Bitcoin in the Hood: How we gone win if we ain’t right within?
Back story. The US government has systematically and with great consistency depressed the very unction of Black people to grow wealth. The systems and patterns are so entrenched that the people working in those systems today don’t even recognize the game. They are unwitting bystanders doing the bidding of White folk, their fathers, brothers, cousins and uncles who are long since met their maker. This occurs in every aspect of our life whether it’s employment, health care, education, finance, on down to family & community. Today, I want to focus attention on community. Our neighborhoods.
I’ve worked in community development and urban planning for well over 20 years. What I witness on the daily is the people in power relating the condition of the Black community, the ghetto, to the behavior of the Black people in them. There are Black people, professionals, also working in the space who believe the same thing, unwittingly. They too are unwitting bystanders doing the work of long-gone White folk. This line of reasoning is rhetoric designed to keep the Black masses in one mindset. Daunted, defeated, depressed and soon destroyed. While allowing the chosen few who somehow escape the ghetto, to play in the sandbox as long as they follow the rules.
The fact of the matter is this. The power center of White America has only one imagination, which yields only a system of oppression of everything and everyone that threatens said power center. This is the foundation of every decision and policy made across all spectrums, even when it might appear to be for our good. Black America has been coexisting for the continued benefit of our labor as an underpinning to the wealth of White Americans. The existence stays stuck on zero. We are merely surviving and rarely ever graduate to actually thriving.
The primary way to disrupt this pattern is to uncloak the veil of deceit that shapes our understanding of ourselves. We need to educate each other about the truth of American capitalism that’s based on an aristocracy and not democracy. We need to get off the sidelines and use what we got to get what we want. It will only be if we do it. That should be painfully but obviously clear by now.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein clearly documents that the condition of the Black community is the direct product of the explicit intent (in writing) by the US government, to economically enslave Black Americans through institutional redlining of mortgage loans that shaped and forced segregation patterns, refusals to provide mortgage financing that kept families in perpetual financial distress and subject to the whims of White property owners, refusal to provide homeowner insurance and the devaluing of property owned by or lived in by Blacks. No matter your profession, this is a must-read book to understand the historical and systemic racism that continues to destroy Black communities today.
Yes, it continues today. There are Blacks who experience lower property appraisals because the appraiser based his/her findings on the customer was being Black while residing in a property. That is the only factor in the value reduction as seen by testing the same property with pretend White owners. Magically the valuation goes up 2 or 3 times. The insurance rates are disproportionately high in communities where many Black people live. The mortgage rates in these areas, if provided at all, are also much higher than rates for White homeowners. This issue will not disappear or remedy by more government programs. I’ve been waiting over 20 years for it to happen and it still ain’t coming.
The government programs have a way of extracting more out of the community they claim to invest in. White-owned businesses come into the neighborhoods from the suburbs, do shoddy work while charging a premium for just entering the “dangerous area.” Therefore it seems like even with millions and millions of dollars flowing to these neighborhoods, decade after decade of government funding, the neighborhoods somehow keep declining.
They keep declining because the racist education system keeps dumbing down our kids, the limited employment options keep our mentality dependent on minimum wage in service of, and they give us no messages about money except that we are not worthy of being given more. The setup is always they control the kitty, and we are with hands out asking for a piece. Funny how we’ve never been privy to the US capitalism system handbook or manual? It’s not taught in school because one of us escapees might actually put our people on game. No, it’s taught at their kitchen table so that they equip their descendants from a young age to continue the family wealth and the practice of oppression.
Ok, so where am I going with this rant? My understanding of this background is why I’m excited about the actual freedom the Black community can gain for the first time in our history on these shores. We have amassed many escapees that are working or educated in real estate, finance, construction and development just to name a few. What we haven’t done is work as a collective. With all that we know and have today, there is no reason we couldn’t take our neighborhoods back to a time when we owned every business within them. When we were educating our own kids and caring for everybody else’s kids too. When we were passionate about our work and skill sets and eagerly passing it on to new generations. When we were house proud and had the cleanest streets in town.
What I hope to be a catalyst for is the introduction to amass and deploy bitcoin assets in a way that we become the only bank we need within our own collective for everything we need a bank to do. That we buy and hold all the neighborhood real estate in a Black owned trust and not the White banks. Trusts that spin off dividends to the collective for generations so that we have our own basic income level for everyone. That no one needs to go outside our community for better opportunities because we are creating them inside of it. That we are sending our kids to strong HBCUs for education, and they are coming back home to extend that knowledge, whether entrepreneurs, or doctors working in local hospitals, lawyers, judges, real estate moguls, teachers, dentists and every other business we need to thrive as a population. Where we operate on each one can teach one, but for real.
I can imagine a Black neighborhood where no one wants to leave because it has everything we need and everyone we love right there within. Where everyone who wants to be employed is, and is investment savvy, every entrepreneur is thriving, every artist is blossoming, every talent finds expression and nourishment within our community. Where we honor our elders and center them with the love and dignity they deserve, not withering away in a cold nursing home. And we do it from within ya’ll. No strings needed. Just the collective.
In my 2nd career of sorts, I want to learn more about how to use the emerging technologies and financing structures that are possible with every bitcoin owner controlling his/her own bank. This is the foundation of real freedom for the Black collective. There will come a time, as with everything, when just the lucky few who got early access to bitcoin can actually have their own piece. Before we know it, the circulation and fee structure will become unattainable for the many. More than ever, we need to spread this word about buying bitcoin to our people. That’s why I’m a staunch supporter of the Black Bitcoin Billionaires group. We do it for the culture. There’s nothing better than that.
If you have questions you want answered simply, or if you want to see a specific bitcoin topic covered, please shoot an email to love@cryptosoulfood.com.
CryptoSoulFood is a new convert, bitcoiner and hodler. In true fashion, I want to show the truth and the light and share it with anyone who feels me on that. I especially want to affect the Black community by helping to find wealth building tips and providing tricks to access those solutions. Whether it’s how to get down-payment help to buy a home or how to pay off debts to make room to build your bitcoin stash, I’m here for it. But make no mistake, I am NOT a financial advisor and in fact; I need one! I write to edu-tain you on the cool stuff that I come across.
Article photo credit: (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)Win McNamee