The Kwanzaa Effect (Ujamaa)

The truth is enough. Ujamaa, the 4th principle of Kwanzaa is Cooperative Economics. In short Ujamaa means to build and maintain our own businesses and to profit from them together.

You see this picture above? I have seen many a blerd brag on the fact that T'Challa the great Black Panther has more money than Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. At the end of day. These characters ink and paper. Plus, I'm sure that Bruce Wayne aka Batman has sold more comic books than Black Panther or any Black Superhero in history. I'm just saying. You see the problem with the Black community is just like blerds bragging on Black Panther's wealth. We have a lot of symbolism but no sustanence. We have a lot of aspirations but very few tangible things. I remember when bammas were saying that Will and Jada were relationship goals. Well, you have seen how that has faired over the years. Economics are the most crippling and telling thing about our plight in America. All one has to do is look at the racial wealth gap to confirm that. I know people who are into financial literacy and network marketing and all sorts of multi-level marketing hot garbage. None of those things can put a dent in the gaping reality that a vast majority of Black people in America are not only broke but in poverty. Those who do have some monies see their money disappear from their communities within 6 hours. That is not even a full time job day. How does money stay in the community? It has to circulate through businesses, goods and services. We have to become disciplined and spend our money with our people. It is really that simple. If there's a Black grocery store in our community, shop at it. If there's a Black farmer's market, buy your veggies and fruit from them. If there's a Black bank in your town, bank there. Will you have to find these places? Absolutely. Now most of the spending we do, we do out of habit and easy access. Unfortunately, this is what business owners that do not look like you and me, count on. They count on our lack of passion for cooperative economics. They count on our lack of discipline. They count on our cheapness towards one another. There are many beauty supply stores that are Black owned but they get passed over because they cannot offer always cheaper prices on the retail side. Your checkbook says a whole lot about you. Are you concious about where you spend your money? Do you have a Black owned comic shop in your city? We cannot talk about how much we love our people and all that jazz if we are not putting our money where our mouth is. If we support Black businesses, we benefit because we are helping our commerce grow. Many of our communities suffer because we do not have a healthy tax base. It all trickles down. If we do not support Black comic creators and Black comic companies, we have no right to complain about representation. We talk about it but when someone tries to give it to us, we frown at it. Critcize it. Hell, we barely will even bother to try it. All of us have been guilty of this. We gotta do better family. Cooperative Economics helps us. Let's really make it a priority in our spending. -Richard J Wright