Is
marching a waste of shoe-leather? This is what John Henrik Clarke
said about marching.
Before the March on Washington, Malcolm
X predicted that African Americans would still be marching 50 years
later – check out this video clip.
Malcolm
claimed Black people did not have the moral high ground because we
did not own our own businesses, and therefore could not employ our
own people, as other communities did and still do.
However,
his argument was naïve because we know that banks and financial
institutions discriminated against Black business owners and would-be
entrepreneurs.
And when
Black people did set up their own thriving business communities,
these communities were sometimes brutally attacked, as was the case
with the Black Wall Street.
Still,
when we look at the situation today, where Black people often do not
patronise businesses in our own communities, but instead rush to
spend our money in other communities, we need to remember Brother
Malcolm's words. It's up to us to employ our own people, just as
other communities do. In order to do this, we need to build a Strong Black Business Community.
I believe it was important to have a nationwide March on Washington. It was a significant moment in history and still has an impact today. But is it still useful to keep on marching? I don't think so. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
Happy Black History Month! I prefer to call it African Heritage Month. 