THE BLACK RULING CLASSEffective immediately, please DO NOT advertise in the forum or blog areas of Chicago's Black Business Network. Banners and photos are not permitted UNLESS they pertain to the article or discussion posted.ONLY informational material or articles should be posted in the blog section. (i.e. business, technology, health-related, information on raising children, travel advice, etc.)Forum posting are ONLY for discussions (i.e. political in nature as opposed to informational). Advertisement “disguised” as a discussion will be removed. Within the next five (5) days, we will instruct members on the proper way to add banners and photos to their pages.THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERthe "key" word that is being utilized for the stimulus packet is "SHOVEL READY"..... Many of our businesses are not considered "SHOVEL READY" for these proposed projects. For example projects such as the Dan Ryan Project, The McCormick Place Project, etc... we had very little or no participation by Black Contractors in any numberPittman Plumbing and Sewerage CoTHE BLACK RULING CLASSSo for those who are not SHOVEL READY, PEN AND PENCIL READY, COMPUTER READY, CONSTRUCTION READY, MATH READY, ENGINEERING READY, GOT THEIR MINDS READY, JUST NOT READY, it does not matter what "package" you put together. The same people, and let me say it again... THE SAME PEOPLE will not get a job.Have not been ready in the past twenty years and will not be ready in the next twenty years. I sat at a table one evening in 1987 and listened to Harold Washington speak these words on this same subject and March 18, 2009 the situation may even be worst.Sonja Perdue - Founder, CBBNTHE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERJust a short response..... Our boys and girls are not in the apprenticeship programs in any numbers....Our Black businesses are not in great numbers serving our communities.... Our lending institutions are considering our businesses to high risk to loan them dollars..... Many of us have had the attitude that the other guy's ice is colder than our ice.... I can go on and on reference to these ailments; also I was at the dinner in 1987 as a member of Black Contractors United.... If we have not changed our attitudes, than we continue to do the same thing over and over againPittman Plumbing and Sewerage CoTHE BLACK RULING CLASSI have been watching the gathering of talking heads for many years at the "State of the Black Union." What I have observed is that Tavis has invited his guests to a "conversation" and challenged them and all who watch to "take action."If there is a failing, it is not Tavis, who never claimed to be an activist. He is a journalist. The failing is with all the so-called thought-leaders and activists who come and go without making any real difference.His book was never intended to be a book of solutions, but a "framework for focusing our actions" based in input from those who contributed to the content. He invited us to make covenants with one another to affect real outcomes. Sadly, that has not been the result of his invitation.Similarly, we at iZania invited others to offer solutions based on the framework. While I agree that the "conversation" have not been very fruitful, those of us who are solution-oriented can(if we choose) focus on one of the 10 covenant areas and work at the solutions. For example, I have chosen to focus on education and closing the digital divide. Others have chosen to focus on justice, or housing. The framework allows us to channel our efforts -- again, if we choose to do so.Some have chosen to criticize Tavis rather than get busy with solutions. So, as far as I am concerned, the question is not what Tavis is going to do about the judges, but what are we going to do to leverage the platform he has provided to work with others to make sure it doesn't happen again. If his platform is not acceptable, choose another. There is too much work to be done to spend time attacking one another.Roger Madison Jr. , President/ founder and CEO of Izaniahttp://www.izania.com/CASUALTIES OF WAR.THE EBONY EXPERIMENT AND THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA IN REAL-TIME.The Anderson's buy gasoline cards from black-owned stations in Phoenix, Ill., and Rockford, Ill.; groceries at Farmers Best Market in Chicago, a black-owned grocer 14 miles from their home; and various sundries at God First, God Last, God Always Dollar and Up General Store, a black-owned general merchandise establishment 18 miles from their house,Enoch MubarakPresident & CEO Mubarak Inter-prizeswww.mubarakinter-prizes.com
You need to be a member of TheBlackList Pub to add comments!
I followed your link and read all of the frightening statistics about Black illiteracy. I just filed four blogs about illiteracy on my own page. I am going to use the statistics you linked me to on your blog to try to convince the community college where I teach part time (with predominantly poor and Black student body) to implement some fuctional remidiating programs, which they currently don't have. I also went to WACP Radio and familiarized myself with it.
These words abot not being ready are harsh words but TRUE words, and we need to take these words seriously. Harold Washington was the type of leader who spoke the truth, but we didn't listen as closely as we should have while he was alive.
In relation to the above remark, to continue, I am a professor of composition at two major urban colleges in Detroit, and most of my students are functionally illiterate. I cannot get them to realize or take seriously the fact that they DO need to be able to read and write, why? Because they are convinced, wrongly of course, that they will be successul as 'businesspeople' by putting together 'the right package' and winning funding from 'the marketplace', which requires 'hustle' and determination to be rich, not book learning. Pipe dreams, if they cannot even fill out an employment form or read the directions for filling one out. Unfortunately, this is a NATIONAL problem, because many of the people in the public education system that produced my students (the elementary schools and high schools) are barely functionally literate themselves! The United States is in trouble becuase of this. Both our economy and our social and electoral systems will soon collapse without a literate, functional population of next generation youths to take the controls in the future.
-Prof Rayfield A. Waller
English Instructor, Detroit, MI
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies
I followed your link and read all of the frightening statistics about Black illiteracy. I just filed four blogs about illiteracy on my own page. I am going to use the statistics you linked me to on your blog to try to convince the community college where I teach part time (with predominantly poor and Black student body) to implement some fuctional remidiating programs, which they currently don't have. I also went to WACP Radio and familiarized myself with it.
Thank you, Brother.
R Waller
-Prof Rayfield A. Waller
English Instructor, Detroit, MI