It was a troll to get a like from Esch, nevertheless the point is what Kara mentioned. I support black businesses - hell, my dad is a black business owner and I know many others. But the class system in the US isn't so easily overcome. Black businesses may make money in Atlanta, but ultimately there is still rampant poverty and the wealth has yet to trickle down.
So by all means support black businesses; I do too. But ultimately the best way to change situations in the black community is to take over communities by controlling positions of power. I'm not talking about showing up every four years to vote for a president or senator. I'm talking about school boards, municipal councils, sheriffs, judges, city managers, etc. Coming from Detroit, I've seen how many of these positions become little more than permanent positions for crooks who use their skin color as a shield from any criticism ("the suburbs don't like me, they want to take control of x"). We'd be a lot better off if these positions were held by people who took the job, and the community, seriously.
Community control. That goes beyond black businesses, because even black businesses act like corporations when they aren't kept in line. Which reminds me of Chokwe Lumumba, who didn't have the power to do everything he'd want but does have the ability to determine who can and can't do business in his town. And while I haven't read the interview Kara posted, the last time I heard him speak he mentioned that companies that don't hire within the community don't get contracts. That's key, and something that isn't happening in Atlanta which is basically just corporatism with a black face.
I was talking to a socialist friend a few years ago about some things, and he brought up Obama's OFA organizing group. After Obama won the election he didn't do anything with OFA; he used it as an organizing tool to get elected and then moved to Washington. My friend was never an Obama fan, but he noted how intrigued he was by the 2008 campaign, and how shocked he was that a legit community organizer like Obama would just discard such a valuable vehicle. Imagine if Obama had found a way to transition the various OFA branches into local activism, local elections, etc. All those people who were trained could have easily helped take over school boards across the country, among other things.
Change is local. We're seeing this in Ferguson right now, where you have a majority black city terrorized by a white power structure they could easily topple if they showed some passion in non-police shooting months. I look at that Antonio French guy, the local Alderman who is doing an amazing job organizing protests, and wonder how many young black people in St. Louis knew who he was before Brown got shot. Ferguson has 6 council members, and one is black. I'm not saying white people shouldn't hold positions of power in black cities, nor am I assuming those white council members are bad...I'm just saying that there would be more than one black council member if the population was more involved.
