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PROJECT 2019 |
PROJECT 2019 MENU
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The Black Media
The black media can be heroes of Project 2019. Black media ownership is miniscule
in comparison to the size of black America’s population. Even so, black
media – together with white owned media—has an inordinate influence
on black Americans. A case in point is black music videos.
Prior to the emergence of broadcast media and the modern American life style,
the black print media was a mainstay of black America. As has always been the
case, the white print media still dwarfs the black print media. Even so, the
black print media continues to be extremely relevant and influential by virtue
of the information that it provides and the manner in which that information
is presented to black Americans.
Black Americans currently own about two percent of all television and radio
stations. However, including black programming by white owned television and
radio stations, the overall impact of broadcast media on black America is enormous.
And, without question, black radio is today the medium with the greatest impact
on black America.
Although the number of black owned and black format radio stations may be small,
almost the same percentage of black Americans listens to these fewer black stations
as the percentage of white Americans who listen to the more numerous white stations.
Black radio reaches the vast majority of black Americans, either directly or
indirectly, on an almost daily basis.
Black radio has the capability to introduce and sustain the Project 2019 Movement
more so than any other mass communications tool available to the black community.
In addition to Project 2019 promotions and contests, black radio can help to
ensure the success of Project 2019 by continuously reminding black America of
the name, the purpose, and the progress of Project 2019.
Black Churches
Black churches can be heroes of Project 2019 just as they were heroes of the
Civil Rights Movement and other positive social changes. Most black churches
already have an education ministry or programs that are intended to encourage
or assist in the education of their children. Therefore, they need only to incorporate
the purpose and the spirit of Project 2019 into their existing programs. Many
people believe there should be more, not less, religion in American schools.
It is certainly just as appropriate that black churches put greater emphasis
on education and knowledge.
During the Slavery era, it was argued that a slave should be allowed to learn
to read so that he might read the Bible. It was decided that the possibility
of the slave losing his soul was not worth the risk that he might read something
that would make him unhappy with his station in life. Today, black churches
have the opportunity to both save souls and to help black Americans improve
their station in life.
Black Organizations And Institutions
Black institutions and national, state, and community organizations should be
heroes of Project 2019. Indeed, institutions and organizations whose primary
mission involves the educating of black Americans should enthusiastically embrace
Project 2019. The list includes black colleges and universities, the United
Negro College Fund and other large and small scholarship funds. This list also
includes the many large and small teaching, tutoring, and mentoring organizations
and programs all across America.
Introducing the purpose and the spirit of Project 2019 to those who are served
by these organizations and institutions will pay incredible dividends. The purpose,
the reasons, and the rationales for Project 2019 will provide inspiration and
motivation for those who are seeking education and knowledge. Project 2019 will
also create a sense of unity of purpose for all such like-minded black Americans.
This is especially important for black children and youths. Every black youth
who can be convinced that he “belongs with Project 2019,” lessens
the possibility that he will be convinced that he should “belong to a
gang.” Project 2019 will also produce a sense of higher purpose for those
who are seeking success. As a result, those who are inspired, motivated, and
assisted by Project 2019 will understand the need to give back to the community
that contributed to their success.
Black organizations whose primary mission does not involve education should
also embrace Project 2019. A number of them already have an education component
as part of their mission statement. These organizations should incorporate Project
2019 or simply make Project 2019 their education mission.
Black Athletes And Entertainers
Black entertainers and professional athletes can and should be heroes of Project
2019. Whether they like it or not, they are role models for most young, as well
as many older, black Americans. The definition of “role model” is
“a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others.”
Note that it is not the “person” who chooses to be, or chooses not
to be, imitated by others. It is the “others” who, for better or
worse, choose the role model and, more importantly, chooses which roles to imitate.
This is the reason parents can not successfully raise their children by simply
telling them to “do as I say, not as I do.” It is also the reason
that entertainers and sports celebrities can not simply say “buy my music
or the products that I endorse but ignore the fact that I abuse my family or
that I do drugs.”
Of course, everyone has options. If you want to avoid being a role model, then
you should not have children. You should also attempt to live a very quiet,
very private life. This will lessen the possibility of others imitating your
behavior. But, whatever you do, do not become a well-known entertainer or a
star athlete. As an unavoidable consequence of your success and fame, there
will be children who will choose to imitate your behavior – behavior that
may or may not have anything to do with your art or sport.
Black artist and athletes must realize that they are not being paid to just
sing, act, or shoot a basketball. They are being paid to make little boys and
girls think they want to “be like Mike” and to convince their parents
to buy them a CD or a particular brand of athletic shoes.
Black entertainers and professional athletes can also become heroes of Project
2019 by explaining to black children the realities of the sports and the entertainment
fields. They can testify that the road to becoming a superstar athlete or entertainer
is littered with the broken bodies and the broken dreams of hundreds of thousands
of young black Americans who were competing for jobs that number only in the
thousands. They can explain to them that the odds of becoming a success in America
are thousands of times greater if they spend two hours every day reading and
studying than if they spend two hours a day playing basketball.
Black recording and performing artists and others in the entertainment field
can also use their celebrity status to promote and support Project 2019. More
importantly, they can use the power of their art to further the cause of Project
2019. Considering the interest that could be generated by the subject matter
as well as the nobility of the cause, it should not be a difficult challenge
to create and produce interesting and exciting movies, plays, and songs with
educating black Americans as a major theme.
Black Professionals
Black professionals must be heroes of Project 2019 by providing the business
and technical expertise that will be required to make Project 2019 a success.
