Dr. Brooks Robinson\ Black Economics.org
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
It is not necessary to remind those who have lived or have been taught TRUE Black (Afrodescendant) American History—to the extent that it is known—that we have endured an
imposition of inhumanity not known to any other People in the history of the world. Yet, that
history tells a simple story so basic and fundamental that it is often buried–seemingly secretly—in the recesses of our minds. When Black Americans have chosen to adopt a position of UNITY properly, then we have experienced victories. Check your absorbed knowledge of history or your own personally lived historical experiences to confirm the foregoing. Please inform us if you identify inaccuracies in what was just conveyed. You can stop reading here if you like, contemplate what you have read, and then—given your desire for victories—never fail to follow the formula for victory when in battle against those who attempt to impose their inhumanity.
For those desiring further clarification in economic terms, we will turn now to spelling it out dollar-
by-dollar.
This is not to criticize or point a finger; it is only to remind us that it is critical that we know history
and come to comprehend “why” we do what we do. To know the full nature of a “thing” is to not
be fearful of, or angry about, it. Rather, knowledge enables us to attempt to preserve “good” forever
and destroy “evil” at its root so that it dies and disappears forever.
Let us drill down and remind ourselves concerning “facts” about what is known as the “Project
2025 Plan”—a current “source of our troubles.” It is a multifaceted plan that includes the April
2023 (nearly two full years ago) release of Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. It
is characterized by the Heritage Foundation as a product of nearly 400 scholars and experts. The
plan features a “personnel database” that assists those who value and adhere to the plan to identify
a favorable position(s) for helping execute the plan. The plan incorporates a training program (an
“academy”) that instructs those on the team to optimize their efforts to achieve plan objectives and
goals. The final major part of the plan is a so-called Playbook that provides details on the methods,
procedures, and timing for operationalizing the full intent and purposes of the Project 2025 Plan.
Now, be true to yourself and confirm/disconfirm the following statement: “I knew all of the
foregoing because I pursued knowledge about and/or read literature related to the Project 2025
Plan!”
We pause to interject that a careful reading of certain elements of the Project 2025 Plan reveals
their similarities with concepts and principles that were highly valued and desired within the Black
Church of yesteryear—especially Black churches operating in the Pentecostal-Evangelical Conservative traditions. Accordingly, such principles would also align well with many past and
contemporary Muslims. But, for many Black Americans, “the world has changed.”
Now back to the current source of “our troubles.” On January 25th and 27th of 2025, within one
week of the nations’ new Presidential Administration seizing power, we entered meetings of very
well-known and seemingly powerful Black organizations (not to be identified) to explain/clarify
the “troubles” and to determine what was to be a way ahead.
What did we find? First, we were flabbergasted because, in both cases, the Black organizations
seemed to be scrambling to “figure it out.” As already noted, the first announcement of the Project
2025 Plan goes back nearly two years. Given circumstances, why did these Black organizations
not digest the Project 2025 Plan as it unfolded and use all available resources to formulate a
comprehensive strategic response?[i] If the latter had occurred, then there would have been no need
to scramble as the Project 2025 Plan came to life during the first week following President Trump’s
2025 inauguration. But even if we do not place the onus on Black organizations to have prepared
strategic responses for key elements of the Project 2025 Plan, we could cast a sideways glance at
Black scholars and experts in relevant fields and enquire why they had not dissected the Project
2025 Plan and offered assistance to Black organizations to help render important elements of the
plan strategically impotent?[ii]
Our somewhat speculative answers to the foregoing questions are:
• Almost all, if not all, major (legacy) Black organizations are of the nonprofit variety, and they rely significantly on the good graces of White enterprises and philanthropists to remain afloat. The former will not bite the hands that feed it by exploring/analyzing an issue that may or may not rise to produce a seeming crisis especially if donors disapprove of the effort.
• It is rare to find more than one-or-two top-tier Black scholars in important academic fields. They are tapped regularly for their expertise, earn relatively high compensation, have net worth (wealth) levels that parallel those of their non-Black counterparts, and they fear the embarrassment of a “fall from grace” that would occur if they veer from their assignments, which are not likely to include analysis of Project 2025-type Plans.
• Non-top-tier Black scholars operate under nearly identical circumstances as their top-tier Black colleagues; except the former are not extended “plum” assignments and they are not compensated at such high levels. They, too, fear the embarrassment of a “fall from grace” that would be precipitated by analytical excavations outside assigned boundaries.
It is transparent then that only “independent” Black organizations and operators can be expected to perform logically and engage in work that is truly in the best interest of Black Americans. They are not beholden to, or reliant upon, financial inflows from our opposers. Accordingly, one of Black America’s most thorny problems, which facilitated the rise of our “trouble” from the Project 2025 Plan, is that most of our leadership (organizations and individuals) is not “independent” of our opposers, who use their leverage to block the formation of solid strategic plans that have realistic probabilities of producing outcomes that Black Americans desire.
