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Help a Brotha Out
By Sistah Dr.Safisha Nzingha Hill
How many times have you encountered another
brotha or sista who always has their hand out to you, who barely knows
you, and who is always wanting you to give them something, or break them
off a piece of something. Often it seems that some of us, who do
business with us, always wants us to wait on our payment for services
rendered, but will make sure that they pay Mr. Charlie faithfully on the
1st and on the 15th of each month. These same brothas and sistas who ask
us to work with them, cause “times are a little hard”, never would even
dream of asking Charlie to do the same.
It puzzles me why we are more eager to stay in good graces with Charlie,
and dis Brotha Jamal, and Sista Keisha. We will wholehearted support
Charlie by spending our last little money with him, even if it means
going across town, while passing right by Brotha Jamal, who purposely
established his business in our community, expecting to do business with
us. Then we have the nerve to use up our breath saying ”what a shame it
is that so many Black owned businesses are going under” , yet, continue
to drive right pass the black owned business to the others., apparently
thinking the water is colder on the other side of the track.
The bold faced truth is that Black businesses go under because Black
folk fail to support them. A real sista said to me the other day, that
she had once thought of opening a dollar store in the community, but
added that she would not hire Black folk, but instead would hire Asians
and Hispanics. Her reasons for this:, because she wanted her business to
survive and strive, and she understood that Asians would see other
Asians, and support the business, Hispanics would see other Hispanics
and support the business, , but unfortunately, if Black folks saw other
Black folks, the business may fail.
We have to chance our priorities and get right. We know that when we
loan out money to friends and family, that we expect to get paid back
when payday rolls back around. We do not and should not have to stand in
line behind Charlie waiting and waiting. We need to be grateful to those
who do “hook us up” when we really need a hook up, but we also must be
mindful and considerate enough to pay a brotha or sista back, before
driving across town to indulge in Charlies stuff. We need to be
committed to supporting our brothas and sistas in the same manner that
we would want them to support us. We also need to stop seeking out
Charlie for our cultural needs, such as going to him to buy books
written by Black authors, when we know that we can go right up the
street to Black Images and not only get the books we need, but also the
honor of being in a historical icon in the black community.
Sometimes, the reasons for asking, “can you help a brotha out” are
valid, because we all know times are a little hard, for many if not for
most of us. So if we know that times are hard for us, we ought to also
know that times are hard for the other brothas and sistas who run their
own businesses. We might even consider that others, besides us, are
asking the same…Can you help a brother out? What we need to do, is turn
this around…and become the one who does the helping.
Remember the African American saying, “ you get back what you give out”,
and never forget, The Struggle Continues, for the good of the people. |
