It's good the black community still have folks speaking on behave of the black community, but those aren't the folks living below middle class that's experiencing job loss, working for a temp agency that's very close to slave labor. In fact a lot of those folks will make a nice buck or two speaking. I hope when discussing the Black agenda we have long term solutions to problems facing the black community. Too many times we hear arguments, in house fighting & a lot of grand standing but no long term solutions. Many would argue that the problem in the black community is not enough re-enforecment of traditional values. The public education system don't produce children that compete, these children don't have enough support at home that teachers don't have enough support from parents. Education starts at home & should be re-enforced at home. But even with the lack of family values you have to ask yourself, "are black males targeted by globalization of capital?" If so, It's a problem the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broad investments will never be able to fix. There is 100 problems facing the black community but the main debate is crime, crime is the main problem, the media often put this problem under the microscope, so, I'm going to start & finish with that issue. I feel If the United States government and the majority of the United States citizens really wanted to stop crime on a large scale they should invest more tax dollars in successful rehabilitation programs. In fact, rehab programs should be on the agenda as well as stopping social control. I'm not speaking up for violent criminals, but the truth of the matter, county, state & federal prisons mostly house criminals who are poor folks who committed nonviolent crimes, misdemeanor 1 turn into a felony 5. It's no secret in Washington that the building and maintenance of prisons are big business. Defense industry giants like Westinghouse are re-tooling and lobbying Washington for their share of the domestic law enforcement market. One of the fastest growing sectors of the prison industrial complex is private corrections companies. Investment firm Smith Barney is a part owner of a prison. American Express and General Electric have invested in private prison construction. Correctional Corporation Of America, one of the largest private prison owners.
Education is also an issue that should be on the agenda. Jobs & the education school system. Are more trade schools the solution? More trade schools that open doors to community colleges in the inner city that offer programs in truck driving, culinary management, pharmacy technology, electrical systems, dental assisting, medical assisting, medical billing and coding, and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, nail technology, cosmetology and barbering could help reduce the high school drop rate & increase the rate of black folks with a jr. college or community college diploma & also boosting the job market with a career & job security. I don't have enough time to go into small business, credit, health care, college grants & more college funding but this are all issues that should be part of the black agenda. Black folks are the most disadvantaged minority group in higher education. Most black folks don't think it's possible to undo the domestic colonies controlled by external interest that took strategic measures to institutionally oppress. We know all to well how elected officials while running for election, or re-election, promise funding but when they get their butt in office funding is cut from the budget.
The BIg Problem is greed & bad management of funds by State's. I swear, even with the economy going belly up, for almost a decade, States have always been wrong with the numbers, which lead to broken promises & budget cut's. But something else is going on in America, America's need to balance the benefits of foreign investment with national security concerns. Hear me out for a second, between 00' and the present, annual foreign direct investment in the United States averaged over, my numbers could be off a lil', $150 billion, which is 20% of the world’s total. It's been said to be true by an elected official that there is an inherent link between our national security interests and a strong U.S. economy that facilitates free and fair trade. But, foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies can pose a challenge for the U.S. government because of the need to balance the benefits of foreign investment with national security concerns. America is for sale, the dollar value is dropping because we are owned, we use to be the owner. Which brings me back to my point of social control. Certain folks in our government want more control over America's work force in order to compete with foreign countries that get very wealthy off the back of slave labor, low wage workers , which means, a conservative government main concerns is not the deficit, their concerns are foreign investment & the amount of leverage it gives other regions & the problems it could mean to the United States national security & the personal interest of certain sectors of government & their investments in banks, energy corporations, pharmaceutical corporations, defense contractor groups, real estate, I don't have to name them all, but you get my point.
What does that have to do with the black agenda & school closing & mass layoffs. America can not compete with foreign countries so the workers in the United States are forced into low wage jobs with no careers, or should I say [slave labor jobs]. The Americans with careers are frozen at a certain pay scale or they have to take a demotion to save their jobs. Somehow, America is going to have to get something out of nothing from Americans for a period of time, which means decreasing the middle class & working the hell out of Americans living under middle class, which means blacks, latino's & poor white folks, which means white folks are going to hire more poor white folks to do construction, house rehab, temp. work & so on & so fourth, which means social control. I'm aware that not everyone in the black community have capital or a high credit score or value of a mortgaged property to receive a small business loan, these are things places like SBA require. Unless you have start-up money to open a small business your going to need SBA. Realistically, not everyone in the black community is smart enough to pass the required test to make it into college or have the support, money or the time for a personal tutor to improve them skills. Realistically, not everyone is cut out to open a bar or a soul food restaurant. Not everyone in the black community is cut out to be a record store owner, cellular phones seller or open a body shop or have a mechanic shop. Not everyone can be a hair barber, that takes a certain skill, not everyone can be a nail tech or go into cosmetology. Not everyone that take a real estate class at community college can start a real estate business & not everyone can open a daycare & definitely not everyone can be a rapper, producer or a record label owner. These are perceptions of a small black business owner in the black community. Of course there are other small businesses black folks have in the community other than the ones I named. But for the large part that's the box we are placed in. Another problem with black business owners is the image, I'm not one of those black people that say, "what we need to do as a people," I don't speak for every black person in America, but I do think a lot of black folks need to stop with the mafia, gangsta image & that perception of everyone with small business in the black community had to sell weight to position them self as a successful small business owner. It's the perception of being liquid, their not wealthy, at best, their above middle class. I'm from the hood & I'm not perfect, I was young with a lot of talent, I hustled out of desperation as a child & teenager but I also worked hard for 2 bits. I'm not scared to say that. I say that to say this, everybody I knew as a young man that owned a business wasn't a drug dealer, not only in my community but other States. Those businesses are not open today, if they are they are now owned or operated by middle easterns, indians or asians. When I was younger the problems I remember these black business owners telling me, at a young age, was that the building their store was in was going to raise their lease. Those are problems that can make you want to relocate. High leases are reasons why business don't move in after another has closed in the hood. I have seen business have a grand opening & they don't last more than 5 years. Than the buildings are boarded up. There is no grand closing. My point, I remember, not that long ago, folks could come out of high school land a job where they could grow with the company & retire from. They lived in middle class society & if they saved properly they took nice vacations & sent their children to nice schools. The days of the baby boomers are gone. Today, jobs need background checks, credit checks, racial background checks, it seems like you need a B.A. to make minimum wage, not everyone is cut out for college or to be a entrepreneur. These young adults need job training so they can land a secure job they can grow with & the training need to be placed right in the community.
Yours truly,
Anthony Smith