African-American Women's Economic Movement in USA

The Covenant:
A Paradigm Shift of Economic Behavior
Of African-American Women (Men and Children)
By Karen Sommerfield, Community/Political Activist
Chicago, IL karenks@sbcglobal.net

MISSION STATEMENT

The goal is to inspire African-American women to initiate a cohesive proactive strategy to improve the abysmal social and economic conditions that have virtually turned our communities into “killing fields.” The extreme and soaring level of poverty and despair, especially among our men and youth, demands our immediate action.

Our failure to effectively address the dangerous socio-economic issues/structures confronting us today guarantees a future for our children that will be far worse than our foremothers and forefathers ever experienced. In fact, we’re already there because our children are killing one another! How worse does it have to get before we act to help one another help our children? It cannot get any worse than our children killing us and one another.

Economic Summit of Minds
The first “question” is: Who must initiate key processes to effectively reconcile the spiraling/out-of-control economic and social devastation permeating the core of African-American’s societal existence?

The true answer: Us.

It is our responsibility to improve the ghastly social and staggering economic conditions among African-Americans, and there should be absolutely no vacillation in acknowledging our responsibility to do so. Starting right now we must collectively agree to be of “one-mind” with the same goal(s), and without further delay, develop/refine and implement “The Covenant.” Godspeed!

As women, we are definers of our destiny as demonstrated by our foremothers, and the finest among us—the economic and social engineers—who understand the complexities we face, and are quite capable of planning, implementing, and spearheading strategies to alleviate the saturating socio-economic degradation plaguing our communities must answer the “call” to step forward and take the lead in advocating and guiding our people on to a path of social tranquility and economic prosperity where our sons and daughters will and must become—in many areas—majority beneficiaries of our efforts and the billions of dollars that we contribute to America’s economy. It’s that simple.

It is our responsibility, as women, to rekindle the practices of our foremothers who courageously battled endless naysayers, oppressors, and degrading circumstances. Many of whom sacrificed their dignity and lives so that we—their descendants—could have opportunities to live far better lives than they ever imagined. We dropped the ball long time ago. But now we must pick it up and run with it so that our descendants will be granted the same opportunities provided to us through the struggles and victories of our foremothers. We must commit for the sake of our offspring, especially our sons—who desperately deserve unalienable rights to become responsible, self-reliant men who can and want to meet the challenges of supporting their families and raising their children. There should not ever be an instance where we are not willing to make that possible for them.

The Paradigm Shift of Economic Behavior
We must cease financing our economic oppression by largely changing how, where, and with/through whom we shop thereby transferring a great percentage of the “half-trillion-dollars+” we contribute to America’s economy to African-American owned businesses, [professional] service providers, and salespeople.

The second question is: How do we parlay our contributions to the economy to achieve meaningful and successful economic development, i.e., business and employment opportunities?

The only feasible answer right now is: Shifting our collective economic behavior in ways that will immediately contribute to the economic sustainment, expansion, and creation of African-American businesses, including immediately start utilizing [professional] service providers such as doctors, attorneys, accountants, tax preparers, investment advisers, insurance agents/brokers, salons, department store and car salesmen/women, lawn care/home repair contractors, etc. Only spend our money where African-Americans are employed--and when we spend our money, utilize African-American salespeople whether we are purchasing clothes, cars, appliances, homes, insurance, or whatever. Do not patronize restaurants or fast-food establishments that do not hire African-Americans--neighborhood, regional, or national chains.

A considerable portion of capital that African-American [small] business owners require to expand their products/services and create jobs can be derived via revenues generated by our consumerism—making those businesses more attractive to lending/investment institutions.

The people who own the entities where we currently spend our money enjoy the economic benefits of our patronage, i.e., create jobs for their people, ability to purchase whatever they require to live comfortably, have savings accounts, send their kids to the best schools, take vacations—all the things many of our people only dream about. We contribute handsomely to the economic upward mobility and sustainment of non-African Americans. The billions of dollars that we spend help create millions of jobs that our sons and daughters do not receive. Wake-up everybody!

We have to start making adjustments and sacrifices in every facet of our lives in order to improve the economic conditions of our people. In addition, our children mimic our economic behavior, and therefore we must change the manner in which we indoctrinate their economic behavior.

For example: Approximately 20 years ago, an Italian male Allstate insurance agent inherited my account from my African-American agent (Charles Henre' who left Allstate to join Aflac). Mr. Henre called to advise me accordingly and that he had been gone from Allstate for more than a year. He asked had I heard from his ex-partner from Allstate. Of course I had not. So I called Allstate (my home and car insurance provider) and shifted my account from the Italian agent to a female African-American Allstate agent by the name Cheryl Kirkland (now in South Holland, Illinois).

