When You Know Better, You Do Better...At Least That's What They Say

Over the past week, I have had this same conversation at least three times with three different people, so I felt the need to share it with you. As a race, black people, we have got to do better. People often say, if you know better you do better, but the truth is that we DO know better, yet we continue to choose a mentality that keeps our race behind the 8-ball.

This is what I mean...look at other races/cultures: white, asian, even some hispanic, and others...they tend to support their own. They build their own churches, restaurants, schools, insurance companies, banks, etc.... They help with the raising of children, circulate their funds within their own communities, and do whatever is necessary to ensure that their people thrive. We, on the other hand, in general, have more of a crab-in-a-bucket mentality. Although we need to purchase, receive services etc... we opt to take our money elsewhere and view our own people as threats instead of allies.

Everyone is out for self, it seems. It is evident in our communities, on social media platforms, even in our churches. What we don't seem to realize is how well supporting each other works for others, and how damaging we are to ourselves; yet we're quick to blame other races for our problems when we're the ones who CHOOSE to maintain a slave-like mentality. Not all of us are this way, true, but as a whole we are failing miserably in this area.

Now, I understand some of the reasons why. We lack customer service skills, our business owners seem lazy with their commitment and follow through, and we're often unprofessional in our actions and demeanor. These are things that I have personally witnessed when supporting my own, and it is these behaviors that are a huge part of the problem. We have got to develop our thinking beyond self and understand that, if we were to all do our part in supporting each other, there would be no stopping us. As a people, a race, a community, we would thrive. And what a positive effect this would have on so many other problems we face like low self-worth, violence, despair.

I know, I know...it's not YOU that I'm talking about. I understand. However, are you doing your part to bring us closer together instead of dividing and conquering? It's always been funny to me how we blame "the white man" for doing this, when we do it so much on our own that "they" don't even need to. Wake up black people! It's not like you don't recognize this concept. Let's own it. By practicing it daily and making a conscious effort to make changes we can and will be successful as a whole.

**Let me also say, for the people who will twist this into something crazy, I love ALL people. There is no shred of racism in me. There are things about all races that I both love and dislike. My goal is simply to educate the race to which I belong.**