“Formal education will make you a living; self-education
will make you a fortune.”
― Jim Rohn
“Government enriches itself by controlling the minds of its citizenry; therefore, entrepreneurship is a threat because it rejects programming and requires innovation and creativity” – Vaurn James
Well, the School to Prison pipeline is well documented, reported, researched and heavily invested by state governments, teachers unions, politicians, police departments, Black mums (yes…. even, Black mums) and especially, American Corporations like GEO Group & Corrections Corporation of America, who generate billions of dollars to ensure their facilities (Private Prisons) are filled with human capitol that guarantees revenue for them. Not enough male bodies being arrested and incarcerated then, their business model FAILS. Clearly, law abiding individuals are not desired by these “Captains of Industry” because like true “Economic Mercenaries” there is PROFIT in a Free Market Economy that has invested in the projected generational incarceration of men who are at the bottom of the S.E.S Ladder compared to men from other communities. So, from an economic perspective the Black family loses at minimum 50% of its earning potential if, there’s no father in the home and multiple children reared by a single mum who relies on government assistance. So, do we see an opportunity to exploit and profit from this generational mess that began in the 1960s thanks to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Project?
Business is Business and I am not referring to corporations
but, to failing schools, who have multiple problems (poverty, neighborhood
violence, female-headed homes, children with poor nutrition, drugs,
medical/health issues, pay check-teachers, racist staff members, cultural
challenges, etc.,), that most suburban schools encounter infrequently; yet, get
paid well, while failing to provide adequate education to prepare young men of
colour for the future challenges of life.
So, what’s the SOLUTION to the problem of young black male academic
under-achievement?
Time to think outside of the box and become innovative and
non-traditional. Time to think like a renegade
Social Entrepreneur. Yeah, someone who
is solution-focused financially, socially and societally. After 50-years and billions of dollars
invested in higher education it’s safe to say there’s a problem. The traditional approach of education for
many young Blackmen doesn’t work; therefore, new plan needed and to be
implemented. Unfortunately, “The aim of
public education isn’t to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce
as many individuals as possible to the same level, to breed a standard
citizenry to put down dissent and originality” (H. L., Mencken). In truth, the goal is to monetize and program
the public starting from cradle to grave in real time. Seems J.D Rockefeller, was right when he
said, “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”. Indeed, to achieve it you control the way a
man thinks then, you control the man.
Yep, sounds like the remnants of slavery and Jim Crow; however, schools
are the new overseers using programming to insert or encode specific operating
system into an apparatus (young black men) to produce a specific outcome
(Department of Corrections).
So, for many Blackmen another approach is needed and that’s entrepreneurship
because it centers on addressing self-limiting beliefs which for many is the
chokehold that prevents them from achieving success. When you are reared in an environment that reinforces
a poverty mindset then, remaining in one’s comfort zone ensures a self-imposed
restriction on growth both currently and often, generationally. Now, despite many adversities young Blackmen
face daily they still retain a hunger for learning, hunger for growing, hunger
for progress and hunger to not get satisfied.
This hunger despite the deficit in psychology and skill, the science of
achievement and art of fulfillment are critical components for entrepreneurial
success for young blackmen. It’s about
working, developing and implementing the internal qualities of an individual to
problem solve, while creating financial independence through innovation which
is contrary to traditional education which nourishes a worker mindset versus
entrepreneurship that nourishes a business mindset. So, entrepreneurship is a threat to the
status-quo but, how you ask? Think about
the terms “push” and “pull”. Notice when
you’re being pushed to achieve a goal then, success maybe 50-50; however, when
you’re being pulled through your passion and you identify with the process
then, your success is increased exponentially.
“Education is our
passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it
today.”
― Malcolm X
― Malcolm X
Contributor,
