The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Just last week, I posted a widely distributed press release that was made available to the general public. The headline read “Increasingly Affluent African American Market Set to Reach $981 Billion by 2010“. Seeing this as a time to at least celebrate the fact that our community has yet another tangible sign that we are progressing, I decided to scan what black “news” websites made any mention of this news. Unless I missed something, I found nothing.

Then there was the recent NewsWeek article that highlighted the fact that there are more blacks moving into director positions of major corporations.

Again, nothing.

Or how about the little girl in Florida who made the discovery of high bacteria content in restaurant ice?

I think you know the answer to that one…

Nothing!

Now please don’t get me wrong here. You will always find pockets of celebration in our community when one of us achieves a certain milestone. What I am addressing here is this undercurrent in our psyche that does not want to celebrate too loud so that our white neighbors don’t hear, lest they think they are “off the hook”.

Think “Doom and gloom”

While we have outlets such as Black Enterprise and Ebony magazines, and more recently, television stations such as TVOne and The Black Family Channel that make it a point to highlight progress in the black community, there is still this lingering belief by some that moving up the economic ladder is some sort of betrayal to blackness itself.

When I sat down this past Saturday to look at The State of the Black Union, the one line that kept ringing in my ear came from activist Harry Belafonte where he made the claim that black people in this country still live in terror. While the crowd went wild in approval of his comment, what apparently went unnoticed was that most the examples he provided to support his claim came from the Civil Rights era on back. Another thing that apparently went unnoticed was the thousands of dollars in speaker fees alone many of these individuals receive just for saying a few words to a crowd. What about the fact that a national cable channel aired a large portion of the program? Or the fact that many white-owned companies funded the event? Yet many of us are still willing to buy this line from black folks with money and success gained here in the “oppressive” and “racist” US of A that the black community is one step away from the days of Jim Crow.

This is why I say that most rappers are no different than many of these “so-called” black leaders:both have amassed financial gain while making it a career to convince you that they are struggling to make ends meet.

The real problem is not that we do not have enough in our community, but how do we manage what we already have. Although it is a great milestone for the African-American market to be valued around $981 billion by the year 2010, why is poverty still a serious problem in our community? How many more benefit concerts do we need to have to realize that much of the resources that are need are already in the village?

A personal tale

Some years ago, our family was a part of a major black ministry that had just completed construction on a building complex valued in the millions. Needless to say that during the years leading up to the project, church parishioners were asked in very unique ways to give of their finances to this great project. The pastor repeatedly told the church that God told him that we would not move into the new building until it was completely paid for. Sounds fiscally responsible, right? Well that is what my wife and I thought. Unfortunately, a few months after that declaration was made, we had moved into our new building. The pastor eventually told us that somehow God had “changed his mind” and that we were to go ahead an move into this new building. The only problem with that is because the whole project was being financed by a local bank, if we were to pay off this loan in its entirety, we had to do it before moving into the building–which did not happen. Consequently, the church is stuck on paying the rest of the loan on a monthly basis. Just imagine the interest payment (I think the whole project was over $20 million–at least)! Now you have to factor in the utility bill which we were told totaled at least $20 thousand per month (mind you, this is a very large facility). Although this church does good things in the community, think of how much MORE it could have done with all that money going towards a building that is used fully only one day a week.

This link will take you to 2003 report on black purchase power and show you exactly how that money is being spent.

Check out the excerpted article below:

Study shows blacks outspend whites in lottery (1995)

Madison, Wis. African- Americans spend more heavily on Wisconsin lottery games than white players, and low-income residents spend a much greater share of their income than wealthier gamblers, a new state- commissioned survey says.

Blacks were less likely to play the lottery than whites last year, but African-Americans who do play spend significantly more on lottery tickets, according to the survey, scheduled for formal release later this week.

Among households with incomes over $20,000 last year, blacks said they spent an average of $60.33 per month on the lottery more than four times the $13.73 average reported by white players, according to the survey.

However, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Irving Piliavin, who conducted the study, said that because a relatively small number of blacks were surveyed, the spending figures were more accurately stated as a range in which African- American players spent from $19 to $100 a month. (more…)

For those that think that the whole thing is a conspiracy against minorities, consider the following article:

Minorities play the lottery, but don’t believe the ads

By Larry Keough

FSU Communications Group

African-Americans and Hispanics, though they’re more likely to play the Florida Lottery than other Floridians, do not do it because they are influenced by lottery advertising.

FSU marketing Professor Richard Mizerski, FSU doctoral student Jackie Williams and Auburn University Professor Katherine Straughn refute the common belief that the lottery’s get-rich-quick pitches influence minorities disproportionatly.

Two phone surveys revealed that African-Americans purchased approximately 43 percent more lottery tickets than did whites. Though Hispanics comprise only 12 percent of the state’s population, they purchased nearly as many tickets as whites.

But, though blacks and Hispanics increased their lottery play between surveys, both reported lower recall of lottery ads at the second survey, Mizerski said.

He said there wasn’t a consensus to explain the lottery participation by African-Americans and Hispanics, though it was clear the advertising was not the cause. (source)

For the racially sensitive out there, no I am not suggesting that all black people play the lottery, but we are leading in this unfortunate and debilitating trend.

Wouldn’t it be more effective to first tally up what we already have at our disposal before demanding “the system” to pay its fair share?