Where are the Jobs? Black unemployment has been hovering over double digit figures for the last half a century and it's been a question on the minds of many African Americans (AA). There is nothing more important than how we can provide a comfortable life for ourselves and our families.
Let's take a look at the global landscape with its present turmoil in East Africa and the Middle East. Countries that used to be stable are now battling for survival. One of the main stable countries Egypt is now itself in turmoil. That whole region is a ticking time bomb with countries like Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan all now unstable. It's no wonder America's eyes are looking toward Africa which had its own problems in the past and is now more stable than the Middle East.
What does this mean for AA here in America? What new strategies must we put in place and what old strategies must we abandon. The first thing we must do is tighten our belt, yea we have to get rid of the fat, slim down and stop wasting our precious dollars on any and everything we been doing in the past! We need to make our money work for us and start investing in ourselves, our communities and the companies that have the highest employment for AA.
We can't let history repeat itself with Africa and what happened in Harlem during the last decade. For those of you that have a short memory Harlem has changed yes it has been rebuilt. Billions of dollars was invested in that whole area. However, the life of the residents that was there before it was rebuilt has not changed. Unemployment is still where it was before it started. The majority of businesses are not owned by AA and the top four banks (Citibank, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America) have all flooded the area and loans for AA are still denied in high rates!
The big question now is what are we going to do about Africa? We are already late getting to the party the U.S. is doing 100 billion dollars worth of trade with Africa already. I have to ask this question again where is the Black presence? How many Black businesses are participating in this 100 billion dollar bonanza? We are not talking billions of dollars here we are talking hundreds of billions! Yes that how high the stakes are right now. How are we going to turn this opportunity into a positive situation for ourselves, our children and the next generation? This opportunity is only going to come around once in your lifetime and it will probably last for the next twenty five years to a half century.
We can't sit back and say it is President Obama and he is not doing enough. Hell he has already opened the door to Africa for us. America and Africa must establish that two way street for AA increased involvement in business and other activities this can have a huge effect on the dynamics race relations and increased business opportunities here in America. We can't keep saying where are the jobs when we are not willing to invest in ourselves and our businesses!
What are we doing wrong presently and how can we correct this imbalance with our growing Trillion dollar economy?
What Black institutions or companies are focusing on trade with Africa right now?
What kind of leverage are we going to use to help targeted countries in Africa so they can help us?
When we start to answer the above questions we will start to see so changes in our communities. These are the type of questions that our Historic Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU's) and the Divine 9 should be focusing on because they are Black America's think tank and the back bone of the AA middle class.
GlobalFinet, LLC, is a unique economic network dedicated to solving the Black financial crisis in America. For readers interested in moving the Black financial agenda forward go to http://www.globalfinet.com/ and join the conversation.
