Branding
Peace,
Recently, I watched a business presentation by Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour (UA) regarding the development of his business from selling shirts out of his grandmothers basement 1n 1996 to upwards of $600 million dollars today. During the presentation, Plank spoke about a number of business related issues, but the one that stuck out the most was his views on branding. Plank explained that for many people, Under Armour is synonomous withperformance, which is why consumers are willing to pay a higher price point for the product. By creating the emotional connection with excellence & performance, UA has carved out a strong niche in the athletic wear market. Afterwards, I got to thinking about the role that branding plays in the lives of Black youth when it comes to social & economic pathways… What I realized is that much of the decision making of youth is impacted by how concepts have been branded through media, experience, etc. For example, let’s look at how “Hustling” has been branded in the minds of many youth:
- A fast & glamorous life
- A way to make your own schedule & decisions
- A way to be a ‘Self-Made’ man
- A job that exploits your natural skills & intelligence
- A chance to be part of a neighborhood/community legacy
- A way to subvert systems that don’t appear to work in the best interest of youth
Additionally, when they look at the representatives of the brand, who do they find?
- Rich Porter, Alpo & Fritz (New York)
- Rayful Edwards & Tony Lewis (DC)
- The Chambers Brothers & Mazaradi Rick (Detroit)
- Aaron Jones (Philly)
- Felix Mitchell (Oakland)
- Jay-Z (Even if he eventually went into another business, he infers that it was selling drugs that gave him his start)
- Baby (Same as above)
- Your local neighborhood hustler with a 8th grade education & a Range
Even with all of the info that suggests that it’s not in their best interest (Murder, Jail, Drug Abuse,Broken Families, etc.), many are still motivated to move in that direction. Now let’s juxtapose that with the perception of someone going to school for social services:
- 4-8 years of going to school & being in debt
- Never being your own boss
- Having locked in hours which can’t be changed
- Subject to other peoples’ decisions about your position
- A limited job ceiling
Once again, even we know that the latter choice is more healthy in the short & long term, there is a population that will not choose this route due to the difficulties (The ironic thing is that they write off the obstacles of the drug trade as “part of the hustle”)
The solution? We need to re-brand what it means to go to school, raise a family, work, etc.. (It sure doesn’t help when it always seems like the working man/woman is broke looking to borrow money until the next paycheck). When this is re-branded on a large level, I think that we can begin to see a change in the lens that young men & women wear regarding what it means to be successful (remember, it wasn’t that long ago when the masses of youth didn’t want to be a rapper/mogul). The re-branding has to be part physical & part attitude; We who push these kinds of lines have to be happy with ourselves as well as flourishing economically. It doesn’t mean that we have to be rich & gluttonous; only that we seem to have some level of control over our families & communities’ financial destiny. This war cannot be fought by info alone; we need to get a win in order to look like winners.
Bastards of the Economy
Peace,
Last night, I watched Bastards of the Party,a gripping documentary by Athens Park Blood Che ‘Bone’ Sloan on the history of Black people in Los Angeles & the development of the Bloods & Crips. One thing that stuck out in the movie was the role of economics & social policy in the events that led to the B’s & C’s ubiquitous role in L.A. Culture. If further illustrates the reality that gangs don’t develop in a vacuum; they form according to external as well as internal factors.
It got me to to thinking… How many jobs are created/maintained by the presence of gangs and/or pervasive crime? For a basic list, I noted the following:
- Police (Uniform, TASK, SWAT, etc)
- Lawyers (District Attorney, Public Defender, Legal Aid, Criminal, etc)
- Probation/Parole Officers
- Liquor Stores (White T’s, Bandannas,etc)
- Black Funeral Homes
- Out-of-state gun shops
- Paraphernalia Stores
- Corner Stores/Bodegas
- Social Workers
- Transit Systems (I was in NJ this weekend, & the bus to Northern State Prison was packed)
- Phone Companies (That bill has to be paid for)
In reality, this is only a cursory list; I didn’t get into the other tentacles that connect to street life (Car Dealerships, Cell Phones, Barber Shops, etc)… When you look at it from this perspective, we have become the bastards of the economy; a group of people who are the growth engine for thousands of jobs across the country, while still failing to get collective entry into the most menial of legal industries. Those of us who know better have to create alternatives as well as do a better job of educating the next generation about their role in feeding the families of others while they go to jail for 10 years trying to feed their own.
