It was such a treat discussing the very real threat of gentrification with Laban King, CEO of Millennial Global Investments. If you have lived in Atlanta for at least the past 5 years it is difficult to miss. Do we just allow it to take its course or do we take actions to ensure that our community has something to gain from this redevelopment boom going on in Atlanta and not get shut out and shut down? Let's here it from Laban King. He's got lots for us. Pen and paper out, twitter up so that you can catch these tweetable moments:
"Failure is not the opposite of success, it is the stepping stone."
-Harold Leffall
Harold is the author of the business course we will be offering through The Baldwin Project. Harold Leffall recently left Atlanta and now lives in Oakland, CA. He is an empowerment specialist, author, speaker and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience who has been featured in Black Enterprise, Essence, and Entrepreneur magazines. He has held senior management positions with Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency, Vehicles for Change and United Way of Metro Atlanta. He founded Leffall Employment Agency, a full service staffing firm in Oakland that reached revenues of over $3 million in two years. He holds an M.A. in management and a B.A. in political science.
We have adopted and will be launching his program for the target date of November 3rd this year. We asked him about some of the things prospective students can expect from this course as opposed to investing thousands of dollars into an academic program filled with theory just so that one can get a degree working for a company that one does not own. Just research the curriculum vitae of the many of the founding CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and you will find that a majority, over 70% of them did not hold business degrees. While we believe that formal education has its place, we refute the notion of it being a requirement of going into business and being a success. We like how Mark Twain put it, "Don't let schooling get in the way of your education." Once your business is up an running and you want to sharpen your skills with whatever the top business schools have to offer, by all means go for it. But by then you will have gained some core concepts and frame of reference which will help you understand and appreciate the more heady material given in colleges and it will not be about getting a degree to impress anyone but to add to your knowledge base to help you expand nationally and/or internationally or become publicly traded. However, before you get to that level, our focus is on helping the novice to get started on sturdy footing with the core basics from turning that first dollar to hiring that first employee, the startup phase. There is a lot of danger in this phase that good guidance could help you avoid, saving you time, money and embarrassment. For many, the most difficult phase in developing a business is getting started in the first place. For those of us not coming from business owning families, those hows are elusive and hard to come by. The Baldwin Project aims to change that.
Let's hear straight from the author, himself:
"When I started my first business, Leffall Employment Agency, I had no idea what I was doing. I did not have a business plan and although I had two college degrees I had no training in entrepreneurship. I read all the books I could find on entrepreneurship but none of them prepared me for what it really takes to start and grow a business as an African American. I simply had a dream and drive with no real strategy of how to make it happen. As a result my first year in business was spent making the same mistakes most new business owners make, from not really understanding my market to underestimating the value of relationship building. By trial and error I eventually figured out the success formula, growing my business to close to $4 million in annual sales in just two years. Like every other entrepreneur, your journey will likely be filled with tremendous challenges, disappointments and setbacks – accept these experiences as a part of the process. The Baldwin Project’s intensive entrepreneurial training will provide you with real tools, information and resources that you can use immediately to start or grow your business. This course explores how to identify and develop solutions to the most common leadership and personal challenges faced by entrepreneurs when starting new ventures or growing an existing one. You will learn step-by-step how to use market analysis, operational plans and financial projections to create a comprehensive business plan. After you complete this course you will be on track to realizing your entrepreneurial dreams."
James Baldwin, to those who have the faintest awareness of our great black literary artist of the 20th century, was a profound and fiery intellect during the Civil Rights Movement. He is more widely recognized as an author, but his legacy is just as influential as a teacher, debater, social critic and activist. He was openly homosexual at a time when the bare mention of same-gendered romance was not only taboo and immoral but psychotic and freakish. He was blunt and unapologetically lived in his truth.
But whatever happened to Jimmy Baldwin? Well for the man, we know he expired in a struggle with stomach cancer in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France on December 1, 1987 at the age of 63. But, nearly 30 years later, James Baldwin, The Legend is just getting his wings alongside his contemporaries, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In fact, his views often places him somewhere right between the ideologies of both men. He favored the Non-Violent philosophy of King, but also subscribed to the agenda of cultural independence, self-sufficiency and self-reliance among Black Americans promoted by Malcolm as the best approach to removing ourselves from the abuse of the oppressor. He often collaborated with King and debated Malcolm. Let’s take an overview of the curriculum vitae of his posthumous legacy:
Per Wikipedia:
In 1986, within the work “The Story of English”, Robert MacNeil, with Robert McCrum and William Cran, mentioned James Baldwin as an influential writer of African-American Literature, on the level of Booker T. Washington, and held both men up as prime examples of Black writers.
In 1987, Kevin Brown, a photo-journalist from Baltimore, founded the National James Baldwin Literary Society. The group organizes free public events celebrating Baldwin's life and legacy.
