GUIDING PRINCIPLES
"God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the Sky and God be our limit and eternity our measurement."
- Marcus Garvey
1. Black Unity, Black Pride
2. Collective Economics
3. Black Leadership
4. Social Uplift
5. Community Service
6. A Livable Minimum Wage
7. International Aid & Solidarity
8. Respect for the Environment
9. Universal Kinship
10. Black Excellence
The BAF is not just about economics. We are seeking to create model Black communities that truly reflect the beauty and genius of the African spirit. To achieve this mission, we are unwaveringly committed to the 10 principles on the left.
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These principles will be reflected in everything we do as we rebuild Black communities week by week, month by month, year by year. Through these principles we will bring out the best in ourselves so that we create the communities
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any stand out and show your visitors who you are.
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I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Black Unity, Black Pride
“Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.”
- Dr. John Henrik Clarke
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"No White American ever thinks any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the White man's clothes, eats the White man's food, speaks the White man's language, and professes the White man's religion.
- Booker T. Washington
When the topic of Black unity comes up, inevitably someone will interject, "Black people aren't monolithic," as if that is a requirement for unity. The United States of America is not monolithic, still we all embrace the common principles espoused by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and fight under one flag. Next, they will say, "You know Black folks can't unite, especially around money." Yet they can offer no proof. The reality is that the progress Black people have made in America is the result of collective struggle, of Black unity. The thought that Black people have gotten this far in America through individual effort is sorely misguided. Anyone who believes that Black people are not capable of unity is either ignorant of history or an enemy to collective Black progress. We unite on a grand scale when there is a grand objective, and stay united through family, friends and cultural and religious institutions for day-to-day survival and affirmation.
Black Pride is essential to the fostering of a new Black Renaissance. As long as Black people are ashamed to come from Africa, have a negative image of African culture, and unwittingly embrace a racist understanding of African history, Black genius will forever be limited to what the Western mind can conceive. The true potential of Black people can only be achieved by embracing an African worldview. Through our programs and services the BAF will restore African history and culture and promote an African worldview to stimulate a new level of Black creativity and Black genius. We will celebrate our Africana heritage and create model Black communities based on African values and principles that will rival any community in the world.
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Collective Economics & Ownership
"There are two ways of exerting one's strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."
- Booker T. Washington
The BAF is modeled on the principles of collective economics and collective ownership. Collective economics is a system in which a group consolidates its capital for greater purchasing power and leverage. For example, $9 a month does not amount to much for one individual, but $9 a month from 10 million people amounts to over $1 billion.
Collective ownership is a key component of collective economics. Every asset a group acquires through collective economics is collectively and equally owned by the individual members of the group. All the land and real estate, businesses, manufacturing plants, etc. belong to the group. In turn, the group sets the agenda and terms of business, which will forever be to their exclusive benefit.
Black Leadership
"As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say... as long as he looks to white folks for approval... then he ain't never gonna find out who he is and what he's about."
- August Wilson, Jr.
"When the Negro was completely an underdog, he needed white spokesmen. Liberals played their parts in this period exceedingly well.... But now that the Negro has rejected his role as an underdog, he has become more assertive in his search for identity and group solidarity; he wants to speak for himself."
- Martin Luther King, Jr..
Black Americans have been subject to the leadership of others since their arrival in America. Black people are limited in what they can achieve when under the direction of, or imitating others. No one knows what is best for Black people more than Black people themselves. Only Black people can fully ascertain the heights of their own potential.
What does independent Black leadership look like? What if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was campaigning to be president of the Black Achievement Fund? What would he do with $1 billion plus and 50 million man-hours a year toward Black economic and community development? Black people have something unique to offer the world and it can only be achieved through independent thought and action, which requires independent leadership at all levels of society.
The BAF is dedicated to developing a new generation of Black leaders accountable to the Black community who will place people over profits and peace before hate. This new leadership will not be confined to thinking inside an invisible box, but will see possibilities where there once was hopelessness. As this new leadership emerges it will foster a new Black Renaissance that will once again shine the light on Black brilliance.
Social Uplift
"Nobody's free until everybody's free."
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"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you."
"Success isn't about how much money you make, it is about the difference you make in people's lives."
- Michelle Obama
The words social uplift and social welfare have strangely been given negative connotations by conservative media. Since when did helping our fellow brothers and sisters in the time of need or crisis become wrong? There are many reasons an individual or family may fall upon hard times, such as loss of a job, a serious personal or family medical issue, death of a spouse, birth of a special needs child, a natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina, Haiti Earthquake) a house fire, a divorce, home foreclosure, etc. Yet recipients of public aid in any form are often presented as lazy, unmotivated and unwilling to work, and in the case of Black women "welfare queens". We know the difference.
While the BAF does not believe in dependency, we do believe in providing a helping hand in the time of emergency or serious need. The BAF has created a Disaster and Emergency Relief Fund to help our members overcome life's toughest moments.
