Ahead of the Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Special Broadcast of ‘The Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program,” Independent Film Consultant and long time Friend and Creative Partner Eric Canada spoke with Cedric about the evolution of the program and a host of other issues.
Here is Part II of their conversation:
Eric Canada: I see what you mean on a personal level but I want you to explain what that ingredient – business and economics – adds to the flavor of your show. Because to me that’s what separates what you are doing from a lot of others.
Cedric Muhammad: Right. Along with the spiritual or human motivation factor that is what makes the show valuable, according to listeners; and also to me, deep down. Let’s be honest the stereotypical subject matter for a Black male under 40 to build on in public is not international monetary policy or what’s appearing on Bloomberg and CNBC. It’s something closer to sports and entertainment, or the Democrats versus Republican debate; or straight current events at best, with no analysis. So, it just looks different to most people, and I know that and that’s cool. But getting beyond the intriguing appearance of it, I think people know they are dealing with substance when they see what we bring. I’m not talking about subjects I haven’t intimately become acquainted with and if I don’t know it at a significant level we hit the books for research or we find a living expert. I simply love the research process and I love stimulating discussion and I can have it with an 8-year old or a 90 year old. If nothing else I know how to ask questions. But most importantly I tap into the wisdom of the crowd in the form of the audience who already knows the science of life from their study and life experience. I just have to bring it out more into view.
But back to a cultural level, Black Americans, unlike any other people, did not inherit business knowledge rooted in a cultural tradition. We were stripped of that. It makes a big difference. And after we came out of chattel slavery, in Reconstruction those institutions set up to educate us did not include formal business instruction and we were denied the freedom in civil society to gain that knowledge and pass it on efficiently or practice it freely. This does not mean that we did not practice economics cooperatively. Segregation forced us to and we have never produced anything since as powerful as those 60 ‘Black Towns’ we had from 1865 to 1915.
But Black Americans have culturally had nothing to rival basic traditions like the informal savings cultures of other ethnic groups.
And our use of mutual aid societies and charity was never overtly tied to entrepreneurship or business development as a primary objective or at a mass level, as was clearly the case for say Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the 19th century.
But I think beyond that history what is important to look at is that for 100 years Blacks have subscribed to non-economic liberalism.
Our politics have no economic component to them and are essentially what they have always been – tactics, maybe not even a strategy, to extract the bare minimum forms of securities and rights from one political party that feigns friendship in the face of another political party that manifests more open hostility. Not realizing that our captured status (uncritical loyalty and total reliance on one party, and scared by the other) allows both parties to manage a stalemate on race relations so that the discussion is controlled. It looks like the two-party system aggravates racial tension when it really is redirecting and controlling its energy. The two-party system manages disequilibrium. It’s quite a trick that has deceived many.
So, to have a Black political independent like me – who has voted Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Conservative, Libertarian and Green and who has friends in the Republican Party’s economic growth wing and those on the radical, activist Left – say that economics matters more than partisan politics makes for something very interesting.
I don’t outright advocate it as a strategy but if every Black Democrat said that for the next four years they would only pay attention to Federal Reserve policy and Supreme Court decisions not the Presidency or the House and Senate; only vote for their school board, city council and mayoral races; focus on investing in and growing small businesses and not national elections; and turn off Fox, MSNBC, and CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC and just watch Al Jazeera, Russia Today, South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC), CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business Channel the quality of life in our communities would increase 100% and we would become an international force. We would see that all of the Members of Congress, Senate, Governors and the President would compete for our vote without us casting one for them.
Eric Canada: Of course what I love about the program is that it gets into religion, politics, business, sports and entertainment. Anyone could get into it – an artist, cat on the streets, politician, spiritual person and a young person in High School or College. Is that the goal?
Cedric Muhammad: Yup. I don’t assume that just because Nicki Minaj may have suggestive lyrics and dress too revealing that she can’t teach me a lot of the science of what it means to be a young lady in a world like this. As you know I pull out the great equalizer in gender relations – the 1962 Muhammad Speaks Article, “Are Beauty And Fashion The Same?” Using that article I can talk with an adolescent or an elderly woman about gender issues and the shifting notions of ‘style’ in clothing etc… A stripper, a feminist, a businesswoman who studies professional etiquette, and a fashion designer could discuss verses in the Qur’an about the different purposes for clothing, depending upon circumstance, from that base. And I could build with men about why our view of women is sometimes so filthy and where blame rests and why we should appreciate that clothing means something to females that it doesn’t to males. And we’ve had great and spirited conversations about this on the program so we know from experience. We don’t do dogma on the show. We strive for science. That’s the only universal language – natural law and universal order – and I look for it in anything and everything. You have to take the disposition of a student as well, which most public intellectuals don’t do, because of ego or they are just doing a job or out to sell and market, so they can’t listen. But I would never do a show only in the language of what I personally believe. One day I want to do a show on what I, as a Muslim, appreciate about Quantum Physics and Atheists but I don’t feel I have the critical mass I desire as an audience, yet. Whatever I would say would be reduced to dogma and silly debate. Soon, though, Allah Willing.