In 1992, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, established the James Baldwin Scholars program, an urban outreach initiative, in honor of Baldwin, who taught at Hampshire in the early 1980s. The JBS Program provides talented students of color from underserved communities an opportunity to develop and improve the skills necessary for college success through coursework and tutorial support for one transitional year, after which Baldwin scholars may apply for full matriculation to Hampshire or any other four-year college program.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included James Baldwin on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
In 2005, the United States Postal Service created a first-class postage stamp dedicated to Baldwin, which featured him on the front, with a short biography on the back of the peeling paper.
In 2012 James Baldwin was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display that celebrates LGBT history and people.
In 2014 128th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in New York City, was named "James Baldwin Place" to celebrate Baldwin's 90th Birthday. He lived in the neighborhood and attended P.S. 24. Readings of Baldwin's writing were held at The National Black Theatre and a month long art exhibition featuring works by New York Live Arts and artist Maureen Kelleher. The events were attended by Council Member Inez Dickens, who lead the campaign to honor Harlem native's son; also taking part were Baldwin's family, theatre and film notables, and members of the community
So why in 2016 has James Baldwin become the spirit animal, inspiration and namesake of an urban business and economic development firm seeking to institutionalize group economics among Black Americans with an initial concentration on its SGL-LGBT margins? Could it be for the fact the Baldwin was Black and SGL like its founders? That’s a start. But mainly it is because he understood and often lectured on the connection between systematic oppression and group economics. You can not understand systematic oppression without understanding group economics. Economics is the method by which oppression operates. Yes, much of oppression is psychological which Baldwin lectured on as well, but its designs are executed through economic policies which cripple the stability and independence of Black communities. Ignorance of these strategies and the lack of economic organization among Black communities keeps the systems working toward our detriment.
If you were to take the time to understand the core theme of Baldwin, you will readily see that the man was deeply more a sociologist and social historian at heart, who only used his literary genius, oratory and keen debate skills to highlight critical features in the designs of oppression with the hopes of once awareness of them reached critical mass within the oppressed class, a true and effective revolution would break out seemingly overnight in comparison to the length of the history of that oppression. An oppressive regime lasting over 500 years could be checked within a matter of 5 years, once those who are oppressed began to understand how that oppression works and decided from that moment to no longer choose to participate in it. While Baldwin’s tongue was a stinging lash upon White Supremacy and Homophobia, he also did not allow Black Americans to sit as innocent victims absolved of any responsibility in playing a very crucial part in their own oppression.
Martin Luther King adopted the Nonviolent Philosophy from an Indian attorney, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, “The Mahatma”. Gandhi is credited as the principal leader who led India to break from control of the British Empire without violent militaristic conflict. While not even Gandhi authored the philosophy of nonviolence, he did however organize the philosophy into a sort of effective grassroots strategy, a sort of formula for its demonstration. He fashioned it after the same strategy by which an attorney prepares a brief to argue a case, though instead of it being based upon man-made policies, it is rooted upon the eternal laws of justice which are found in nature and upholds the basis of physics. This field of philosophy is called Jurisprudence, from which the field of Ethics is derived from. Gandhi’s understanding of violence is anything which violates these natural rules. His strategy consisted of researching and collecting facts of instances of these violations to begin to bring justifiable charges against an oppressor, just like Martin Luther had done with his 95 theses against the Vatican and just like the authors of Declaration of Independence had done against King George III. The next step is to begin educating the oppressed class about these charges and their passive participation in it. Bus seating segregation was allowed to continue primarily because Southern Blacks complied with its unjust policies and thus shared some responsibility in their own oppression, the responsibility to defy injustice. “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”. Third step is after you have caused the sentiment toward defiance to reach critical mass is to begin efforts to negotiate with the oppressor to reach some understandings of how these injustices are harmful to all involved including the oppressor and gain some agreements toward actions which will rectify whatever the said injustice is and record them. Once a sort of contract between both parties has been reached for cooperation toward a more just state of affairs, if any line in these agreements are violated on the part of the oppressor, the next and final step is, Confrontation. Confrontation comes in the form of direct action, or mass defiance of unjust statutes thus overwhelming the oppressor with the complicated responsibility of having to put down a non-violent rebellion in order to maintain the authority of their regime with only having violent force as a tool, because through the violation of their agreement they have forfeited their power of moral force. This brings the injustice within the regime to light before the jury of the people. Usually despotic regimes operates through the tactics of divide and conquer. They skillfully and intentionally sow discord among the public in the form of classism, racism, nationalism and partisan rivalry, when the true enemy of the state are but a handful of men at the top. The Nonviolent method helps to blow their cover and bring them to judgement before the public and it is then the hope of the nonviolent practitioner that given the true facts of the matter and appealing to their sympathetic and empathetic connections among all human beings, for we are all more alike than we are different, that the populous will side against the injustice and simply by numeration defeat the oppressor at once.