Saving Our Selves
Peace,
A recap of life & goings-on over the past couple of weeks:
- Let’s ask the $25,000 question:Whatever happened to Swine Flu? How did it go from a international epidemic to page 6 news? Another example of societal control at its’ finest…
- Color me politically out of step on the issue, but I don’t think that Obama releasing the pictures of the torture cases is the hill he should die on… Since he’s overhauling the system & bringing past abuses to light, at some point you can’t continue to rub in the misdeeds of the past…
- May 13th of this year commemorates14 years of the MOVE bombing… It’s real easy for us to forget those who struggled before us for the right to express ourselves how we see fit… 30 years ago, if you told someone you were vegan, you got laughed outta town; today (in some circles), it’s accepted & appreciated!
- Riddle me this: how did Mike Vick do real time for fighting dogs, while T.I. does 2 months for having assault rifles? PETA’s organizing abilities notwithstanding, Something’s strange here fellows…
- From the looks of it, Obama’s stance on Isreal looks to be more evenhanded than many of his predecessors… While it doesn’t look like we will abandon the buddy-buddy ‘Strategic Partnership’ anytime soon, it’s refreshing to see a president not afraid to leverage their political capital when dealing with foreign policy issues
- After thinking about it, Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s answer to Ivan Drago; Lebron is…. You guessed it! Rocky.. If the Nuggets or Magic mess this up, David Stern will be pissed
- While I don’t confuse Rick Ross for Sun Tzu, his strategy against 50 Cent was masterful. Ross just kept plowing through until 50 ran out of ammo & the reality of 50′s situation set in.. Now 50′s the one trying to get music out & Ross is selling music
- The rate of children being killed in Chicago is ridiculous… Yet another reason for people to support the Youth Promise Act… Google it for more info
- On that note, props to Baron Davis for his new documentary on the Crips & Bloods ‘Made in America’… He showed a lot of love to the little homies we took to a hearing on the Youth Promise act in D.C.
- Last week, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an Op-Ed about the successes of the Harlem Children’s Zone & noted that the research bears out the conservative sentiment that the educational chasm that exists in many of our schools can be made up by schools vs. changing external factors. While the research may say that, It’s obvious that many of the issues that our youth face are those that school itself cannot have a large impact on. Put simply, the issue is not just what they learn in school; it’s also what they face when they leave..
Grades
Peace,
This is a reprint of something I did a couple of years ago regarding academics; In the upcoming days, I’ll juxtapose it with some of my recent experiences… Enjoy!
Let’s rewind to 1989:Crack in the streets & HH in the ears. I was a twelve year old seventh grader trying to take it all in. I attended a junior high for “Gifted” and/or high-performing students. As I look back it was a good experience due to the diversity of the group. You had white kids, black kids, rich kids, poor kids, puerto rican kids, gay kids & everything in between. Now, at that time there was a unspoken ranking as far as academics in my school. The list looked something like this:
1) Asians
2) Upper – Class White Folks
3) Weird White Kids (Dungeons & Dragons Types)
4) Poor Whites & Middle Class Blacks (Tie)
5) Smart Black Kids who didnt want to appear smart (For reference, see Jawanza Kunjufu)
It was basically an accepted “fact” that Asian kids would have the best grades & test scores*. On the rare occasion they failed a test, you’d see them having a fit in the hall ways. I remember a kid that scored 1000 on the SAT in the 7th grade. Being kids, we just thought that they were naturally smarter & thus deserved better grades.
Now with the benefit of age & experience, I know that culture (in this case, the culture of many Asian families regarding education). was the primary factor in the disparity. At that time, widespread hustling had only recently become in vogue, so the anti-school sentiment wa s not as large as it is today among black babies, b.u.t. yet and still, the difference in attitude was obvious.
A couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a book written by an Asian author regarding the secrets of Asians in school. I’ll share them here so that you can use them however they see fit.
