Stanley Crouch, a writer whose pragmatism I usually appreciate, wrote the following:

“…Malcolm X was one of the naysayers to American possibility whose vision was permanently crushed beneath the heel of Obama’s victory on Nov. 4″

I say “wrong Stan”. If Blacks do not improve their condition while having an African-American as President of the United States then Malcolm X (and by extension Elijah Muhammad) will be vindicated, because it will prove that having a Black face in a high place means very little for the masses of Black people.

Mr Crouch also wrote:

“The real hero of that moment and the prophet of what we have seen over these last months since the Iowa primary is clearly the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.”

Dr. King stands as hero regardless of the twists and turns that occur in American history. To think that Dr.King would be satisfied with an African-American President while Blacks endure every malady at almost twice the rate as Whites is to completely ignore his life’s work.

I truly believe President Obama is an extraordinary man and I think that he will leave an immeasurable impact on the psyche of all Americans for years to come. I’m also comforted by the fact that the America I suspected existed but never truly believed in is in fact alive. However, if Black people and Black leaders don’t decided to synthesize a relationship between Black merchants and Black consumers based on respect and integrity we will be in the same condition we’re in today four, eight or even twelve years from now. Embracing multiculturalism at our own expense will not be beneficial no matter how intoxicating this moment in history feels right now.

As of December 2008, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that unemployment among blacks is 11.9% – numbering roughly 2.1 million persons. This number doesn’t include people who are not considered apart of the labor force and persons who are institutionalized. For Whites, the December unemployment rate is 6.9% and for Hispanics it’s 9.2%. The Asian unemployment rate is the lowest of all at 5.1, up from about 3.7 just a year earlier.

In order for blacks to have the same unemployment rate as their White counterparts an additional one million Blacks, who are already apart of the civilian labor force, would need to be employed.

Let’s do some quick arithmetic so we can get some idea of the scale of the problem. To employ an additional one million individuals full-time, assuming each person has a salary of 50K dollars a year (The current median HHI) plus an additional 20K for benefits, equals $70B. Given that we are talking employment and not hand outs, let’s also assume that these payroll costs are apart of new business revenue. Let’s also assume that payroll comprises about 50% (there is variation by industry in this figure) of overall revenues. This means that in total we’re talking about generating revenues of around $140B to employ one million additional African-Americans.

The latest figures suggest that African-Americans have a total $700-$750B in annual disposable income (DI). Based on these figures, it’s clear that the largest share of the $140B that is needed to improve the condition of Black people must come from our own pockets rather than a grant or federal aid package. In other words, if Blacks increase the share of the money they spend with each other by a modest 20% they could achieve employment rates on par with the national average.

Improvement in the quality of life for Black people is not attained by Dubois’s talented-tenth proving they can achieve. Instead, it’s based on the degree to which the average African-American can be sustained in safe, clean environments with functional schools. This is the fundamental flaw behind the world view that drives middle class black ascendancy. The task of reshaping the Bell curve by simply insisting that Blacks work harder or that Whites simply become less prejudice is an outdated two-dimensional approach to improving the lives of African-Americans.

In general, the economic problems of the African-American community start when an educated Black professional doesn’t feel he has “arrived” until he or she can purchase goods and services from non-black businesses. Conversely, when a Black business owner provides goods or services to other African-Americans, he or she must not feel as though they can get away with shoddy work simply because their consumer is Black.

The fewer times a dollar changes hands between blacks, the fewer number of stable homes we create and the less chance we have at removing the material conditions that plague the lives of Black people, regardless of who occupies the White House. For those of us who want the masses of Black people not to just feel as though they are a part of America, but to actually enjoy they’re material share of this nations bounty – then a “Do-For-Self” program is the primary task at hand.