James “Bird” Guess: Are Black Americans Really Ready for a Black President?
I’d like to introduce a new guest blogger to Dallas South, James “Bird” Guess President & Founder of the School of Money & Wealth LLC. You can also catch his financial wisdom at TheBlackEconomy.com.
By James “Bird” Guess
Are we really ready for a black President? What we must understand is that the rich get richer because the rich VOTE and also use their wealth to lobby or influence politicians to keep making laws that will benefit them and their children.
Whenever other races in America have been discriminated against or could not play on the same economic level, they chose to become entrepreneurs. But to become business owners in Capitalist America, it takes start up capital or wealth, so now we are back to where we started – how do Black Americans obtain capital to start a business and build wealth, and use it to influence politicians who can create laws that allow the black community to prosper.
Have you wondered how Asian-Americans are able to set up beauty supply shops, and convenience stores on every corner in the black community? Maybe its because they have obtained over $15 billion of the outstanding $85 billion in Small Business Administration Loans (SBA) since 2000, while blacks have received less than $3 billion during the same time period. This is either because we don’t know these loans exist or we simply don’t qualify for them because they require good credit, business plans, capital, and collateral.
So there has never been a better time for blacks to build and maintain good credit and save money to accumulate wealth in hopes of starting a business or part-time hustle. Are we really ready for a black President who is planning to invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of business incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country? These business incubators allow beginning entrepreneurs to develop and grow their new businesses, but this won’t have much of an impact if the people in those communities do not have a business plan or idea ready to go.
Are we really ready for a black President, because if Obama is elected, other races are going to start claiming that racism and discrimination no longer exist in America, and affirmative action is no longer needed because if a black man can become President of the United States, then other blacks can become successful if they work hard enough.
Are we really ready for a black President, because although we have always dominated and set the trends in sports, music, fashion and entertainment, the whole world is going to be watching and holding us accountable for our cultural issues. They want to see if we are going to develop and prosper as a people or continue to complain even though we have a black President.
So get ready, work your “9 to 5” if you have to, but create a part-time hustle to accumulate wealth. Become financially intelligent by reading, studying and practicing business and financial skills. Also, remember everyone does not begin at the same start line in the Game of American Capitalism.
You start your financial life where your parents left off, so learn how to invest your money and teach your kids as early as possible so that when you transfer your wealth to the next generation it will continue to grow and every black family will continue to prosper. We must also continue voting until we get better seats in the “Game of American politics.”
If we can’t obtain seats in American politics to help level the economic playing field, we must obtain economic power so we can just purchase part of the field. At that point we won’t need affirmative action because we will have something more powerful– financial freedom and financial independence. And so the answer to the question of Are we really ready for a black President? — Hell yeah, we better be!
