Economics & Finances for Black Folks…
By Brother Tracy
Gibson…
It’s the
economy, so DON’T be stupid!! More often than not, it’s really your personal
economy that matters most—not only what national economic trends are happening
and what is on the latest TV newscast. Frugal times require thinking hard and
taking frugal, measured but direct actions.
For most Black Americans and for most Black people in other parts of the
world, times are hard and prospects don’t look too good. But we as a people have made it through tough
times before. Just think back to what it
must have been like for our ancestors who first came over to the Americas in
chains with nothing but a few scraggly clothes on our backs. We didn’t speak the language; we had no food
and probably were separated from our families. The task master’s whip was what
we were getting used to and there was little hope for escape back to our
homeland on the Continent of Africa. Those
were hard, tough times!! I don’t say
that to make light of what many of us are going through right now. I know some of us don’t have jobs, food to
eat and even a place to stay. Somehow we
have to lean on each other—GOD, our ancestors and a few other friends who will
help as much as possible. We have to
start to think in new and innovative ways because many of the things that are
wrong with the U.S. economy are hard to fix and deeply rooted in the systemic
problems caused by other administrations and designed—at least in part--by
people who control billions of dollars and who promote war and destruction in
the U.S. and throughout the world... (These people have our President on a
chain. I will describe how later in Chapter 14). These are problems caused by
the actions and inactions of leading businessmen and businesswomen, politicians
and the so-called small Ruling Class of people who do NOT have our best
interest at heart as Black people, to say the least. All that said and done, we have to realize
that there are things we can, should and really must do. Our First Lady was not just having fun or
joking when she constructed and planted a garden in the White House. She was setting an example for the rest of
us. I don’t have enough dry land around
my home to have a garden, but I thought about getting a small children’s pool
and planting some herbs and vegetables for a garden that could go into that
pool. When you don’t have enough food
and you have tapped ALL your giving friends and relatives—and even asked a few
who are unwilling and may have even gotten nasty with you, well, you begin to
think in other ways & in other terms...
I have been unemployed for over 10 years. The disability check I get is practically
nothing, so I have had to think in other ways.
We have gotten food from the food banks, shopped at the Dollar Store,
and started a small business to keep up with bills and such. We have even fallen back on mortgage payments
and had to declare bankruptcy. It is not
an easy road to hoe right now, but I have faith that a brighter day is ahead
for us. I am NOT depending on the government to help, except in providing a
role model in the form, shape and actions of President Obama. I hope he will be
able to provide more positive actions and maybe some ideas. I have tried everything to catch up on the
mortgage, but have been unable to do so at this juncture. I keep trying and I talk to my therapist,
friends, family and other loved ones about the situation to seek solace,
comfort and other level-headed points of view... This is crucial when so many
things like jobs and the economy are skewed and unstable. Some people and bankers & former credit
providers want to cop an attitude with me because bills are not paid on
time. There just isn’t any money—don’t
they get it? I have tried,
unsuccessfully, to go to graduate school. I have applied at just about every
store in my neighborhood and out of town in Philadelphia also. I applied at: McDonalds, Burger King, Arby’s,
K-Mart, T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s, Sears, many marketing firms, PR firms,
Borders Books, and on and on. (It says right on the back of the Final Call that
there would come a day & a time when the White man would NOT provide any
jobs for the Black man & His family...
Has that time come? I think so!!)
I have enlisted the help of the Vocational Rehabilitation Department of
Delaware (because I’m disabled) and have gone on a few job interviews—I have
still NOT found a job in my field that pays enough to really help my situation
significantly... I have found a small
so-called menial job that helps a bit. But financial problems persist. The fact
that I’m now 54 doesn’t help—but guess what—God and the ancestors put me on
this planet for a purpose and I’ll find that purpose sooner or later. When I do
my compass & destiny will be set. I know I have some strong writing skills
and that is why I’m writing this book.
But there are a few other things I can do. I’m good at managing real estate and I think
I will own another apartment building one day soon. But my credit score is down right now, so I
have to work for a living and get things back in shape first. It will work out. But I’m under no illusion that our economy
will just bounce back in a few short months. I think we all have to get out of
that negative mindset and find other legal avenues to make money. There are all
kinds of experts who say that a quick economic recovery just isn’t going to
happen. Why? The reasons are many:
One:
the auto industry in America has collapsed.
That is thousands of jobs that will not be coming back in significant
numbers any time soon and there are thousands of other jobs that are spinoffs
to the auto industry such as parts supplies, other stores & restaurants in
auto-industry-heavy cities such as Detroit and some places in Ohio. Some foreign auto makers have taken up the
slack in some states—but for the most part the auto industry in the U.S. has
put out a closed for good sign. There
are now much fewer well-paying jobs. The president’s Stimulus Package and the
Cash for Clunkers helped a bit, but the U.S. auto makers saw the writing on the
wall many years ago, but they refused to retool, make better cars and they lost
billions in business to foreign car makers like Toyota because Americans wanted
cars that worked well and lasted for more than five years. Fact, Case closed!!
Second: The
Bush/Cheney era has poured billions of dollars into two unpopular wars (in
Afghanistan & Iraq) and the Obama Administration has followed suit for the
first twelve months of his tenure. My
contention is that those wars and the Pentagon itself (in its’ present state)
are unsustainable. We can no longer be
the policemen for the world—Libya and Pakistan included-- and all the world’s
problems and people. The U.S.
intelligence apparatus is incredibly costly and Presidents such as Reagan, Bush
I, Bush II and even Clinton to a somewhat lesser degree, have made a shambles
of our foreign policy—utilizing foreign intervention and dropping bombs like
they were plastic eggs that would not hurt anyone. This has cost us friends around the
globe. President Obama needs to take us
away from these costly pro-war policies (like he promised), but he has not
shown any inclination that this is what he will do. He still had a Bush man (Gates) in change of
the Defense Department. It costs
billions of dollars a year to run the Defense Department and there is a great
amount of waste and unnecessary spending as I write this. And the wars go on and on and on. This is expensive, extremely expensive!!
(Check out www.allthngsCynthiaMcKinney.com to get an up-to-date reading on the
amount of people killed and the current cost of the war. Also please read my
chapter on running a Peace Time Economy at Chapter 10). We need to switch to a peace-time economy
and end those wars as soon as possible.
It is ridiculous that there are men and woman serving three and four
tours of duty—never or hardly ever getting to see their families and loved ones. We need to put some of those Congressman’s
sons over there to fight and die and see how quickly the wars end. That’s
right, lets re-institute a draft and see how quickly more Americans take this
whole thing more seriously. There is a Congressman from New York City (a
Democrat named Charlie Rangall from Harlem) who has proposed just that. He
wants to make the war more up front to
most Americans and less palatable to the rich people who can get their sons and
daughters out of its’ harmful path by just NOT enlisting them. Right now almost exclusively poor Whites, and
Black and Latin servicemen and service women are serving because the sons and
daughters of the wealthy are off to Penn and Yale—not thinking about serving in
the armed forces. There are also a few
gung ho patriots serving, but they are quickly wising up as they now see more
body bags coming back into Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware and as they
see the thousands of people coming back with no legs, hands or other body parts
blown off. This is no joke, as my dear
sister Claudia often says…. This picture needs to change—drastically and as
soon as possible!! We need those expensive wars to end and we need to stop
seeing ourselves as policemen and make way for a Peace Time Economy!! Write and
call The President and keep the pressure on him…..
Thirdly: The
problems in banking and the mortgage industry are not going to go away easily. More people, like me are in foreclosure,
filing for bankruptcy and unable to pay for their homes than at any point since
the Great Depression—these are scary times we are living in. If you can pay your mortgage, you should be
starting a rainy-day fund for any emergencies you might have in the near
future. All you need is for someone to
have a catastrophic illness and your whole family can be taken under
financially. That is what happened to my
family. Also: you should try to start a
small business such as a multi-level marketing business to take up the slack
and build some extra income for yourself & your family. ALSO: get some
education, if you don’t have any. Don’t
feel afraid to go back to school—no matter what your age is. President Clinton is the one who really
started to deregulate the Banking Industry which led to the present mortgage
crisis. President Reagan before him did also.
President Obama has NOT, in my opinion, held the Banks accountable
enough and watched that shrinking pot of money called the U.S. Treasury as
miserly as he should have. There have
been a few dollars for poor people, but President Obama was not the champion of
the poor during the Primary Season in 2008, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich
were—and that is why I voted for John Edwards in the Primary—not for the Black
guy. I did not vote for Obama in the
Primary. (Dennis Kucinich was also a
better champion for poor people and has a much better anti-war record than
Candidate Obama ever thought of having as did Sister Cynthia McKinney in her
run on the Green Party ticket for President of the U.S. in 2008). In a nutshell
I’m saying we have to watch those federal dollars more and get real with the
banks. They need to be making more loans to people of color and small business.
But it doesn’t happen by osmosis!! We
need to be writing Congress, the Senate and the President NOW!!! And we need to
demonstrate if we can & if we need to. It is your right to go to
Washington, D.C. and raise HELL when and if you feel it is necessary… We also need to be setting forth on missions
to build economic stability and funding sources within our community. See
Chapter 13 for more details.)
