COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT

Since 1968 we have been struggling to find a direction and a vision that will reunite our community. We learned from Martin and Malcolm that we are capable of great things when we come together. After the deaths of these two black men we were so confused about our next step that we basically sat still for almost forty plus years. Our schools held no vision for our children and our communities produced few jobs and very little commercial development. Why?

Because we were more renters than owners, because we did not play the financial market, and because we just didn't know how to compete and overcome our personal financial shortcomings.

But in the last five years we have grown more savvy about Wall Street, mortgages, and most importantly, we have learned the importance of equity building.

So on September 04, 2009 lets move forward with what we have learned from the civil rights movement. This is the next tier, economic development will lead to a stronger independence for African Americans here and across Haiti and Africa.
Join us.

Go to thetruthfighters.com or prlog.org for more information.

BLACK FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 . A day of trust.

On September 4 millions of black Americans are vowing to make a change in their communities commitment to changing the economic shadow cast during this major gangster move on black owned real estate and how banks have corrupted the people’s trust.

In 1987, after the closing of 98% of the savings and loans community,  mom and pop businesses were forced to rebuild financial relationships in a  loosely regulated banking community.  Housing for black America, however, was still redlined and difficult to acquire because the larger banks had new rules that were even more restrictive and still racist.

If the strength of a nation is in its cities (and we know from history this statement is true), why hasn’t  Congress written legislature to affect this imbalance and create a tax base in all our communities?  After 23 years of community development grants and empowerment zones and now  with subprime ruin, black owned real estate is reducing dramatically.

Like Wall Street,  the black community must build a financial base that will once and for all resurrect  our tax base,  help build and fund public and charter schools, and make it possible with our own board of directors,  to create affordable mortgages.

Black Friday is the first baby step  to rebuilding  that kind of economic strength.  Laws and negative business attitudes have affected black Americans disproportionately in building equity,  politically and financially.  Knowing this,  we are no longer seeking fairness or legislation giving something unneeded.  Instead, the solution is to build our own.

This is a new action for this generation of  integrated folk  who are absent the lessons from the civil rights era.  There are  many who  may claim we should keep trying to work it out with the current system.  They simply refuse to see facts,  in America,  the message has been very clear black man and woman the obstacles to your financial emancipation are still not in your hands. 

Our financial power must be controlled for us by us.  Support Black Friday and tell your children why it is important.

We need an economic buildup/blackout

As President Obama fights for universal health care in the nation’s capital many citizens are blind to the conversation.  Why is a request for health care for all such a terrible financial venture?  Is a severe lack of preventive medical care considering what we know about our food production a death sentence or subliminal eugenics.  Consider the number of female related products now promoted and aimed at a mandatory inoculation.  One pharmaceutical company even suggests to young woman there is no medical reason to have more than four menstrual cycles a year.  NO MEDICAL REASON. And another suggest we can protect our young ten year old virgins by presuming they will contract cancer and inoculate them now.  None of the drugs have been tested enough to make these claims, but that information is in the very fine print.

In a country where a former secretary of state served as the CEO for a pharmaceutical company the outcome can only be death.  Death to the thousands of little girls who will be the guinea pigs for companies like Baxter International and Merck.  When men like these are creating germ warfare and accidentally losing or shipping samples, who believes theses outcomes are not intentional.

Under Bush we all were political guinea pigs,  stripped of basic liberties out of fear,  lied to by government, and editors across the country refusing to print the news.  Our government conspired (yeah I wrote it) to kill us slowly thru our food supply,  steal our economic wealth through an unregulated Wall Street, and leave us depressed, overweight, psychotic, and basically unhealthy.

The situation, however, bleak is a major challenge and the spirit loves a challenge.

So beginning here and now we take hold of our destiny.  We rebuild our trust in one another.  It will take baby steps but many of us are ready to just start steppin’.  Do you remember the time when we had fathers and mothers one the block and in the house and at church,  families that spread across the country all wanting to help the other progress along.  We conducted business with one another and we showed and received respect.

While it will take some time to discover and build this new financial relationship there is no doubt of its necessity.  Think Katrina and you will understand.  Think Countywide, Enron, and sub-prime and you will remember how you were regarded. 

Black America has talked about many solutions to our numerous issues from black talk radio to news specials and documentaries.  But this new idea, a economic buildup/blackout is about testing and strengthening our financial picture in this fast approaching new world order.   An economic buildup/blackout is used by all successful cultures to buy and build their communities.  It serves all the needs of the community from housing to the hospital.  Something we did once upon a time.

The blueprint for this new development, Black Friday, encourages one day of conscious spending with community  based black businesses or not spending at all and saving a specific amount each Friday in a black owned bank.  We have realized for some time now that a bank that serves the interest and develop of its communities is how you repair education and disparities in housing availability.

We need a major move to make better use of our economic power and equity to get this change going.  We need black people who are not afraid and distrustful of one another.  Are you game?

Increasing your political education.

Increasing your political education. In today's political atmosphere black men and women are not newcomers to the struggle but their political power has no direction. The fractions of grassroots leaders from the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have kept hope alive by keeping it real, but its not enough. Organizations like Acorn keep registration going but it too is not enough.

Since the late 60's civil rights murders of community leaders and economic power plays had black families working two jobs to keep their children graduating and progressing. The ideal always being that an education was irreversible.

College graduates and business owners in the black community can attest to the fact that our educations exposed us to specific fields of industry but it also opened our eyes on how to set an agenda or a plan for progress. A very important and necessary skill for success. We must now do the same politically.

Right now we have all the tools in place. A Congress that claims liberal minded politics. A president we helped elect in larger numbers than any other community. And an educated and creative community seeking a change to the staus quo.

It is time for the black community to become its own lobbyist without the large check. A corporation carries one vote. A community thousands.

Stay tuned for more information in your community on increasing your political education.