For Black Economic Progress

Avoid the Set Distractions,

Play the Long Game

By Perry C. Douglas,                                                                                                       July 7, 2020

Broadcaster Tavis Smiley correctly stated in 2016, that “Sadly — and it pains me to say this — over the last decade, black folk, in the era of Obama, have lost ground in every major economic category.”  The numbers didn't lie, the Obama administration’s own available statistics at the time reveal that Smiley was correct.  The fact is, Black Americans through the Obama era to current time are in fact worse off.  The real median income among black households during those years, according to the Census Bureau, sank from $35,954 to $35,398 — down 1.5 percent.  The percentage of black Americans who own homes foundered from 46.1 percent to 41.9 percent, according to the Census — down 9.1 percent.  Urban League president Marc Morial complained that “Black America remains in a recession and remains in crisis when it comes to jobs and the economy.”  As of today, nothing much has changed in that regard.  This information, of course, is not to blame Obama but to illustrate that even with a Black man occupying the highest office, still, political success does not change the economic realities for Black people.  Therefore, what we desire and what we actually need to achieve in order to manifest prosperity can be elusive. 

In the case of independence from colonialism for Africa and the Caribbean in the 1960s, most leaders back then became distracted with white supremacy culture and hierarchical status.  In transitioning of control from the colonizers into Black hands, these new leaders mistakenly saw politics or political office as a path to power.  The developing Black elite class of the post-independence era became distracted away from the true path to real power, which is economics.  Consequently, still today, much of Black Africa remains preoccupied with tribalism, political office, and state control.  Unwittingly for those leaders perhaps, this has allowed whites to quietly remain in control of economic and wealth ecosystems in the post-colonial era.  In short, the majority of commerce and wealth streams have remained firmly in the hands of whites.  Barbados is an example, where a tiny 3.5% white population controls over 80% of the wealth, power, and influence.  Barbados demonstrates how white supremacy strategy continues to succeed.

According to the University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor, Sir Hilary Beckles, Bajans have been complicit with their own suppression, and denial of their own prosperity:  

“The Barbados society in its current structure is not sustainable. There is, in Barbados, a division of labour which says that the black community will occupy and control the politics and the white elite will control the economy.”   

Effectively, Beckles is saying that European hierarchical status introduced in slavery, evolving through colonialism, has distracted many Blacks to subconsciously buy into white supremacy.  Triggering self-hate and putting all the economic power and opportunity in the hands of whites, while Black politicians shamefully remain complicit, selling out for the crumbs of campaign contributions from whites, for their own status.   

In contrast to Barbados, there is the African country of Botswana, whose leaders have successfully navigated sustainable economic prosperity for its people, over the past 50 years.  Botswana’s leadership has managed to do so by avoiding the subconscious influences and traps set by white supremacy and Eurocentric policy agendas.  Botswana focused instead on economic infrastructure development, facilitated by state-led technology and efficiency investments.  Botswana managed to create its own global marketing infrastructure, assisting the sales of local exports, and negotiating favourable pricing arrangements for its beef export industry for example; and doing so on its own terms.  Botswana decided to leave most of the colonial civil service in the hands of the colonialist, until such time the leadership felt that Botswanans’ were sufficiently educated and skilled enough to take over.  This very smart and calculative decision allowed Botswana to focus intensely on education and economic development as the priority.  For example, in the area of mining, Botswana opened up its resource-rich territory to foreign mining companies, doing deals with many companies, even purchasing up to 70% of the shares of one particular mining company.  Then writing a profit share deal that saw 90% of all profits flow directly back to the government.  

Therefore, by the end of the 1960s, Botswana was making so much money that it began to experience consistent budget surpluses.  It then used the cash to build hospitals, a university, made major investments in the primary and high school systems, invested more in technology infrastructure for manufacturing and processing.  In brief, Botswana, beginning under the leadership of the first and late Prime Minister, Seretse Khama, up to current day leadership. Moved Botswana from the second poorest country in the world, in the early 1960s, to one of the all-time great performing economies in history; on all the indicators.  Botswana today remains in sharp contrast to many failed African states, that are marred in chronic poverty, bad political and economic policymaking, crippling corruption and cronyism, plagued with political unrest and ongoing civil war.  Unfortunately, negative news dominates, and African success stories like Botswana are rarely heard or celebrated.

