During the course of the past nine years of publishing the Conscious Rasta Report I have engaged in a number of empirical studies of social, political, economic, cultural and psychological factors that have affected the black community in America and around the world.  In keeping with the season for setting resolutions for a new year, I wish to point out some 13 key areas in which our community must focus to resolve persistent problems.  We must become more systematic in addressing the serious question of "What is wrong with African Americans?

1. THE COMPLEXITY OF "THE PROBLEM" HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY MISUNDERSTOOD--We are living in an incredibly complex society that requires us as individuals to make tens of thousands of decisions each day.  For us, as a group, to weave our way through the complexity of this environment toward policies that will benefit the group, we must begin to understand the interconnectedness between factors affecting the group.  Rather than focus merely on economic solutions, we will begin to relate economics to education; education to health; health to psychology; psychology to social conflict; etc.  In economics this is known as cumulative causation: that in a complex society, problems are interconnected.

SOLUTION: Create think tanks and educational facilities for leaders of the race. We can, and must hold Black Media responsible for focusing group attention.

2. THERE EXIST COMPETING UNITS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY--By our behaviors we have given life to a fictional character named "Willie Lynch."  We have become fractured into small competing groups and too often the poverty of our collective circumstance has us scrapping with each other for resources and prestige.  Contrary to the position of "Race First" as was advocated by the Garvey movement of the last century, we have fractionalized into religious denominations, economic castes, age groupings, and divisions based upon education, geography, gender, etc.  Some of us are even holding onto divisions based upon body type, skin color and hair texture!

SOLUTION: We are forced to declare these petty rivalries taboo and instigate punitive measures against those who perpetuate them.

3. THERE ARE CONTINUING STRUGGLES WITH COMPETING EXTERNAL GROUPS--In contradiction to the well-meaning efforts of the previous generation, for too many Blacks integration has meant the sapping of our economic, productive and creative resources away from our own self-interests.  We have immigrant groups moving halfway around the planet just to open shops in our neighborhoods.  The mass media often treats us as if we are cultural savages and sociopaths.  The medical-pharmaceutical industry uses as experimental subjects.  Other groups use our ethnicity to legitimize their group aspirations.  Corporations use the talent and creativity of our youth to generate billions of dollars of annual profit.

SOLUTION: Black Media should identify and prioritize these external competitors after which we should take all actions short of open violence to undermine their hegemony over us.

4. INTERNAL TRADE / ECONOMIC BARRIERS--Affirmative action aside, Blacks in America had conducted a very successful economic boycott of black merchants and producers.  Far from the time when our communities in the various cities contained at least one major street where vibrant business were concentrated, today it is competing outside groups who enjoy the fruits of our economic commitment.  If we would wish to better compete as a social group for the vast resources of the industrialized world, we will by necessity begin to demonstrate more savvy as an organized group.  The policy of "Race First" when it comes to economics appears to be a sound policy.

SOLUTION: An economic plan of action must be worked out by an appropriate committee and all media should be constantly used to reinforce their determinations.

5. GOVERNING OFFICIALS WITH CONFLICTING LOYALTIES--We have layers of leaders ranging from educators, clergy, elected officials and media figures.  Many times, out of the range of scrutiny by their constituency, these community leaders use their position for self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment and self-promotion at the expense of the majority of the black community.  This process could not continue if we, as a group, did a better job of monitoring the policies, associations and behaviors of those individuals who are functioning as black leaders.  The intense drainage of resources away from our long-term self interests could simply not occur if it were not for the often treasonous behavior of some of our community leaders.

SOLUTION: An appropriate think tank committee should be charged with publishing periodic report cards on the top national and regional leaders. Upon failing our predetermined values, punitive measures must be implemented against these leaders.

6. INTERNAL DISINTEGRATION & DEGRADATION--History records well when Africans lived in the most highly developed societies in the world.  As one tours extensively through the various communities of Blacks in the Western world you come to quickly deduce that we are too often confined to urban and rural ghettos.  How did the builders of great wonders of the world become reduced in productivity and responsibility to where they are living in some of the poorest housing districts of this nation?  We have allowed ourselves to degrade and disintegrate and have become all too dependent on the good will of others to share with us that which they have developed for themselves.  Further, our cultural, moral and intellectual positions, as a group within this society, have been consistently declining for far too long.

SOLUTION: Culture is the vehicle through which such values are instilled over a broad basis. This requires the creation of national holidays, sacred rituals, educational facilities, entertainment, pageants and festivals which will enculturate the values of Ma'at, our sacred moral inheritance.

7. SURPLUS IS NOT BEING INVESTED WISELY--Every successful group in history has advanced itself by investing a significant portion of its surplus into what economists call productive innovation.  To the contrary, African American surplus is largely being invested in the accouterments of petty bourgeoisie consumerism.   As such we are the profit margin for other more disciplined groups.  Further, a significant number of Blacks are now investing their surplus into stocks and bonds.  The problem with this is that the moneys we invest in Wall Street are available to external groups who then use our surplus to further compete against us as a group.  As such, the individual may advance because of such investments while the community suffers.

SOLUTION: There should be cabinet-level positions, established by the think tanks, to constantly reinforce those areas of development which demonstrate the greatest value: fertility, patents & inventions, media, land acquisition, private education, health maintenance, etc.