Fourthly: The fickle U.S. voters may well swing the other
way in and 2012. [They already stupidly went the wrong way in 2010, but I blame
that, at least in part, on the weak leadership in Congress among Democrats]. We
might all find President Obama’s popularity is waning even after he ordered a
band of Navy Seals to successfully go after Ben Laden… He needs to be less concerned about his
popularity and make the tough decisions that need to be made now. A Health Care
bill, with some teeth in it will save the government billions—and cost billions
also. But the alternative is continuing
with over 50 million Americans uninsured and a Big Drain on the whole Nation’s
health care system. If foolish
Independent voters & Republicans swing the other way and allow the
Republicans to get back in power in 2012, (GOD-- Please forbid!!) we are in for
another shake down of the common man for mo money for the wealthy investors,
the banks, the pharmaceutical companies, the defense contractors and Big Oil.
(This fight may yet be taken to the streets like we are witnessing in
Iran, Egypt, Yemen and Syria much sooner than any of us think.) But getting a
good, sustainable Health Care Bill with real teeth may be a much taller order
than even President Obama’s capable people have anticipated. The Pharmaceutical lobby, the Right Wing of
the Republican Party, the Southern Democrats (The Blue Dogs as they are called)
and the other money interests in our Nation such as the insurance companies who
would stop such a bill are pushing their influence hard and scoring points
through use of the White Established Goliath Media (Through advertising and
well-placed spokespeople) who want to see a good fight and smell partisan blood
in the waters in D.C. on this one. If
you have not written your U.S. Senators and your Congress people about getting
a good health care bill, please do so very soon. The very lives of your
children & grandchildren may be at stake!!
Lastly: Foreign
affairs. The U.S. needs to switch from medaling in other country’s affairs
(through expensive covert, secret operations, and using companies like Black
Water as mercenaries and ``contractors’’ & using foreign aid as a carrot
and weapons as a stick) and mind our own damned business!! [See my article on
improving National Security in Chapter 5]. Republicans under George Bush II got
us into two expensive and apparently long-lasting wars. It is time we stood up and said enough is
enough and took care of the poor and indigent in our own backyard because they
are starting to look a lot like us. . . The High Flying adventurism under past
administrations (through the policies implemented by Henry Kissinger and other
Secretaries of State) cannot become and have never ever really been
sustainable—this is a fact that the Western Goliath Media and their owners as
well as most of American’s politicians have yet to get through their heads and
or admit to the American people!! We
have seen the Bad Guys and often they are us—the United States with their gun
boats, war ships, nuclear subs, nuclear weapons, stealth planes, drone missiles
and so forth parked off the coast of some foreign country or flying overhead
ready to destroy the enemy... Meanwhile we haven’t had a review of what WE are
doing around the world to destabilize budding democracies in Third World
Nations in a long time, if ever… Let’s take the Somali Pirate situation for
example. Somalia’s fishing industry was
carrying that east African nation’s economy just fine until Western nations
like South Korea, Japan and Spain went over there and illegally delved into
their lucrative fishing industry, robbing that African Nation of millions of
dollars in fish (by some informed estimates as much as 300 million dollars’
worth of fish per year). This weakened
the Somali economy and eventually gave rise to the so-called Somali pirates who
now rob foreign vessels to feed their families and themselves and pay for basic
needs that were formerly paid for from the wages from legal fishing. The ``pirates’’ are now a part of Somalia’s
underworld of drug sales and piracy that took the place of the totally legal
& lucrative fishing industry that was destroyed by the West as the United
States stood by and did nothing. This is
why the U.S. is so hated around the world.
We talk a good game about democracy, but really do everything in our
power to stave off democracy in fledgling democratic nations in Africa and Asia
and Central America. We often take on the wrong enemies and unnecessarily
create enemies through our outlandish and backwards foreign policies. We talk a
good game about playing fair, and democracy, but when it comes down to the
brass tacks of the situation, more often than not we are out for financial gain
for ourselves and huge profits for ``our’’ corporate structure. There are endless other examples including
what went down in Haiti under Jean-Bertrand Aristide and what the IMF and the
World Bank did in Jamaica, for example... How was he [Aristide] deposed and who
benefited? Our intervention in Panama,
Iran and Nicaragua are other prime examples. The murder of Maurice Bishop in
Granada during the Regan Administration also comes to mind. Bishop was
considered one of the most informed and brilliant Black minds in the world when
he was killed during the North American invasion of his tiny country. Who has
maintained power and most of the money & land in South Africa even as Apartheid
slowly crumbles? Who raped &
murdered Africa in general and now doesn’t want to pay the bill for the
dysfunctions & destruction that rape and murder has caused (check out ``How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, ‘’
by Walter Rodney, 1972.) for the real grass-roots low down on the root causes
of our present-day oppression & international disenfranchisement. You might also want to read ``The Debt,’’ By Randall Robinson…
Conclusion: What we need to do economically is get more education
& buy Black. But we need to be careful who we let our children’s minds—and
our minds--open up to because the mind is our gateway to the future—and future
investments. We need to send more of our
children to historically Black colleges and historically Black universities because
often they have the curriculums and the teaching staffs to delve into more of
the truth than is to be found on the campuses of the regular state colleges or
even the Ivey League system here in the U.S...
