Here is the transcript for the recent appearance I did on the Tom Joyner Morning Show discussing what I called the "Five E Philosophy" for Black empowerment. If you wish to hear the audio of the interview,
please click here.
What are we going to do with our kids? I'm not here to judge whether you're a mother, father, husband, wife, baby's mama, baby daddy or community parent, but we all know that it takes a village to raise our children. At the very least, I certainly don't want Lil Wayne raising my kids, or to see them turned into chubby little playstation addicts who can't spell the word "NBA."
I have a humble proposal on how you might want to empower your kids. I call it the 5 E philosophy. The 5 E philosophy goes like this: Education, plus economics, plus expectations equals empowerment.
The first E is for
Education:
Most studies show that black boys are 4- 5 times more likely to be placed in special education than kids who aren't black. When they are categorized at an early age, this leads to educational neglect and horrifically low graduation rates. I know this personally, since I was one of those boys. We all know that the public school system is a mess, but as a college professor over the last 17 years, I would like to help you and your child reframe the value of education.
Meet Stephen Stafford. Stephen is a 13-year old who happens to be a junior at Morehouse College – yes, 13 years old. Stephen is a triple major in computer science, mathematics and pre-med. We should celebrate kids like Stephen. We should honor him the same way we would if he averaged 40 points a game. We should talk about him like he is a platinum selling hip hop artist. We should brag about him like we brag about Pookie nem when they scored three touchdowns last week.
The article I wrote about Stephen was read by roughly half a million African Americans, which shows that many members of our community are ready for a change.
Our kids can hyper-analyze the triangle offense in basketball, carefully study the nickel defense in football and meticulously memorize playbooks that are 100 pages thick, but someone has convinced them that they can't do math and science.
They can go to work at McDonald's for 10 hours a day, but act a fool when you tell them to study 4 hours a day. It's time for kids to learn that education is the best investment of their time and the easiest way to create the future they would like to have. It's time to remove judgmental terms like "college material" when evaluating the futures of our children, since every child can be college material if they choose to be.
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10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Black Leaders
Who are they? Who appoints them? Do people still respect what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have to say? Does the NAACP have any power today? The future and current state of black leadership has been highly debated in recent weeks, but with the emergence of the Barack Obama presidential campaign, there is hope for a brighter day with black leadership.
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10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Breakdown of the Black Family
The low marriage rate in the black community has a detrimental effect on today's youth. Nearly 65% percent of black kids are born to single parent homes. Lacking either a mother or a father leaves a gap in a child's psyche that is usually replaced by a more negative factor. While one parent is better than none, a single working mother or father usually doesn't have enough time to parent their children as effectively as they should, which could cause trouble in the household.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Black Health Issues
While African American are only 13% of the U.S. population, blacks account for more HIV and AIDS cases and HIV-related deaths than any other racial/ethnic group. The rate of obesity is also a huge factor in the community, with over one-third of blacks being obese. The result is a higher risk of pancreatic cancer among blacks than among whites, particularly for women. It also leads to a high prevalence of obesity-related conditions such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes, factors reported to contribute to a high death rate from coronary heart disease.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Light-Skinned vs. Dark-Skinned
The color complex is an issue in the black community that has existed for centuries. It has divided families, communities and marital relationships, etc. It is a system of discrimination by black people against other African Americans based on skin tone, pitting light versus dark--even though the reality is that no matter what the shade, we are still black.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Use of the N-word
Much has been said and published over the use of the word "nigger." Political figures and celebrities have argued over its power and prevalence in the black community. No matter how you spin it, this word, whether you love it or hate it, will most likely be a part of the black vernacular for years to come.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Crack Epidemic
Starting in the early 1980s, a cheap, portable and highly addictive form of cocaine hit America's streets. Crack ravaged many inner cities populated by African Americans with a flood of addiction, a proliferation of border babies (abandoned children in hospitals born addicted to crack), astronomical murder rates, and a general blight that had never been seen before. Even in 2008, the effects crack has had on black families still remain.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Hurricane Katrina
Race in America came into focus in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit the nation's Gulf coast. The fact that many news outlets referred to survivors as "refugees" in addition to the government's slow reaction time for largely black communities hardest hit left many wondering if black people "matter." Socio-economic class and segregation in the U.S. were put on television for the world to see. Although Katrina was a natural disaster, some say it exemplified this country's disregard for the condition of poor people and black folks.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Black Leaders
Who are they? Who appoints them? Do people still respect what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have to say? Does the NAACP have any power today? The future and current state of black leadership has been highly debated in recent weeks, but with the emergence of the Barack Obama presidential campaign, there is hope for a brighter day with black leadership.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Institutional racism
The decrease in race-based scholarships, rollbacks in affirmative action plans, and the persistent inequality in salaries between whites and blacks continue to show how the glass ceiling remains above the head of African Americans.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Hip-Hop's Portrayal of Women
Rap music has been criticized for its negative portrayal of women, glorification of "thug life," and violence since its inception. However, these days, the future of the genre is less clear as fewer artists top the charts and remain there. Also, opinions differ on who is to blame for women being used as stage props and negatively portrayed in music videos and lyrics. Regardless, the negative effects of hip-hop continue to linger.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Police Brutality
The brutality cases of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Rodney King have only increased an already cold relationship between the African-American community and police throughout the country. Police brutality has always been prevalent in the black community, but these cases shed light on the often violent encounters between African-Americans and cops.
10 Ways Black People Have A Long Way To Go
Let's get this straight: It takes more intelligence to make it in THE STREET or in prison than it does to make it on a college campus. Put it this way: If George Bush can go to Harvard and Yale, then any black kid in America can go to college somewhere. So when we talk to our kids about going to college, stop using the word "if" and start using the word "when."