Over the past 50 years, good-intentioned Black leaders and groups continue to pop up.  More so of late, spurred on by the murder of George Floyd.  From grassroots community organizing to Black corporate executive groups...have formed.  With the latter groups, for example, arriving on the scene very recently, most are driven by ego and not paying attention or respecting the historical facts.  They tend to naively believe too much in their intuition; for example, many are advocating token corporate board seats in the system.  Somehow, they feel, this will produce a change to entrenched systemic racism.  The fact remains, that without equity behind a board seat, the seat essentially functions to support those board members who have equity.  The newly appointed token ‘board members’ then unwittingly become obedient ambassadors to the system, further entrenching the existing systemic barriers.  Hence, without real business and wealth behind you to back you up, there simply is no power.  And, the idea that somehow whites are just going to give up or share their wealth and privilege, which they've been working on through white supremacy for 400 years, that idea, simply rests on the edge of ridiculousness. 

The the challenge then is two-fold; first, we need to adjust our mindset to the formidable mountain of 400 years of entrenched white supremacy culture.  Second, recognize that rigorous fact-based non-intuitive decisioning is the most viable path forward.  Economic Psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, and winner of the Nobel prize in economics; in his best-selling book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” two modes of thought are analysed: “System 1” which is fast, instinctive, and emotional; and “System 2” which is slow, deliberative, and logical.  Strategically then, let’s avoid “System 1” and move right to “System 2,” and let’s move away from fast (emotional) thinking that is intrinsic to our biases through our very thoughts and behaviours, which then leads to flaws and mistakes, driven by our overconfidence in decisioning or strategy.  Let’s use applied intelligence instead, not emotion, to contribute the most in assisting our communities' make those necessary and critical economic-progress and prosperity related decisions. 

We need to first transition our thinking in order to change our behaviour for what actually works over the long term. According to an analysis by Samuel Myers, Jr., director of the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the University of Minnesota.  "We have failed to change the mechanisms by which we reproduce wealth, by which we reproduce skills, by which we reproduce market outcomes," Myers said.  In other words, we may have been focusing on the wrong strategies for too long, and need to find less complex, practical, and proven solutions.  Accordingly, we can certainly protest, and we do need to fight through the ballot box and however or where-ever necessary to make progress as a people; nevertheless, in the end, everything always comes back to money and power—economics.

The chart below shows this existing reality.

   

Throughout history, technology-driven economic growth pursuits have driven many civilizations to prosperity over the centuries.  History gives us evidence and analysis that societies that deliberately focus on facilitating technology-led growth, particularly in the era of the Industrial Revolution, went on to forge empires, i.e. Britain and the industrial revolution.  (Getting a few hundred years head start of course from the free labour of slavery) Today, the world is at another critical transitional technology juncture, and for Black people, if missed, will represent a monumental setback.  This is due to the fact that technology adaptation represents exponential economic growth potential.  Those who leverage it can bend their prosperity curve enormously upward, but for those that do not, the consequences will be extraordinarily disadvantageous.  Therefore, decisions taken at this critical juncture can change the trajectory for Blacks for the next 100 years.

 

“World inequality today exists because during the 19th and 20th centuries some nations were able to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution and technologies and methods of organisation that it brought while others are unable to do so. Technological change is only one of the engines of prosperity, but it is perhaps the most critical one.” (Why Nations Fail, page 271). 

Leaders must be honest with those they attempt to lead, there are no quick fixes, or great new thinking to be applied.  No leader is going to come and save us, this includes God too.  For Black progress, we must build the economic power base for the future generations, who will become the beneficiaries of our inter-generational wealth foundations, which we build today.  We must be inspired and take direction from selflessness and great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who said:

  

“...it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop … I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” 

  

We all know the hard facts about systemic institutionalized racism, but it's not going to change by itself any time soon, so let's put our energy towards what actually has been proven to work for societies over time—entrepreneurship …economic activity. It must be a bottom-up approach to growth, which brings everyone along, building a strong and vibrant black economic ecosystem, which is central to it all.  So, let's focus more on how power and influence is actually created and how it flows...inter-generational wealth creation, which is a long game, above all else!

