Did Dr. Kamau Kambon read Freakonomics?

A friend suggested to me that I read Freakonomics. Generally I consider pop nonfiction on economics to not be worth the time. Authors of these tomes often attribute outrageous conclusions to economic "laws." Economics has no "laws"; it only has resilent theories that can be applied successfully or unsuccessfully to individual events on a case by case basis.
I came across a copy of the book at Barnes & Nobles. The hardback was marked 30% off (a clear signal if there is one). I decided to read a few chapters to see if there was anything to it.
There is not.
The author (Steven Levitt) writes in one chapter that there was confusion surrounding falling crime rates. The answer ,he concluded, must be that as abortions rise crime must fall. His reasoning is that since low income women with no spouse have most of the abortions and since most criminals come from poverty stricken single parent homes crime falls as abortions rise.
This line of reasoning is flawed on many levels.
First, it really depends on how you define crime and what kinds of crime you are focusing on. Corporate and political malfesance has risen for instance. Second, correlation between two variables (crime and abortion) does not indicate causation. Third, where is he getting his numbers? Does anyone track the number of abortions by american citizens outside our borders? What about their income level?
Lastly, no where in his writings did he indicate the benefit or intrinsic value of human life.
Ideas are insidious. Like the flu they can be easily spread from person to person. In this case the idea is that killing is good, that it is beneficial.
Enter William "abort every black baby and the crime rate falls" Bennett. He likes the book and the ideas. His remarks were widely reported. If you missed them NPR played them for you at the top of every hour. All the major television networks, newspapers and the blogosphere were filled to the brim with his comments. He said this a few weeks after americans had watched over eight days worth of nonstop black pain, suffering, helplessness and poverty (white suffering was edited out and discredited, by no less than Tim Russert, when exposed) run rampant in New Orleans.
Further along in Freakonomics Levitt points out that terror is a powerful incentive. This is in the chapter comparing Klansmen to Real estate agents (I am not making this up). His reasoning is based on lynchings falling as Klan membership rose. By this thinking every white person should have joined the Klan in order to bring lynchings to their lowest possible number.
I do agree that terror is a powerful incentive.
Maybe Bennetts' comments were given so much press because after hurricane Katrina and Kanye West black people needed incentive to calm down. African-American fear and paranoia (for that matter all americans fear and paranoia) is well documented, and has been running high since the presidential election of 2000.
Maybe those horrific images of Katrina made a large portion of the american population wish those poor, huddled masses would just disappear.
Such specualtion is dangerous, but if you have read this far you deserve something unadultered.
Into this echo chamber of "Freakonomics" comes Dr. Kamau Kambon who is the author of such books as "Black Guerilla Warfare: A peoples guide and manifesto" and "Subtle Suicide."
Dr. Kambon is no stranger to mainstream media. CNN's headline news featured him a few years ago saying that black people should not celebrate Christmas because it is economically and socially debilitating. This time he made genocidal comments concerning white people. Coming on the heels of the Bennett comments I am not surprised that someone voiced the obverse.
My questions are: Has Dr. Kambon read Freakonomics? Was he using terror as an incentive?

Icon of Black Liberty: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks reached that iconic level of fame and influence reserved for world leaders. Her act of not giving up her seat and the widespread media attention it received has inspired generations of americans. The simple message of not doing something if it's wrong, of not being afraid, to show courage, still resonates.

Black Self Interest

Adam Smith ,regarded in academic circles as the founding father of economic thinking, stressed the magic of self-interest as the key to the division of labor. Others after him such as Frederic Bastiat and Ayn Rand continued the theme. In essence the theory is that if everyone acts in his or her self interest everyone benefits. Self interest meaning that individuals made those decisions and took those actions that most benefited themselves.
In my opinion, the most succint and complete (and therefore most economical) written expose to expound this is "I Pencil."
The magic trick is that by one person producing the best product that he can produce by innovation and another doing the same everyone benefits from higher quality goods and the resulting competition. In essence, the desire for material wealth properly channeled through a constructed social system produces prosperity.
In reality, economic history is riddled with examples of lust for material items causing great destruction or in economic parlance unintended and intended consequences.
Whatever. This is the generally accepted philosophy of capitalist economies and the actors within them. For the sake of brevity and a desire to give the subject its just due I am leaving Black Game Theory for a seperate post.
Where then is Black Self Interest? Is the black consumer acting rationally? What is black self interest?
Like the Hippocratic oath, first do no harm, to yourself that is.

