Black (African) Americans do not have a long-term strategic plan. As an easily identifiable group of over 40 million people--a nation within a nation--Black Americans would be well advised to develop a long-term strategic plan. Such a plan would facilitate better decision-making. Once developed, each important decision could be made within the context of this long-term strategic plan. In this way, Black Americans would not have to continually reinvent the wheel when it comes to making decisions about critical issues; we could simply refer to previous decisions that were made within the long-term strategic plan framework. Such a plan and system for decision-making would help produce forward progress on a variety of fronts--arguably, none more important than Black Economics.
A long-term strategic plan should reflect at least three key components: (1) A conceptual framework; (2) an operations plan; and (3) an evaluation plan. As the term implies, the conceptual framework should delineate the contexts, definitions, and scopes of the plan. The operations plan should provide road maps (objective elements) with milestones and timetables for executing the plan. Finally, the evaluation plan should serve as a tool for tracking progress and for updating the plan on a periodic basis.
Build a Long-Term Strategic Plan for Black (African) Americans
This page is a forum for building a long-term strategic plan for Black (African) Americans. Your written contributions to building this plan will be posted below in the suggested strategic plan categories (additional categories will be added as required). Please use the email template below to provide comments on this strategic plan building effort, and/or send your written contributions to the plan by writing to blackeconomics@blackeconomics.org.
A key ingredient to nation formation is a unifying identity. A component of the Lost Found Nation of Islam has offered the following interesting and informative analysis of identity for Black Americans. They suggest that Black Americans refer to themselves as "Afrodescendants." See "Our Identity - Why It Is Important."
Proposal: "Developing a Strategic Plan for Black (African) Americans"
Strategic Plan Categories:
History - Delineating Black (African) Americans' Past
Family - Comprehending the "Art" and "Science" of Family
Culture, Language, and Religion - Our Expressions
Health - Producing and Preserving Our Health
Education - Solving the Human Capital Conundrum
Economics and Business - Making Our World
Politics - the Politics of Making Our World
Other
The above categories await your contributions.
In connection with building a long-term strategic plan for Black Americans, see Essay 3, "Point Zero Nation Formation for Black Americans" in CHOSEN: Black America's Calling on our "Publications" page. In 2006, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists held a conference in Gary, Indiana with the purpose of developing a strategic plan. Several papers were prepared in connection with the conference. The late Prof. Ronald Walters of the University of Maryland invited BlackEconomics.org to comment on the papers. Click here to review the comments. The original papers are available from BlackEconomics.org upon request. Feel free to comment on our comments or to request the aforementioned papers.
