Ashley Tuitt
Friday, May 16, 2014
We've cringed at the scalding narrative heard throughout our entire lives; 400 plus years of slavery and oppression inflicted upon sight of our ancestral dark skin, flaring nostrils, standard sized lips, along with the curliest and woolliest hair on Earth. Over 12 million of us kidnapped and scattered throughout the Caribbean and the Americas¹ packed shoulder to shoulder in the bowels of sea-faring wooden toilets to become undesired strangers in a far off land. Now, besides hearing the common painful details of our history in the West, I ask you to ponder another devastating angle to our collective knock out blow, which we find ourselves slowly arising from today.
Consider the fact that while we were imprisoned in generational torturous labor camps, our ancient homeland of Africa was being simultaneously skinned and quartered by our European families.
These actions have led us to become the proverbial and literal black sheep of the world, wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. But most of all, they afforded just about every other nation on earth a “400 Year Head Start” ahead of us in almost every single industry known to man - while we were held captive and divided. With a cursory look at international finance, food, clothing, business, transportation, technology, engineering, medicine, manufacturing, design, and other fields, we can see very few examples of our Nation's global presence. What we can see is the mastery of our joyous pastimes in music, sports, and comedy, which in the larger picture, because of our family emergencies and resulting absence from business, still do not belong to us.
So what does this mean? First of all it means that since we started arriving in 1525 ², we as a 489 year old Nation of Descendants of African Slaves, have been conditioned into looking to caregivers (who may not be too generous on the care) to govern us, feed us, clothe us, build for us, transport us, educate us, medicate us, design for us, manufacture for us, and even make the currency for us to spend. I humbly ask you to take a look around your home, on television, the radio, the streets, the shops, the skies, the sea, and even your wallet, to examine our present day reality as I illustrate below an even more effective point on the immediacy of badly needed entrepreneurs from our Nation, who will not only aid, love, and value their immediate family, but also will eventually aid, love, and value the rest of their human family throughout the world. The reason being as the proverb profoundly states " Charity Begins At Home".
We first wake up from sleep in our Sertas, Sealy Posturpedics, SpringAirs, Simmons, Sleep Numbers, or Made in China mattresses, and progress through our day consuming SKY, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music, Clear Channel, Motorola, Blackberry, Apple, HP, Dell, IBM, Colgate, Listerine, Johnson and Johnson, Loreal, Maybelline, Covergirl, Revlon, MAC , Proctor and Gamble, Kotex, Stayfree, Carnation, Tetley, PG Tips, Kellogg's, Hormel, and a multitude of other brands that would exhaust scores of pages for this article.
We then wonder why as a Nation, all we mostly do is sing and play? It's because as a Nation, we have not grown up and gotten down to business yet. The rest of the world has! Our cities, ghettos, hoods, and yards, are bare because we have not a penny left to produce them, are just too selfish, or currently do not have the vision to make them the Empires that they really are..
What this also illustrates is that when we can view ourselves as a Family and the Nation we are (similar to how our Jewish family view themselves), all coming from the same source, the same genetic background, and the same circumstances in the West for the past 500 years, we are a Nation that has one of the largest trade deficits in the history of the earth. We are a Nation that produces virtually nothing and have to pay every other nation for all our basic needs - even toilet paper - which has left our Nation pennyless.
At this moment in time, we are a Nation of beggars and dependents to the world and thereby respected as such. We depend on England and the West for their language, governance, laws, rules and acceptance. We beg for the violence to end in our ghettos, we beg for the drugs to stop, we beg for jobs, we beg for our students to be better educated, we beg for the lottery, and we forget that only a Family can fix itself from within. We also forget and refuse to believe how powerful we are as a Family.
Just to remind you, it is “Your” Family that has lived through a 500-year-old life sentence and is still standing in glory to talk about it. It is “Your” Family that built the foundation and economies of the entire Western World single handedly. It is now “Your” family that is rising up in entertainment, music and sports. Let us continue to shake of these mental shackles and show ourselves and the rest of our worldly family how incredible we really are. As a Nation, we have not even rolled out of bed yet. I see the time arriving when we are wide-awakened, and I believe in our Power as a People.
According to Nielsen, our Nation of Black Americans will be spending over $1 trillion dollars this coming year³ . (That is $1000 billion dollars or $1 million , million dollars.) This does not include the spending power of Western Blacks in England, the Black Caribbean, or Black South and Central American. This would mean that if Black Americans spent $1 trillion next year within their Family, our Nation would have the 16th largest economy in the world next to South Korea‚Å¥. And would also, by definition, become part of the G-20‚ŵ. The lottery is a statistical fantasy. Unification and family is a realistic one. Again, the Jews have done it, the Chinese have done it, and the Indians have even done it. What we need to beg for is to become One Unified Nation and it starts with you.
So how do we do this????
When we start creating businesses that either mimic or revolutionize the businesses that we will be spending trillions of dollars on in the next few years and start spending these trillions on ourselves, then we will change the rotation of this planet and become Masters of our own Universe once again. Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest keys to our true freedom. It is imperative that we produce and produce internationally. Without this key, we will remain perpetually knocking on the doors of the world- with hands outstretched.
When we start thinking about ourselves, our feelings, our interests, our desires, and at the expense of no one else, then power will ensue. Not a power to shun another group or reverse the curse and put others below us, but to stand on our own two feet and off of our knees that we may gain the strength needed to help others to their feet worldwide.
Start small! Share! Share and share some more! Be there for one another! Share all information! Destroy the greed within! Destroy the selfishness! Understand we are not greater than our Sister or our Brother! Understand that we are equals and that there are no humans higher than us. There are also no humans lower than us. Do unto others and understand that “You” are the answer you seek . God has given us everything we need to exceed. Everything and more. Think team and do not think individual! As we have received, give! If you have a business now, welcome the questioning and competition from all in our Nation, there is room for everyone.
Take a look at China! They have a town in every major city! They move as one! They speak their own language! They answer to no other family on earth! We see the gates
of their Chinatowns littered with production below and residences above. They are slated to soon surpass America in becoming the world's largest economy and have worked incredibly hard for it. I admire them greatly, but would love to give them stiff competition from what their darker skinned family can accomplish.
Learn languages, travel, make friends/ business contacts, and keep in touch. When we are ready, every single foreigner we meet is our business in a foreign land. Cuba is waiting for our genius, so is Brazil, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Australia, etc. But we must hone our skills at home first! We are all of those above businesses and more. Master their movements if we have to and mimic them until we can walk on your own. We will make mistakes, we will skin your knees, we will tire, but we must rise and stay risen.
We are lovers of the world and have loved and served mankind from our very beginning. We will continue loving the world and will lovingly accept the love of those that love us. But the serving will stop! Practice is over, now let the real games begin. We are sitting at the
edge of our bed ready to get up and enjoy the most fabulous day in our history. The time is present to walk around this earth and show ourselves, along with our human family, the most powerful glory of us, the Nation of Blacks.
Selah, and thank you so much for reading, my most dearest Family!
Note: Ashley Tuitt is a freelance Contributor to MNI Alive: Global Caribbean Media.
References
|¹
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces
²
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces
³
http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-economies-world-gdp-2013-6
‚Å¥
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
⁵
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies
