I want to talk to someone out there. I got a comment about why Black people are scared to start businesses. Somebody said, “I want to live a modest life. I don’t want to do all that.” Somebody else said it’s a grind to start a business.
So why are Black people afraid to start businesses but not afraid to support non-Black businesses? In one breath, someone says they don’t want to start a business, but they have no issue supporting businesses that aren’t Black-owned.
I was reading a book by Dr. Claude Anderson called Black Labor, White Wealth. What stood out to me was voting. He said Black people, when we vote, are only allowed to make a choice, not a decision.
I always talk about starting our own businesses, having multiple streams of income, and using our $1.7 trillion spending power within our community. Without economic power, voting alone doesn’t work. Voting without power is like lemonade without the lemon.
A choice is when I say, “Do you want vanilla or strawberry ice cream?” I’ve already decided the options—you just pick one. A decision is when you control the outcome. That’s what happens when we vote Democrat or Republican. The candidates are pre-decided. We pick, but we don’t control the outcome. Then we vote for people who do nothing specifically for us.
Every other group in America gets specific benefits. Black people? What we’ve gotten mostly benefits everybody else. Why? Because politicians know we might vote, but we don’t have power behind it.
Think about judges and presidents. How many truly represent Black Americans? Obama and Kamala Harris are not Black Americans in the sense of generational experience here. Immigrants chose to come; they build for themselves and send money home. Black Americans were forced here, stripped of everything.
We need strategy. We need Black people in law, medicine, trades—various industries—to have leverage beyond entertainment. Too many speak for us without representing us.
Watch Trick Baby on YouTube. It shows how society wants Black people to succeed individually but leave the community. They don’t want people to come back and build the community. Other communities don’t face this.
Politically, we’ve voted Democrat for decades. Economically, what have we gotten? How many Black businesses got funding? Social integration helped everybody else, not us. Boycotts reveal the truth: companies notice when Black people stop spending, not when they fight racism.
Media matters too. Many outlets hire Black immigrants to speak for Black Americans. BET was never fully Black-owned. Robert Smith was the face; John Malone funded most of it. The Shade Room is owned by a Nigerian. Black Americans need our own media.
Voting without economic power doesn’t work. Reparations? Other communities have been paid. Imagine if Black Americans had land, assets, financial literacy. That would change everything.
Some say slavery and Jim Crow were “long ago.” But think of a tree: the roots are Black Americans. The leaves say, “I don’t need the roots.” But without the roots, there’s no tree, no growth, no fruit. America ignores the roots because acknowledging them would shake the system built on top.
We need to vote strategically with demands. If they aren’t met, we move our support. Democrats have been given too much arrogance. That’s why Biden can say, “If you don’t vote Democrat, you’re not Black.” Think about it: decades in politics, yet what has he done for Black Americans? He’s made negative statements but done nothing meaningful.
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