see as a good oppurtunity for investment is something you grab immediately and rope under your influence. Your power level as a single person is only as strong as the working relationships you have with others and their capital, no man is an island. Other groups are born with man power. This community is born with the man power of only one additional adult, usually their single mother.

"I dont want to make another nikka rich" mentality is a dumb mentality.

Group economics works.

If you cant build relationships, you are useless to any community and also you will never go far, you will never have access to vast reaches capital to go beyond your limits.

And to be honest, that IS community. I think where a lot of us go wrong is that we associate community with propping up failures and loose cannons, making sure that everybody is doing great at the same time. But that just slows the entire group's progress and is an obstacle to building in the early stages. We should absolutely help people out, but the pillars of the community need to actually have the qualities needed to be pillars. Financially stable, mentally stable, responsible, ambitious, etc.

 

[The Fade]

And to be honest, that IS community. I think where a lot of us go wrong is that we associate community with propping up failures and loose cannons, making sure that everybody is doing great at the same time. But that just slows the entire group's progress and is an obstacle to building in the early stages. We should absolutely help people out, but the pillars of the community need to actually have the qualities needed to be pillars. Financially stable, mentally stable, responsible, ambitious, etc.

Truth. We need to think as an enterprise/conglomerate, with people close to us first.

Drake is a corporation of many individuals CLOSE TO HIM.
Lebron is as well.
etc, etc.

Look at how close the Tate Brothers are that they basically share a mind. 2 is always better than one. 4 Eyes are better than 2. We have to get rid of the Solo Mission Mentality. This is a game or Warzone, you cant queue into squads as one person and expect to win. The circle is closing fast and the resources are going. Even Superman needed the Justice League. The more cliques you are connected to the better. Ever since my grandfather died and my brother and I found how big of a legacy we one day gotta take the reigns of, every time we talk we dont waste time. We always trade info and keep each other in the loop. We dont want to look stupid when our parents and uncles die and we have decide who gets what and dont know how to keep predators away from the assets. Thats how we lost land on my fathers side.

Man Power is the TRUE sign of wealth, not Gold or money. Them Arabs used to Triumph in around cities not flossing gold but flossing legions of AFRICANS they Arabized because it meant you were not to be fukked with. Because Black people get shyt done. This is how the people going at Kanye win, they understand relationships and how to cultivate them from EVERYONE. They understand creating obligations from others to get manpower and wealth.

It sounds corny but we should be taking church, dinner outings, weddings, barbecues, funerals seriously on a social level. I notice that in my family, the people trying to link with other people are the ones running scholarships and foundations or work with celebs. They do the most talking and are the most personable for a reason. Treasure your relationships with people and make the most from them.

 

[FrontoBama]

Great thread, OP & responses - a rare gem in TLR. I’ll add on

I can agree that many of us see ‘support’ as the Grand Negro Bank of Harlem channeling every Black resource in America to you solely because you’re Black. Starting a podcast,clothing line or music career? Negro support loan! I think it fails because..

it’s bankrupt, you can never truly draw from it..Remember in Friday when Craig’s asked his family for the money and resented their inability to help him? That resentment presents itself in the ”yall ain’t shyt” that almost always comes after things didn’t pan out because they banked on the community and it didn’t work because we dont have the resources..You got Tyler Perry’s but very few of our most notable achievements have been directly enabled by the community.

As c00ntastic as Kanye is, part of why he’s not on our side derives from the fact that he wanted to do something grand and absolutely nobody in the community could help him to achieve it. We don’t have a Nike or Addidas owned by Magic Johnson to open 2 factories in Ghana for him or some shyt..This is why you hear “it aint Ralph though” and appointing himself the Negro ambassador to the rich whites as so many tokens do.

 

[JasoRockStar]

Great thread, OP & responses - a rare gem in TLR. I’ll add on

I can agree that many of us see ‘support’ as the Grand Negro Bank of Harlem channeling every Black resource in America to you solely because you’re Black. Starting a podcast,clothing line or music career? Negro support loan! I think it fails because..

it’s bankrupt, you can never truly draw from it..Remember in Friday when Craig’s asked his family for the money and resented their inability to help him? That resentment presents itself in the ”yall ain’t shyt” that almost always comes after things didn’t pan out because they banked on the community and it didn’t work because we dont have the resources..You got Tyler Perry’s but very few of our most notable achievements have been directly enabled by the community.

As c00ntastic as Kanye is, part of why he’s not on our side derives from the fact that he wanted to do something grand and absolutely nobody in the community could help him to achieve it. We don’t have a Nike or Addidas owned by Magic Johnson to open 2 factories in Ghana for him or some shyt..This is why you hear “it aint Ralph though” and appointing himself the Negro ambassador to the rich whites as so many tokens do.

I agree. What has someone like Kanye done to bolster a Grand Negro Bank-esque project? A lot of us will complain about a lack of change yet do nothing to actually bring it about. I feel like a lot of black folks post-Silent Generation view change as something that is going to come to us. We don't wanna face setbacks to actually building something, we just want to wait for it to fully materialize for us.

 

[MajesticLion]

The infected get the marketing push. That's not going to change until you control your own marketing.

Be yourself, ignore the marketing and live your life. Show gratitude/appreciation to those with the strength of character to avoid the spoon-feeding. Build.

 

[OfTheCross]

Been feeling this way for a minute, but the Kanye discourse brought this thought altogether. Is it just me, or do a lot of us spend way more time talking about how the community can benefit them and people they like, but not the opposite?

"Support my music"
"Support my business"
"Support this artist I love"
"I'm getting held accountable for some nonsense I spewed, black folks need to back me up"

It's always about what the community can do for them. And if it doesn't support them to their liking, then we ain't shyt, crabs in a barrel, etc. But what are you doing for the community to think you should be entitled to its resources?

What businesses do you support?
Have you ever stuck your neck out for somebody?
Are you involved in community projects near you?
Are you helping those in need around you?
Did you give that homeless guy the $3 he needed?

We don't ask these questions enough and then we get mad when we don't get the support we don't wanna give to others. Some folks talking about how we're "wrong for not sticking up for Kanye". My reply is, what makes him entitled to our support? The only folks that are supposed to support you unconditionally in this world are your parents. A community's support gauges on what you can offer to it, or what you have done for it in the past.

Folks who ain't putting nothing in the account always wanna talk about drawing money out.

fax