“What should we really stand up for?”
Since the NFL players have stood together in solidarity over not only police brutality, but President Trumps choice of words, it has me thinking about what we really should be protesting. Police brutality effects the Black community, but what are the bigger concerns. Should we stay strong with this protest, or redirect our focus elsewhere? Because if you look at the community, police brutality is actually not the biggest concern. The education system is of major concern, healthcare in the community, and the biggest would have to be employment. So why is so much of our time devoted to making sure NFL player Colin Kaepernick is eligible for the NFL? Well, given those issues we should be focused on, why are they more important?
In regards to education, we should focus on this topic because when you look at the Black community, you’re talking about a lot of poor people. And when you’re looking at public education, you’re generally pulling from the taxpayers in the area. So when the taxpayers are living below the poverty level, then you have children receiving poor education. And if the education is poor, what is the use of sending the children to school. It seems pretty counterproductive because even when they graduate, what college can they really get into. So, maybe the right thing to do is for Black communities to pool finances and create educational opportunities from within. Because this pulling from the taxpayers is not going to cut it. There is just not enough the system is doling out to the younger generation. And with our spending power of approximately $2.5 trillion, why not?
Well, what about healthcare in the Black community. There are so many health concerns when observing the community, and a lot of it comes from the food choices in the environment. Everywhere you turn there is a fast food restaurant. I live in Harlem, New York, and you have fried food establishments in every block throughout the neighborhood. You don’t have enough healthy choices especially for the younger age group that serves as an alternative to junk food. But when you are poor, the fast food selections are what you can afford. So going to a McDonald’s eating off the $1 menu is cost effective. But, on top of the bad food in the community, there are non food related illnesses as well that effect our community more than anyone else and finding adequate care has always and continues to be problematic.
Yet the biggest concern in the Black community are jobs. And that word job is such an ambiguous word, but looking cross all industries, it’s shocking how much we are still on the bottom. Even comparable to groups that numbers are smaller than ours. Like I said earlier, we are $2.5 trillion of American spending in this country, and the fact that we are so high on the unemployment scale is beyond me. Our dollars some of the most valuable in the world, but we are some of the economically poorest group in the world. And a lot of that has to do with spending outward and in not inward. Our dollars leave our pockets and travel into other pockets, while that same one dollar elsewhere circulates in another group’s community multiple times before leaving. And in the end these are the primary focuses of the community. Sports is good and all, but if you want to make an even bigger impact on the community it starts in these key areas.
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