Understanding Community

Although the research and analyzation of a community is usually left to the social scientist, I have found that as a member of the African American Community, there are  relevant points that the social scientist sometimes overlook or pay little attention to. 

For my own understanding I have tried to focus on what I believe are the following three major points:

FIRST, who are the dominant residence, and how do they feel about each other. What do they have in common?

SECOND, what businesses dominate the interior and what services do they provide? Do they hire from within the community or do they hire from outside the community? Does a portion of their income remain in the community or does it leave, thereby not contributing to the community that supports them.

THIRD, who are the community activist, leaders, and representatives and what benefit are they to the community as a whole.

Once we begin to understand the nature and composition of a community, we can begin to move forward  to obtain the full comfort, and security of being in a community.

Imagine for a moment a bright sunny day, not to warm and not to cold, it is just right. Your children are outside playing with the neighbor’s children, you decide to go inside to get something to drink, you feel secure, because you know that you’re neighbor is looking out. Just as you return an elderly couple is passing by, they speak, and you respond, “how are you doing, and have a nice day.” As they pass by they smile at the children look back, nod, and without saying a word, you know that they appear to be pleased with the way you are raising your children. THIS IS A COMMUNITY.

Drive by shootings, gang warfare, family discourse, drugs, and elicit sex, the elderly fearing to walk down street, police arbitrarily stopping people because they can. Is not the way a community should be.

Consider this, does the price of respect come from the barrel of a gun, or does it just create fear and disrespect for the person using it.

After living within the walls of a predominantly African-American community, I have tried to understand its entry into the greater sociological system of American capitalism. As it appears, we are only the consumers of the process and not the producers. With the exception of music, which we produce from our hearts and the despair of our lives, it should be noted that we have not truly profited from its genius. We have people who have obtained wealth yet instead of building communities they run away and put their money in gold ceilings, cars, movie theaters and other trivial things that isolate them from the majority of those who look like them. Instead of a movie theater why not a medical center, instead of a gold ceiling why not set up decent day care and schools that can provide the early cultural education that gives our children and others the complete history of our people and their contribution to this country and the world; thereby opening their minds to the wondrous possibilities that lie ahead of them that not only can they be president but great scientist, engineers, architects and other major contributors to this global society.