Rahiem Shabazz

“In the Age of Information Ignorance is a Choice”. This for the most part sums up what I am about to say about the State of Black People Worldwide. We live in a time where you can store, access and retrieve more information in a device that can fit in your pocket that would have taken up entire buildings just 30 years ago. We live in a World where Technological Advances and Breakthru’s are happening everyday in the fields of Science, Energy, Transportation, etc… Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter constantly pushing the envelope in the area’s of Social Media, Marketing and Business. Scientist now have the ability to replicate your memories and by the year 2030 they will be able to download your consciousness on a computer chip at the point of death. Sounds familiar if you have seen The Matrix, Lucy, Surrogate or Transcendence. New Billionaires are rising up all around the World yet in Black Communities Worldwide we face the same if not worst situations than ever before. Black Power and Civil Rights Leaders and Organizations have not kept pace with a ever evolving Political and Economic Landscape.

In a time where we have the First Black President the Black Agenda has been pushed back a hundred years in favor of Gay Rights. Black Churches have become all but irrelevant to the Black cause. Instead of asking 65 million dollars to build a bank, credit union or school, Churches and Pastors asking for a Private Jet. The Black Church has collected some 400 plus Billion Dollars in the last 30 years but there exist no viable black bank, black school or black anything for that matter. Black unemployment is at a all-time high. We provide free labor for the Prison Industrial Complex. The gap between the Black Upper Class and Middle to Lower Class is at unprecedented numbers. Rappers, Athlete’s and Entertainers could care less about a Black Agenda in the wake of more Black Men and Boys being murdered by Police all over the Country.

We have been duped by Black Leaders, Organizations and Churches into keeping the Faith, going to School and Working Hard is still the way to Progress and Success, while a teenage Bill Gates created Microsoft, a teenage Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, a teenage Steven Jobs created Apple, etc… Black employment at Google, Microsoft and Facebook is less than 1% and only 7% at Apple. In the Age of Information you get Paid for using your Mind not your Hands. While every other Ethnicity is closing Ranks and bonding Together, Africans Worldwide are becoming more Divided. Brother Malcolm said it best 50 years ago. When we come together leave your Religion, Fraternal and Class Affiliation at home and focus on the one thing we have in common and that is we are Black. In every Community, in every State, in every Nation we must Develop, Build and Maintain a Black Agenda. We must Develop and Build Think Tanks and Investment Clubs. We must Think Black, Buy Black and Be Black for the sake of the present Generation and Generations to come. If we don’t we will be but a Memory.

Until Next Time We Meet

Jalani Yusef Imhotep Kadesh