[response to other threads got too long]

You obliquely point out a big issue - people don't have any real ideas for creating mass jobs in the black community, aside from back to government.

In the 50's I believe (via Buckminster Fuller), Brazil was intent on modernizing, with some wanting to emulate the US with its railroads, despite the existence then of airplanes more suitable for Brazil's vast distances and thick jungles.

People don't shop in black Walmarts because 1) I don't think they much exist, and 2) the white one is much cheaper. (At one point, Walmart had about 13% of all imports from China).

While paying a small margin to "shop black" might be practical, many people are poor and won't pay double Walmart prices to shore up the community - nor should they.

Of course Walmart's not the only game or model - if people can afford quality, they'll limit Walmart purchases and buy more interesting stuff at quality stores.

So a black-owned model has to offer a quality margin or social margin or some other attraction to its customers. Business isn't charity - you can sell style, entertainment, other intangibles, but if it's just pity, it's like giving a homeless guy a buck for a magazine you don't want.

But here we jump to retail stores as first step, when that's the most complicated, low margin option there is. Even at a time when various types of computing is expanding, 3D printing, eHealth, new energy approaches from pluggables to smart houses, along with changes in medical procedures, general genetic mapping of diseases, updates to physiotherapies... or on-line magic like Amazon, eBay, Google, Groupon...

Sam Walton came up with one model of retail, focused on hub logistics. It was innovative for the time, and they piled on a few other innovations to give them market superiority. But it's not the last model - Amazon already cuts into their electronics & home appliance business and other categories.

Bucky Fuller talked about lightweight domes that could cover city center that could reduce heat & cooling costs to 1/84th. Undoubtedly that idea would be less effective and more complicated than presented, but for someplace like Detroit, a variation could be applied that would be economic, aesthetic, and have the attractive cool factor.

In 2008-9, everyone's idea of job stimulus was back to "shovel ready projects" or "bringing back manufacturing". At a time when 2 of the Big 3 and their suppliers were going through bankruptcy, and the competing Toyota needed huge bailouts & subsidies to compete, and China had taken away much of our manufacturing along with the pollution. And we see how government support for the post office and Amtrak goes - both great services that could be run efficiently as a quasi-public-private service, but Congressional overseers bollox the model every time, slashing the vision and the revenue base and then complaining that they're not profitable.

So if you want to inspire black kids, to keep out the "whining", come up with a future vision they can latch on to. If 5% of the kids were focused on the new & emerging, they could pull the rest out.

I'm dealing with several tech meet-ups right now where the energy is great - people with can-do spirit and interesting ideas get together physically and on-line, trading & shooting down ideas, sharing energy, real fan-boy-and-girl stuff.

With the cost of some tablets down to $80 or so, getting hooked up has never been easier. Organizing it takes a slight bit of effort, but most of the tools are there for free. Getting support for these efforts isn't that hard - people are pretty open and giving overall, even though that last mile of crucial business is typically where you have to do it yourself.

What's a way that new mobile access & connectivity could improve efficiency in black circles - low-tech business to up-and-coming visionairies, whether in finance, health, logistics & transportation, food services, housing, insurance....? Combine it with some other development/advantage/community tie-in to give it legs, and you've got a business if you can save people or give them benefit or entertainment or financial service of $20/month over a population of 50,000.

What will the state of healthcare for blacks be in 20 years, what's the infrastructure and human support and knowledge required to deliver it? Where are current black kids in this vision?

Blacks are involved in music and movies - how can they extend their deep knowledge and enthusiasm in these sectors into a profitable model for recording & distribution for the future? (as the current music & artist model is completely dysfunctional and unprofitable except for a few who cornered the copyrights, tickets, concert venues, and much of that is getting battered by piracy and competing on-line models).

900,000 blacks are incarcerated - what's a do-it-yourself model to harness communication, family support, post-release re-acclimation, job training, community engagement? (can include government grants or be self-sustaining...). We have "No Child Left Behind" and "One Laptop Per Child" (which sucks, by the way) focusing on kids, but it might be more needed for ex-cons.

Is there an on-line + word-of-mouth/networking approach more suitable to the black community than Monster or LinkedIn (or leveraging those) to improve job prospects and business incubation and other business & skill opportunity?

If 38% of black kids are living in poverty, what different strategies and resources are needed to give them a more normal enjoyable childhood while providing them with lifelong skills, understanding and motivation? Yeah, there might be a government program for that, or a community solution, or social cheerleading, or various combinations. The easier to be self-sufficient and self-deterministic, the better.

So screw all this worry about internal racism and who's criticizing who - put on the big boy pants and put some meat into the future vision thing. Martin's dream was pretty well filled, and the next one is probably more expansive, inclusive, maybe social, maybe technical, maybe organizational, maybe philosophical, maybe financial - but needs to be practical, scalable, likely simple at core to grasp and implement and build on. Facebook's all of what, 6 years old? How old's Twitter? Twitter didn't even have its own servers or IT department until recently - they just used Amazon and focused on the web interface and service. Why should the black community keep going through Black Vision 1.0 when there are more than enough ways to jump start Vision 3.0?

[PS - applies to Hispanics and whites and all the other ethnic and social groups as well]

[PPS - aside from Bucky Fuller, I haven't mentioned anybody's names or positions or anything - this is a post about strategy and vision, not personalities - please don't go there.]