Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)

Hello World,

Today is Tuesday, December 29th 2009. I am celebrating the forth day of Kwanzaa and preparing for a great year in 2010. As I reflect on the meaning of the principle of Ujamaa (oo-jah-ma), cooperative economics, I remind others of a city in Oklahoma that was destroyed on June 21, 1921. This city embodied the definition of Ujamaa, to build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. This city is Greenwood, Oklahoma. A suburb of Tulsa, Greenwood gained national respect during the years of the oil boom of 1910 by gaining the nickname "Black Wall Street." There were many businesses in Greenwood that supported the population of approximately 10,000 african american settlers. Everything from barber shops, banks, clothing stores to realtors, doctors, lawyers and grocery stores all African American owned and operated. Ironically, there is no other time in history that African Americans had cooperative economics so perfectly cohesive than the years of 1910 up until 1921. Some agrue that today we have many organizations that support the cooperative economics of black people and that African Americans spend billions of dollars per year as consumers in America today. Needless to say, after reading and researching on this matter I concur with the critics. Even with the collaspe of the United States economy in Q3 2008, African Americans still spend $723 billion annually as consumers with fast food and entertainment toping the list. Furthermore, the number of African American millionaires has sky rocketed since 1921 with business persons like Robert Johnson, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods just to name a few. However, in comparing the wealth of today's millionaries and the impact of the cooperative economics of Greenwood, Oklahoma. You must be aware of the era. These settlers were first generation decendants of run away slaves. They had their religion and their families and were given the opportunity to live the American dream. Not until the Klu Klux Klan rioted the city on that lonely day in 1921 did the dream turn into a nightmare for thousands and the city has never recovered to date.