We Need To Get In The Game
We Need To Get In The Game
Junious Ricardo Stanton
“Largely the problems we are confronted with today as Afikan people in America flow from our powerlessness or our inappropriate uses of power. We’ve been made to think that to even talk about and think of power is sinful, that to pursue it is immoral and wrong. But one cannot exist without power. Without power there is no life, a battery without power is dead. You need power to act, to behave in the world, to deal with the world.” Amos Wilson from Afrikan Centered Consciousness Versus The New World Order Garveyism in the Age of Globalisim. Page 87.
As we survey our condition in modern America and the world we are forced to, if we are honest, admit we are in deep trouble as a people. Despite media depictions of stylish, blinged out black folks wilding out, overly materialistic, mimicking white people while in reality we lead the country in poor health outcomes https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/how-present-day-health-disparities-for-black-people-are-linked-to-past-policies-and-event and way too many of us are in poverty, financially as well as psychologically and morally. Our status in this nation despite a plethora of elected and appointed public officials is due to our powerlessness and lack of discipline both on a personal and collective level!
During our sojourn in this country we have been subjected to multifaceted and wholesale abuse, denigration, discrimination and manipulation within a system which has consistently demonstrated a heartless, callous and antagonistic attitudes towards us. Capitalism is not designed to provide equity or an even playing field. From its inception the system was constructed to create a rigid spectrum of inequality, a few have’s and a massive number of have not’s where only a few would be able to break the ceiling.
Today is no different, despite “social advances” and the elimination of state sanctioned racial caste and apartheid, Black people still remain on the lower rungs of America’s socio-economic ladder and the advent of rapid technological applications is going to greatly exacerbate this situation. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-glass-barrier-to-the-upper-middle-class-is-hardening/
What can we do, how can we best navigate the new social environment we find ourselves in during a time the powers that be no longer need us for human labor and others are rapidly replacing us with their intellectual capital, prowess and ambition. We all can’t be entertainers and professional athletes, drug dealers or criminals; so what does the future hold for us?
In a highly automated society driven by AI how do we carve out a place of usefulness, and success both personally and collectively? Why aren’t our so called leaders even asking these questions and challenging us to engage in what is now being called Game Theory? What is game theory you ask? “Game theory tries to understand the strategic actions of two or more ‘players’ in a given situation containing set rules and outcomes. Any time we have a situation with two or more players that involves known payouts or quantifiable consequences, we can use game theory to help determine the most likely outcomes. The focus of game theory is the game, which serves as a model of an interactive situation among rational players. The key to game theory is that one player's payoff is contingent on the strategy implemented by the other player. The game identifies the players' identities, preferences, and available strategies and how these strategies affect the outcome. Depending on the model, various other requirements or assumptions may be necessary. Game theory has a wide range of applications, including psychology, evolutionary biology, war, politics, economics, and business. Despite its many advances, game theory is still a young and developing science.” Game Theory by Adam Hayes https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gametheory.asp
We need to get in the game! We need to become viable and rational players, otherwise we will be further marginalized by the system (The Game) and consigned to the dust bin of history! Whether we know it or not we are in The Game, the game of life. The ultimate goal is survival, how do we not only survive, but thrive and succeed (based upon our own definition of success) in a predatory and highly competitive environment? Look at the definition of Game Theory it speaks about being rational players. Are we as African people in America rational players, if so why are we on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder?! If this is a game why aren’t we playing and engaging as a team within this highly competitive pluralistic multi-ethnic society with a goal of winning?
Where are our coaches and strategists? Disorganization, racial amalgamation, integration, assimilation, conspicuous consumption, consumerism, lethargy and materialism are not winning strategies! But if you look at our people and our situation this is what we see! We no long talk about Black Power, that term is not even in our lexicon any more! We foolishly think that because Barack Obama and Kamala Harris were selected and allowed to be part of the system, collectively we have arrived, that we are free and equal. This is utter nonsense, it is a cunning strategy of the other “team” to completely throw us off our game!
We need to wake up and realize what is happening, do what it takes to seriously get in the game and play to win on our terms!
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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:03 AM
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