iZania Blogs

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written by Roger Madison Jr. , August 16, 2011

Brother Enoch,
You raise some very valid questions. The answers are not obvious, but there is some perspective that may guide the actions of those who don't want to be victims.

Without going all the way back to Hannibal, modern history of the past 500 years seems to have been shaped primarily by seafaring nations -- led by Europeans. For many reasons, they became conquerors of the world -- even including China, India, as well as the continents of the Americas and Africa. Their power and greed, as well as technological advances (for good and evil) have shaped recent history.

The nations that have won with greatest success are China and India. Most others are still dominated by the influence of the European conquerors. Of course, the USA is their greatest achievement -- an incubator for all of their best and worst ideas.

So, when we look at national independence from this dominance, three factors are necessary -- resistance, knowledge, and a willingness to suffer through development of an internal system to reach sustainable progress. In the cases of India and China, they were able to cast off the oppressor and build internal sustainable systems to contend on a new intellectual footing. China is now the manufacturing center of the world, and India isone of the information technology centers of the world.

When we look to Africa, a different outcome has emerged.
Interestingly, the sub-Saharan continent is referred to informally as Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. This is not a conincidence. Left alone, these regions could have formed four nations. They have common linguistic and cultural linkages, that would have formed natural connections, and perhaps leveraged their regional strengths to contend with the oppressors. However, when the oppressors were expelled (in a manner of speaking), what was left were "unnatural boundaries" still controlled by the former colonialists. The control was now economic. So the primary trading partners of most African nations are their former oppressors. This has been a losing proposition.


The nature of the USA capitalist experiment does not lend itself to ma*s upward mobility. It is necessary for individuals and groups to form economic coalitions that solidify selective footholds within the system. For example, in Columbus, Ohio, the Somali immigrant population has focused on transportation. They have entered the taxi cab business, and parking garages. They are gaining an economic foothold to control their destiny. They are also beginning to purchase strip malls -- initially to serve their own community, but also to become an economic footprint.

These advances are not intended to create pseudo nations within a nation. They are springboards into the mainstream.

What about African Americans? To be sure, we faced more structural barriers as the largest minority for many years. The difference, in my opinion, is that the natural affinity for unity has been erased from our psyche, and we have been reduced to individual achievement. So we applaud individual achievement. The only real connection we have is the color of our skin. We don't have a native language, a native homeland, nor the benefit of other immigrants to arrive with the self esteem a*sociated with our culture and skills.

Can we win? Yes. but only in limited measure. Our upward mobility has been purchased with selective advancement. the result is a remnant that is close to becoming a permanent undercla*s. There is hope for every Black child, but that hope must be realized as an individual. And when that individual reaches the mainstream, he or she will find themselves alone. So, we see everything from Herman Cain, to Clarence Thomas, to Tiger Woods, to the Williams Girls, to Bob Johnson, to Barack Obama. Quietly in betweeen was a growing Black middle cla*s, that has been devastated by the recent recession (all as individuals). Do we celebrate their success as a people? No, we can only point to individual success. So many have forgottent the path that their ancestors trod. So their gains are fragile. The foundation is porous. When we speak about the spending power of the African American population, there is no leverage there. Marketers simply target the dollars based on faceless demographics.

I share your lament, but I will continue to make efforts to forge winning tactics that can become strategies. We must pay attention to what is going on around us and learn from all experiences. There is still hope, even if limited.

Thanks for the challenging blog post.

Roger Madison
CEO, iZania