“Will Black America be DOA Because of Our Starting Point Problem?”

Purpose: This brief essay provides an explanation for Black America’s failure to improve our relative socioeconomic position in the US since the 1960s. It hearkens back to our early February 2026 Analysis Brief, “History, SPPs, LPs, and H-to-M.” Here, we emphasize and elaborate the SPP (Starting Point Problem). When our SPP is addressed properly, then Black America’s prospects for success (however defined) rise sharply.

Background

We urge reconsideration of the Analyis Brief mentioned in the “purpose” statement, and we begin with an excerpt from it:

We must have a winners’ mindset that says we are “better” than the rest because we have more than endured the most onerous of tests and have not only survived, but have thrived also….We have more of a right to win, to be successful, than the rest because we are better prepared than the rest.

The reference to “the most onerous of tests” refers to Black America’s over 400-year-long undeclared war with our oppressors—White America. Yes, we have thrived, but we have left a tremendous amount of progress and increased wellbeing on the table. The just-described result is mainly the product of our urgency and zealousness to prove that we are the best. However, this attitude of “being the best” was not and—even today—is not founded on a proper and scientific foundation. It derives from the so-called Willie Lynch syndrome. Irrespective of its authenticity, it is common knowledge that the Willie Lynch “divide and conquer” scheme has been implemented successfully too many times to mention—irrespective of the racial or ethnic group involved. But Black America has been the most receptive group to this insidious strategy because we were late arrivals to the knowledge of it and about how to counteract it. Black remains guilty of disunity that is driven by our differences and the instinct to prioritize and operationalize the fundamental first law of nature, “self-preservation.”

Although we have collaborated with other grassroots thinkers during the past four years to develop and initiate implementation of a Long-Term Strategic Plan for Black America (LTSPFBA), the sad fact is that this important volume dedicates meager space to this fundamental building block idea that can help ensure, if not guarantee, Black America’s success. How could this be? Even third graders know from their occasional fisticuffs that: “Where the head goes, the body follows!”

Imagine a group of audacious minds with perfect intent overlooking a fundamental requirement to devote significant space to “renewal of our minds” while developing plans for a very important transformational effort. In this case, the effort involves undertaking implementation of an up to a 100-year-long strategic plan to elevate Black America to a state of wellbeing that we (not others) define and that lifts us to a “top of the world” status. The reality is that we did not overlook this requirement, we simply “assumed” that all parties engaged in the effort would comprehend the need for mind renewal, and that it would occur organically during implementation of the LTSPFBA. We failed to see that unless and until our minds are rewired or reprogrammed to recognize the essentiality of our uplift and we are fully committed to achieving it, then little-to-no-effort would go forth to implement the LTSPFBA.

If mind renewal is crucial to Black America’s progress and success, then what are the key elements and strategies for renewing our minds? Before outlining key components/elements of a mind renewal program, we cast that program in a broader context so that those who undertake the mind renewal effort will comprehend well the reasons for implementing an upliftment effort and why mind renewal program is key to the success of that upliftment.

Reasons for a Black American Upliftment Effort and a Related Mind Renewal Program

I. A Mind Renewal Program (see Part III below).

II. Selected Reasons that Motivate Black American Upliftment

• An inquiry into the true nature of the Civil War.
• Ante bellum developments, including slave rebellions and offers by US officials that could have placed Black Americans in much improved positions after the Civil War.
• Black leadership’s failures during the Reconstruction Era that precipitated its short-lived history.
• Evidence of actions during the Jim Crow Era that were devastating for Black America, including the roles of key Black American Legacy organizations that produced observed outcomes during the era and thereafter.
• Acceptance of “Integration” as a strategic response to the 1960s “Burn Baby Burn.”
• Acceptance of 1960s Civil Rights and subsequent legislation that included nomenclature and sunset clauses or phaseout periods that hamstrung Black America’s socioeconomic development and rise.

