I first posted this as a Facebook book status. It inspired a series of posts (to come) I will call ‘Soft Economic Absurdist Series.’
I see a lot of people condemning this sort of behavior coloured by this picture. The general sentiment come-rage is that black people would do better if they didn’t spend a lot of money (like this image displays) on alcohol but on progressive things such as entrepreneurship.
Yes, definitely it would be progressive if more Africans would take risk and start businesses.
It is a politically correct statement and progressive thinking. However, it remains as just that – POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND CONDEMNATION.
POLITICALLY CORRECTNESS AND CONDEMNATIONS do little (or nothing) to effect and inspire change.
To effect and inspire change, you got to be the one that ‘starts that black owned – school/insurance-company/bank.’
Any fool can condemn and give guidance of what a society can do to achieve uhuru. But inspiring through action is another thing.
It is not woke if every day you are condemning your people for being just consumers – only. How about you do something to inspire them – through exemplary action and not just moving the mouth?
Wise/woke talk that has no exemplary action is the cheapest form of intellectualism.
E.g. Biko wasn’t just an activist; he was a social scientist/engineer. He built cases that won and uplifted black people’s viewpoints of themselves. He developed charisma (key word being DEVELOP). But some of his now followers are nothing but arrogant beings that call everyone who doesn’t agree or get them ugly names. They don’t have the patience and smarts to sway people over – let alone learning how to.
Take an example of (let’s learn from) activists in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They know or learned, from practice, that condemnation alone doesn’t work – if at all. They develop programmes that not only get people’s attention but penetrate people’s cognition. If one program doesn’t work, they improve it or build another. In healthcare, raging or condemning when people don’t get the message doesn’t mean you save lives. Health activists are remarkable. They go beyond condemning and to testing different types of awareness programmes – however soft, to get the message through. Because if the message isn’t effective in getting through, it is a matter of life and death. One important book to read about messages that penetrate and are effective is Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping point.
Those who actually start things know how hard it is to promote products. So they don’t run around insulting their people for not supporting their endeavors; in fact, they fight through failures – tweaking there and there to find ways that work.
The ‘WHAT’ (black people need a black owned business) is easy.
The ‘HOW’ isn’t easy. The ‘HOW’ cannot be foretold but forgone. It’s trial and error. Condemners don’t like foregoing but prefer foretelling the ‘WHAT.’
Any fool can point the ‘WHAT’ – even me.
To build a business (e.g. a bank) isn’t about debate but trial and error. Being woke won’t help you here. You have to TRIAL AND ERROR to get it right. Arguments don’t build a business. All arguments are assumptions in business – you have to test them against actual application. If they fail, you tweak and retry or even pivot.
Condemnation is short. Venturing isn’t. It takes months to years to see success or failure.
I am just tired of these know-it-all folks that keep saying “black people should etc” (esp. these type that calls in on talk radio between 9 and 10). How about you start that which you say we should start… Nonke maaan.
The country would be doing better if these politically correct folks on black progress were doing something – because it’s a bunch of them.
Political correctness attracts company. Doing actual sh*t attracts soloism.
Ok kea dlala!! The country will turn out great with just political correctness and condemnation.
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What I really want to know is why there isn’t ice in these buckets. Where is this place so I know not to go there?
Anyway, these boys look like they are in tertiary, and this is what is done in tertiary on a Friday afternoon – especially in Pretoria where the beer is sometimes R2.