Correction to above: have been victimized over and over in corporations by blacks and hispanics taking advantage – and employers too afraid to fire incompetent blacks or hispanics. We all need to be treated equal – everyone treated the same. Affirmative action needs to end so everyone is equal. Every US large city is dominantly black and hispanic – so why give them "mnority" preferential treatment?

We need to start valuing our Black dollars more. We run & buy expensive designer goods even when they don't market to us or advertise in our media. We NEED to recycle Black dollars in our communities. Let's stop buying hair products for a week from Asian beauty supply stores & see how that impact their bottom line is for that week! We talk it, but we don't walk it. We need to be more supportive of each other.

Thanks so much Dr. Watkins for such a very interesting essay on the importance of entrepreneurship. We will not disagree with your recommendations because that would be counterproductive. However, we would like to suggest a slightly different perspective. It is true that increased Black entrepreneurship would help reduce the Black unemployment rate. But we hasten to add that, “Virtually no one has starved to death in America lately because they did not have a job.” The latter statement might sound odd in this context, but the statement is true nonetheless. Be clear: We are by no means suggesting that Black Americans extend our reliance on the U.S. Government for survival. On the contrary, we are suggesting that we need to be wise in our actions and that we have some flexibility at this point to use all available resources to achieve something very profound.

At the time of preparing this essay, we believe that you were in Haiti or en route back to the U.S. We understand that it is your job to be the “People’s Scholar.” In that position it is important that you teach courses at the university, write short essays, appear for media events, prepare books, give public lectures, etc. It must be very difficult to find the time to think very carefully about the problems that Black Americans face. In the meantime, it is important for you to remain in the public eye, so it is not unexpected that you would prepare essays of this type based on what appears to be a sound idea.

While, in principle, the idea is sound, the way that the idea is proposed may not be in the best interest of Black Americans. You suggest that “We must all adopt the three Es right now.” This, in our opinion, is not sound thinking.

Believe it or not, the most fundamental problem facing Black Americans is not being employed or engaging in entrepreneurship. We believe that you will agree that the most important and fundamental problem that Black Americans face is reconstituting strong families. Without strong families, entrepreneurship becomes a vacuous exercise. As you indicate, entrepreneurship thrives because, in most cases, it is a family effort. More generally, wealth is meaningful and enjoyable only when family is there to partake in it. To suggest that entrepreneurship should be our first order of business is akin to building a house on sand. Restore the Black family and our remaining problems will be easy to solve.

We suggest that all Black Americans not urgently act today to foster entrepreneurship. Rather, Black Americans need to develop a long-term strategic plan that accounts first for reconstituting strong Black families. Education, entrepreneurship, and other important aspects of Black America’s development can be assigned their proper position in the context of a strategic plan. Importantly, such a plan may reveal that the United States is not the place for Black Americans to undertake an extensive entrepreneurial effort. A sound long-term strategic plan may indicate that our best and brightest future can only be realized by forming our own nation.

If we do not adopt a strategy of developing a long-term plan, and continue to throw out what appear to be bright, yet piecemeal, ideas, we are likely to find that our progress will be stunted perpetually. Even if we are successful in becoming great entrepreneurs, some other aspect of our development that has not been accounted for will surface and become even more problematic for us than the unemployment that we face today.

At BlackEconomics.org we have already begun development of a long-term strategic plan for Black America. As the “People’s Scholar” we ask that you consider the benefits of developing such a plan and help advance the effort.

BlackEconomics.org

This is a great article. However, the issue is that those of us who have taken the time to read such an article are not the Black people to which this article is addressed. In order to facilitate change, We must meet the Black folks that you speak of where they are. Otherwise, the issues will remain. We, as Black people are aware that many of us do not educate ourselves or desire to defy the odds. Many of us are content with our history. Until we implement non traditional tactics to bring about change, WE will continue to wallow in our dysfunction.

What a Republican idea. Shame you always back Democrsts, cuz government Never saved you. It kept you Down. Glab you finally woke up,

This article was spot on! We instill in our kids to go college, get a degree, and go work for some big corporation. While there's nothing wrong with working for a company to gain some experience, but the ultimate goal for our kids should be to own their own business. All of these 'affirmative action', equal employment policies are for the birds. Why should we want to give away our skills and talents for a company that you have to jump through hoops just to get and keep a job?

One of the backlashes of the Civil Rights movement was that when we integrated and moved out of the hood and into the suburbs, we diluted our economic and political power. Over the years, as more of us have moved up the socio-economic ladder, it has pretty much disappeared altogether. We need to reverse this.