Jack Hakimian Blog

Black disadvantaged communities not only lack economic power, but "empowering information" about how the real economic world is and how it works towards success on a micro and macro level.

They have a "poverty of information" and have been desentized from the stimulus to seek it.

The powers to be, well as the black individual keeps themselves sedated by art, sports, street drama and more.

Many local black churches are vital for spiritual nourishment on a weekly basis, but do they help the community break out of the simplicity of Bible quotes, music choirs, Christian youth hip hop fascinations, and church drama? Very unlikely.

For many the faith never moves beyond an over consumption of "art" and a simplistic church attendance in their discipleship model to the Holistic Learning of Scripture as it deals with family, sexuality, parenting, government, policy, enterprise, stewardship, culture development and more.

Churches emphasize week long revivals and prayer meetings wondering why the black ghetto condition for so many is not getting better.

Have we considered the learning and application of the 66 books into all aspects of life, especially "black capitalism and enterprise" rather than a few verses on faith, joy in midst of trials and church participation.

We need a renaissance of apprenticeship experiences in the black community. That means we may need to send some of our youth into other cultural vocational and educational settings to learn relevant in demand skills, theory and insider secrets that thier disadvantaged community does not posses.

This is the primary method of economic transformation: old fashioned apprenticeship models where theoretical and experiential information is passed on to the next generation.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development writes,

"Ghettoes are perhaps the most interesting informational phenomenon of all. Kain’s (1968) seminal paper on spatial mismatch referred to the lack of information networks connecting the ghetto and downtown. Wilson’s (1987) emphasis on the idea that middle class African Americans’ flight to the suburbs denies role models to disadvantaged youth is a strongly informational argument. The physical barriers between ghettoes and downtowns are slight, the intellectual barriers immense. The Number 4 train may go to Harlem, but the ideas of Wall Street rarely (if ever) make it past 96th Street" (Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

What are your thoughts on this subject? 

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