Community changes
Sometimes it seem to me that in the efforts to achieve an equilibrium in wealth distribution between the races in the states we as black people are losing sight of traditional values that mean more than money. I'm not saying we shouldn't work to have the same opportunities, learn money management, investment, and business management I just think that they shouldn't be placed above love of family, extended support systems within our communities and an understanding of what it means to be truly successful.
In times past often due to necessity we as a community knew the value of communal living, of spreading our work and our riches among our loved ones related or not. We did not embrace the rhetoric of individualism. We had a better grasp on the fact that knowing a trade was laudable, not something to be disdained. We understood how important people at all stages of life were to the entire community. Having cousins and grandparents living with you and close to you meant young children could be cared for, and no one person was responsible for everything, duties were handed by ability and inclination thus minimizing the amount of people doing work they were ill suited to.
Oefforts not to romantize the past should be made, we also had members of our communities who left as soon as they could and when possible disavowed any connection with us. I think every family has stories of relatives who passed not for the betterment of their families as a whole but for their own purposes. However that was not seen as the thing to do. Now we have people being applauded for cutting ties with their communities because it shows they made good.
I guess the biggest thing I remember is that overall money was not seen as a reward unto itself but as a tool. You could and should enjoy it but t there was an understanding that you owed it not to others but to yourself to invest in family and community in ways that surpassed writing a check. The black community isn't the only one who has been undergoing these kinds of changes but it's the one I am a part of so I feel it more keenly. I can only hope I've conveyed to my children that money isn't everything but love is.
In times past often due to necessity we as a community knew the value of communal living, of spreading our work and our riches among our loved ones related or not. We did not embrace the rhetoric of individualism. We had a better grasp on the fact that knowing a trade was laudable, not something to be disdained. We understood how important people at all stages of life were to the entire community. Having cousins and grandparents living with you and close to you meant young children could be cared for, and no one person was responsible for everything, duties were handed by ability and inclination thus minimizing the amount of people doing work they were ill suited to.
Oefforts not to romantize the past should be made, we also had members of our communities who left as soon as they could and when possible disavowed any connection with us. I think every family has stories of relatives who passed not for the betterment of their families as a whole but for their own purposes. However that was not seen as the thing to do. Now we have people being applauded for cutting ties with their communities because it shows they made good.
I guess the biggest thing I remember is that overall money was not seen as a reward unto itself but as a tool. You could and should enjoy it but t there was an understanding that you owed it not to others but to yourself to invest in family and community in ways that surpassed writing a check. The black community isn't the only one who has been undergoing these kinds of changes but it's the one I am a part of so I feel it more keenly. I can only hope I've conveyed to my children that money isn't everything but love is.
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