“All of the giants in the Black community are failing our youths!” Well, how do we change that?

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“I should mention, I wrote the piece after I got a call from a lady in near tears for the future of our youths. I dropped everything I was doing. Yes! I cried as well. All of the giants in the Black community are failing our youths.” Elder Errol A. Gibbs

He is a remarkable individual, a true luminary in our midst – a strong African Caribbean male elder whose strategic visions and unwavering commitment are forging a path towards African empowerment.

Allow me to present Elder Errol A. Gibbs, a beacon of wisdom, resilience, and strategic brilliance. As an elder in our community, Elder Gibbs exemplifies the essence of experience, having weathered the storms of life and emerged not just unscathed, but strengthened and more determined than ever.

Elder Gibbs strategic visions are not just exuberant; they are transformative, touching every facet of our community’s existence. He envisions a future where empowerment is not just a goal, but a reality, where every individual, irrespective of their background, finds opportunities to thrive and excel.

What sets Elder Gibbs apart is not just his passion for his people, but the meticulous nature of his plans. He doesn’t just dream; he strategizes, mapping out every step towards the realization of his vision for Africans living in the diaspora.

Whether it’s educational reform, economic empowerment, or social justice, Elder Gibbs is at the forefront, unwavered like the Sankofa bird. It is the idea of learning from the past, understanding one’s roots, and using that knowledge to move forward with purpose and determination. It conveys the importance of not forgetting where you come from, embracing your history, and using that strength to face the future with passion and resilience.

As much as I would like to share his entire “A Mini Position Paper; A Black History Month (Bhm) Perspective,” I am not able to for logistical reasons. What I will do is present specific aspects of this paper, and if you are interested in learning more, you can reach out to me at simone@carib101.com, and I will get you in touch with Elder Gibbs.

What I noted first in his position paper are some of the issues that we are currently facing in our community. According to Elder Gibbs we often rely (almost exclusively) on the same systems of government that we contend are the agents that perpetuate anti-Black racism. We also rely exclusively on government funding as our “force multiplier,” which is necessary, but problematic since we are starting to rely on government funding to fuel entrepreneurship and some of our under-capitalized nano, micro, and small businesses. He also noted that as a community, we build silos and inadvertently exclude others. Governments often have to encourage collaborations by mandates. Still, there is a need for “voluntary collaborations” and clarity of mutual objectives.

“We are astutely aware of the realities of anti-Black racism, beginning with Black African Enslavement in the sixteenth century to the persistent challenges in the twenty-first century, affecting many aspects of Black lives—worldwide (scripted or unscripted),” shares Elder Gibbs. “Strident efforts to disenfranchise Blacks are taking place in many countries and at every level of human endeavor.

I highly commend Black leaders for their strident efforts to empower the Black community, notwithstanding the insufficiency of the glamourous promises by public and private sector leadership.”

Elder Gibbs notes in his position paper that the following seven critical entities have come together to deliver exuberant strategic visions and plans to establish Black empowerment as a “force multiplier” for the coming decades. Today’s Black leadership is paramount to the social and economic survival of the next generation(s):

1. Public Sector
2. Private Sector
3. Academics
4. Intellectuals
5. Black Churches
6. Community Leaders
7. General Public

“There are real challenges that are hurting all communities, in particular the Black community. Still, they are the symptoms of deeper underlying issues with the funding models that have remained unchanged in the past 60 years,” explains Elder Gibbs. “Community funding is “essential”; however, when it is used purely as “stop-gap” funding, it can become an accidental ‘crisis perpetuating funding model.”

He further shares that it is possible to solve the problems of the Black community, but we “must” begin by:

• Knowing and understanding the stock market and national and international procurement and job market trends. Merely focusing on generally serving the marginal Black marketplace is unsustainable for building Black wealth.
• Adopting an “industrial mindset.” It is the essential “force multiplier” for building across disciplines and addressing the above criteria.
• Creating a significant long-range vision for the Black community, such as Gibbs/ACBN Canadian Black Empowerment Initiative (CBEI) with a 50-year horizon (2024 – 2074).
• Determining (statistically) where Blacks have the most significant technical capacity (collective skill sets) and developing specific “Think Tanks” (as many as necessary).

Finally, Elder Gibbs concluded, “The Black community needs an unambiguous vision for the future because five significant storms are coming between 2025 and 2030. The window of opportunity is closing to build the appropriate infrastructure to overcome the emerging challenges that will confront future generations of Blacks in Canada and worldwide.”       

Feel free to share these thoughts with African Caribbean leaders in the public and private sectors who advocated for African empowerment. Let us rally behind this luminary elder, for in his vision, we find the blueprints for a better tomorrow.