Let’s designate “Black Moms Can Day” every 1st Sunday in February as one of the major kick-offs for Black History Month.
This day will be a tribute to all Black moms for being the lifeline of our intergenerational existence, past and present. The mother of mankind. Truly known by many but unknown to the world. For the masses of Black Americans there is no teaching or rite of passage that allows you to honor and immortalize the creator of our existence. It wasn’t until later in life that I had the opportunity to look back and realize that Black women were placed on this earth to shape and guide our lives forever.
Today millions of Black moms are struggling for survival and trying to raise children in some of the worst social and economic conditions we have ever known in the richest nation in the world. I was forced to step back after 30 years of living, working, and implementing programs in the Black community to face the reality that Black Americans are spiraling deeper into poverty. Case in point: the homeownership gap between Black and White Americans is larger today than it was 50 years ago, before the Fair Housing Act was even passed. In fact, the wage gap between Black and White workers is also significantly wider now than it was in 2000, according to the Pew Research Center (2018), Black households have 10 cents in wealth for every dollar held by White households.
For over a half century we’ve witnessed “War on Poverty” programs fade from one administration to the next. Black Americans should know by now that policies or government initiatives will not create economic equality. We live in a competitive racist society. If you are unable to compete at a high marketable level and you are Black, you are destined to become part of the permanent underclass. According to the Institute for Policy Studies (2018), if the Wealth Divide is left unaddressed median Black household wealth is on the path to $0 by 2053.
Realizing that many Black families are already at $0 wealth, the Black Moms Can Day is a national initiative and a reminder that we’re not going to sleep on this. We’ll be spending 24/7/365 days a year collaborating, networking, and using technology to create marketable opportunities for Black families. We need the participation of at least 1 million Black moms signed up to keep this initiative going forward. With 1 million Black moms in the BMC network, Regional Coordinators will develop vertical markets that allow Black moms and families to share in the profits from the sale of products and services. Looking beyond the racist news media portrayal of Black Americans to direct our attention to the 1.2 trillion dollars spent by Blacks annually in support of major business sectors and financial markets, it starts to become clear where we can make an impact. Understand that 1 million Black Moms can actually represent the voices, preferences, and desires of some 6 million Black moms. Essentially, this allows them to capture the answers to the most vital questions facing major brands today:
(1) Why should a consumer/Black consumer consider buying a certain brand?
(2) Should Black consumers buy certain brands because paid advertisement is being placed in their personal space or is being endorsed by a Black celebrity?
(3) Do major brands know more about what Black consumers want for products and services?
BMC collectively will have the answer to these questions that major brands are paying millions of dollars to find out. Black Moms Can might not own a manufacturing plant in China, or have access to billion dollar venture capital funds, or even the resources of a major marketing firm, but BMC would be populated by the most vital sector of 1.2 trillion dollars in consumer spending as well as the major influencers and trend setters in all generations.
BMC will be able to test markets, place content to a targeted population of Black consumers, utilize the latest social media platforms, and establish reliable electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) that could create a viral buzz if addressed appropriately. The timing is right since commercial ad marketing and selling of products and services is going through major changes. This will be the age of the engaged consumer. Most of the biggest, recognizable brands realize that traditional advertising is not enough.
It is BMC’s objective to create a focused social impact platform that requires minimal entry level skills and yields marketable wages and contracts to improve the social economic outcomes for Black moms. Onboarding a massive number of Black moms in 20 major markets could influence millions of Black people to join a movement for economic equality. In addition, 75 million millennials are watching Black women and young adults as our cultural traditions and innovations make up the latest trends. BMC will fully utilize video technology on social media to give equal access and maintain transparency for all subscribers at no cost.
The global movement to declare the first Sunday in February annual “Black Moms Day” in the wake of Black History month to honor all Black moms, past and present, is a massive showing of solidarity for leveraging economic power to build wealth for Black families and communities.
The time to act is NOW!!!!!
If we continue to do nothing, the destruction of a generation of Black American families is real.
** The Book “Black Moms Can” will be released July 2020
