Converting Political Power to Economic Power: Our Historical Challenge

This book is your call to action! It is your call to action to understand the Historical Challenge we face as African-Americans, to understand what we must do to overcome the challenge, and to overcome it—by growing a black business class that can empower us to convert our political power to economic power. The essence of our political power as African-Americans is that we’re controlling a lot of money. As elected and appointed black officials, we either control or influence how trillions of public dollars are spent; we spend millions of dollars as executives and managers of major corporations; and as black consumers, we spend more than $1.1 trillion a year. We will become economically empowered when we spend this money that we own or control (our political power) with the businesses in our communities that reinvest in our communities. We must build the black business class! Without a black business class, there can be no Economic Empowerment for our communities. Without a black business class, we will fail to meet our Historical Challenge. Continuing in this way speaks doom for our communities and our economic future. Economic power is the highest expression of political power, and acquiring it is the next logical step when you consider African-Americans’ historical struggles in America. We must embrace the Historical Challenge of converting political power to economic power. Our time is now.