While this method contains some merit, it is still rooted in the hope of an oppressor class to save an oppressed class, which given the history of privileged oppressor classes may only make sense in theory and the hope for common altruism among the human species. Malcolm X saw the approach as entirely inappropriate and out of priority to the needs of Blacks who were continuing to suffer by depending on Whites for anything. Those who have served you poison from the beginning have nothing good or nourishing to offer you, Malcolm ardently believed. In this, Malcolm not only served as a prosecuting attorney against White Supremacy, in order to break free from its abuse altogether, he called for the need of Blacks to rediscover their rich and powerful identity and heritage pre-colonialism and begin doing for themselves things by which they can, ought to and by right should be doing instead of depending on the so-called “White Devil” who has nothing good for them. He believed we should educate ourselves on ourselves and our powerful place in human history, that we should transcend Paganistic Christianity and return to our ancestral conceptions and relations to the Divine which predates and informs Christian philosophy. He believed that we should practice cultural nepotism, just as any cultural minority does in our country and through it though smaller are prospering ahead of Black Americans. He believed that we should also begin producing for our own needs instead of continuing to use other people’s stuff and thereby giving up our monetary power to the very people who oppress us.
Now what is startling to many is that Malcolm X’s philosophy is actually the other half of Gandhi’s philosophy. Non-Participation is a very important part of the Gandhian Nonviolent program. In order to break India’s dependence on British textiles for clothing, he taught Indians how to spin their own spools of yarn and make their own clothes called “Khadi” and sell it to their own. Through this and the majority of the Indian population, he was able to bring India’s income back home to its own people and out of the hands of Great Britain. He did the same with the market of salt. Indian shores were rich in mineral deposits and Gandhi saw no need in dealing with the British in order to use such an important commodity which could be easily found in their own backyards made by Indian hands. Salt was used to give food flavor and pickle and preserve food in areas which had no refrigeration not widespread in India in the early 20th century, the time of Gandhi’s career (1894-1948). Thus salt was heavily tied to the commodity of food itself, a vital necessity. It plays a vital role in water retention in desert areas, provides electrolytes, it helps keep meat from spoiling and produce edible through droughts and famine. In hot areas like India, salt is ranked right under food and water. If economics is the method by which oppression is primarily practiced and perfected, then withdrawing economic support from the oppressor and using it to fortify and stabilize your own welfare is one of the most effective actions an oppressed people can take. Having your own resources to turn to allows the ability to really practice non-participation and the methods of boycotting. You can effectively run away from an abusive household if you have a house of your own to run to. You don’t need to sweat yourself out waiting your oppressor out to come around to their senses. You can really tell them to kiss your… should you be really done with their crap.
The reason we choose James Baldwin, this native son of the Harlem Renaissance as our mascot is because he is the man where both of these philosophies came together in one mind for the cause of Black Folk in the identity of a Black Same-Gender-Loving man. He knew who he was and he wanted for all of us to know who we are. He understood the power of economic protest. His philosophy centered on self-determination for African Americans; to know and connect with our heritage and govern our own community affairs in a self-sufficient and defiant manner. To do this effectively requires the economic infrastructure gained from enterprise, entrepreneurship, intra-commerce and cooperative economics as often practiced by Jews and immigrant communities as a method of survival and preservation of their minority cultures. Baldwin often preached on this in collaboration with Malcolm X. In 1963, James Baldwin alongside Ossie and Ruby Davis, John O. Killens, Odetta, and Louis Lomax formed the Association of Artists for Freedom, which called for a Christmas boycott to protest the church bombing which killed four girls in Birmingham, Alabama, and asked that, instead of buying gifts, people make Christmas contributions to civil rights organizations. In 1968, Baldwin signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Baldwin thoroughly understood the power of the dollar and its effective uses in the fight for social justice and the causes of minority groups.
It is our hope that through The Baldwin Project that we will finally be able to accelerate toward that critical mass understanding of what James Baldwin understood and bring about that boiling point revolution which can and will be executed without malice but with the power of self-reliance. And when this is done, the influence of the Black SGL-LGBTQ leadership and involvement can not and will not be erased from the history and narrative of the liberation and establishment of the descendents of the African Diaspora. This is our intent and direction and it all comes together in the legacy of James Baldwin, to project the legacy of James Baldwin forward. May we pick up his baton and carry it to the next stage. We feel the best way to honor his legacy is to carry it forward and not antiquate him and what he stood for into a bronze statue but to make it live and breathe in 2016 and beyond. He ain’t done with us yet. May his ghost oversee, bless and guide our work. Ase’
To really get a sense of the mind of James Arthur Baldwin, take the time to view this video of Baldwin at his best debating how The American Dream has been accomplished at the expense of the American Negro.
