*****..... Skate Boarding / Changing the World / Thinking Of Black People and Our Future First.
By Tracy Gibson
The other day I took a risk and went over the edge – don’t worry, I came back. I was feeling
Edgy after church and I asked God to show me what God -- Black Jesus
– would do if He was faced with a brick wall and wanted to make a
Major breakthrough. I sat my clothed Black fanny on a long cement slab
That was being used by White skate boarders as a jumping off point. They immediately got
Enraged at the intrusion I was creating. ``The Mayor lets us use this
For skate boarding,’’ one yelled at the top of His lungs. He was a
Heap mad that a Black man would deny Him anything. Something told me
To sit there for 20 minutes, which I proceeded to do. I was called
Every name under the sun for denying these White boys – some too old
To be skateboarding in my estimation -- for denying these young White
Men the right to fall and break bones. I know, please go with me for
This journey.
``What an asshole,’’ one of the men said. They proceeded to
fall down around me and skate around me. After the 20 minutes was
over, I took a seat across from the cement slab and sat there with no
more name-calling from the White gentlemen. A few glairs that would
turn granite into gold bricks, but the name-calling stopped once I
relented and gave public land back to them. I thought for a while and
asked GOD why He wanted me to do this and He said look around at the
Down Town buildings. They are all just about all owned by White men
and corporations run by White men. Where are the Black-owned
corporations? God asked me. I said I didn’t know of many, but there is
perhaps a Black hotel down town around fourth and Walnut Street. One
out of about 300 or 400 buildings. Not a very good number, GOD told me.
So, as a Black real estate developer and A Black landlord, you
have effectively been denied land down town for how many generations.
I said about five or six generations or so. Maybe seven. About 200 years or so.
God said or asked will this situation be changed by my voting on Tuesday
November 8th. Will there be more Black hotels, Black owned big office
buildings; more Black-owned big corporations? He answered His own
question and said that Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump will not change this
picture, but will undoubtedly perpetuate the same picture of Down Town
Philadelphia we have seen for the last 200 years – namely continued
White owned department stores; White owned Corporate offices; White
owned grocery stores and so forth. So voting is out? I asked and He
said yes. We can’t vote ourselves out of this situation. Look how the
foolish White man gets all bent out of shape because He is denied a
Cement slab for 20 minutes and yet He is fine with your being denied
space down town for 200 plus years. The status quo was the 200 years
of White down town domination. The 20 minutes of denying White Boys skating space was revolution.
I told a very politically astute Black elder friend of mine --
a Black Reverend – that we as Black people can’t vote ourselves out of
the situation we are in in North America (Which I call the United
States of Native America, by the Way). He is big on voting and was
befuddled. I didn’t elaborate at the time, because GOD hadn’t made
things clear to me at that point.
Now I got you GOD. I don’t care if I’m called names. You really
can’t legislate How people treat you. But you can save money and pool
it with other Black people, form Black associations, Black institutions, Black schools,
Black businesses, Black banks, etc. and help other already existing Black
establishments stay afloat. This is a much better Way to expend time
than voting for someone who is perpetuating the same situation over on
us as Black People for the time they will spend eating from the public
troth and making things difficult for us. I have given up on voting
(40 years of wondering in an almost totally Democratic wilderness is
just about enough time for me), but I still see why Black people vote.
Supposedly the vote will help make the development of those Black
establishments either easier of harder. That might be right, but
voting with Black dollars by not going to Macy’s or not going to Target is a
great idea to me. Asking for or demanding financial concessions as Black people when we get
certain concessions is much more advanced and powerful that voting for
someone who is even Black, but gets financing from the White and Asian
community. What have even Black Democratic candidates done for Black
economic development and for keeping Black men out of jail and for
building, establishing and maintain in the Black school systems we need
for our children and the rest of us. What have Black politicians done to maintain
our other Black institutions? I see them accepting money from Citizen’s Bank, not
asking us to go to the United Bank. The Black politicians are keeping White People in charge of
an alre3ady White run system. We need a new class of stronger Black, more honest Black politician.
I am one., but on the Down Low for safety reasons.
This is why I’m proposing we as Black people in Philadelphia take
our good dollars and put them into Black banks such as United Bank and
take them out of Citizen’s Bank, Wells Fargo, and TD Bank. This is
why I’m advocating for Black People to demand a Black Business strip from 52nd
Street at Lancaster Avenue to Baltimore Avenue at 52nd Street be so designated as Africa
Town and de a harbor of Black-only businesses for Philadelphians.
This is Why I insist that we create Black schools and support them for
our Black children and find the money to pay for them by being
thrifty. Why do our Black women need to spend $100.00 a month on their
mostly fake hair when that money is going to Asians? Why do our Black
women need to spend so much money (often $80.00 or more a month) on
fake nails and hundreds of dollars on White – owned perfumes and White
clothing designers? Black women are capable of making their own clothing,
Sisters are capable of doing each other’s nails and teaching each
other’s children until we can have more formal schools and have the
money to support them.
This is the new revolution. This is Black L:ives Matter. I know some of us are too rocked out
on drugs, escapist movies, Black Hollywood, Gansta Rap, and usless sporting events that
don’t put a penny back into our pockets and our Black
community to know what on earth is really going on at all. But
Brothers need to get on this bandwagon also. What on earth are Brothers
doing spending all afternoon watching football when they need to be
exercising with their wives, children or other significant others?
They need to turn the idiot box off and talk about Fanon,
Newton, Davis, Derrick Bell, Martin King, Malcolm X, and other such luminaries because White folk are
thinking about either sending us to another planet or finding earlier
graves than high blood pressure, diabetes, and other heart disease and
poor nutrition we now face can provide.
If you think I’m kidding, there is a statistic I want you to
listen to and do the research for yourself about. If Black male third
graders fail math, they have it set up in some states that a prison
cell is built for them for when they reach early manhood. This is why
when I see Black children, I visually put them into the college seats
in the future. The college seats we often don’t have the nerve to send
our Black children to because we think our Black youth are getting inferior
educations at Black colleges and Black Universities. The nurturing a Black child gets from having Black
teachers and Black friends and good educations at Black colleges far and again
outweighs any high-cost education we get at the Ivy League or the Big
Ten or frankly, even at Harvard. I can tell you this is true. Plus your Black child will
Have a much higher sense of Black community and a much higher sense of dedication
Towards helping His or Her Black People when He or She becomes well off or
Financially stable. Please think on these things and meditate on these things just for a moment
Before you go on to read other matter, because your Black Life matters…….//
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