Eric Canada: How does the Internet and technology play into what you do? Because quiet is kept BlackElectorate.com and Black Coffee Channel were way ahead of their time.
Cedric Muhammad: Yes, thanks. That’s something I’ve learned. You have to be careful about time and the difference between pioneering, leading and serving. And what your business pursuits are versus broader mission-oriented work. I have had painful experiences with that dynamic…
Eric Canada: Brother, you ain’t the only one.
Cedric Muhammad: I know, I know. And that’s why it’s good to get it out in the open because we are being hindered by it.
What happens sometimes, especially when you are blessed to innovate among a people who have been denied certain things like we have been – speaking of Black people – is that your private service becomes a ‘public good.’ People feel they own what you are sharing with them and they also form a deep emotional attachment with you and what you provide because of the need it suffices in them, which is deeply emotional and spiritual. This gets back to the self-interest of the creative/spiritual person who is not selfish but who is asked to be selfless. What I have found is that talented people are made to feel like they have betrayed the larger group in structuring what they provide as a service so that it provides benefit for self. If you aren’t careful you can end up bitter because ‘the people’ don’t patronize you nor do they support you financially. So you end up in ‘no man’s land’ and if you have been taught a very strong ideology that overpowers science and a basic sense of your humanity, and if you are exceptionally sensitive to peer pressure or need psychic income (applause, appreciation, attention) you would never think that you are justified in doing trade and commerce with people other than your own, as well as your own. You don’t even think you are allowed to have your own life, to obtain something for yourself – as if it contradicts your value system or minimizes your commitment to the whole. As a result, unless you overtly structure your support group like an effective spiritual teacher who relies upon the charity of those who sincerely follow and appreciate them, you really can’t sustain yourself.
And I personally couldn’t do that – build a movement around myself – because I don’t want anybody ‘following’ me. But that sadly, Eric, is the arrangement the masses have grown comfortable with. I’d rather play the role of a supporting catalyst within a movement – not an ignorant worshipper or person going along for the ride but also not as an outfront personality who can’t draw people to the work and acceptability of self-improvement and organization.
Although they claim to hate ‘messiahs,’ ‘demagogues,’ and ‘charlatans,’ most people I have met ‘dumb down’ in order to shirk responsibility – becoming mentally lazy, needy, and desire a dependent relationship between themselves and some ‘great’ person. I have rejected it in my life and actually have an acid-like distaste for people who try to make me greater than I am while diminishing their own magnificence. The talented, sincere, and sensitive – unless they master business and can find a safety zone in between selfishness and selflessness – will end up being used up by those more needy or exploited by those who are wiser. Both groups – the needy and the wickedly wise – are highly manipulative.
There is nothing wrong with a life based upon total sacrifice, if a person can truly accept that, without bitterness in their heart, and also understand the dynamics that brings in their personal and professional lives.
We will never become what we need to be as a civilized and united people until the cry of ‘one for all’ is sincerely equaled by the network represented by ‘all for one.’
So, I’m glad I realized that even if you are a public personality who sells and markets information and entertainment you have to operate in the arena of trade and commerce and you have to make sound business decisions on the basis of principles and facts and not just a worldview, however sound. Applause without money can eventually lead to vanity or bitterness.
I also think you have to make offerings that are capable of satisfying a community broader than your own. This is especially true because of the changes in demographics and technology.
Eric Canada: Explain that more and how you discuss it on the show.
Cedric Muhammad: Yeah, I mean everything is fragmented now – content and distribution platforms. We have gone from being able to get a limited amount of offerings in a limited amount of places to having an unlimited amount of offerings available in an almost unlimited amount of places, at any time. The places that have credibility in the eyes of those 30 and up are not the same as those in the eyes of a teenager. A smartphone, Facebook, and Twitter are for a 14-year old what the Internet, cellphone and PC were for a 30 year old, just 10 years ago and what radio and TV were for a 50 year old 20 years ago. The ramifications of this are real – just ask the makers of live entertainment, cell and smart phones, and PCs, notebooks or tablets. Branding and taste-making are more valuable now because of that because it is harder to do, because more people can try. We talk about stuff like this on the show, with a sense of humor.