I shifted my account to her because my goal is and always will be to contribute to the economic upward mobility of my people; and Cheryl is providing jobs for African-Americans. This was a no-brainer economic decision. All of my friends and family did the same. We created a movement by successfully convincing many other African-Americans to shift there accounts to African-American agents with their insurance providers. These types of strategic economic shifts can make significant differences in the lives of millions of African-Americans who are struggling to make a living/stay in business and provide employment.

Many of us in Chicago use African-American lawn care contractors to give jobs to African-American men. It is imperative that we abandon advocating “black business/service providers are not reliable...it’s hard doing business with blacks…” Providing economic opportunities for our people should never “be hard.”

Most African-Americans around the nation use Hispanics for lawn care and home repairs—and none of them hire African-Americans. Yet far too many of us are okay with that while our sons and husbands lack jobs, and the basic requirements to sustain as a human-beings. Rather, millions of our fathers, sons, and husbands are forced into the life of vices because they lack jobs.

Daily—around the nation—our sons hopelessly drift/stand on street corners selling drugs/dodging bullets, robbing and killing us and our children—and we are burying them by the hundreds, monthly. This is maddening! Our children have an inherent right to be recipients of the wealth we generate [for others]in America. Personally, I am OUTRAGED about it. And I cannot wrap my senses around the fact that despite the fact that we spend trillions of dollars, we have hundreds-of-thousands of the most talented, intellectual, successful, audacious people in our race we simply refuse to unite to re-direct our economic strength to benefit our people. Around this very issue is where a paradigm shift must occur. We are socio-economically worse-off than any other race on earth.

Take a focused look at other races doing business in our communities, and you will recognize practiced economic indoctrinations in full play among whites, Hispanics, Koreans, Egyptians, Arabs, Indians, etc. and their refusal to hire our African-American sons and daughters. It’s happening every day throughout America—and we make it possible for them to succeed at it.

Next, take the time to visit any Hispanic community or other non-white ethnic communities, and I guarantee you will not find one African-American working in their neighborhood businesses—not one! This should be an “Aha!” moment for you, as well as a motivating factor to shift our money from them to/through us.

Again: Other races of people come from afar to open small businesses in our communities, positioning themselves to reap the receipts from our reckless-to-the-detriment-to-ourselves spending habits; and these people—99.9% of the time—do not hire from, shop or bank in our communities. Every dollar we spend with non-African-Americans leaves our communities—never to return. And what's even more disheartening than that is: We willing, with conditions take our money to them. We are the only race of people--ON EARTH-- that largely fail to indoctrinate our offspring with the concept of economically supporting our people first no matter what.

The third question is: When do we start?

The only logical answer is: Now! In order to achieve immediate and long-range economic success, we must not delay making an economic commitment to one another today. The economic paradigm shift must begin now.

Based on the economic strength of African-Americans and the combined trillons of dollars we spend, there should not be one African-American child lacking in the basics such as food, safe housing, and clothes; unemployed black men should be at a minimum; black children and young adults should be able to get jobs (summer and otherwise); black women and their families should be able to live comfortably, safely, and wherever we want to. But we are not in a position to do this, nor are we any where near being able to achieve this because despite the trillions of dollars we contribute to the wealthy living of other races of people, they do not extend the same economic considerations and opportunities to African-Americans—and neither do we.

Economics: The Institution of Racism
Among the sciences of economics and politics, which of the two sciences truly influence behavior (i.e., actions, conduct, deeds, activities, performance, manners)?

Do you know?

The answer is: Economics!

The science of economics is the primary behavior influence—no matter whose it is. Economic position or the lack there of influences what, when, where, how and how much a person, a people, a country, or any entity can do.

There are political scientists that argue the two sciences (economics and politics) are synonymous. They are not. Period!


Why do politicians spend hundreds of millions of dollars to be elected to [high] government offices?

Once again, it’s economics and the influence thereof. Politics is a paradigm by which economic factors are consigned.

What is the “driving” force of racism? Again, it’s economics.

We have spent immeasurable amounts of time being confused and upset about racism and race relations in America, not realizing there is a subtle difference between “race relations” and “racism.”

We (blacks, whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, and others) formed a coalition that elected America’s first African-American President). So improving “race relations” is no longer a “real pressing issue” for us. Mind you: It was "economic" hope that galvanized the multi-racial/multi-cultural/multi-gender coalition to elect President Obama.

Racism: We'll never be able to cure racism. It is outside of our collective "Circle of Influence," and always will be. So our time and energy would be best utilized focusing on our real "Circle of Influence," i.e., an economic paradigm shift and upward mobility.

The real issue before us now is “economics” and the development thereof—not just for African-Americans, but for America as a whole. But more importantly is whether or not we—as African-Americans—are willing to cease economic behavior that has contributed to, and in most instances, kept us at a status of “the economically disadvantaged.”

We will never be able to truly cure racism, race relations, or sustain political gains unless we effectively address/take control/address our overall economic condition(s). If we take the time to understand that economics is the foundation of racism, and racism is “driven” by others’ fear of our economic potential, we would in fact put greater emphasis on economics rather than race and politics—which would ultimately guarantee us a “place at the table--any table: Economic, Political, Social.”

Awakening of the “Sleeping Economic Giant”
We are a “Sleeping Economic Giant”--an economic transformation waiting to happen. Non-African-Americans recognize this fact far better than we do. They fear that if the “Sleeping Economic Giant” is ever awakened, and we implement a massively coordinated and indoctrinated paradigm shift our money away from "their" businesses, services to African-Americans entities and individuals, the economic impact [on them] would be nothing sort of cataclysmic. And we would witness a change in "their" behavior(s). A strategy of this magnitude would be a scary global economic proposition.

The irrefutable foundation of entrenched institutionalized, white male dominated racism is their fear of our economic potential. The greatest fear of non-African-American men is African-American men attaining and sustaining economic parity because the latter’s economic salvation would result in the others’ economic sacrifice. By-in-large, this is the motivation of covert and overt racism, which serves to especially and disproportionately exclude our fathers, sons, and husbands from employment opportunities and access to capital to start/expand/sustain businesses. The black man’s economic salvation is the white man’s economic sacrifice.

Financing Our Own Oppression
We literally finance our own oppression via how, where, and with whom we spend our money—most of which (trillions of dollars) is not spent with African-American owned businesses or through African-American professional service providers and salespeople. If we are to truly improve our economic position in a “land of prosperity,” we must change our economic behavior, i.e., how, where, and with and through whom we spend our money.

According to Target Market News, and published by Ebony Magazine (May, 2012), Black America’s Half-Trillion-Dollar Consumer Market, we spend the following dollar amounts in America on:

Category/Spent Annually (Billions)
Food: $65.2B
Apparel Products & Services $29.3B
Cars & Trucks (new and used) $29.1B
Insurance $21.3B
Telephone Services $18.6B
Household Furnishings and Equipment $16.5B
Personal Products and Services $7.4B
Housewares $1.1B
Gifts $9.6B
Computers $3.6B
Consumer Electronics $6.1B
Travel, Transportation and Lodging $6B
Education $7.5B
Healthcare $23.6 B;
Housing and Related Charges $203.8B;
Media $8.8B
Miscellaneous $8.3B
Contributions $17.3

September 19, 2013 Nielsen Update of African-Americans' spending habits; and according to "Resilient, Receptive, and Relevant: The African-American Consumer 2013 Report' forecast black buying power will rise to $1.3 trillion by 2017, finding 53 percent of the nation's 43 million blacks currently are under the age of 35, with the black population growing 40 percent faster than the general market population. The study also found that blacks watch more TV than the general population, 37 percent more; read more financial magazines, 28 percent more; and surpass the general population in smartphone ownership--71 percent verse 62 percent.

"It also found that blacks make eight more shopping trips per year than the general population; purchase nine times more ethnic beauty and grooming products; and spend more than twice the time at personal websites than any other group.

"According to the report, 81 percent of black consumers believe products advertised in black media are more relevant to them."

This validates the theory of African-Americans being a sleeping economic giant, and decisively predicates that African-Americans implement a paradigm shift in our economic behavior to uplift of people for generations to come. What is so excruciatingly hideous about where, with, and through whom we trillions of dollars is that 90+ percent of the hundreds of billions of dollars we spend is not spent with or through African-Americans.

Given the magnitude of our “buying power,” it seems logical for us to begin spending our money with and through African-Americans.

The Paradigm Shift:
Support African-American businesses, sales and professional service providers whenever possible. When purchasing big ticket items such as homes, cars, appliance/furnishings, etc. by-pass the non-African-American salesperson and seek out the African-American salesperson and contribute to that individual’s [family] economic upward mobility. This is not “rocket-science.” This is common-sense economic behavior in practice—just like all other races of people do. This is an example of shifting our economic behavior to expand/create businesses and jobs to improve our overall economic conditions.

It is imperative that we spread and indoctrinate this paradigm shift if we are to save our race and uplift "the black man"--our fathers, sons, and husbands.