Let’s Escape The Barrel

There is a Chinese restaurant in nearly every black neighborhood in America.

Ever think about how those restaurant owners use the money you give them?

I befriended an owner of a Chinese restaurant and before his store closed he told me he used the money from his restaurant on living expenses for his family back home(China) and to pay his children’s college tuition.

Ever thought about how many black children and teens would have more opportunities if we spent that money at black owned restaurants?

China’s progress during the last three decades should be an inspiration to us all; anything is possible. Kwame Brown recently shared an old story about black people walking past his restaurant en route to a local Chinese restaurant. He recalled one person telling him “most people don’t want to eat there(Kwame’s restaurant) because you(Kwame) already have money”. The basic assumption here is black people will have access to more economic opportunities in society if we spend our money with black entrepreneurs. And for the sake of my argument, let’s agree that this assumption is true. Given the current state of black America, the next question must be:

Why don’t black people spend their money at black owned businesses?

I once ran a survey on The Blast App and I asked a group of 100 black people why they don’t spend most of their money on black owned businesses. Here were the top responses; lack of convenience, lack of consistency, and affordability. These seem reasonable to most but I read that as excuses, excuses, and more excuses. If we support my assumption above then we must agree that consistency of any product besides medicine is not more important than black progress that will take place as a result of black people having more economic opportunities.

I don’t know why black people don’t spend their money with black entrepreneurs but these two theories may be of interest:

• The Kingpin Theory: I learned this theory from Master P. The idea is that most black people want to be the “top dog” or HNIC. Instead of being a team player and aligning on an already existing mission or vision, many black people would rather sabotage the existing mission or vision in hopes of creating their own.
• The Crabs in The Bucket Theory: Often this is applied to people in an impoverished community where one person is starting to get ahead. The collective community becomes jealous or filled with a sense of self-loathing, so they find a way to pull that person back down to the community’s level. (Urban Dictionary)

I am not putting blame on our people for our lack of unity because I truly believe our minds have been hijacked by the redacted. However, I do have an idea how we can each escape the barrel. I have created my own theory called TST (The Selfish Theory).

The Selfish Theory: The idea here is that black people come in various shapes, sizes, perspectives, and lifestyles but familiarity has struck us blind. TST suggests that instead of black people thinking and worrying about others (including white people), we should spend that time thinking and worrying about how we as individuals can improve our own lives.

In other words:

MIND YOUR F*****G BUSINESS AND LIVE YOUR LIFE!

Black Individualism seems to be the ONLY way to escape “the barrel”. All it takes is one crab to be brave and resilient enough to make their own decisions and not follow the crowd. Then another crab will follow. Then another, and another, and another. Before you know it we will all have escaped the barrel and experience true FREEDOM!

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