Speaker: To succeed, blacks must own businesses

By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The key to enduring success for black Americans is economic empowerment through business ownership, a noted author told an audience at Youngstown State University.
"If you own some jobs, you can give them to your children. Right now, we're borrowing jobs," said James E. Clingman of Cincinnati, author of the book titled "Blackonomics" and of a syndicated weekly column bearing that name that appears in about 200 newspapers nationally.
Clingman, whose column appears locally in The Buckeye Review, was one of an ongoing series of Black History Month speakers at the university. About 75 people attended his lecture Monday in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center.
"We have much to do and most of the work that we have to do is grounded in economic empowerment. Until we not only understand that but act upon it, we're always going to be left behind," Clingman said. "We have to fight. This is a fight, and it's not against anyone. It's for yourselves," he told the audience, urging them to visit his Web site blackonomics.com.
"It's more than just having the audacity of hope. We need the audacity of work. We need the audacity of resolve and commitment and dedication and the audacity to have a black consciousness that says, 'I'm going to do my part with whatever resources I have to help my people.' That's what you've got to do," he said. ["The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" is the title of a book by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama , D-Ill.]
Here's the problem
Black Americans have 800 billion in aggregate income and own 1,197,000 businesses, most of them sole proprietorships. But black-owned American businesses employ only 753,000 people and have gross annual receipts of less than 100 billion, he said. "What does that say about our stewardship? It says we are just like the Children of Israel, looking to spend our money on golden calves, instead of building the tabernacle -- the tabernacle of economic empowerment," he observed.
"We're not going to have any capital if we don't own any capital assets," he told the largely black audience. The key to economic empowerment is ownership and control of wealth-generating assets, he said.
But Clingman also said, "Black people are hurting in this country, not just because of finances, but because of mistreatment, discrimination and prejudice, but I also understand that we can't let it stop us in our tracks." Black people can't stop racism, "but we have to do some things in spite of it," he said.
Clingman, whose lecture coincided with Presidents Day, said he was excited about the presidential candidacy of Obama, but he warned his audience against getting "sidetracked" by what he termed "Obama drama.'' It's too early for black people to devote most of their attention to the presidential race, he said.
"I'm not saying we shouldn't play in politics, but we should play to win, not just to play," he said. "We need to concentrate a whole lot more on economic empowerment than we have done over the last 40 to 45 years," Clingman said.