The Myth of Black Class Distinctions

In reading coverage of hurricane Katrina and the Millions More Movement I keep coming across references to there being a black lower, middle and upper class. I agree that upon first glance it may seem so. What they are actually referring to is differences in black income. Money is typically associated with class when such distinctions are made in the popular press.
Class is more than money. It is also association and control. Despite great riches blacks control very little land, hold little sway in fiscal and monetary governmental policy and own or manage none of the top banks and (while prolifigate content developers) mass media networks. Another example is racial gerrymandering. Blacks are not themselves drawing the demarcation lines between counties and congressional districts. These are functions of class that supercede money.
For there actually to be true class distinctions in the black community (not simply rich and poor blacks) some groups of blacks would have to exert a wholly disporportionate and precise influence on varied significant events. In short they would have to be in a position to decide the fate of capital and the legal and social enviroment in which it operates.

Millions More Movement

Roughly ten years ago I participated in the largest demonstration of black men in america's history. These are my thoughts between then and now.
I was leaving an organizing meeting with a friend. Since we had known of the march for months we had time to petition our college for buses and publicize the event on our campus. As we walked home we were set upon by street thugs. They flashed their guns and demanded the cash. What drives black men to treat each other this way? Why did these men threaten our lives for the money we had in our pockets?
Negative experiences of black men, women and families was a compelling, overarching reason for our support of this march. What man among us had not felt the role of sex and race in unpredictable ways in our daily lives. The sting of bigotry, the injustice of being prevented from consideration.
I did not travel with my college classmates to the march. I caught a greyhound bus 35 miles north and met two friends from high school. I recall we left in the small hours of the morning after one of my friends' girlfriend had cooked us dinner. I hadn't known that it had been requested that women make their men a meal before they left; as the men would be required to fast until sunset during the day of atonement.
Conversation was sparse and tense. A mystical leader known to speak of a "great fiery wheel" that foiled American interests throughout the world was the primary face of the movement. He was organizing (along with thousands of others) a Million Man March to be held in the District of Columbia. The gathering was exclusively for black men. No others need come. It was also on a monday. If that didn't show the organizers were serious what would?
The memory of my most recent encounter with black men I didn't know still fresh on my mind I beleived that there was a chance things could go badly. Conspiracy theories abounded. No one will come. The air will be poisoned, there will be riots and mass arrests. The federal government had declared holiday. Even the president left town.
My parents were at best skeptical. They ,like many older black folk, thought it a bad idea. Perhaps they still had memories of Bull Connor fresh on their mind.
The moon was full and unusually bright as we traveled. We arrived early and slept in the car on some downtown DC street. Around six o'clock we awoke and made our way over to the mall. There were already some people there but it was far from a million. That changed in time. Soon we were part of a ocean of black men. All of us laughing, crying, talking, praying, shouting, smoking, rapping, dancing, watching and listening. Maya Angelou spoke and her words said what we feeled. Deep was how she described it. Stevie Wonder told us he could see us all around him. Cries of "Cube" eruptered when the jumbotron showed the rappers face. Jesse Jackson told us to beware the change in law concerning crack cocaine. A man whose name I forget told us of the worlwide plan to dominate us. Farrakhan spoke of the number 19 and the building of the Washington monument. We waved our money for the cameras and then it was over. No violence, no hatred, no doom or gloom.
When we returned home there were tears in the eyes of our family and friends. A number of people said that if we did it again we would get two million. Many a man nursed the regret of not having gone. They should. It was a beautiful experience. I still get a shiver done my spine when I think about it. Such peace.
Ten years later it is time for Millions More. I have lost touch with the gentleman who was robbed with me and one of my traveling companions. The other friend is well. When I saw him last we didn't mention this new march.
This time we are told there will be follow through. I think when you compare black america then and now some things have changed but others (like the black prision population) stay the same or even have grown worse.
Now we need policy. We need effective ideas. We must communicate to and educate ourselves. That means more black media.
I am sure this weeks participants will experience a spiritual catharsis but I will not be among them.