8. KEY RESOURCES ARE BEING CAPTURED BY EXTERNAL GROUPS--In order to advance the position of the group we must have policies that channel key resources into specific areas of development.  These include not only economic but labor, media, fertility and intellectual resources.  As it stands these are all areas where our own creativity is being tapped by competing groups to their great advantage ($$$) and to our great disadvantage.  Let it be very clear, African Americans are reported to have at their disposal over two-thirds trillion dollars annually in discretionary income.  We are thus not a poor nation-within-a-nation by any means.  We are wealthy but disorganized.  Seek out any similar group with such wealth but yet disorganized and you'll see how easily exploited they are.  Sheep are always going to be fleeced.

SOLUTION: It can be established, through proper research, which external industries are gaining a disproportionate share of our group resources. Thus established, countering strategies will be constantly broadcast through media under our control.

9. WE HAVE YET TO COMMIT TO MEANS OF EXPANSION--Darwin's work on The Origin of Species clearly demonstrates that when a fast-growing group and a slow-growing group are in close proximity to each other, eventually the fast-growing group will completely displace the slow-growing group.  Through policies of land acquisition, military expansion, economic hegemony, population expansion and religious  proselytizing a group moves beyond its borders and encroaches on the areas of others; this is not a bad thing, this is a natural thing.  Yet in each of these areas except for religion African Americans are on the losing end of the social competition.  Our religious expansion has been at the expense of rational intellectualism, surplus reinvestment, unity of the group and concentration of limited resources.  Unless we determine specific areas for expansion and commit ourselves as a group to success in those areas, we will continue to lose ground to every other group in this society.

SOLUTION: We must commit the leadership to expansion of necessary resources of industry, land, educational facilities, demographic concentration. This leadership also includes the media by all means. In addition, religious organizations must be shepherded by a better educated cadre and their leaders' loyalties and economics better scrutinized.

10. THE RATE OF RESOURCE INVESTMENT IN THE SOCIAL GROUP HAS DIMINISHED--We have identified a number of resources that are key to the survival of a group; these include: economic, labor, media, fertility, intellectual, etc.  What we must point out at this point is that it is not only necessary that we as individuals must assure that our surplus is being wisely invested in our long-term self interests, but there must be a similar investment by the group for the group's self interests.  Thus when black controlled institutions invest precious resources that do not directly or indirectly serve such long-term interests, then continued decay can only be expected.  If you only have a few dollars to spare, you tend to be more conservative and deliberate in how you invest those dollars.  This is an intelligent position.

SOLUTION: We should determine areas in which the community can be taxed for the group benefit. Areas such as commerce, religious institutions, telethons, and benefit concerts can be utilized to raise large sums of money which will be targeted toward specific initiatives.

11. THERE IS A TERRIBLE DISCONNECTION BETWEEN THE ADULTS AND YOUTH--The gulf between younger and older generations within the black community has no doubt long reached a point of terrible crisis.  These days many youth are displaying behaviors that show utter contempt for their parent's generation.  One might conclude that the youth have much to be disgruntled about especially when it comes to creating employment opportunities, proper education, protection, the loyalty of both birth parents, etc.  Despite the condemnations of a few brain-dead Negro sell-outs and stool pigeons, our youth are creative and talented.  Why is it that others outside our community, Tommy Hilfiger, Pepsi Cola, MTV and many other major corporations, look at out youth and see stacks of dollars, but too many black leaders see these same youth as a "Menace II Society?"

SOLUTION: Initiative designed to bridge the gap between generations must be carefully designed and initiated by the older generations. Big Brothers and Big Sisters societies, fraternal organizations, rites-of-passage programs, entertainment and parent-support organizations must be enlisted to instill a common set of values in every subsequent generation. These same organizations must also commit to reinforcing those values by punishment and reward.

12. THERE IS A FEELING OF DESPAIR AND LACK OF HOPE THAT HAS BECOME CULTURALLY INGRAINED--We have long understood that culture is the primary determinant of behavior in the individual, family, group, community and nation.  Thus if we are living within a culture of success, high education, group achievement and integrity, then it will naturally follow that the behaviors of the majority of individuals within that national culture will similarly reflect these values.  Yet when it comes to the so-called African American there have persisted tags of illiteracy, non-commitment, infidelity, criminality, spousal abuse, and other aspects of non-competitiveness.  Beyond all doubt, we know that cultural patters can be changed within a short period of time for those that commit the right resources.  It is in our best interest to socially engineer a culture for our people that will uplift the race.

SOLUTION: Anthropology has demonstrated that culture is transmitted through: religion, traditions, historical perspective, morality, declared values and language. The greatest vehicle for consolidating these values within a group is the use of mass media and entertainment. An engineered society can produce the desired results.

13. WE HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY ILLITERATE--After all the suffering that we have experienced as a consequence of our enslavement by Europeans and Arabs, we had been on an upward course of development for most of the previous century.  Yet a wide variety of evidence has appeared to confirm that the process of increased literacy in the emancipated former enslaved has begun to reverse itself.  Too many of us, while being able to read, spend little if any of our daily time challenging our intellect with appropriate reading material.  We are too addicted to television, movies, romance novels, trashy literature, and endless rounds of an obsession with King James' Version.  Thus, when our literacy declines so does our ability to make intelligent decisions within this increasingly complex and competitive society.  This process is intellectual and cultural suicide.  Our ancestors did not suffer so much so that we could give it all away within our generation.  We have work to do.

SOLUTION: Growing illiteracy can best be counteracted by intensifying reading programs for the youngest members of the community, rewards for children who demonstrate grasp of reading, de-emphasizing the cult of celebrity within popular culture, raising the level of consciousness within popular media and saturating the community with books. Media icons must be made to commit wholly and completely to this program by threat of punitive measures from the group; this must be a part of the price that such figures pay for celebrity.