Part 2: The Foundations of our Future
Part 2: The Foundations of our Future: Meet George Middleton and Learn How to Create a System Built By Us For Us, Starting With You!
(Continued from the October 13 paper)
By La’Crystele Brown
Ink Spot Contributing Writer
I went on to ask Middleton how he goes about teaching his information and practices to adults and families of children especially since we aren’t as open to new ideas and ways of thinking as children. Middleton informed me that he first starts with systems service providers. This is going to be people who are influencers in systems such as leaders in education, leaders in law enforcement, leaders in judiciary and leaders in health. These are all areas where we are experiencing significant racial disparity and through leadership, we can start to create these environments of culture to change how we are thinking about race. This will automatically involve families because families partake in all of these services and in terms of triage the black racial demographic is in most impending danger. We’re on a downward trajectory in almost every systemic quality of life area. We surpass no one in anything positive. He went on to inform me that it’s projected that by the year 2053 the average wealth per black family will be $0.
We are consistently at the bottom, Middleton went on to tell me, even when looking at voting, so many different tactics are used to control the black vote. They use race-based tactics known as bleaching, packing, tacking, and cracking. These are political racial tactics used to dilute the black vote and that is why we’re not educated, and because we’re not educated, we go out, and we protest and we raise attention, because we aren’t aware that these things are being done to us, and since we aren’t aware, we can’t protect ourselves. It doesn’t matter how loud we scream, if we aren’t educated, we will never see the changes we want to see and when you get educated, you’ll come to see that you don’t have to yell and scream.
As Middleton continued to feed me powerful information, I was eager to know if we could really make a change by adopting his way of thinking and if so, what were the steps we would need to take? Middleton explained to me that this occurs two different ways and that is the black experience and the white experience. For the black experience that is going to involve getting the chains off of our thinking. The average black mindset about race and racism is, if we can get white people to stop doing these things our lives will be better, but this puts all of the power into their hands. We do nothing to empower ourselves. For the white experience that is going to involve them feeling guilt and accusation, and anytime you feel guilty or blamed you’re going to be defensive regardless of color. So, for people who identify as white to understand they must learn the truth about what white identity is and understand that they are also victims of this race paradigm they just don’t realize it.
For the black identity we have to as a racial demographic, not make white be a part of our success, Middleton explained. We have to free ourselves and it should not matter what they do. We have to totally focus on us and where we first fail is not practicing group economics. We don’t support our own businesses, we don’t have our own schools, we don’t have our own banks, so all the services we need, we are depending on others and we are the only ones doing that.
Of course, when I heard this my first question was, how do we fix that. Middleton was more than happy to inform me, and I was ready to listen. The first thing we’d have to do is acknowledge what we’re doing and realize also that we’re thinking in racial terms. Racial thinking always brings about racial outcomes and that will just keep us aligned with the same pattern of white’s being on the top and blacks being on the bottom. So as a black racial demographic we must get out of the black and white thinking. We must change the way we look at one another, this includes getting rid of colorism within our communities, not hating one another, and loving ourselves from head to toe. We also need to practice dollar circulation like other successful communities practice, this is when the dollar circulates through our community eight to twelve times before it leaves. We also need to use the powerful tool of black media in our communities to stay informed about us, watch us, and listen to us.
Middleton informed me that even though we’ve survived and we’re still here, which is a testimony to our strength and resilience, what we haven’t done is learn how to now stop reacting and be proactive. I immediately wanted to know in what ways we can do that, because again it’s hard for adults to change their way of thinking. Middleton informed me that the first step is for us to become active and paying members of our local black chamber of commerce because that is our financial economic source, their role is to cultivate, support, and grow black business. However, they cannot do it without our financial contribution and commitment to making sure they are doing what needs to be done. We have to come together as a community and get involved because we are competing with all of the other cultural group’s chambers of commerce, the only difference is they’re already being supported financially and have active members to ensure they are taking care of themselves. Middleton is involved in his local black chamber of commerce and informed me that some with the future hope of all of the Indiana black chamber of commerce’s have started coming together to ensure they are taking the necessary steps to set us up for success. But we all need to get involved and learn to stop thinking racially and instead think smart. This includes dropping the racial labels in a sense. You are able to learn more about your local black chamber of commerce by going to their website.
The next step Middleton told me about was politics. So, once we have successfully gotten the first step completed which involves becoming independent financially through joining the local black chamber of commerce and being active physically and financially until we have built up our community financially. We can then move on to politics. This will involve us funding politicians to ensure they are pushing the policies, laws, bills, etc., that cater to our needs and community and have our best interest at heart.
The last step Middleton told me about was judicial. Once we’ve successfully gained the finances we need to thrive and funded politicians to push for us politically we then use this same method towards police and judges. This is to ensure we are not getting unfair and unjust treatment in court rooms but also when we’re having those police encounters.
Once we have mastered these three steps from Middleton, everything else should start to fall into place the way we want. Middleton also touches on these steps and practices in his other two books, Can You Be American and a Color Too?: Living Outside of Race: Transitioning from Color to Culture and BLACK: Beliefs Limiting Authentic Cultural Knowledge. Both books are workshop style books!
Middleton patterned these steps off of the author Dr. Claud Anderson who has a book called, Powernomics. The book was specifically written towards the black demographic on how to become a successful and powerful community. The strategy includes getting success by modeling success and this just means that we do for ourselves in the same way that others have been doing for themselves and it starts with the 5-floor building strategy. The first floor is the economic foundation, that’s where that eight-to-twelve-dollar circulation happens. The second floor is the political foundation, which is where we use that money to gain power. The third floor is the justice foundation, which is where we use the money, politicians, and police to ensure fair and just treatment when our people stand before judges. The fourth floor is the media where we take control by being the ones who are airing what we are watching, promoting, and hearing about our businesses, community, and culture. The fifth floor is education, where we create our own criteria that focuses on helping our children master their talents and skills that will eventually continue to help our communities thrive!