(BALTIMORE – January 31, 2025) – Black people in the US can catch a bad rap so quickly. Between the news and social media, it is painful to see how we can sometimes go at each other over something otherwise – in the big scheme of things – petty. This isn’t about calling anyone out. This isn’t about blame. I’m just stating facts.
Last night, however, was a pleasant reminder of the love, beauty, and power within our community. We (BMORENews.com) hosted a Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award ceremony at BWI-THURGOOD MARSHALL Airport where Ricky Smith is the CEO. I met Ricky almost 30 years ago in a professional organization that still thrives today. He was then and is now one of the greatest assets in our community. In addition to running an airport – virtually a small city, he also serves as chair of the Greater Baltimore Urban League.
Despite all the challenges we face as a community, including the plethora of negative socio-economic factors that riddle the television news, I am in no way deterred. Even though it is so easy for us to fall into backbiting and jealousy and paying way too much attention to the Joneses, I am reminded that although we are only 13% or so of the US population, our accomplishments and merit rival any ethnic group in America.
Black America has produced world-class thinkers, scientists, engineers, inventors, authors, jurists, physicians, and entrepreneurs. People like Dave Steward, the Black billionaire, is a classic example of how the accomplishments of Reginald F. Lewis served as inspiration for other Blacks. People like Spike Lee remind us that Oscar Michaeux’s legacy of producing 44 films, including the first Black feature film in the US in 1919, was a blueprint for him and other filmmakers today. People like Choo Smith right here in Baltimore show us that a Harlem Globetrotter can come out of Gilmor Homes projects and still have a national and international impact.
As a publisher of a Black online news outlet, I, too, need motivation. Like many of our readers, I, too, want to know what else is happening besides the crime and the drugs. My spirit yearns to hear about the girl down the street opening a hair salon or the brother around the corner getting his certificate or college degree. And that is why BMORENews.com exists. No, we are not trying to ignore our challenges. However, we control our own storyline, for as Wendell Phillips wrote to Frederick Douglass, we must tell our own story from our perspective. Others have twisted our story for far too long such that many people are simply ignorant of the mastery and brilliance of our people’s accomplishments. It is our job to set the record straight.
Most importantly, we are increasingly focused on an even younger demographic, for all this wisdom and knowledge mean nothing if we do not pass it on to the next generation. That’s where it’s really at! What matters most is that our next generation is girded up, rooted in our deep spirituality, and poised to accomplish even more extraordinary feats. We, as a people, define culture. Everyone mimics our dance, our walk, our swagger, our voices. What cannot be copied is our struggle, for it is out of that struggle that we are truly defined. America has thrown its worst at us, from mass incarceration to discrimination and segregation to outright terror campaigns. Yet, still, we rise. Still, we accomplish. Still, we do not and will not quit – no matter what.
Yes, I am so proud of us. And I hope you are, too!
