STATE OF THE BLACK UNION II

We do our dance around the truth

And hope that will be enough…

It never is.

On CSPAN we eloquently pontificate

And me?  I still sit in patience wait

To hear the plan.

Forget about equality

Today we’d best find equity

So that our village can raise a child

Up outta’ here.

By 2050, they say we be

We negroes are the ones only

Whose numbers of us will not grow

So can you tell me…where’d we go?

To not have more, not even one

Percent more of us, they say none.

Someone found a way to delete us…

Education for all

Is possible

The bait and switch

They try to pull

Called no one left behind

Do they think we’re dumb and blind?

To fall for a planned to fail game

That’s been run on us for years?

And you know their biggest fears?

That we would learn anyway.

Our only choice? To change the game.

Make our own rules, forget the blame.

Level the playing field by our own hand

A Kindle for every child, that’s part of the plan.

But man

That would actually require someone to accede power

And do the right thing

The state of OUR union?

Lies within

It.

Until we seek the truth and

Become unaccepting of what folks want us to have and

question why they want to give it to us and

take our heads out of the proverbial sand

To require, no demand

Real solutions.

The state of OUR union

Lies within

Us.

My point of view...

I sat and watched the CSPAN coverage of Tavis Smiley’s annual State of Black America event.  Some of it was informative, some entertaining, some annoying.  Perhaps I have an expectation that this event was never intended to meet.  Perhaps I need to look in a different direction for the solutions. 

We spend way too much time reacting and not enough time responding.  I had a discussion with a close friend, who looks to literary resources for the definition -- the why? -- of any given matters that confound us today.  But I want more.  I am not as interested in the “why” of a matter as I am in finding the true solutions.    For example, how do we fix what’s broken in our communities?  The answer – at least as I see it --  has a three-prong solution that is required for the long term effect and will take years for the net effect. He, my friend, asked what I thought was the first priority.  My answer is recidivism – also known as the revolving prison system; our modern day plantation.  We need to change the playing field, so that those coming out of prison have a seventy-five percent or greater likelihood of staying out of the system permanently.  How would that work?  How about a system that requires a newly-released prisoner to be released into a different process, in a different environment, with expectations that requires measurable results.   Prisons know when prisoners are going to be released, even if they are coming out on parole.  There should be a pre-release program within every prison system that  prepares the prisoner for the next step, which is a post-release, community preparation program. But rather than go on with details, let’s just say that the new plan puts the newly release in an intensive environment – not back in the home city – designed for change in behavior, designed to provide him/her with a better shot at mainstreaming into a regular, productive life.  The effect of this two-step process, upon successful completion and measured by specific standards, would reward the participant with reinstatement of the right to vote after year one, would place the person in an apprentice or other work program, i.e., the rebuilding of public works, catastrophic destruction areas, etc, or even an area of proficiency, interest, and/or talent.  And the program would also have an element that preserves and prepares the family of the prisoner for return or relocation.

But how to keep our people out of the system in the first place?  How about an educational system that is not planned to fail?  How about Whoopi Goldberg’s idea of providing a Kindle with current and relevant textbooks loaded into it, to each and every child through high school?  Yeah, the textbook publishing industry will howl, but who cares? The three outright benefits are the availability of textbooks to all students, the elimination of carting around the heavy books, an ergonomic nightmare, and most importantly, students now have the means to become “closet nerds” or become studious without losing street creds.  How about a system that requires a standardization of teaching methodology, that creates motivation for mid-career and new baby boomers to get back into the mode of teaching, and encourages those who should have never been allowed to teach in the first place, to find something else to do.  Teacher’s unions will howl as well, but they need to start policing their own.  Student counselors should be certified and have psychology as part of their training background and certification.  Their first interest should be the success of the child; parents and students should not have to fight for the right to be fully educated within the system.  Then there would be a parent/guardian component that is a requirement in order to have your child attend public school.  Every parent would have a minimum one hour requirement per school per week in which they volunteer.  Teachers and parents would have a required sixth week review; a one-on-one snapshot of where each child is his/her class, what needs fixing, what needs to be celebrated.   This is just a sampling; there is a way, you see, to change the paradigm of public school. 

My last suggestion: Empowerment cells.  Out of work, but skilled?  Out of work, not skilled?  Employed or Unemployed and want to own your own business?  Have a passion but don’t have the knowledge to turn the passion into a profession. Visit your neighborhood Empowerment Cell.  A place where town hall meetings are held to keep the entire neighborhood informed, a place where Cell coordinators and facilitators tap into  local, city, national even international resources to support you in meeting your goals, visions.  It is also a place that houses a city databank from which you can find certified contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc., significantly reducing the likelihood that you will be ripped off.  A place where you can find another person who has similar visions, but limited capital and the two, three or four of you can put your ideas together into one business plan, that becomes a small corporation. A place where training is provided, business English is taught; a link to the technology that is leaving our communities behind can be accessed.

All of this is a start.  A way to begin moving the mountain of odds one stone at a time.  A way to change the paradigm.  So that ten years from now, when CSPAN features the twenty first annual State of Black America event, you can actually look around your own community and know that change isn’t just coming, it’s already pulled into the station.