1) Instill a love & need for learning & education
2) Instill a sense of family pride & loyalty
3) Instill a respect for delayed gratification & sacrifice
4) Define your child’s role as a student
5) Cultivate a respect for elders & people in positions of authority
6) Play a active role in your child’s education
7) Determine & develop your child’s individual talents
8) Set clearly defined short-term & long-term goals
9) Teach your child to value academic success over social status or popularity
10) Reward positive school performances & devise a plan of attack for poor school performances
11) Forget the “Do whatever makes you happy” mentality & focus on professions with financial security & intellectual fufillment
12) Keep your money in perspective
13) Limit activities that interfere with schoolwork
14) Promote an environment of healthy competition
15) Surround your child with similar minded children & role models
16) Help your children view America as an land of opportunity
All of the abovementioned points aid in developing basic civilization (Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Culture, Refinement, & not being a savage in pursuit of happiness), and should be taking place in families where the parents are aware of the way that this country’s economy works. Additionally, we must seek to provide a safety net for the children in our communities that do not have the “luxury” if you will, of having parents who are as aware.
I acknowledge that some of you may take issue with #16, b.u.t. it is important to recognize that we are in a place to acquire resources (Knowledge, Money, etc..) to spread across the original diaspora, and that can be looked upon as opportunity. Something that was once the “poor part” of the planet could now be seen as the “best part”, and vice versa… It is imperative that we look to create opportunities to strengthen the position of youth who dwell in the deplorable conditions that we see.
New Blood, Old Story
Peace,
Today’s Washington Post featured a story about the sad cycle of school districts placing the youngest, most inexperienced teachers in the schools with the lowest per capita income & literacy levels. This is a phenomenom that many have seen played out over & over again: The young teacher (often fresh out of school) gets put in a class with the most challenging students… The teacher (slowly) learns how to teach while the neediest students get the bad end of the bargain.. By the time, the teacher learns how to teach, they ask for a transfer & a new teacher is put in her place.
This situation is akin to someone fresh out of medical school doing triple bypass surgery… To me, it follows logic that the neediest kids need the best teachers in order to assist them with getting on point & reducing future costs.. As long as this goes on, our children will continue to fall behind in the relay race called life. Please check out the article & let me know what you think!
The Difference
A big part of Get Money Teach Kids is the advocacy of educational equity for our communities through formal or informal means… Simply put, we would lovefor the schools in our communities to be on par with school in more affluent communities, but the reality is that there are a myriad of reasons why that cant occur; some political, some economic, some cultural. Once we identify that formal structures will not bring equity to our children we are compelled to do 2 things: 1) Fight for systemic equity & 2) Create reasonable alternatives so that our youth still have access to the appropriate resources to compete in the global economy.
Bringing this to a more personal note, I started my daughter off in a private school for pre-school after stepping one foot in a Head Start class & seeing that the teacher would’ve swallowed lye before she got up to interact with the babies. In comparison to that debacle, my daughter’s pre-school took them on nature trips, taught them to make vegan cookies & offered Chinese as a second language.
At a certain point, the community activist in me said ‘Let’s put her in public school’…We Placed Azania in a African-Centered Academy in a all Black Neighborhood. While beneficial as a complement to the orientation that she received at home, it was a academic & social challenge: academic because it was far below her skill level & social because many of the babies were not used to children that came from experiences other than what they were used to. Seeing that she needed more of an academic challenge, we transferred her to a multi-racial school located in a predominately white neighborhood. (Let’s not even discuss the implications of subconsciously making the correlation between racial makeup & academic quality)
The school was more challenging to Azania & she began to flourish… After 2 years, we began to notice that the white families were pulling their children out & moving them to private schools due to the influx of babies from the projects. What was once a flourishing intellectual environment became a situation where the teachers had to play bad cop for youth who were not given the proper tools to flourish earlier in their academic careers… At that point, we swung for the fences & applied for one of the most Prestigious private schools in the Pittsburgh area… & hit a home run! Azania was accepted & began 6th grade in September 2008
How is it you ask? Well, I now have a appreciation for the distinctions of education in this country & the role that it plays in creating class. In my profession, I come across youth who are 16 & read on a 5th grade level; My daughter is in 6th grade & their discussing Judaism, the Chaldeans& Hammurabi’s code… Along with what they learn, there’s the often unspoken dimension of networking & social capital; Even outside of education, the difference between Princeton & Community College is it’s much more likely that you’ll connect with others who are connected to wealth & influence.