My 14-Year Old Adviser laughs at me telling me that everything I was or am into is old: soap operas, professional wrestling and Blackberrys, replaced by reality TV and iPhones. It’s hilarious but true.
Eric Canada: I know, I just spoke to her for an hour…
Cedric Muhammad: She’s brutal, right? Clowning both of us ancient 30-somethings! Making fun of CDs, soap opera cancellations, Hip-Hop as an ‘old’ genre and what not. I think when ‘General Hospital’ is finally cancelled and Soapnet goes dark she is going to have a party. I love looking at the world through eyes younger than mine. That’s why I describe the music industry the way I do, as not really being a business. The people who enter it are blinded by psychic income and romanticism or caught up only in terms of what is happening ‘now.’ Not realizing that ‘now’ in some cases was decided 5 or more years ago by a demographic and technological shift.
Eric Canada: So what’s your view of Facebook and Twitter?
Cedric Muhammad: I like the potential of Facebook’s business model and people who think it can’t compete with LinkedIn because it is used by people more for their personal use than professional are forgetting something. In between a strict professional job seeker and a person just relaxing is the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur can use Facebook for business and social purposes very easily, without contradiction. But Twitter, Eric, I’m not so sure about as a business. I see it more as a phenomenon. I don’t know how lucrative it will end up being for the owners and investors. It’s an important marketing vehicle but not for everyone. Although it gives you a lot of eyeballs I think it too easily allows others to negatively impact your brand or business. There’s a side to it that I think is still ‘uncontrollable.’ That makes it appealing to masses of people but not necessarily to an image-conscious businessperson.
What disappoints me is the way people use social media. It could be so progressive and constructive if a sober mind was brought to it. In terms of my show, if I can’t use it for more than an online marketing purpose, I’ll probably discontinue the show. My ultimate objective is to use social media for more lucrative, progressive, and offline networking, initiatives and projects that better suit my profile. We were able to do this to a degree with the BlackElectorate.com ‘Business and Building’ Community – now I want to apply it to use movement energy for some collective business activity. But only if the people want to engage in that and I don’t have to carry anybody. Otherwise I’m happy to use my show even as a loss leader for my other ventures like Africa PreBrief my brand management company and Black Coffee Channel. I haven’t been able yet to do the show I ultimately want to sell to an international company – the fragmentation issue prevents it. I’m probably 2-3 years away.
Eric Canada: Where does Africa fit into this and your upcoming special broadcast on June 15th?
Cedric Muhammad: The rest of the world is boring to me, E! Seriously, Africa is where everything is converging. In my consulting business Africa PreBrief, we explain this to clients and where the opportunities are. I don’t care if you have 20 dollars or $20 million you need to be thinking about Africa. My love for Africa was stimulated by the great era of consciousness in Hip-Hop in the 1980s-90s; reading the work of great African History scholars like Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Yosef Ben- Jochannan, and Dr. John Henrik Clarke; and by reading The Final Call newspaper and hearing Minister Farrakhan teach on it. My love for economics and my professional ability in it made it only natural that I would apply that lens to current events. The ‘Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program’ is dedicating its format to a focus on economic events in Africa and basically bringing the analysis that we provide at Africa PreBrief into sound and view as show content. That means we marry art, culture, high finance, technology, and politics. You don’t have to be a citizen of an African nation or have a doctorate degree to enjoy the new emphasis of the show.
You only have to have an interest in reality and be forward-looking.
If Africa is the Mother or Throne of Civilization – which it is – then it’s time for an ideology-free conversation and experience about it that is universal and not patronizing, superficial, or condescending.
The people who have monopolized the conversations about Africa have been people who haven’t evolved their view of it beyond a single ideological variable – culture, class or political ideology. I’ve seen this mindset in the Black activist community as well as the White elite intellectuals who sit in D.C. and try to prescribe policy for Africa.
Both ‘cliques’ want Africa to conform to their own image of or agenda for what the world should be like.
I’ve yet to really hear a dedicated show in America that looks at Africa not just as a historical or contemporary phenomenon but one that is futuristic and considers the complexities of cultural orientation and timely economic information, simultaneously.
As long as trade and commerce is left out of the storyline we never will.
End of Part II
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In Part III: Gold and Silver Coins as a Window To The World; Sports, Entertainment & Music As Metaphor And Motivator; How To Tell When A Show Is Good