Poverty of the Mind

"Today they say that we are free, only to chain us in poverty"

Bob Marley & the Wailers



Black History Month grew out of Black History Week. Carter G Woodson, author of the Education of the Negro and the more popularly known the MisEducation of the Negro recognized the need for all Americans to know the history of their country and those who contributed to it. He believed that ignorance contributed to the atmosphere of race prejudice. In 1920's America it must have been difficult to imagine Obama's America but he did.

One of the horrors of the Slave Trade was the cultural disconnection experienced by the captives. Language, religion and other aspects of cultural identity, the very heritage that many take for granted were no longer theirs. Their descendants for generations were barred by law from learning to read or write. Opportunities to profit from their labor was sharply curtailed.

Poverty and wealth are typically viewed in material terms. Ayn Rand offers another perspective in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Therein a character named Francisco offers that , "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think."

Indeed it is. At one time Bob Marley accounted for half of Jaimaica's GDP. It wasn't oil wells or gold ore but his beautiful mind that produced it. A mind that sought out it's history.