In Joel Kotkin’s 1992 book “Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy, the author does a deep historical dive and shows how different groups who were on the outside looking in in terms of power and social impact, totally changed their reality
At the end of the book, Kotkin reviews those things each group had in common. One of those “success traits” was these groups’ willingness to lean into those things unique to them; things they did, whether out of cultural tradition or societal circumstance, better than any other groups in their respective societies.
Because these groups leaned all the way into those activities, they were able to eventually control entire industries and thus change the trajectory of their entire people. Those “outsider” groups are now either running things or are in the mix to run things on local, national, and global levels.
Kotin also lays out a list of traits that all successful, game-changing groups possess. Interestingly, Blackfolk possessed all but one – unity. More on that in another rant.
But as all groups do, we have areas where we dominate, where we invest the lion’s share of our time, energy, and money. Sports and entertainment are the two that stand out.
I contend, we need to take over the entire sports thing.
We invest so much of our being (and the time and energy of our children) into sports, whether playing or watching. Other groups sat in that same space, where they dominated on the service end of any given industry. Then, they flipped the script and became owner and influencers and change agents at every level of their area.
Blackfolk, we can do this in sports. Hell, we can do it in many other areas, as well. But as Kotkin suggests, the most consistent path to group success and power is to start by doing what you already do – grow in influence and ownership and power in an area where you are already the stars of the show.
Now, I realize this is easier said than done. But if all we continue to do is what we’ve been doing—serving as the worker bees that bring billions to others—then, in five, 10, 25, or 100 years, we will still have not moved from this mountain.
Examples already exist of Blackfolk making big baller moves to have more say and power in sports spaces – the squad Lebron James put together comes to mind. What’s stopping us from doing that on a more collective and expansive scale?
Doing nothing (i.e. doing the same-o-same-o… playing and watching sports and making others wealthy) will leave us continuously played.
