Thinkers in Ferguson

The Gantt Report

Thinkers in Ferguson

By Lucius Gantt

       I have no idea why but many Gantt Report readers have asked me what I think about events taking place in Ferguson, Mo.

Well, I think if you’re a Black teenager, a Black woman or a Black man wherever you are, no matter what city you’re in you are in “Ferguson”!

I’ve said many times over the years that you need serious solutions to serious Black community problems. The cookie cutter approach to addressing issues of concern to African Americans has never worked well and that approach never will.

If all your so-called leaders can tell you to do is pray and march, Black community members will continue to be falsely accused, wrongfully charged, beaten and sometimes shot down and killed in broad day light!

I also said that just because your remarks are “politically correct”, watered down, simmered down versions of messages accepted and approved by the devilish powers that be it does not mean that the words of preachers, lawyers and community charlatans are the only voices that should be heard whenever bad things happen in Black neighborhoods.

The truth is always the best defense! Give the people the facts. If you want to know what the future holds for the residents of Ferguson, Mo. start by looking at Ferguson’s past. Ferguson won’t change until the people of Ferguson change!

Now, my preacher friends and lawyer friends are sincere and doing the best that they can do but all of us need to do the best we can do to protect our children, help our brothers and sisters and to save our communities.

One kind of person is seldom if ever invited to chime in on Black community situations and that person is a Black thinker!

Yes, you need rallies, town hall meetings and things like that but you also need long term plans of action.

This love of civil rights “rap stars” that fly into a city pray a prayer, make a speech, pass a collection plate, file a lawsuit and fly out of town with all of the money must be curtailed or stopped all together.

Now is not the time in Ferguson or in any other city for outdated tactics and reactionary leadership!

What can be done? Hmmm? I’m not there and I have not done a specific study on the situation in Missouri but let’s put a few things out there that may spur some changes.

If Ferguson is truly a city of 67 percent Black residents, why aren’t the thousands of people marching around or hanging around at night organized around putting together an immediate recall of every elected official in Ferguson, Missouri. Why? Because when city and county politicians vote to use tax dollars to train law enforcement officers to protect and serve and those police officers go out and beat and murder unarmed teenagers the local elected officials are liable for bad things that happen as a result of their political negligence and mismanagement.

Praying folk, marchers and rock throwers all should be registered to vote against all elected officials in Ferguson that have been quiet as a church mouse when the world knows it is time to stand up and speak out about Missouri atrocities.

Once you get rid of current elected officials via a recall of course you have to make sure outgoing politicians are replaced by strong men and women that will work hard and vote right for Ferguson’s overwhelming Black resident majority.

Moving on quickly, real thinkers in Ferguson and elsewhere would know that in a capitalist society, capital is the primary motivating factor.

Things will change quickly in Ferguson if the money changes.

Why can’t the praying folk and marchers in Missouri be asked to boycott every business that sponsors or supports programs by an outlaw, criminal police department? A list could be generated that shows every vendor selling the FPD guns, bullets, handcuffs, uniforms, communications equipment, cars, tanks and other equipment. If that doesn’t work, boycott companies that do business with the city. Take the short trip to St. Louis to buy your groceries, your medicine, your insurance, your clothing, your cars, your cell phones and our other wants and needs.

When businesses begin to lose customers and money, I believe businesses will see how important Black customers and Black people are in Ferguson and perhaps they will look at you differently and treat you differently.

Black people in Ferguson must have a solid plan for progress. The civil disturbance, the riots, the mayhem and the violence will not stop until the people feel there is something better, more progressive for them to do.

Social media started revolutions in the Middle East and hopefully thinkers can post some real solutions for Ferguson on Facebook and Twitter because handkerchief head instructions and boot-licking messages from poverty pimps have never worked and never will work. (Buy Gantt’s latest book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing online or in any major book store and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net)