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A young, black, professional, Spelman College and UNC Law grad, and new mommy who practices law in the Chicago suburbs.

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The Young Covenant

March 6th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Those who know me know that I am a scholar- I thrive on learning more about African-American affairs, culture, and history. I admire writers like Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West, commentators such as Tom Joyner, journalists such as Ed Gordon- and I love Tavis Smiley like a play cousin. Tavis Smiley is one of the most important political voices of this generation and a huge positive influence for many Blacks. He is intellectual, opinionated, and maintainYoung Black Professional Covenant in Actions composure no matter who he is interviewing. Last month Tavis hosted The State of the Black Union at Hampton University where leaders and professionals examined the future impact African Americans on western culture, our global image, and our social, political, and economic future. The premise for this conference can be found in The Covenant with Black America- a national plan of action to address the primary concerns of African Americans today- from health to housing, from crime to criminal justice, from education to economic parity. I have been reading The Covenant for a few months now- not because I am a slow reader, but because the scholarly apprach is….well, for lack of a better word, boring. I love the concept and the format- Tavis and the other writers do not simply point out the problems, they also give solutions and plans of actions for community leaders, parents, teachers, and politicians to implement. But when it comes to young Black professionals, college students, and teenagers, I find it hard to be a hype man for such topics. Yes, I am a scholar, but I’m also creative and I believe that you have to be creative in order to gain the interest of today’s youth. So how to we motivate our YBP groups and organizations to take on these important issues? And isn’t it equally important that we be fully motivated ourselves before we take collective action?

The Covenant in Action was just released to show the advancement of the goals identified in The Covenant with Black America (CWBA). Also, the CWBA website has a Get Involved section that allows indiviuals and organizations to share how they are taking action. Well, we’re the “Web 2.0” generation, so shouldn’t this aspect interest us? I think this is a good start, especially the blog section that allows you to comment on the blogs of Cornel West, Angela Blackwell, and a few other African-American scholars. One of the more interesting posts deals with whether the African-American community should expend its resources in attempting to convince America to live up to its promise, or should we focus with laser-like precision on self-sufficiency?

So the books and the website provide us with great solid information and many tools to “go forth and prosper.” So why do I still feel like the concept of having a covenant has become too scholarly and political? Especially when the majority of the people who need this positive change are young with short attention spans? Perhaps I’m looking at this from the wrong perspective and missing the obvious point that the CWBA is targeting leaders of the Black community, people who will understand and be engaged in every aspect of this project. But what about the people they are trying to help? How do we take CWBA and spin it creatively to get maximum participation from those who are all over Web 2.0, but just not taking an interest in the state of African-American affairs?

There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Fredric on 6 March 2007:

    this is an interesting concept. how do we get the progressive young black professional not only interested, but engaged?

    discussion is a good start. blogs like this and others help saturate the discussion allowing the 2.0 generation to contribute their opinions and foster further development.

  2. Comment by David McQueen on 8 March 2007:

    I have started a project in the UK called Champion Walk http://championwalk.blogspot.com. It is slowly gaining momentum as not just a place to highlight the achievements of African Caribbeans here in the UK (and further afield) but also to engage in dialogue with youth about how they want to shape their future.

    I think I will post the link to this blog on my page.

  3. Comment by David McQueen on 8 March 2007:

    Sorry that link should be http://championwalk.blogspot.com

  4. Comment by Martin Lindsey on 8 March 2007:

    Kim, I think the laserlike self sufficiency is right on point. Unfortunately the younger Tavis Smiley’s and Jesse Jackson Jrs of our world are still playing the game in the old inneffective political-only style of the older generation’s Cornel Wests, Al Sharptons and Jesse Jackson Srs.

    You’re right. We need more “individual” economic initiative in order to actually make a change and have an impact on our “collective” community. I’ll always believe economics is the best politics.

    And yes leveraging web 2.0 is the way to get it going. What you - and our British friend in the previous comment - are suggesting is PanAfricanism 21st century style.

    Unfortunately we’re 50 years behind the eight ball because Dr. King was talking about this before he was killed and most publically prominent leaders since then have acted like it’s an irrelevent subject.

    I’m with you. I think it’s on our younger web 2.0 generation to actually get this type of thing jumped off. The question is the “how” of it. Fortunately we have the Black Enterprise Economic Summit as an example. Unfortunately though - and correct me if I’m wrong - from what I saw of the show Earl Graves wasn’t one of Tavis’s panelists.

    Have you considered contacting the Tom Joyner Morning Show or Tavis Smiley directly and posing your premise? I think now is the time and there are many of us who share this perspective.

  5. Comment by Jess on 8 March 2007:

    Tom Joyner has Black America Web http://www.blackamericaweb.com/ where they post all sorts of stuff.
    Start a facebook group.
    Post the group on idealist.org if you can.
    Ask your greek chapter, alumni associations, or business associations to start an iniative.

  6. Comment by Ashley on 9 March 2007:

    I agree 100% with Martin Lindsey. Propose this to Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner. Let them know that members of this generation want to get involved, but are having a hard time finding a direct plan of action. I mean, I know that the Covenant has what we need to do (I don’t have the Covenant in Action yet).

    What I suggest is something I saw on Oprah. She had a group of young ladies on to talk about their money group The Smart Cookies (hmmm, that’s an idea for a post). They would gather once a week and discuss their bills, debts and progress. They would help each other find solutions for money woes, etc. Maybe we could establish satellite Covenant groups, and chronicle our progress via this blog or some other forum.

    I know that there are older established groups like NULYP and others, but even those members are older.

    I don’t know. Just a suggestion.

  7. Comment by Kimberly Michelle on 11 March 2007:

    Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! You guys have given me hope that our generation really is interested in solving the problems in our community. So now that we’ve talked about it, we have to be about it.
    Martin, I will definitely try to reach out to Joyner and Smiley- they are on my list of people to meet and work with one day.

    Jess, you know I’m all about the facebook groups, I see one for “The Young Covenant” in the horizon.
    Ashley, I like the group you saw on Oprah. I know of similar local groups and I think that is a key factor in where all of this must begin- locally.
    Let’s keep the ideas flowing- I feel something big is about to happen…

  8. Pingback by The Candidates and the Covenant with Black America | Young Black Professional Guide on 28 June 2007:

    [...] forum. As the author of The New York Times best-seller, The Covenant with Black America, as well as THE COVENANT In Action, Mr. Smiley will also discuss the ideas put forward in his books, the candidates’ proposals, [...]