It’s 2019 and it’s a new year but beast bankers are still as predatory as a thief in the night!
Access to capital is a more important issue for African Americans in a capitalist society, in my opinion, than political rights, voting rights, or civil rights.
Why? Because most Black people in the United States have very few problems that money can’t solve.
When you have money you can feed and shelter your family, you can buy a house, you can buy a car, you can send your children to good schools and universities, you can care for your parents and other elderly family members, you can take a needed vacation and do much, much more!
It is so tough for our people to access capital when our neighborhoods continue to be red-lined, our loan requests continue to be declined and our applications for credit or credit cards get rejected.
Yes, it’s all about the dollars. God bless the ethnic group that has their own!
Back in the day, every neighborhood had men and women entrepreneurs. Blacks owned grocery stores, drug stores, taxi companies, hotels, dry cleaners, art galleries, nurseries, farms, and other businesses along with the usual hair salons, barbershops, juke joints and restaurants.
Now, to get to a Black business anywhere you have to drive pass the Asian restaurant, the Indian hotel, the Arab corner store, the Korean beauty supply store and the white liquor store!
Black businesses hire Black employees. Black businesses buy from other Black business owners. Black business contract Black lawyers, Black accountants, Black security personnel and the buy advertising in Black media.
We can’t depend on government or on politicians for our economic survival. The politicians that look like us don’t even spend money with us. If candidates don’t spend money with Black people during their campaigns, they won’t spend money with you when they are elected!
Integration was somewhat of an economic trick. They told us we could now sit at the lunch counter, ride in the front of the bus and use the white toilet and we thought everything was all right.
Little did we know, the money spent at the Woolworth’s lunch counter would go out of our hands and into the hands of the devilish economic beast. Our money left our community and landed in everybody’s communities but ours!
But oh, there’s more to it.
The economic devils connived, they colluded and they conspired against our economic interests. They got together as a group and said, “Don’t loan money to any businesses or individuals that live and work on the other side of the railroad tracks.”
They said, “Let’s charge them the highest interest rates we can, let’s charge them the highest fees we can and let’s hire the lowest number of them we can and let’s only contract with Black companies to clean the floors inside or to cut the grass and rake the leaves outside of our companies!”
In 2019 you can begin to change that. You can buy more land and fewer gold chains and red bottom shoes. You can save more and invest more. You can even find a hustle and generate more money that way.
The main thing we have to do is unite economically. We have to find ways to spend with each other, hire each other and contract each other.
I know you like to hire Mexicans but at least let a brother or sister bid on some jobs.
I’m going to try to generate more money in 2019, locally, statewide, nationally and internationally.
I hope you will too.
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.