My point, you ask? Those of us who know better must do better. Poor Black & Brown babies deserve more than what they’re getting from the schools… For those of us who have the ability to put our children in private schools, that’s all well & good, but what about the families who don’t have the ability or the social capital to put their children in the best possible situation? There are many models out there, ranging from Charter Schools to Independent Black Institutions; our job is to continue to advocate for our most under-served in order to develop the future.
Observation & Identification…
Peace,
After a week away, here are some observations from my trip to the Yay Area:
- The youth programs in Oakland go hard as far as developing youth organizers & youth leaders… Shouts to S.O.U.L., Youth Uprising, Leadership Excellence & Youth Together… The youth I met with & spoke to had an exceptionally developed sense of community & youth issues. Also I found that youth who were once participants had become program & community leadership in their area. The challenge for all of us is to scale youth development so that we can move closer to the tipping point as far as influencing mass numbers of youth to do the right thing for self & kind…
- The babies out Oakland all wear the exact same uniform: Black skullie (or beanie), Black hoodie, & baggy blue jeans… The funny thing is that the unifor spans racial boundaries… Blacks, Latinos, & Asians all move the same way when it comes to dress
- You can easily mistake Oakland for down south if you close your eyes & go into a bar… At one place, all you heard from the Bar was “God don’t need no Money!!” when the conversation turned to the role of economics in the church… Hilarious…
- At the Oakland Airport, I realized that it would be to my advantage if I learned to speak Spanish… It was that deep as far as immersion
- Some think that the Hyphy movement exaggerated what happens in Oakland, but I saw some youngsters going ‘dumb’ out the window in Deep East Oakland, & it wasn’t for a video
- Gentrification has changed some of the bay area so dramatically: Upon seeing me walk down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, one panhandler exclaimed “Black People!” lol… I had to give him some money for it… He tried it again when I came back down the street & I wasn’t as impressed
- Just because people move fast doesn’t mean they move right…
- SF & Oak are right next to each other, but in reality, they couldn’t be more different… It’s like going from Toronto to North Carolina in 10 minutes…
- Every eatery had a vegetarian/vegan meal… You haven’t lived until you’ve had a vegetarian Turkey Ham & Bacon on Rye
- Everyone knows about San Francisco’s homeless issue, but Oakland’s is nothing to sneeze at: Wlaking down the street, I saw 2 homeless men: 1 looked like Harriet Tubman & the other looked like Wanda from In Living Color
- Oakland & Detroit are running neck-in-neck for the most liquor stores in the Black community
- I don’t condone any violence against anyone, but the people of Oakland are not having it…
Fastidious Fridays
Peace,
A couple of thoughts going into the weekend:
- Why all of the fuss about Michelle Obama touching the Queen? As progressive as England is, in other ways, it’s firmly rooted in the 1800′s
- Facebook makes me feel like I’m attending a middle & high school reunion at the same time… Speaking of which, how do they actually contact people for 15 year reunions & such? I’m definitely out of the loop…
- Maybe this is just a Sprint thing, but I can’t wait for the Palm Pre to come out… This thing is more anticipated than the Detox Album!
- It’s one thing to wear skinny jeans… It’s another thing altogether to wear skinny jeans & big sneaks… You look like you’re trying out for a Heavy D video… Anyone over 25, cut it out!
- Where is Osama Bin Laden & why has he left the political lexicon? Somebody say something!
- Is it me, or have we finally hit a functional price point for gas?
- Just as Keith Olbermann isn’t the thought leader for the Democratic Party, Rush Limbaugh shouldn’t be the thought leader for the Republicans… Paging Newt Gingrich…
- Who would’ve thought that most of America would be okay with De-Facto Nationalization of it’s industries? First The Banks & now GM… It’s a testament to the failed policies of the last 20-25 years (Even though Black Folks felt better during the Clinton years, it doesn’t mean it was any better for us)
- How is everyone okay with all the money that’s being made on the Final Four & college players not getting a stipend? (Don’t hand me the mamajahambo about the scholarships; Most of them won’t even graduate).. Even more, isn’t it ironic to have the tourney in Detroit, one of the most impoverished cities in America?
Iowa recently rejected gay marriages… Did anyone expect anything else?
