Although we as African Americans were officially granted our freedom nearly 150 years ago, many of us do not feel truly free.  Some of us get up and go to jobs that we do not enjoy, working for people who don’t like us very much.   Then, when those companies feel that we’ve gotten out of line or they don’t need us anymore, we are sent out the door.

There is also a great deal of frustration with regard to how our kids are being educated, and the violence that has taken too many young lives in our community.   Mass incarceration has ripped the black family to its core and an entire industry has been built from the prison industrial complex.

The solutions must lie with us.  Taking charge of our individual and collective future requires a set of coordinated strategies that relate to how we build resources, protect our resources and target those resources.  Education must become a leading priority that goes beyond what our children learn in school everyday.  We must recommit ourselves to building and supporting black businesses, strengthening our families and sustaining our communities.

The future belongs to us.

Wealth, Education, Family and Community: A New Paradigm for Black America was a forum hosted by Min. Louis Farrakhan and Dr. Boyce Watkins. Min. Farrakhan and Dr. Watkins discussed the need for a shift in the way people of color think about building wealth, pursuing education and challenging the obstacles to progress which exist in black America today.  The forum included the presentation of long-term strategies for African American socio-economic progress and sustainability.

In this course, Dr. Watkins will use his expertise as a Finance PhD and internationally-respected social commentator to break down the lecture and tutor you through various perspectives and deeper dimensional frameworks to help you better understand the intent and implementation of the New Paradigm.  He will tell personal stories and provide information that was not available to forum participants.  In other words, the goal of this course is to ensure that the new paradigm is part of a long-term, sustainable course of implementation, and not just a one-time affair. 

The next step of the Civil Rights Movement must go beyond voting for the right politician.  It must include strategies for building wealth, power, and education so that we can achieve our individual and collective goals.   This course is the next step on that journey.