The knowledge and the skills of black professionals, from teachers to judges
and from politicians to publishers, will be essential in every phase of the
movement. The expertise of black professionals can also be provided directly
to young black Americans in the form of tutoring and mentoring. If every black
architect, accountant, attorney, banker, doctor, engineer, and so forth were
to tutor and mentor just one black child, it would go a long way towards making
Project 2019 a success.
Black professionals, more so than any other segment of the black population,
should step forward and support Project 2019. They have taken the path that
Project 2019 declares to be the best path – the path of formal education
– and they have succeeded as a result of it. They should be the role models
for young black Americans.
Clearly, black professionals are by far the most successful segment of the black
population. Their lives are obvious and irrefutable proof that “the system
works.” And their success is one of the best arguments that can be made
for one of Project 2019’s major assertions – knowledge is power
and knowledge, as a product of formal education, can save black America.
Black Families
Black families must be heroes of Project 2019. Indeed, the contributions of
other heroes of Project 2019 will be severely limited without the support of
black families. The family has always been the backbone of human civilization
and it remains so today. Black families must certainly be the backbone of Project
2019 because the family unit is where children get their values, develop character,
and where they look to for various forms of support. More importantly, the family
is where children begin their education and develop long lasting attitudes regarding
education.
Education must start early for every black child. Black parents should begin
reading to their children while they are still in the womb and they should read
to them when they are infants and toddlers. All black families should establish
a daily “home study period.” There should be a consistent time in
the evening when the television and video games are turned off and the entire
family spends time together on academic pursuits, above and beyond a student’s
daily homework. It has been said that, “a family that prays together,
stays together.” It can also be said that, “a family that learns
together, succeeds together.”
The importance of education must be stressed in every black family. “You
must get a good education if you want to be successful” is a message that
can be heard in many black American homes. This should be a mantra in the home
of every black child in America. “You must get a good education if you
want to be successful.” It should be repeated morning, noon, and night
and parents should take every possible opportunity to convince their children
that it is a fact.
Parents must take an active interest in their children’s homework, test
grades, and final grades. They should insist on excellence and not allow their
children to settle for mediocrity. For parents who truly love their children
and want them to have a better life, there is no better way to demonstrate this
than to insist on straight “A’s” from kindergarten through
college.
All Black Americans
Finally, each and every black American has the potential and the opportunity
to be a hero of Project 2019. The oldest, the youngest, and everyone in between
has a role to play. The most educated and the least educated can contribute
to the cause. The most affluent and the poorest black Americans can make a difference.
All black Americans can be heroes of Project 2019 by taking the time to understand
the movement, taking a stand by supporting the movement, and demonstrating their
faith by living the movement. All that is required is pride in the unique heritage
of black Americans and the desire to pass this black pride on to our children,
grandchildren, and all future generations of black Americans.
What Is The Missing Ingredient…?
In terms of educational infrastructure, black America has what it needs to reach
educational parity with the rest of America. Black Americans have access to
public schools, almost all of which are suitable for learning. And most of the
schools that are not conducive to learning are not because of unmanageable social
conditions. The reasons are not dilapidated, unheated buildings, woefully unqualified
teachers, or the lack of textbooks. In many parts of the world, children are
willingly and gratefully learning in far worse conditions than are found in
the average inner city classroom.
Even so, there is a pressing need to improve the quality of the schools where
most black children are educated. They are not on a par with schools where most
white and Asian-American children are educated. Currently, these shortcomings
are being addressed on a school by school or school system by school system
basis. This approach will never be as successful as addressing these issues
as part of a national movement by millions of black Americans with a stated
goal of attaining educational parity.
In addition to public schools, black Americans also have access to secular and
religious private schools as well as charter and choice schools. One can even
elect to home-school their children. Black Americans also have access to public
libraries, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet where almost all the knowledge
in the world can be found.
Less than a hundred years ago, many black Americans managed to get an education
when none of the above was true. And they did it in spite of having to walk
for miles to and from school and also having to deal with discrimination and
racial intimidation. But it was true then, just as it is true now, that it is
all about mindset – a passionate desire and a resolute determination to
learn.
By one measure, black America is already doing much of what needs to be done
to reach educational parity with the rest of America. There are many thousands
of organizations that are dedicated to increasing the amount and improving the
quality of education for black Americans. There are thousands and thousands
of tutoring and mentoring programs. Black churches all across America have education
ministries.
Thousands of private sector companies provide educational services and scholarship
money to black Americans. There are many thousands of other large and small
scholarship funds including thousands that were established by black athletes,
entertainers, and other private citizens. And, unlike a hundred years ago, black
Americans are now relentlessly encouraged to get the best education they can
possibly get.
The Synergy Of The Project 2019 Movement
If the infrastructure is in place and there are activities designed to and effort
being made to eliminate the education gap, why is so little progress being made
in black America’s struggle to attain educational parity with the rest
of America? Similar comparisons and questions might well have been asked regarding
black America’s century long struggle for civil rights. The answer came
in the 1950’s and that answer was the Civil Rights Movement.
The potential heroes of Project 2019 are formidable: the black media, black
churches, black organizations and institutions, black athletes and entertainers,
black professionals, black families, and every other black American alive today.
However, the individuals in any one group of heroes are not as formidable as
they would be if all the individuals in the group were working in concert to
accomplish a specific, measurable objective. And all the individual groups of
heroes are not as formidable as they would be if they were all working in concert
to achieve a specific goal by a specified date.
It is this lack of synergy that explains black America’s lack of progress
in reaching educational parity. And the only way to capture and capitalize on
this synergy is as a result of a movement.
Project 2019 is a national movement by black Americans with a major goal of reaching educational parity with the rest of America by the year 2019, the four hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Slavery in America. The heroes of Project 2019 can and will succeed in this monumental endeavor.