PLATFORM : A Black Challenge: Buy the Best

I would like to issue this challenge: To the Urban League, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Shriners and all other African-American social organizations that hold conventions every year--forgo your convention this year. Instead of giving millions of dollars in food, hotel rooms and drink to places like the Hilton, Century Plaza, Biltmore and Bonaventure, set up a fund and deposit that money into the bank. A million dollars can accrue a lot of interest in one year. Take that money and build your own hotel and hire African-Americans. Go to Howard University’s hotel management program and hire Howard graduates to run the hotel.

And after you’ve contracted the building of that hotel out to an African-American firm and it is built, begin having your conventions at that hotel. Hire your own.

To the black churches and their ministers, you collect money every week. Become the African-American bank. Begin offering low-interest (3%) loans to your parishioners to buy a home or to start a business and have the same requirements as a bank or a credit union.

To our African-American entertainers and athletes, put some of the millions you earn yearly together and build shopping centers. Michael Jackson has more money than Dolly Parton; yet Parton opened Dollywood and gave the people in her town work. Jackson, on the other hand, spends millions on dead, dry bones. Since Jackson is so enamored with theme parks, why can’t he build one in or around South-Central Los Angeles and give people jobs instead of keeping it all at his ranch.

We have the dollars but we don’t use them. And the most important thing is to support those African-American businesses that are out there. Stop trying to buy the cheapest, start buying the best.