On the eve of the 50 year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, I thought it would be a great time to highlight 5 disappointments in the Black Community over the past 50 years. Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed many things in the black community are as far from great as they can be. There is a “black” President of the United States, but what about the community? What sort of shape are we in today?

Let’s discuss 5 disappointments in the black community over the past 50 years.

After the March on Washington on August 23rd, 1963, the black community was engaged, organized, and poised to create the future we dreamed. The energy was high. The momentum was on our side and things were changing across the country.

With all that momentum and energy, there should have been some phenomenal leaps and bounds made by a people who have been so unfairly raped, murdered, killed, had their history destroyed, discriminated against and far more, but today there are major pockets of people and mentality that leaves a big void in the dream and makes it look more like a nightmare.

Without going into many of the Government sponsored horrors that set up many of the conditions we face today, let’s address 5 disappoints in the black community over the past 50 years.

5. King’s Dream Turned Into a Lullaby to Keep Us Sleep

This is in no way meant to dis Dr. King and his dream, but before his death he feared he was integrating his people into a burning house. Well, the house is still on fire, that’s for sure, but somehow we are still sleeping.

In my opinion, we have lost our sense of community and togetherness. This comes from our obsessive need to integrate, or be approved by the larger white society, without holding on to our sense of self and holding a strong responsibility to us. Sure a few of our best and brightest have made some money in the new world, but there are far too many of us that have been left behind. What is worse, since we don’t have a sense of self or a compassion for one another, those that have “made it” continue to sleep and dream they are living in a perfect society where everyone is judged on the content of their character, not their culture…..which just is flat out a lie.

4. We Still Don’t Own Any Media Outlets

Still boggles my mind we have all these intelligent, sophisticated black people in this country and world, yet we still don’t own any major media outlets. The media has the power to influence the hearts and minds of the people, which it has been doing since the dawn of time. However, in the Internet and multimedia age, it is bewildering we don’t own one of any significance.

We continue to allow others to feed us images and information of who we are as African Americans, black people around the world. We are relying on their lens of interpretation to tell us who we are as a people. And unless you have been under a rock, they don’t seem to think much of us as a people and are constantly reminding us of such in the images and stories being painted.

This has lead to us not articulating a cohesive culture, which undermines the community and our future.

3. We Still Don’t Know (or care about) Our History

This one just makes my heart cry. We are the only people on the planet who don’t understand or value their history. Sure, our history has been mixed up, confused and broken into disjointed segments. This is all true. However, in the age of information and the Internet, there is really no excuses not to know your history.

What is even more aggregious is many of us don’t even care to know our history. The youth don’t place any value on our history because their parents don’t. This is a vicious cycle we must get a hold of quick. A people who are not aware of their history are doomed to repeat it.

2. We Still Don’t Control Our Educational Institutions

Many of the greatest African American leaders of all time have called any people a fool that would allow another to educate their children. We act as if these great men and women were not speaking to us because somehow something is suppose to turn out differently.

The American educational system is broken….and this is for their white students, so you should know it is down right detrimental to us and our future. Controlling the educational system is something we must work on in the next 50 years if we are to expect ourselves to get out of this hole we find ourselves.

I am not talking about an educational system just based on facts, science, language and methodology, but one based on history, culture and instilling values and togetherness that is critical for the black community moving forward. No need to abandon the entire school system, but if we were more active in our local politics and donated to more educational programs, we could influence the curriculum with our history, culture and more at an earlier age.

At the very least, there is no reason there isn’t a national based educational after school program similar to Sylvan or Kumon that assist the basics, but also add the historical and culture understanding needed in our communities. And yes, we must support these ventures once they do start to make themselves available.

1. We Still Don’t Understand The Importance of Community Economics

The number one disappointment I have with the black community over the past 50 years is our lack of understanding of community economics. In my opinion, this is the only solution to our situation if we are ever to dig our way out of the hole we find ourselves. We must look to the past and duplicate many of the successes we had in this country and follow the blueprint every other race of people follows. Why? BECAUSE IT JUST MAKES SENSE!

Community economics is everyone in the area understanding the importance of starting businesses to support the basic needs of a community, hiring people from the community for those businesses, and supporting those businesses by shopping  with them. As business owners in this community, you buy your goods, services, and needs from other businesses in the community. This allows the money in the community circulate to fill the pockets of the business owners, the employees and even taxes needed to  keep the community working properly, the educational system funded, and even provide funds to the various organizations, non profit organizations in the community.

We need to wake the hell up as a people and get to work!

I am sure I have left out many disappointments in the black community over the past 50 years. Please take a moment and let me know which ones are at the top of your list in the comments below.