“Will Black America be DOA Because of Our Starting Point Problem?” – The Milwaukee Courier

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Commentary
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Mar 11, 2026, 11:30 AM CST

Purpose: This brief essay provides an explanation for Black America’s failure to improve our relative socioeconomic position in the US since the 1960s. It hearkens back to our early February 2026 Analysis Brief, “History, SPPs, LPs, and H-to-M.” Here, we emphasize and elaborate the SPP (Starting Point Problem). When our SPP is addressed properly, then Black America’s prospects for success (however defined) rise sharply.
Background
We urge reconsideration of the Analyis Brief mentioned in the “purpose” statement, and we begin with an excerpt from it:
We must have a winners’ mindset that says we are “better” than the rest because we have more than endured the most onerous of tests and have not only survived, but have thrived also….We have more of a right to win, to be successful, than the rest because we are better prepared than the rest.
The reference to “the most onerous of tests” refers to Black America’s over 400-year-long undeclared war with our oppressors—White America. Yes, we have thrived, but we have left a tremendous amount of progress and increased wellbeing on the table. The just-described result is mainly the product of our urgency and zealousness to prove that we are the best. However, this attitude of “being the best” was not and—even today—is not founded on a proper and scientific foundation. It derives from the so-called Willie Lynch syndrome. Irrespective of its authenticity, it is common knowledge that the Willie Lynch “divide and conquer” scheme has been implemented successfully too many times to mention—irrespective of the racial or ethnic group involved. But Black America has been the most receptive group to this insidious strategy because we were late arrivals to the knowledge of it and about how to counteract it. Black remains guilty of disunity that is driven by our differences and the instinct to prioritize and operationalize the fundamental first law of nature, “self-preservation.”
Although we have collaborated with other grassroots thinkers during the past four years to develop and initiate implementation of a Long-Term Strategic Plan for Black America (LTSPFBA), the sad fact is that this important volume dedicates meager space to this fundamental building block idea that can help ensure, if not guarantee, Black America’s success. How could this be? Even third graders know from their occasional fisticuffs that: “Where the head goes, the body follows!”
Imagine a group of audacious minds with perfect intent overlooking a fundamental requirement to devote significant space to “renewal of our minds” while developing plans for a very important transformational effort. In this case, the effort involves undertaking implementation of an up to a 100-year-long strategic plan to elevate Black America to a state of wellbeing that we (not others) define and that lifts us to a “top of the world” status. The reality is that we did not overlook this requirement, we simply “assumed” that all parties engaged in the effort would comprehend the need for mind renewal, and that it would occur organically during implementation of the LTSPFBA. We failed to see that unless and until our minds are rewired or reprogrammed to recognize the essentiality of our uplift and we are fully committed to achieving it, then little-to-no-effort would go forth to implement the LTSPFBA.
If mind renewal is crucial to Black America’s progress and success, then what are the key elements and strategies for renewing our minds? Before outlining key components/elements of a mind renewal program, we cast that program in a broader context so that those who undertake the mind renewal effort will comprehend well the reasons for implementing an upliftment effort and why mind renewal program is key to the success of that upliftment.
Reasons for a Black American Upliftment Effort and a Related Mind Renewal Program
I. A Mind Renewal Program (see Part III below).
II. Selected Reasons that Motivate Black American Upliftment
III. A Mind Renewal Program: Selected Components and Related Criteria.
Conclusion
If you have an additional moment to spare, then we urge you to review the previous two pages again. We make this recommendation because the information that is provided can become free-setting truth. In addition, your knowledge of this truth should impose upon you a responsibility to use it to assist in Black America’s uplift. Importantly, all Black Americans should comprehend that it is insufficient to read or know the content of this essay. Rather, it is essential that we inculcate this information and obtain and review other such submissions that provide guidance on how to effect the proper transformation of the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of Black America’s development.
As you review and undertake implementation of the guidance discussed herein, we recommend that you designate and operationalize the following as top priority behavioral changes:
Finally, we request that you extend due consideration to the following two questions: (1) Is the Black American problem essentially a Black American problem in light of the reality that “We Get What We Accept”? and (2) “Do you concur that, unless we resolve our SPP by transforming/renewing our minds in preparation for undertaking a long-term strategic plan to produce our own uplift, then we will not have installed a proper and solid foundation for that uplift?”
More from Brooks B. Robinson, Ph.D.
“What Turns our World?”
An Expanded Meta-Analysis of Black American (Afrodescendant) Plans
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