Photograph by Radford Davis
Community Service
"Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve...You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
10 million members
+ 5 hours a year community service
50 million hours of community service
Performing community service builds character and is part of being a good citizen. Every member of the Black Achievement Fund is required to complete a minimum of 5 hours of community service a year. This amounts to 50 million hours of community service each year for Black communities! Additional hours are appreciated but do not roll over to the next year.
Community service can come in all forms, from cleaning up a vacant lot, planting trees and flowers, or helping someone write a resume. The BAF's Membership & Volunteer Departments will provide all types of fun and meaningful community service activities and projects for members in their local communities. Members will also have the opportunity to design their own community service project. With 50 million hours of community service going to our community each year, we will transform our neighborhoods block by block.
A Livable Minimum Wage
"At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line."
- Bernie Sanders
"No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage."
- Benjamin Todd Jealous
In America, the cost to live well continues to become higher and higher as jobs disappear and wages remain stagnant. Over the past 20 years the gap between rich and poor continued to widen. So much so that a 2017 Oxfam report found that the eight richest people in the world (including six Americans) have more money than half the world's population, or approx. 3.6 billion people. Those who work in society deserve a higher share of what their labor produces. This is not revolutionary; this is what is fair.
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The BAF will maintain a progressive living wage, currently $15 per hour, to ensure that all members of our community earn an honest pay for honest work. In addition, every business that receives a small business loan from the BAF will be required to uphold the current BAF's minimum wage. Businesses are subsidized through below-market interest rates on loans and other incentives and support services.
Furthermore, all of the BAF's salaried positions will be at or above current market rates and offer very generous fringe benefits. For a list of BAF salaries, see the Strategic Plan.
Respect for the Environment
"Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own - indeed to embrace the whole of creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder."
- Wangari Maathai
We only have one planet. For hundreds of thousands of years it has sustained us. The industrialization of the world has caused untold harm to Earth. We must act responsibly and make the protection of our planet a priority in everything we do. The BAF specifically will:
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​Plant 50 million trees in 5-years in Black communities around the globe (India did it in 1 day!)
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Green construction for all residential and commercial real estate developments
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All-electric corporate vehicles
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Exclusively organic and sustainable farming practices
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Clean factories and manufacturing plants and processes
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Installation of public water fountains to curb plastic bottle waste and to save members' money
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Minimal packaging on BAF products to reduce waste and focus more money on the quality of the product instead of the packaging
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Purchase and operation of community recycling plants where none exists
International Aid & Solidarity
Black people all over the world suffer from racism and underdevelopment. The African diaspora represents a nation without borders. International aid to African and independent Black countries has never been to make the country wealthy, or to solve longstanding problems. If that were the case, with all of the billions gone to international aid, these nations would be self-sufficient or at least much better off than they are. Furthermore, research shows that much of the money pledged to African and independent Black countries is never delivered. For example, this has been largely reported to be the case in regards to international aid pledged to Haiti for the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed over 100,000 Haitian citizens.
The BAF will implement a meaningful International Aid program that seeks a true partnership with developing African and independent Black nations to provide sustainable solutions to serious problems. The strategic focus of our efforts will be:
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Direct aid for Disasters & Emergencies
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Foreign investment focused on infrastructure development
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Information sharing and cultural learning through student exchange programs
Universal Kinship
“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."
- Thurgood Marshal
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"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated."
– Coretta Scott King
Love of our fellow human beings is not just flowery rhetoric, it is the operating principle of the Black Achievement Fund. It is the glue that holds humanity together and propels us all towards our highest potential. The Black Achievement Fund welcomes all people who share its mission to join regardless of race, gender, politics, religion, sexual orientation or national origin. We recognize that all human beings have equal value, and that there is no superior or inferior “race.”
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If Black people are to overcome racism, they must not only unite in America, but with their Black, Brown, Yellow, and White brothers and sisters around the globe who share in the fight.
Black Excellence
“Just think, that this race of Black men, today our slave and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of speech!”
– Count de Volney
The quote by French philosopher, historian and politician, Count de Volney, was made after he travelled to Egypt in 1782 and visited the Great Sphinx. He, like any other nonbiased student of history, acknowledges that the civilization of ancient Egypt was African. The ancient Greeks, the first “Europeans” to travel to Egypt, also openly acknowledged the African ancestry of ancient Egypt. However, because the grand achievements of the ancient Egyptians contradict the philosophy of racism and white supremacy, the history of ancient Egypt is misrepresented. It is often claimed that the ancient Egyptians were not African, but a hybrid Mediterranean/Asian/European race that has somehow vanished.
Africans on the continent and throughout the Diaspora carry the blood of the ancient people of Kemet who built the Great pyramids and developed arguably the world’s greatest civilization. For over 2,000 years Africa was the light of the world, and it was ruled by African people. This is the historical legacy of Black people, not slavery. The ancient African people of the Nile Valley and Kemet set the highest standards of excellence and pioneered virtually every field of knowledge. It is time for Black people to learn their full history and return to excellence. The BAF will set the standard through every program and service we render.
