Declarations For A Better African-America!!!
We told President Barack Obama what we wanted him to do for us. Why didn't 41 million African-Americans tell us what we were going to do for us or how we were going to help him, help us? After reviewing this list of things we can do for ourselves, you will see that we didn't have to wait for President Obama to come along for us do what needs to be done. We had the Power all along we just didn't realize it.
1.
Recycle our $913 Billion we spend each year. We spend 95%
with European Americans, 3% with other Ethnic groups and only 2% with
African-Americans.
2. Read 1 book a month dealing with our history and culture. If you read 10 pages per day you can get through a 300 page book in 1 month. You can read 5 pages in the morning, a few at lunch or maybe 5 in the evening.
3. Join an African-American organization that is working to improve the condition of African-American people.
4. Double the number of African-American owned businesses you do business with this year.
5. Learn how to start a business. 80% of all new jobs created each year are created by small to medium sized businesses. Instead of us focusing on getting jobs and asking the government to create jobs, we also need to focus on gaining the resources needed to create businesses so we can control our own jobs. If they give it to you, then they can take it away. A good resource to start is Black Enterprise Magazine. Visit www.BlackEnterprise.com for an excellent online resource.6. Support African-American publications and subscribe to these publications such as Black Enterprise, Ebony, JET, Essence, The Harvest Institute Newsletter (from Dr. Claud Anderson), etc.
7. Focus on reducing your conspicuous consumption. Save 10% of your net income. If you can't start with 10%, maybe start with 3%-5% and work on adjusting your expenses to allow you to save more money. The most important thing to do is to START THE HABIT.
8. Support African-American Radio Stations and Programs. These radio stations and programs are useful in bringing powerful information to our community. If we don't support them, we will lose that medium of power and support.
9. Reduce the amount of Television we watch each week. The average African-American Adult watches approximately 76 hours of TV a week. That's almost 2 full time jobs. What could we do if we cut in half the amount of time we spent watching mindless TV, (i.e., "The Flavor Of Love" and "I Love New York") and spent that time going back to school, studying entrepreneurship, studying our history and culture, learning to be better husbands, wives, mothers and fathers, etc.
10. Expose yourself to self-improvement materials, books, lectures, etc. A good source of Books On Tape and CD is www.AudioToGo.com. You can pay 1 flat monthly fee and pick which Audiobooks you want, listen to them and send them back. There are hundreds of titles to choose from.
11. Increase our education levels. Go back to school and get your degree(s), certificates, certifications especially in technology and business. We need to use those skills we gain to create businesses and employ our own people as well as improving our communities. We must very quickly become the largest employer of our own people.
12. Gain Financial Literacy Skills - We must learn to better manage our money, operate within a budget, understand and implement principles of saving and investing, etc. A good source to start to learn is www.BlackEnterprise.com.
13. Increase our health levels by leading a health lifestlye. If we don't take care of our bodies, we will not be able to do everything else. We must become more educated on Alternative Medicine and Holisitic Medicine. WE are literally eating ourselves to death and our children are imitating what they see.
14. The CHANGE you want to see, starts with who you see in the mirror. Ask yourself how are you going to change the community you live in and the world.
15. Increase you Streams of Income - Gail Perry Mason, co - author of "Girl get your money straight", teaches us that we need to have 5 Streams of income. This means 5 different ways for you to make money and not just rely on your job. J.O.B. means Just Over Broke. Figure out what other talents you have that you can make money with.
Her book has been featured on Oprah along with her co-author Glinda Bridgforth. For more information visit, http://www.bridgforthfinancial.com/moneystraight.htm.
16. Choose an African-Centered website as your Home Page. Usually your Home Page is predetermined by your Internet Service Provider. It may be Yahoo.com or Comcast's website. You can however change it to what ever you want. When you choose an African-American website, you help increase their monthly hits which help determine advertising rates. This will help their bottom line and eventually they can do more for our community including hire more of us.
A few suggestions are www.BlackAmericaWeb.com, www.NewsOne.blackplanet.com (an African-American news outlet owned by Radio One), www.BlackEnterprise.com and www.RushmoreDrive.com (an African-American Search Engine).
17. We cannot become so conscious, that we become unconscious to the fact that everyone is not as conscious as we are.
18. Print up these Declarations and post them on your wall to remind you to follow them. Share them with your friends and family.