i thought about the responses i would get to this issue and was really siding with the economic empowerment route. matter of fact, when i think of myself personaly, the ONLY reason i'm in the field i'm in right now is because of the amount of money i can generate and how the connects i have can make a difference over the next 10-20 years in the industries...

solarus always says " you can't teach a hungry child, you have to feed him before delivering the message." the situation of my people would be BETTER with economic strength but in looking at the situations that we globally have to deal with as far as the adoption of this "capitalistic culture", there is much more to be addressed...and this is what my concern is, and what i got from the path Booker T. Washington was taking. Perhaps the economic empowerment sought was in its infant stages in which the Negroes HAD to assimilate, but because of the resurgence of Afrikan (or shall we say, more balanced/BETTER) ways of doing things, i think we have a lot more options.

In the book _Black Economics_ (i'll get the author later) the writer speaks of the collective pulling of money much like foreign gruops that start businesses here. The focus was on afrikan systems of peopel pulling their resources and directing it towards one members' venture and going around the circle with each member, effectively keeping the money in the community and continuing communal traditions.

We could go on and on about how black people have adopted american ways of spending and materialism, but i feel that the economic success should not be gained at the expense of solving some of the problems associated with the economic successes associated with europeans here. Otherwise the cycle starts again. But i feel you, we are still early in development.