By Dr. Brooks Robinson\Black Economics.org
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Facebook\Wikimedia Commons
As we move beyond Thanksgiving 2024 and toward 2025 and a new and uncertain era overshadowed by a seemingly dark cloud, those of us from the non-talented tenth can recall
arriving for a Thanksgiving or some other family gathering and our parents posing that ominous question just before exiting the car: “You all know how to act don’t you?”
That question would send a shiver down your spine and a surge of painful thoughts to your mind. You knew that if you were not “on your best behavior” during the gathering, then there were consequences. Maybe not immediately, but in the form of penetrating glances that portended a slightly delayed and unpleasant chastisement. A failure to comport yourself appropriately meant charting a course to a reckoning. In other words, our parents thought about their requirements, issued those ominous words and cast those monitoring glances to guide our production of the outcomes they desired.
The just recounted experience can be viewed from a perspective beyond the psychological:
Stimulating a painful memory to motivate desired behavior. It can be viewed as a creation process:
(i) A conception (the planting of a seed in the soil of our minds); (ii) a spoken word (a small shoot
emerging from clay soil of our lips); and (iii) nurturing in the form of faith, works, and monitoring
glances. Together they can materialize a formidable personality in our physical reality. Yes, our
parents anticipated our misbehavior, stimulated proper behavior with a word, and then saw our
growth and development as offspring that brought them immense pride and joy.
What about those Black American (Afrodescendant) offspring today? We certainly have
experienced appropriate favorable and unfavorable psychological and mental conditioning. We
have seen the joy and pleasure of how life unfolds for us as a united People (e.g., Wilmington,
Greenwood, and Rosewood). We have lived the pain of our misbehavior in venturing far afield
from the power of unity (Umoja), self-reliance, and self-realization (Kujichagulia). Are there any
more telling experiences than those associated with lone Black Americans beaten, raped, and
murdered without cause: e.g., Rodney King, Travon Martin, Sandra Bland, and George Floyd?
But Black Americans have also leveraged our inherent brilliance to acquire knowledges, skills,
and abilities that can be used to recreate Wilmingtons, Greenwoods, and Rosewoods prolifically
and that can be more prosperous than ever before. This mindset is emerging all around us. Old and
young Black Americans are engaging to create and produce economic and other opportunities that
will stand us in good stead for the future.
However, we know that all great historical arisings are accompanied by forces that seek to intercede to break the momentum, thwart the progress, and redirect efforts in an unfavorable way.
As we begin to cross the bridge over troubled waters, a crucial question hanging in the misty air
(a mist formed by the heat of contention approaching the cool and pleasant waters of promised
progress) is: “What will determine the outcome?”
“Determine the outcome” infers that at least two outcomes stand before us. In this case, either
Black Americans will continue our rise, or we will return to a slumber that leads to our complete
demise. To “determine the outcome” involves consciously choosing the desired outcome. Once
chosen, how can we realize it? By performing the correct behavior! Are we aware of the correct
behaviors? Yes! We need only practice Umoja when deploying our knowledges, skills, and
abilities—all enveloped in the spirit of Kujichagulia.
However, we need to add to these “physical” manifestations recognition and operationalization of
a higher-ordered mental process. What is that process? The process used by our parents that was
described at the outset of this essay: Conceiving the outcomes as mental seeds; using the spoken
word to initiate growth; and then nurturing the growth process (monitoring glances) to produce the
desired outcomes.
The Western world and Judeo-Christian-Islamic Traditions (all children of the Afrikan mind),
carry an important message for us: The Taurat reports: “Let there be…and there was….” The New
Testament Gospels or Injeel report: “Go your way, your faith…; ” “…come forth;” “rise up
and…;” and “greater things than these…” The Holy Qur’an declares that power is exercised by
uttering “kun faya kun” (an Arabic transliteration that means “Be and it is/becomes”). Therefore,
Black Americans who have studied, claimed, and professed knowledge of these three great shapers
of life, must go beyond “acting” the part through worship gatherings and discussions about our
roles as “little gods” on the planet. We must now commence our journey as conscious beings who
know (we “become” and “be”) those “little gods” (vicegerents) who: Conceive our desired
outcomes (socioeconomic and otherwise), say “be,” and work with perfect assurance and
unflinching faith to materialize (nurture into being) the outcomes.
It is time to move “from acting to being,” but doing so sustainably so that we can produce our own
mental, physical, and spiritual paradise right here on Earth.
Dr. Brooks Robinson is the founder of the Black Economics.org website.