Katrina Diaspora

I saw this map over at Black Feminism. This is the Katrina Diaspora map by epodunk.

Confederate States of America

The film has yet to recieve wide distribution in the US. The images are certainly provocative though.

Black GDP

The US Census estimates that blacks make up 13% of the population. The BEA estimates current US GDP at 11 trillion 734 billion. The World Bank has it at 11 trillion 667 billion. My rough estimate (13 percent of 12 trillion) is that blacks should account for one and a half trillion dollars of GDP.
The figure for black buying power in the united states varies between 600 billion and 700 billion. That is impressive as it places black america in the 14th to 9th spots on a list of the worlds' richest countries. Still, by population blacks should rest at number 3 only behind Japan or at 4 if you include the eurozone as a single entity.

Development

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Blacks and Globalization

Like many americans I have been exposed to the writings of Noam Chomsky. One of the things I recall him saying in his interviews and writings is that america is turning into a third world country. By this he means a society more clearly delineated between the haves and the have nots. Others make essentially the same argument but in a different way. Thomas Friedman simply says that in a world of 3 billion new capitalists everyone's job is up for grabs. Friedman also tends to focus more on the upside of globalization, pointing out that opprotunities are now available were there were none before. The social darwinist authors of the Bell Curve say that he who is smartest wins.
They are all correct. There is no doubt that local labor is experiencing international competition as the photo illustrates. Ironically enough though, automation (read: increasing efficiency) not outsourcing or offshoring is responsible for most job losses, which happens to be what a number of subcontractors engage in.
These particular subcontractors are Infosys employees. Their swarthy brown skin does not seem to be a hindrince to their gaining employment. No, it would seem that their intellectual resources and willingness to work are all they need to travel the globe. They are here as a modern effect of globalization.
Outgoing federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspan notes that the economy is getting lighter and lighter in terms of a physical weight to GDP ratio. This is the knowledge or information or digital effect. Software, legal documents and numerous other transactions have no physical weight but their share of the economy continues to grow. Accordingly the supply of money itself has become weightless to a large extent, being stored in the servers of banks. Commodities still have value it's just that ideas seem to have more and more value everyday. Those with ideas find themselves prospering more than those without them.
What does this mean for black folk? Properly interpreted it could be a great boon. I would argue that Black Poverty is a result of not physical but mental phenomena at this day and time. There are numerous examples of wealth born not in backyards full of goldmines and oil wells but in the fertile ground of the mind. Some argue that true wealth is metaphysical. Bob Marley and Peter Tosh are two excellent examples of this. Born dirt poor in Jamaica their words and song (not local natural resources) made them wealthy.
In a digital world in search of content, in an enviroment where tricolor cameras and desktop media studios are reaching the prices of microwaves, in a world of the $100 Laptop blacks and specifically african-americans have a distinct advantage.
Black creativity and culture, black ideas drive american culture to a very large extent. True "Viacom and Hennessy" run rap music as Mos Def raps but once the means of production and distribution are dispersed that could quickly change (it could intensify or wane).
This is the opprotunity of Globalization.

Black Freedom

I have often wondered how it is that certain groups manage to appropiate words and phrases and other groups seemed to have missed the boat. When you look up the word freedom in a dictionary or research database I would expect to see numerous citations from african-americans. After all, in the present time who should have more interest in freedom and defining liberty?