You would think that a 100-year-old Black organization would be able to make a couple of phone calls and get some appropriate results for those who have supported and sustained it for a century. You would think they would be able to hold politicians accountable; but they cannot.
The corporations across this country, while they do have the power to hold politicians accountable, even to the point of forcing them to change legislation by threatening to move their companies and boycott various cities and athletic events, do not exercise their power on behalf of Black people. Eric Garner was killed before our eyes and no corporation said it would move out of New York because of it. Tamir Rice was executed and no corporation stood up against that heinous act. Look back at how they responded to Michael Vick and the dog fighting, or Ray Rice, or Adrian Peterson.
As Bob Law has stated so appropriately, these corporations, many of which earn their profit margins from Black consumers, have a “depraved indifference” to the plight of Black people in this country. Corporate execs know they only have to pay off a couple of selected lackeys and things will soon cool down; Black folks will fall back in line and continue to buy their products and services as if nothing ever happened.
Facing that sad reality, where do Black folks go and what do we do in order to hold accountable those whom we support? Back in 1951, then-president of the National Negro Business League, Horace Sudduth, said, “Economic freedom is the greatest cause before the Negro today.” In the early 1960s, Elijah Muhammad called on Black folks to “do for self,” and Malcolm X continued that refrain. Then, in 1968 MLK said, “The emergency we now face is economic.” In the 1980s and 1990s, it was Tony Brown, Claud Anderson, Bob Law, Brooke Stephens, Robert Wallace, Kelvin Boston, Julianne Malveaux, the very astute and dedicated Kenneth Bridges of the MATAH Network, and yours truly, sounding that same alarm and giving economic prescriptions for empowerment.
With all of those and others like them, Black people continued to follow the empty path of no-win politics, abandoning our economic base along the way and seeking the largess of politicians who either ignored us or took us for granted. Amateurish? Child-like? Naïve? Uniformed? Misinformed? Apathetic? Call it what you will; we blew it, brothers and sisters. We really blew it.
But that was then and this is now, as the saying goes. The Calvary has arrived. It’s called the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors. This movement encompasses and melds together all of the basic principles espoused by those Black champions mentioned above.
The One Million focuses on three primary factors that must be done in order to meet the goals promoted by our true economic empowerment leaders. First, we must “Organize.” The One Million has done that. Second, we must have a vehicle through which our problems can be solved; the One Million is that vehicle. Third, we must make Black dollars accountable to Black people. By pooling and leveraging our dollars, creating more conscious Black millionaires by supporting their businesses en masse, and by using our own dollars to help one another. The One Million is leading the way to economic empowerment for Black people. To join the movement, go to: iamoneofthemillion.com
(Jim Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. He can be reached through his website, blackonomics.com. He is the author of Black Dollars Matter: Teach Your Dollars How to Make More Sense, which is available through his website; professionalpublishinghouse.com and Amazon Kindle eBooks.)
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