If our youth do go to White dominated schools, they need to do so with
questioning minds and armed with the real facts about the revisionist history
and the lies, deceit and bull crap they will be taught about Black people there
(Often the absence of Black people in history & in present curriculums is
shameful at America’s established intuitions of higher learning). Many of our best and boldest leaders came
from Black colleges and universities. If
you can’t send your child there, at least make sure they have a solid Black
Studies program on campus such as at Harvard or several other schools such as
Temple University in Philadelphia or Ohio State University in Columbus,
Ohio. And make sure your child takes
Black Studies—it can be a real life saver and life line in school where some of
our children get lost in very White environments and come back from school with
an education but are more like White Zombies totally unable to relate back in
the community from which they came from….
Otherwise you will be getting back something other than what you, as a
progressive thinker and especially as a Black Nationalists, sent to school in
the first place. Your child will be
primed and ready to work for the established order and help build and maintain
the very system that is oppressing us as Black people. We don’t need more
handkerchief heads like that lackey Colin Powell or that Uncle Remus Clarence
Thomas who sits so foolishly on the highest court in the land... Your child may be educated, but he or she
might well be very confused, disoriented and confounded when he or she tries to
interact with other Black people and Black organizations if he or she is not
grounded in some sort of solid Black collegiate and or Black intellectual
orientation and positive Black experiences.
The child may end up at the CIA, the FBI, the State Department, the
National Security Office or one of the many other so-called intelligence
agencies or other Federal agencies that promote foreign intervention, Western
& U.S. adventurism, Hegemony, White Supremacy and such. The cost of that whole so-called intelligence
structure, I predict, will come into question very soon and may collapse along
with the American banking, housing & mortgage system(s) and the American
Auto Industry. The American Pharmaceutical Industry and the American Health
Care Insurance Industry may also be substantially altered by the passage of a
Health Care Bill or the fight that is taking place right now over such a
bill. We also need to be saving money
as I said before because the rainy day looks a lot like today. We need to
support our own Black businesses of all grade, type and level of
professionalism. If we get some service
or product that is inferior, go to another Black business and write the folks
that gave you the poor service or product and ask that they do better the next
time if they want your support—don’t give up on them. Don’t give up on us
because that is EXACTLY what you do when you turn to a White owned business
instead!! You have given up on us and you have given up on yourself!! Also: if
you have children or not, we all, as Black people, need to be reading or
getting audio tapes of good Black books about our culture, lives, history,
inventors and such (there are several listed in the back of this book!!). Another good suggestion for anybody wanting
to improve their finances and economy is to turn the Idiot Box [TV] off as
often as possible and tune in something that is worth tuning in!! Listen to NPR and other alternative radio
stations for news such as the BBC. (FOX news, as you probably already know, is
notorious for the lies and conservative drivel they serve up.) Stay clear of
them as often as possible. (In the Philadelphia area there is WURD Radio, 900
AM for Black Talk Radio. They still have
some lively and interesting guests there). Don’t be afraid to take your
children to the library—especially you fathers—and look up books on saving,
banking, Black history and culture. The
investment you are making in your child is worth missing a game or two on TV—even
over football season!! Trips to the
Library can also help you get out of the pattern of work, home, dinner, private
time and back to work every day, day in and day out. Do something different. Go to see a Black
foreign film or go to a Black, Caribbean, African or African American museum or
restaurant for a change (Give McDonalds and the major art Museums like the
Philadelphia Museum of Art a break for GOD’s sake!!). Try the African-American
& African Museums in Philadelphia, Washington and New York City —even if
you have to plan a trip out of town to do so.
Invest in your family and friends.
You may find out you have some really nice people in your circle of
friends, family and acquaintances!! If family or friends rip you off, tell them
you feel they did so and that you won’t be supporting them again unless they
change their ways and do better!! But
don’t get into riffs over money, the family and friendship bonds are worth a
lot more than this White man’s money.
Most of all, teach your child
about economics, saving money and giving back to the Black community!!
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