  

Again, white people are not just going to give up their wealth and privilege.  So, let's focus on creating our own opportunities, creating our own "Black Privilege," that will translate into powerful forces that can kick down the door of systemic racism, but intelligently.  Wealth accumulation is fundamentally a binary choice.  If you want wealth, power, political influence, then invest in education and businesses and take risks...this is the genesis of power and influence.  Therefore, if we can manage to play the game how it must be played, then we can begin to become effective in our pursuits; but the strategy is all-important.

 

"I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008 but it didn't happen overnight. It took me 30 years to get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It's not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purpose is supreme."                                            

                                                                                                        -  Aliko Dangote

Even in the very early part of the 20th century, ambitious Blacks understood the game.  Madam C. J. Walker was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. And is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America; said:

  

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."

If real sustainable change is going to happen it will only come from within, not from waiting on government, white corporate leaders, or half-baked and charitable in nature programs.  We should of course leverage those latter opportunities or resources if it presents itself, but do not get distracted and begin to wait nor depend on them.  We must change our mindset completely to System 2 and focus on the proven strategies, that saw definitive outcomes, avoid the ego-driven emotional leadership of men who might not even know better themselves.  Our past history does not dictate the making of our future history.  Decisions and leadership, especially at critical junctures, matters!

Remember, slavery was all about economics too and it was so important to white southerners that they went to war over it.  The south tried to maintain its free slave labour economy, which was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation.  The confederacy ranked equivalent as the fourth richest 'country' in the world at the start of the Civil War.  Barbados, in the late 17th and 18th centuries ranked as the richest colony in the Americas, and Britain’s ability to leverage the industrial revolutions to modernize its economy was in fact financed by the plantation economies in the Americas.  Slavery was the backbone responsible for the entirety of the wealth created by Britain, and broader Europe too.  The profits helped them to build and modernize their economies.  How do you think the European Renaissance was financed?  

Although Abraham Lincoln's abolitionist and moral agenda were legitimate towards the ending of slavery.  At the same time, however, the industrial revolution was advancing in Europe.  Lincoln himself believed that slavery was inherently "bad policy," and would set back the United States economically, over the long-term.  Therefore, the backwardness of using human labour, instead of newly advancing industrial technologies as the nation's primary growth engine of the future was problematic to Lincoln.  For the North, the civil war was primarily about the economic ecosystem that America would move forward on.  Hence, it was more about economics and power than morality.

Henceforth, we must become analytical, calculative, and strategic in our thinking.  Applying intelligence to our tactics in order to advance ourselves, simultaneously working with sophistication to dismantle white supremacy.  We must awaken to a higher state of consciousness, with honesty, and shine the light and apply historical fact-based knowledge to our problems.  Because “in the age of information, ignorance is a choice,” Donald Miller.  We all must resist the lure of emotional decision making, which only benefits the flame of instant gratification.

We must take heed of the advice given to us by those who have, and continue to create wealth, (men like Billionaire tech investor Robert F. Smith,) who has used his wealth to impact the lives of others, Black college graduates, for example...by paying off all of their student loans in 2019, at a Historically Black College.  Over $40million.  This is a prime example of how wealth turns into power and can bend the curve effectively for Black folk.  Robert F. Smith also said that “technology-driven wealth creation is the only real way for black America to create sustainable wealth, in the new economy."  Famous Chinese General and strategist Sun Tzu, in his writings (544 BC,) wrote about great leadership and societal progression, saying that "The good fighters fight old systems by using new methods and technologies" and most importantly focus on putting their societies first, "beyond the possibility of defeat."  If your mindset is not aligned for the battle ahead, then get it adjusted, if not the battle will be lost even before you step onto the field.