III. A Mind Renewal Program: Selected Components and Related Criteria.

• While religion is often characterized as a philosophy with a set of laws, rules, principles, and practices, we define religion as: “One’s way of life or pattern of living.” There is no reason the latter cannot be informed by multiple philosophical systems as opposed to being constrained to just one system. Whether the religious philosophy(ies) that is adopted is singular or multifaceted, the following criteria should be imposed:
  • Black Americans’ “Religion(s)” can be determined individually or collectively.
  • It would be advantageous to have a new “Holy Book” prepared by Black Americans as a foundation for our religion.
  • At a minimum, our Holy Book should provide guidance for all major and as many minor anticipated “life events” as possible.
  • It is reasonable that the Holy Book should be based on a set of pillars (as in the five pillars of the Islamic Tradition) with special emphasis on: (1) Birth, life, and death; (2) governance; (3) health (to include diet, exercise regimens, and other health-related requirements); (4) education; (5) economics; and (6) social benefits.iii
  • A literary work that summarizes crucial aspects of all important religions of the world.

• Education that features a set of curriculums that cover the following topics that are designed to assist Black Americans in achieving our uplift:
  • Study of preferred socioeconomic, technological, and judicial systems that stand to produce the most favorable outcomes for Black Americans.
  • The study of African People’s contributions to Eastern and Western World history, science, and culture that familiarizes Black Americans with our ancient and recent past, and Black People’s great science and cultural traditions that are and are not reflected in this history. Obviously, we should acknowledge that our historical greatness waned and explain the cause of this demise/collapse.
  • Study of a White Supremacist Religion’s (Christianity) role in our oppression, through its literature, music, clergy, etc.
  • Study of religions and of the range of religious concepts and principles that can assist in our rise.
  • Study of the Black religious, educational, sports, and entertainment elite, who were aware of the need for our mind renewal, but made little effort to motivate a transformation of our minds required to produce our upliftment.
  • Study of the media with a focus on racial/ethnic stereotypes (sexual, sports, entertainment, academic, and industrial) within all media genres (broadcast, print, cinema, and digital via the Internet); the latter’s pernicious and egregiously adverse effects on Black Americans; and an analysis of current and future methods that can eliminate and mitigate the adverse impacts of racial/ethnic stereotypes.
  • Study of how Black America’s political elite leverage the Black vote for their empowerment and enrichment by not challenging their Political Parties on critical issues, and who enriched themselves through contributions from special interest groups that support anti-Black legislation.
  • Study of how DuBois School adherents of Black American education advocated for the near exclusive nonproductive (vocational) education of Black Americans that has rendered us dependent and beholding to other non-Black American and immigrant groups concerning very important economic aspects of our lives. For the past thirty-to-forty years, these educators have called mainly for growth in the number of Black American scholars in STEM [Science, Technology (including artificial intelligence (AI)), Engineering, and Mathematics] and Robotics fields and ignored the especially important requirement for Black American expertise in vocational fields.
  • Study of how a long-term strategic plan that requires training of young and old Black Americans in the leadership, psychological, cultural, genetic, economic/industrial, and political/government sciences that prepares us to adopt correct strategies to achieve our goals and sustain ourselves for a favorable long-term future.

Conclusion

If you have an additional moment to spare, then we urge you to review the previous two pages again. We make this recommendation because the information that is provided can become free-setting truth. In addition, your knowledge of this truth should impose upon you a responsibility to use it to assist in Black America’s uplift. Importantly, all Black Americans should comprehend that it is insufficient to read or know the content of this essay. Rather, it is essential that we inculcate this information and obtain and review other such submissions that provide guidance on how to effect the proper transformation of the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of Black America’s development.

As you review and undertake implementation of the guidance discussed herein, we recommend that you designate and operationalize the following as top priority behavioral changes:

• Intensify practices (religious or otherwise) known to promote Black America’s development.iv
• Read and study more—being careful to not use what we learn to upset any elements or components of current “apple carts” until appropriate replacement elements/components are identified.

Finally, we request that you extend due consideration to the following two questions: (1) Is the Black American problem essentially a Black American problem in light of the reality that “We Get What We Accept”? and (2) “Do you concur that, unless we resolve our SPP by transforming/renewing our minds in preparation for undertaking a long-term strategic plan to produce our own uplift, then we will not have installed a proper and solid foundation for that uplift?”