The next E in the 5-E Philosphy stands for the word "
Economics":
He who holds the gold makes the rules. Your financial freedom is the key to your social, psychological and spiritual freedom. When it comes time for us to stand up, our financial situation often forces us to sit right back down.
Teach your children how to break out of the shackles of labor and learn the significance of OWNING something. Start with owning your own home, and then consider owning your own business. Every black child in America should be taught the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. When they learn where babies come from, they should also learn where jobs come from. They should know the difference between having a high income and actually being wealthy. Don't teach them to take their tax refunds and run to the mall, teach them to take that money and run to their investment advisors.
To give you a quick illustration of the value of ownership, let's consider NBA star Lebron James. Lebron earns about $27 million dollars per year running, jumping and sweating every night. That's a nice income, I'm proud of him. But consider Bill Gates – Bill Gates could sit at home all day, not go to work, not take a single phone call and not even leave the house and earn $100 million dollars per week. Yes, I said per week. That's because Bill Gates has money invested that is out working for him – he doesn't have to do a thing.
Teach your kids how to let money work for them. Take a note from the Oprah Winfrey Network, with the acronym O-W-N. Oprah Winfrey has a successful business because she knows how to handle her business. Teach your kids to handle their business too.
The next E stands for
Expectations:
Teach your kids to take the word "me" out of mediocrity. Our kids will jump whatever hurdle we set for them, so set that bar as high as you possibly can.
Teach them how to set goals. If you don't know where you're going, then you're probably not going to get there.
What doesn't kill you definitely makes you stronger, and God created hurdles to teach us how to jump. Teach your kids how to jump, and support them when they fall down.
Education Plus Economics Plus Expectations Equals Empowerment.
In the new millennium ya'll, and it's time to redefine WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLACK.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the only African American in the world to earn a PhD in Finance during the year 2002. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
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By: Lafayette Howell on 2/05/2010 11:04AM
Where do I start? First, this is a terrific piece and insightful thinking that we can all apply or at least should apply. Here's the problem though, our mindset collectively is centered on those activities, thinking, and behaving that is the antithesis of what the five E's represent. For example, we can count on one or two hands the number of our truly successful athletes, entertainers who actually completed post-secondary school. From Kobe, Lebron, Tiger, Beyoncé, Snoop, not one of them completed college.
Second E: Economics this is problematic for so many reasons, but sticking to the theme of mindset. I am often reminded of the Dave Chappell skit on reparations; it is my favorite skit where Blacks get their reparation checks, and a spending spree of consumerism ensues. “8,000 record labels created in the last hour”, “Fubu and KFC became the world's biggest corporation”.
Sadly, young men who enjoy success continue to make the same mistakes. Listen to 50 cents song, "have a baby by me, baby be a millionaire” This is complete rubbish and so ignorant driven by narcissism and ego. Unfortunately, we have been trained to be consumers. For example, Lebron James gets monogrammed leather seats, and buy dozens of automobiles in excess of $300,000 a piece. That is not how Bill Gates rolls to be sure with is $100 mill per week.
Unfortunately, Blacks and men especially are trained from early on to demonstrate love through giving, and buying things. Remember, when your dad would come around or got paid, everyone was happy, because his self-esteem was high and there was peace because he was able to buy things. We encourage our women to “go get your nails, hair and facial”. When you can’t consume in the Black community you are viewed often times as less than a man or woman for that matter. Again, it is our collective mindset. There is a reason hair care supply stores are so abundant in the Black community, when you can find a Starbucks for 15 miles in some places.
Third E: Again, mindset. Let me share a vivid and unfortunately real example. I own a management consulting company that works with turning around low-performing, high-poverty school districts (execution-architects.com). One of my clients experiences 90-100 degree temperatures in the classroom and rather than parents complaining and students rebelling, and teachers walking out, our people simply adapt and “get used to it”. Of course, there is NO learning taking place. The irony is that if those same students or teachers ordered a 6 wing special for lunch and got only 5 by mistake, you can bet they would raise holy hell and turn back to discuss their expectations not being met. We don’t get nearly as angry when the classroom is 90 degrees plus in August. Again, mindset is the culprit I would submit, because we ARE smart.
Empowerment comes from trusting and believing in yourself that what I buy or how much I have, is NOT who you are. This is hard for most African-Americans to get their arms around, but it is true. When I suggested the idea of pooling our collective talents as parents to assist the kids of friends in certain subjects with school, people looked at me as if I was crazy. We don’t want to share our business that one of our children is struggling in math, when your best friend was a math major, but often too proud to ask for help. A while back, I was having lunch at a Chinese spot, and there was a group of 6 Chinese kids with backpacks and laptops, sipping soup, eating rice, laughing, and helping each other with their homework. Again, we have to change our collective mindsets from coast to coast and not be so consumed with watching BET after school, talking on the phone, texting, and Facebooking about nothing when the decay continues to accelerate in our minds and results in dilapidated communities. In the meantime, Lebron and Kobe are big pimping in their $350,000 Maybachs and Aston Martins while the majority of us continue to accept less than in almost every facet of our lives.
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By: Godsent Empress on 2/08/2010 11:55AM
It is imperative we learn the root causes of counterintuitive behaviors before prognosis and prescription for cure. Good advice can go so far and be only benefitial when we unlearn the old prior to introducing the new. Interesting piece both Dr. Boyce and commentary by L. Howell.
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By: olanzo38 on 2/05/2010 2:34PM
Is that the Tom Joyner that advertises for blacks to go out and buy new cars. HYPOCRITE ASS NEGROES
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By: stare k on 2/09/2010 12:20PM
To olanzo. So what if he does . you want us to walk , rided the bus . to bad you can't get you a nice car . But hate to see blacks with one.
Get a life .and some love in your heart.
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