Cooperative Economics/Ujamaa

Habari gani?  UJAMAA! (Cooperative economics)

Cooperative Economics/Ujamaa: Sharing and pooling our financial resources and goods and services for the common benefit of family and community participants with the goal of building and sustaining cooperative economic enterprises.

This practice Ujamaa grows from a shared understanding that we as humans on this planet are dependent on each other and that loving, sharing, and caring are cardinal virtues.

I am honestly doing some sincere self-assessment here.  On this, the fourth day of Kwanzaa,  I have to ask myself how much am I really supporting black business, enterprise, community efforts for the betterment of our cities, towns, communities, neighborhoods and, yes, our race?

As I look around in parts of the City of Oakland, of all the closed storefronts in black neighborhoods, how many of those were former black businesses?  As an artist and a former arts manager, I am wondering how many of those black arts endeavors have gone by the wayside due to lack of support and how many are going to make it beyond 2015?  Personally I cried when the Oakland Ensemble folded after umpteen years of teaching me to live the life of black art with pride and resilience in spite of dwindling funds from the public and private sector.  Arts organizations that taught me how to produce the art on a dime seemingly no longer exist.

How often have I said out loud or in a whisper that this item would be cheaper at the big box store?  Or, perhaps, I  just gave my good money to the foreign looking and talking man on the corner because he is in my neighborhood.  Did it ever occur to me the reason he is in my neighborhood with his stale bread and cheap liquor?  We as a people can be an easy prey.

We spend hundreds on hair from a foreign land, bought in a store owned and operated by someone that speaks little or no English. We put his kids through college and pay the mortgage on his house that displaced us through that magical word called gentrification.  And, yep, my man is driving a better car and is more technically advanced and advantaged.

This year I am going to at least make the effort to buy black and support black.  I will support black endeavors not only with lip service but with my dollars as well.  The amount of money we are all guilty of wasting throughout the year could indeed go a long way toward the sustainability of that group of black poets, those black theatre companies, black dance studios, black community organizers, black bookstores, black restaurants, black barbershops and beauty salons, black dress makers, and black cake makers.  I will not be afraid to buy a membership or give a donation to a black cause that I care deeply about keeping in mind that no amount is too small.

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak