A few days back a thread was started that dealt with persons who had given up things in behalf of the "Truth" college, retirement, dreams, etc.
As a black man I see the impact that wt has had on me, thankfully i live in an area where if you are a black person you can have opportunities that as a black person you may not find in Miss..
I look back at myself at all the job advancements i turned down due to being a jw, i used to work for a white guy who told me, James you have the abilities that would make you a good manager, I said to myself --NO WAY-- i see you guys working 50-60 hours a week, and i got meetings and parts yes responisiblities in the congregation that are far more important than some "JOB"
A management job came open and asked me to apply for it and i said no, well in about 2 weeks i got a call from our corp office in boston , they wanted to know when i was availble for an interview. i was saying to myself, i didn't apply for any job, well this white guy sent in my paper work,
he told me james you have so much talent going to waste and i was thinking IM mary i have chosen the best portion, i turned it down, about 3 yrs later he was promoted to regional director and moved to Atlanta, GA and i was down there for training, when he heard i was coming down for training,he was at the class by 9am asking me to stop by his office.
he told me james have a managment job and it has not be posted and i want you to have it.
the company will pick up your move since you will be moving into managment,
houses are cheap down here and the company is looking for talented minorities and james you would do a good job cause you are good.
i told him i would think about it and he told me talk to your wife and let him know
i was saying to myself ain't no way in HE!! i would move down south to end up in some GOOD OLE boy hall
for i had a couple of bethelite buddies who went down south to serve where the need was greater and they got dogged, many because of being young elders
a few of them had to wait 2/3 yr for A REAPPOINTMENT
young bethelites roll in all sharp and doing stuff by the book, many local elders would feel threatened to have a guy like that on the body
so i knew i was being used, on all kinds of committtees, on the district conventions, in the chairman's office, so there was no way i would move and have to start ALL OVER AGAIN with the possiblity of never "Being Used" in that way again
so once again i turned down the job- this guy wanted me to be his RIGHT HAND MAN
to make a long story short- today this guy is " President of Canon USA" I'll be Damned -smile
So When i look at all the black bro who live here in this area of Washington DC who are missing out on opportunities - instead of going to Howard Unv. for Law so many work in the mailrooms of the 100's of law firms here in washington DC
yes they are proud of thier flunky jobs,
well my wife and i are out of wt and we are trying to play catch up and we have been very fortunate to have been able to get our foot into the door and we now enjoy a family income that just a few years ago was almost forbidden.
well here is an article about the county i live in called Prince George's county.
We have been able to move into a home i only Dreamed of getting after the Great Tribulation.
i just shake my head as the black jw come into out development for i know what they are saying for i know what i used to say when i would come into a "hood" like the one Lady "C" and i live in
"They think that their big old houses will save them at armegeddom" "Jehovah will blow down these fancy homes and big cars"
intead all Lady "C" and i are doing is working hard with out hands and seeing the reward for out effort
something we never saw while working for WT, Inc
smile
as i say it is so good to be able to read the Washington Post on Sunday am in our Drawers"
james
and i saw alot of that
well to make a s
Area Tops in Nation for Black Prosperity
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Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 20, 2002; Page C01
The Washington area leads the nation in African American prosperity, including the number of black homeowners and of black households with $100,000-plus incomes. The region also ranks at the top of metropolitan areas in the number of college-educated black residents, according to the 2000 Census.
While the District and its suburbs have long been known for upwardly mobile black residents, that distinction solidified during the past decade. The number of $100,000-plus black households, for example, grew nearly 70 percent after adjusting for inflation.
That dramatic growth in a class of affluent African Americans stems from several factors, including a booming local economy in the 1990s that lifted income for most households. At the same time, black baby boomers were moving into their high-earning years and minority workers here continued to benefit from the federal government's anti-discrimination policies.
One in four black adults in the region holds a college degree, according to the census figures. Roughly one in eight black households has an income of $100,000 or more, and half of black households here are homeowners.
The Washington region, with 1.3 million African Americans, has as many top-income black households as New York, which has 1 million more black residents. And it has more black homeowners than New York or Chicago, whose African American population of 1.6 million also is larger than Washington's.
The region also compares favorably on measures at the low end: It ranks at the bottom nationally in black poverty and high school dropouts.
The epicenter of the affluent black population locally continues to be Prince George's County, which has more than 40 percent of the region's black households with $100,000-plus incomes.
But that group is gaining in other suburbs as well. And increasingly, the census numbers show, the gains for black households have come in the suburbs more than in the city. The number of black homeowners in the District, for example, did not grow, but increases in the suburbs pushed the overall number up 53 percent, to 233,728. That lifted the region from fifth-ranked to first among big metro areas.
Despite their economic advancement, the region's black residents did not close the money gap with white residents, whose incomes also rose sharply during the 1990s. The median black household income in the Washington area is two-thirds of that for whites, a ratio that is no better than the national average.
"Blacks are doing well in a place where everyone is doing quite well," said William H. Frey, a University of Michigan demographer who studies metropolitan areas. Although black incomes have not caught up to white incomes, he said, "they are both going in the same direction, which is not the case in other places."
Experts agree that the federal government jump-started the rise of the black middle class here by opening professional jobs to minorities in the 1960s, giving the area an edge over other regions. Government employment and contracts still play a major role, although black private-sector employment is rising, too.
The black baby boomers who went to work for the government in the 1970s and 1980s are now established and in their peak earning years. But the region also is drawing younger black professionals and retaining children of the baby boomers.
That critical mass of affluent black residents made it easy for Caryn M. Bailey to accept a job here as a development specialist with the National Society of Black Engineers. She started looking for a job in Washington because her fiance and some friends lived here. Bailey, 27, moved from Ohio this summer, bought a condominium in Alexandria and hopes to find a house.
"I love the diversity of the culture," Bailey said. "At any given moment, there is something to do. Also being around a lot of professional minorities, and seeing minorities do well -- I really like that."
Bailey fits right in with the area's workaholic culture, too: She sometimes works a 60-hour week, and she hopes to upgrade her master's degree in public policy to a doctorate in the coming years.
George Mason University economist Stephen Fuller said that rising education levels helped African Americans find higher-paying work and that the Washington economy of the past decade was one where "the better jobs grew faster than the not-so-good jobs."
Some academics argue that the fact that black incomes in the region still trail those of whites, a gap that barely budged in the 1990s, should not be ignored.
"I think you could say that blacks got a share of the gains of the '90s but that whites got a bigger share," said Bart Landry, a University of Maryland sociologist who wrote a book about the black middle class and is now studying the software industry. "While the tech boom reached blacks, it probably was especially capitalized on by whites."
But Roderick Harrison, a former U.S. Census Bureau analyst now with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said that the persistence of the gap "reflects ironically the good economic integration of blacks into the economy here. For every black college-educated person moving here, there is a white college-educated person."
The gap is closing, Harrison pointed out, in counties such as Charles, Loudoun and Stafford, where small black communities have been enlarged by the arrival of more-affluent African Americans, and in Prince George's County, where some affluent whites are leaving.
The census figures reflect the economy in the spring of 2000, before the downturn. Some specialists think the impact of the recession could be muted among well-off black households because they were less invested in technology businesses that went bust. But Landry argued that recessions hit hardest the most recently hired, who are disproportionately minorities.
During the past decade, black homeownership grew faster than white homeownership. One reason may have been that lenders were turning more attention to first-time home buyers and those with unconventional credit histories, who are more likely to be minorities. In addition, said Robert E. Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, the region's housing prices were flat in the early 1990s, making home-buying more affordable. The District also began offering a tax credit for first-time home buyers in 1997.
Washington now faces growing competition from other regions to attract skilled black professionals, a fact that Frey said reflects the spread of private-sector opportunities for minorities. For example, Atlanta, although still behind Washington in numbers, had much sharper growth in college-educated black residents and high-income black households in the 1990s.
Still, Frey said, this region likely will remain an attractive destination for African Americans both because of "the trump card of government" and the networking possibilities here.
"I know I get tons of [job] applications because this is the nation's capital," said Iris McCollum Green, a D.C. lawyer who is on the board of governors of the predominantly black National Bar Association.
The region's reputation as a black mecca, she said, "is one of the big drawing points. Once people get here, they don't want to leave because of that. You appear to be more in control of your destiny. You can have something to say about it."
2002 The Washington Post Company