We must do for ourselves
28th May 2019 · 0 Comments
The historic, thrilling moment experienced by the 2019 graduating class at Morehouse College was a Sankofa event. Nearly 400 graduates were shook, surprised and elated when investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith, a Morehouse grad and the 2019 Commencement Speaker, donated $40 million to wipe out all the student debt the grads amassed during their collegiate careers.
Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana that translates to “Go back and get it.” “Sankofa” teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That’s precisely what Smith did. “You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity,” Smith said during his address.
Smith is the founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, an investment firm with offices in several cities including San Francisco, New York City and Austin, Texas. According to its website, Vista has $46 billion in capital committed to companies specializing in data, software and technology. Smith, a chemical engineer and investor, is said to be worth $5 billion.
Smith had already pledged $1 million to Morehouse in January to create the Robert Frederick Smith Scholars Program and an additional $500,000 to design an outdoor study area for students. Along with his gifts to Morehouse, in 2016, Smith pledged $50 million to his alma mater Cornell University toward the school’s college of engineering.
“I will never forget that my path was paved by my parents, grandparents and generations of African Americans whose names I will never know,” Smith wrote. “Their struggles, their courage, and their progress allowed me to strive and achieve. My story would only be possible in America, and it is incumbent on all of us to pay this inheritance forward.”
Smith’s charitable act encompasses the true meaning of Sankofa. He demonstrated what it means to go back and get what was lost; the hope and promise of the future for young African-American males, who are often most maligned and despised by whites who can’t throw off the mental shackles of white supremacy.
Smith’s philanthropy is informative…it is a lesson to all African Americans that if we are to survive and thrive, we must do for ourselves and each other. If we are to capture the American Dream, we must jettison the process we were taught: get a good education and you’ll get a good job and, in doing so, you will achieve the American Dream.
That philosophy doesn’t always work out for people of color. Yes, it may work for Dubois’ “talented tenth,” those selected to be window dressing and tokens, but for the majority, no.
As such, it is an absolute necessity to create a new paradigm shift in African-American consciousness. We must do like other people of color. Yes, get that education and work and learn everything you can, if you are so fortunate. But if not, use that education toward moving toward doing your own thing, owning your own businesses, controlling your own destiny.
It is telling to see prominent and wealthy African Americans, like Smith, give back and pay it forward. Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network was established in the late 1990s and had raised more than $80 million by 2010. At least $11 million of that went to relief efforts for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Oprah herself kicked in another $10 million. The Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation strongly supports her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
LeBron James set up the Lebron James Family Foundation which raises and donates to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, After-School All-Stars, the Children’s Defense Fund, Gabriel’s Angel Foundation and ONEXONE. The Foundation last year opened the I Promise School (IPS) a public elementary school in Akron for at-risk children.
The mission of the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation (KDCF) is to enrich the lives of at-risk youth from low-income backgrounds through educational, athletic and social programs.
Several other African Americans recognize that it takes a village to raise a child and that the Sankofa proverb is a guiding principle in doing for ourselves. Among the top African-American philanthropists, who continue to reach back and retrieve the human potential of their fellow Americans, specifically African Americans are President Barack and Michelle Obama, Shonda Rimes, Shelia C. Johnson, Beyoncé, Morgan Freeman, Michael Jordan, Tyler Perry, Reginald Lewis, James L. McNeil, and many more.
If wealthier New Orleanians would reinvest in our city’s youth, New Orleans will thrive and live up to its reputation of being one of the greatest cities in the world.
The bottom line is, “If it is to be, it’s up to we.”
This article originally published in the May 27, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
