10 Ways To Uplift The African American Community

There are a few things that Blacks can give to themselves, which will continue to give throughout the year, making us a stronger, more unified and powerful people.

Top Ten Gifts Blacks Can Give Themselves:

1. A Black Women's Rights Movement. My sisters, the women's rights movement duped you into thinking that it was for you, but it was not. It was for white women and you were pimped. If you want a real revolution, create a Black Women's Rights Movement and many of your brothers will be first in line. Black women have been speaking about their rights and talking about Black men as their oppressors, which is ridiculous. Oppression is a product of power, and quite frankly, Black people in this nation have not exercised power in any intrinsic manner since the 1960's. Let's exercise our creativity (Kuumba) and create something that will benefit us all.

2. A Million Man (And Woman) Investment Club. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan made history with the Million Man March, but I propose we bring one million Black men and women together to invest ten dollars each in one company. It's too easy to do. That's ten million dollars and that is empowerment and reflective of Ujamaa (cooperative economics).

3. Black Love. We hear the song "Give Love On Christmas Day," and we like it, so why not give that love to ourselves as a people? Tell someone you love them and then turn around and show someone that you love them. Finally, look for ways each day to demonstrate your love for yourself as a Black person. For a list of things to love about us, refer to my Top Ten List Of Things To Love About Being Black ( www.bridgecolumn.com).

4. Black Pride. There are a plethora of things to be proud of as a member of the most oppressed race in the world, and we need to focus on those things every day to spread the feeling of pride that will allow us to move forward in the new millennium with faith in ourselves, reflective of Imani (Faith).

5. Black Unity. How can any of us progress and feel good about it, when so many of us are not progressing? Our gift to ourselves should be to care for the least of us, so that we can all move onward and upward together. This is reflective of Umoja (Unity).

6. Peace in the streets. There are many brothers in the streets working for peace among the warring gang factions across the nation and they need the support of the entire community. You can talk about how bad it is in the streets, or you can find out what you need to do to make it better. I don't want to talk about peace in the Middle East until there is peace in the Black community. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

7. Self-Awareness. My gift to my people would be to make them aware of the most critical issues facing us, and then to focus on those things without being confused by politics of religion, class, sex or political parties. I would also give them the gift of history, so that we could remain mindful of whence we came. If you know where you came from, you can more easily determine where you are going. This is reflective of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination).

8. Mutual Support. As a people, we have everything we need to manufacture, distribute, buy and sell the goods and services we seek from others. If each of us supports another of us, we can begin to recycle Black dollars and resources more productively.

9. A good conversation. Many of us just need someone to talk to who will listen and understand. Let's stop talking at or about each other and start talking to each other.

10. A collective consciousness. Today, many of us scoff at the idea of most of us coming together for common purposes (Nia), but no matter what the socio-economic differences, we are still all the same people with the same challenges and the same work lying before us. This is also reflective of Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility.

Source: Black Monday