With the Mosiah season, historically and contemporarily a period of intense Afrikan activism, just around corner we continue our reasoning of issues that have coalesced around #blacklivesmatter.
Some of these will also be explored at the upcoming NOMMO event taking place on Friday 29th July 2016 under the theme Rage or Reparations: The destiny of Black Lives Matter with the keynote message by Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka (for more details: www.alkebulan.org).
There are many theories as to why the Afrikan community globally seem to suffer disproportionately at the hands of state violence. Some of the pushback against the current mood of protest is essentially a refining of ‘Black Pathology’ argument whose current trajectory originated with eugenicist Francis Galton and has been adopted in more recent decades by the likes of Shockley, Jensen, Eysenck and Murray up to the neoconservatives of today. (1) This position eschews the impact (or even existence) of racism and suggests that it is Afrikans’ predisposition to crime that so frequently places them in the police’s crosshairs.(2)
Lawyer Kim Farbota tackles this notion head on:
“It is also common to hear the supposedly neutral statement that “black people commit more crimes than white people.” This “fact” is used to justify a belief that black people have a natural criminal propensity, or that a “culture of violence” is to blame for problems faced by black people in America.” (3)
Yet using the available statistics she highlights that 1. If a black person and a white person each commit a crime, the black person is more likely to be arrested. This is due in part to the fact that black people are more heavily policed; 2. When black people are arrested for a crime, they are convicted more often than white people arrested for the same crime; 3. When black people are convicted of a crime, they are more likely to be sentenced to incarceration compared to whites convicted of the same crime. (4)
She adds that “ if 1,000 white people and 200 black people (a ratio of 5:1 to reflect the U.S. population) commit the same crime,” the outcome of a typical differential passage through the USA criminal justice system is: “19 white people and 24 black people might be sentenced to prison.” (5)
When poverty is factored in it does create a bleak scenario and Afrikans in the USA are said to be in state of “permanent recession” in spite of a spending power of $1.1 trillion. One interesting statistic indicates that the number of “Black-owned businesses” in the USA increased by 61% between 2002 and 2007 compared to the overall rate of business growth of 18%. Afrikan CEOs cited having a greater control over their own destiny as the reason for starting their business. (6)
By contrast, the self-employment rate for Afrikans in the UK languishes at 6.1%, the lowest rate of all groups (7) in spite of a collective spending power of £300 billion. (8)
However, history does provide some models of success in the form different areas that were known as “Black Wall Street.” There was Jackson Ward, Richmond, Virginia began after the American Civil War. Parrish Street in Durham, North Carolina from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Greenwood Avenue in the Greenwood area of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was probably the most famous in it’s early 20th century heyday. (9)
Journalist Christina Montford gives an insight into the scope of Tulsa’s Black wall Street:
“The dollar circulated 36 to 100 times in this tight-knit community, according to sfbayview.com. A single dollar might have stayed in Tulsa for almost a year before leaving the Black community. Comparatively in modern times, a dollar can circulate in Asian communities for a month, Jewish communities for 20 days and white communities for 17, but it leaves the modern-day Black community in six hours, according to reports from the NAACP.” (10)
But alongside economic empowerment history indicates that defence and security as well as a national consciousness may be necessary to maintain an economic enclave. Durham’s Black Wall Street was largely destroyed by fire while the Greenwood version was razed to the ground by white mobs in 1921 during which “600 businesses, including: 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores, 2 movie theaters, a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, 6 private airplanes, a transportation (bus) system and 21 churches. Killed were reportedly more than 300 people (Based on information provided by the American Red Cross). And over 1,000 homes were burned down.” (11)
Ironically, even after valiant attempts to rebuild the district, it was ultimately killed off be desegregation. (12)
(1) Munford, Clarence J. (1996) Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century. Africa World Press. p. 40(2) Last, Sean (15/04/2016) Race, Poverty, and Crime.http://thealternativehypothesis.org/index.php/2016/04/15/race-poverty-and-crime/ Includes the passage: “Let me say that again: the blacker an area is the more criminal it will tend to be even after controlling for the effects of poverty, inequality, and unemployment.”(3) Farbota, Kim (02/09/2015) Black Crime Rates: What Happens When Numbers Aren’t Neutral? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-farbota/black-crime-rates-your-st_b_8078586.html(4) Ibid.(5) Ibid.(6) Morris, Monique W. (2014). Black Stats. The New Press. pp 99-114(7) RAM, Monder and JONES, Trevor (2008), Ethnic minority businesses in the UK: An overview, in Oliveira, Catarina Reis and Rath, Jan (eds.), Migrações Journal – Special Issue on Immigrant Entrepreneurship, October 2008, n. 3, Lisbon: ACIDI, p 64. Table 1 – Self-employment Rate of All Economically Active People Aged 16-74, England and Wales: Chinese – 21.6%; Pakistani – 17.2%; Indian -14.6%; Other Asian – 13.9%; White British – 12.5%; Bangladeshi – 11.1%; Afrikan – 6.1%.(8) Akinwunmi, Kay (17/09/15) Data Reveals 5 Key Areas Black Businesses in London Need to Improve Significantly. http://limconcepts.com/blog/five-areas-black-businesses-london-need-to-improve/(9) Seva, Marie (08/05/2014) Yes, there was more than one Black Wall Street: Tell these stories to your children http://financialjuneteenth.com/yes-there-was-more-than-one-black-wall-street-tell-these-stories-to-your-children/(10) Montford, Christina (02/12/2014) 6 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Black Wall Street’. http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/12/02/6-interesting-things-you-didnt-know-about-black-wall-street/3/(11) Seva. Op. Cit.(12) Montford. Op. Cit.
So tonight we ask the question:
Would economic empowerment be an effective response to state violence?
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Are Afrikans more predisposed to commit crime?
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Is there a link between poverty and crime?
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Why are Afrikans unable to harness their multi billion/trillion spending power?
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What lessons can we learn from the Black Wall Streets?Our very special guests:Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.Kevin Bismark Cobham is a Cambridge educated criminal defence lawyer who also defines himself as a movement lawyer, pan-Africanist and community activist and is from London.
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