Sadly, it is worse than that. During one of the two meetings mentioned near the outset of this brief
essay, we saw and heard with our own eyes and ears seemingly logical recommendations to fight
our “troubles” with green backs. The idea was that withholding our dollars might motivate certain
enterprises to backtrack on their unwinding of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs) in
response to an Executive Order from President Trump. This economic action would be mainly
directed at national big box retailers and financial institutions. It would be designed to affect
adversely those enterprises that have halted DEI programs, but to reward those enterprises that
have continued their DEI programs. Black Americans would be advised to continue spending
with the latter enterprises not only what is normally expended with them, but to add on amounts
that are withheld from the newly DEI-free enterprises.
Questions: (1) Can you identify a crucial element that is missing from the just-described solution
for resolving our “troubles”? (2) Does the missing element infer a commitment or allegiance by
Black organizations and our leadership to a strategy that is not fully in Black America’s best
interest?
If you cannot answer the questions, then discuss them with family-members, friends, colleagues,
etc. If you still cannot identify the missing element through such discussions, then see the answer
on the BlackEconomics.org website (the “Literature” webpage) in a file labeled: “Answer” in
the same entry that is headed by the title of this brief essay: “Unity Guarantees Victories.”
Because many readers of this brief essay will know answers to the questions immediately and other
readers will uncover the answers in their own time, it is clear that we all have insights about what
we (Black Americans) should or could do to produce more favorable results and wellbeing for
ourselves. “We have answers.” The answer that we do not seem to know is to the question: “Why
is it so difficult for us to implement successfully solutions to our problems/troubles?
We believe that the answer to the latter question is that our mindset is in disarray. It is a fragmented
mindset that forces to the surface of our minds many questions and answers about why each of us
individually should logically make a choice to not work to solve our problems—our troubles.[iii] In
addition, it is normal to not be motivated to begin a task that is large when you are uncertain about
being a lone worker.
On the other hand, when it is known that all concerned will work to solve our problems (our
troubles), then the level and intensity of motivation to work is heightened. When we work together,
we work faster, more intensely, and tasks can be completed rapidly. That is the scenario we
experience when there is UNITY of effort!!! When Black People are involved and we are given
an opportunity to work together to complete important or even menial tasks, history tells us that
we succeed in getting the job done. We experience victories.[iv]
Dr. Brooks Robinson is the founder of the Black Economics.org website.
End Notes
[i] Subsequently, we learned that one of the Black organizations had produced a timely and well-designed strategic response to the Project 2025 Plan. However, the current “scrambling” resulted from their failure to account for the very rapid pace of reforms adopted by President Trump through a high volume and steady stream of Presidential Executive Orders.
[ii] See Brooks Robinson (2025), “Doors are Slamming in Black Americans’ Faces.” BlackEconomics.org: Honolulu, January 24. https://blackeconomics.org/BELit dasibafcols012425.pdf (Ret. 013125). This brief essay explains our expectation about what was to come (now arriving) in a time sequence consistent with the release of the Project 2025 Plan. More importantly, our work at BlackEconomics.org and with the Long-Term Strategic Plan for Black America implementation effort emphasize a preference for a resegregated Black America and not continued efforts to make Black-White integration a successful enterprise. The Project 2025 Plan would not serve as a source of major troubles for Black Americans in a resegregated, independent, and self-determined environment. Not so for
Black Americans still seeking to realize the logically and conceptually impossible ideals of an integrated America.
[iii] Some such questions are: (1) Why should I work to implement a solution to the problem: I had absolutely nothing to do with creating the problem? (2) If I work to solve the problem, how long will it be before the problem resurfaces because others do not care, or they do not know how to prevent the problem from arising? (3) Who is going to compensate me for my efforts to solve the problem? And (4) Will there be other people working to help resolve the problem, who are unknown to me and who may harm me?
[iv] Consider our migration efforts out of Afrika by land and sea; the building of the pyramids of Egypt; Egyptian science and artistic research that built foundations for today’s societies; our building of new communities (including plantations); capturing a harvest in a timely manner to avoid possible losses for a variety of reasons; fighting to win the Civil War and all of America’s subsequent wars that were designed to be won; the building of railroad and
highway systems; creating and rehearsing/practicing to produce musical, theatrical, or sports-related entertainment; building structures and equipment to satisfy must-meet deadlines during war and peace times; solving scientific/mathematical conundrums as a subset of larger project to avoid missing overall project deadlines; etc.
