Ecclesiastes 10:18 NKJV - Because of laziness the building decays, And through idleness of hands the house leaks.
Ecclesiastes 10:19 NKJV - A feast is made for laughter, And wine makes merry; But money answers everything.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 NKJV - Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter.
I said this before, maybe not necessarily on this blog, but in conversation on this subject that I've thought deeply about.
You see, I look at this as a matter of focus and priorities.
Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth, and median, or in the middle is not an average but an indicator of priorities.
You can call it politics; you can call it racism, but there are some things we're in charge of.
Up From Slavery was the nicer, politically-correct autobiography of Booker Taliaferro Washington.
Amazon.com Review
Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Note this contrast in Thomas J. Norrell's biography of the man: "Up From History":
Product Description
Since the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr., has personified black leadership with his use of direct action protests against white authority. A century ago, in the era of Jim Crow, Booker T. Washington pursued a different strategy to lift his people. In this compelling biography, Norrell reveals how conditions in the segregated South led Washington to call for a less contentious path to freedom and equality. He urged black people to acquire economic independence and to develop the moral character that would ultimately gain them full citizenship. Although widely accepted as the most realistic way to integrate blacks into American life during his time, Washington’s strategy has been disparaged since the 1960s.
The first full-length biography of Booker T. in a generation, Up from History recreates the broad contexts in which Washington worked: He struggled against white bigots who hated his economic ambitions for blacks, African-American intellectuals like W. E. B. Du Bois who resented his huge influence, and such inconstant allies as Theodore Roosevelt. Norrell details the positive power of Washington’s vision, one that invoked hope and optimism to overcome past exploitation and present discrimination. Indeed, his ideas have since inspired peoples across the Third World that there are many ways to struggle for equality and justice. Up from History reinstates this extraordinary historical figure to the pantheon of black leaders, illuminating not only his mission and achievement but also, poignantly, the man himself.
This sounds like I'm copping out, but hear me out.
Finland, Japan and Korea are number one in science and math education. The US (we) are not.
I can't speak for Finland, but Asians are a group that through my participation in the martial arts I admire. Their priorities are education, entrepreneurship and cooperation.
Once, we had Black Wall Street, which housed multimillionaires due to the Oklahoma oil boom. It was decimated in 1921 due to a race riot.
Booker T Washington was remembered as a sellout, "Uncle Tom," accommodater.
In the 21st Century, we are losing "global market share" because we can't all be rappers, ballers, shot callers.
It is here where the two distinct archetypes in the black community church: the prophetic and the prosperity ministries, need to find common cause.
In the link above on Finland, Japan and Korea, they do point out that countries with cultural disparities do experience a difference in educational attainment for their minorities. It probably helps that Finland, Japan and Korea did not have a Civil War or Civil Rights movement.
Some things we can't help without God's help. Other things are up to us. Rapping, balling or education, entrepreneurship and cooperation: a matter of priorities...
