“I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items.”

JayZ – Rapper and Roc Nation Record Label Boss.

I have read in the past few days with total confusion and dismay as folks drag Jayz, making the hashtag #Jayzcoon trend on social media. 

I want to let folks know that calling out Jayz for such a smart move is not just stupid but highlights your total ignorance on how the world is actually being run in 2019. This is also dangerous for the entire race if this number of folks are ignorant of these simple economics and power moves in the world of today.

In 2019, in this era, you don’t expect to win with just sentiment and getting emotional. Yes, Collin perfectly did what he had to do to raise awareness and protest the injustices Blacks face in America. However, JayZ’s contract with the NFL will further enhance Colin’s protest by going in there to see that those changes needed are applied. Colin Kaepernick did it in his own way and any right-thinking individual would know that you can’t win using just one strategy. He has paved the way for people like JayZ to walk in and both moves cannot be conflicted rather, they should be complementing each other. As long as the world still operates a capitalist system, sadly, money is power and it’s only this money talks can make the decisions that affect the majority if not all of us. You simply can’t change a thing without being on that decision-making table. Jayz has the money and he is smart enough to know he had to get in there to be able to influence that change. 

At this juncture, as a people, Black people need to now grow up and meet up with where the world is at. Folks need to really get their acts together and know exactly what they are looking for. Blacks have been agitating, rioting, protesting, kneeling and begging in America for centuries and that hasn’t worked. The civil rights era achieved so much to bring this time when this generation now need to take that quest for equality to a higher stand. Standing on the roads with placards cannot achieve much any longer. You have got to be a stakeholder to be a decision-maker. We can not continue to use the same strategy of a century ago to tackle issues of this century. That won’t work. It’s like still using catapults and or horses and chariots to fight armoured tanks with heavy firepower and powerful engines. You will be crushed in numbers.

This crab mindset now needs to stop. Time has come when Black folks really need to begin to see beyond their noses and begin to think economically more strategically. I’m even more confused because this name-calling is coming from the same exact so-called woke folks who continue to claim to be advocating for group economics. Let me break it down, if you don’t get this Jayz move and see it as beneficial to the community, you’re just another ignorant selfish noisemaker with no vision. No group economics grow without the group supporting and working with anyone of them who climbs out of the box. Blacks need to be standing strong with the Carters and holding them up so that as they grow they can pull with them more folks. Giant structures are laid brick by brick.

Like the game of chess, you can’t win without individually taking strategic positions to be able to influence the change from within. For long I’ve been expecting and hoping that wealthy Black folks will know to be making such moves, going in and acquiring some of these institutions and organisations that continue to humiliate Blacks. We need to note that 80% of NFL players are Blacks making huge amounts of money for the organisation yet there are barely any Blacks on the actual table to decide the fate of these players. So Jayz must be highly regarded and seen as the smart entrepreneur he is instead of being denigrated or called names.

In conclusion, I will like to draw your attention also to JayZ’s comment on the contract – “the partnership would inspire change. This partnership is an opportunity to strengthen the fabric of communities across America. The NFL was willing to do some things, to make some changes, that we can do some good.”