Power and Influence:
The Case for Long-Term Strategic Action
Author: Hassan F. Johnson

You may disagree with me, but as a community and a culture, I think African Americans can get caught up on big headline news. Headline news makes you REACT, it makes you feel some strong emotion. It makes you say, “SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS NOW!!!” So much so, that a chemical reaction occurs that can actually be quite debilitating. This limiting chemical reaction occurs in most critical times of communication and is called adrenaline. Adrenaline is great for physical response, but horrible for mental and logical analysis.

Today I decided to go against the grain of reaction and seek to inhibit the adrenaline that we may be feeling right now from the horrible, largely publicized national tragedies, like The Sean Bell Case, Jena 6, The Megan Williams Outrage, Hurricane Katrina, outlandish drug laws that punish the black community multifold, police brutality, and every other societal discrepancy that disproportionately effects black people, and ask that we embrace something less concrete, less pervasive, much more subtle, yet equally or even more lethal. I’m asking that we institute a consistent approach to fighting the horrific circumstances mentioned above, and the ones that are guaranteed to happen in the future if we continue down this road, with a long-term strategic plan to acquire Global POWER AND INFLUENCE through EDUCATION.

Let’s be very clear, this is not a request to stop marching, picketing, boycotting, and protesting. It is a request to start educating, educating, educating, and educating more. This does not mean depend on the public school system to educate us; however, this is highly important and required, but in addition to what the schools are teaching, there actually needs to be a personalized and culturally suitable approach to educating our children, our community, and ourselves. We have to learn beyond the schoolbooks and foster the curiosity within. If you have children, learn with them, encourage their curiosity, answer their questions and push them to find more questions. If you don’t know the answer, find it with them. Learn the process of learning. If you don’t have children, mentor and volunteer in the community to teach them something beyond the public school’s history books. Sharpen you mental tool and learn with them.

To our professional Black men, those of us who have seen the best and brightest and realized that there “ain’t” much of a difference in intelligence at the corporate level. We must mentor other young black men and make them understand that although the hood seems to have them on a one-way highway to jail, they can exit whenever they want to. Then tell them to look up and show them the exit signs. Show them that there are plenty of Black professionals out there who have experienced the same things they have and they can get their with their mind and not necessarily by their bodies. Organize your friends to take them and others some place outside of their neighborhood. Connect with them where they are, and where you used to be, so that they can be encouraged to get to where you are and where you want to be.

If we listen to the headlines, we can be deceived into believing that the fight is an uphill battle. If we look into the future, does the fight seem to get easier or worse? If you think it gets worse, then what are you doing to make it easier. You have to do something, doing nothing is not an option. Comparatively speaking, the situation is extremely frightening, but let’s not let statistics scare us into reaction or no action. Let’s use them to scare us into “systematic pro-action.” Let’s realize that there are still more Black men working to contribute to society, than are in jail. There are still more college aged Black men, in college, than are in jail. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t make a difference, because you are still in the majority; however, if we continue to do nothing, this will change. If you do not speak up then we will become what we see on TV. Without your voice, a young man will actually believe that the only thing he can do is hustle on the streets. Without your intervention, we can be sure that some other more negative, less compassionate force will intervene.

When that happens, you sir - yes you, the future JD who plans to run for political office; you, the medical student, that plans to start your own community practice; you the MBA, that plans on starting your own hedge fund; you, the visionary entrepreneur, that has plans to start your own oil service company. What will happened is that you will have effectively lost one strong voter and supporter who would have understood your background and could have passionately communicated it to others; you will have essentially lost your best patient that you could have talked football, recounted basketball, and debated hip-hop with; you will have lost your first hedge fund investor that would have had global connections to high net-worth individuals eager to support your dream with their bank accounts; you will have lost your future Chief Operating Officer, that not only would have understood your vision, but would have lived it. But most importantly my successful comrades, you will have lost your little brother.

In America and in the new Global Economy, it’s pretty simple, if you don’t have power and influence, you don’t have much. More specifically, in America, you will be victimized, brutalized, disenfranchised, and “expatriatized” because you don’t have a say in what happens to you. You will be shuffled under a rug called jail, so that you are forgotten and stepped over while America gets on with the fight to continue its global dominance, and make no mistake about it this is a fight. The people who change the laws, enforce the laws, lobby for the passing of bills, influence policy, create and eliminate jobs, move companies overseas, bankrupt, restructure, and acquire big businesses, in most cases don’t look like us.

The elders of our community fought a much harder battle than we have today, yet for some reason, we want to throw away their work by not passing on the blessing of being an American. Let’s not allow the dream to be lost, let’s not allow the television and radio to define us. Let’s define ourselves. Let’s stop surviving and start winning. Let’s start owning and creating. Let’s acquire and retain power and influence. Let’s be EDUCATED.

If you have additional questions, concerns or comments feel free to contact me personally