An African American Opportunities Fund

 The original Ambassadors of Thomas Jackson have devoted so much time exploring TJ’s efforts to support freedom for slaves and better opportunities of Black people during his lifetime, that we had the wish to continue his mission in our own lifetimes.

We were particularly impacted by the claim that Black people did not lack talent but what they really lacked were opportunities.

Even though equal opportunities for all citizens are now enshrined in words of the amendments to the American Constitution, that has not translated into equal justice in society.  This could no longer be ignored after events in 2021 when several Black citizens, most notably George Floyd, were killed by members of the police.  In the outrage about this and other events, there was a change in the balance of public opinion in the Nation. From then on protesters and activists campaigned with renewed vigor for a wide range of changes, include making the police more accountable  and paying reparations to Blacks with ancestors who suffered through slavery.

Our view was to respect that there were certainly good reasons for people to hold strong opinions on such political issues, but rather than challenging those whose with whom we may not agree, we felt that Black society had more to gain by exploring a different way namely actively seeking funding from all possible sources to extend the range of opportunities for African Americans in America.

We felt that there were many people of all races and backgrounds who saw and sympathized with the need to correct the imbalance of justice in USA. However we predicted that more of them might be willing to donate to an Opportunities Fund if it was uncoupled from actively advocating political positions. Thus we pragmatically felt that by keeping focused on a single goal of generating money to support a Black Opportunities Fund, we might be a positive influence along the lines that TJ would approve of.

We ourselves went some way towards establishing working groups to explore this concept and registering our own not for profit but then we found that in Canada there was already a highly successful group that was already doing exactly what we were hoping to create.

The Black Opportunity Fund of Canada (https://blackopportunityfund.ca)  was relatively recently established and is already highly successful in terms of the level of financial support it has received and the good it can do.  We now strongly believe that the format and structure of that organization could provide an excellent starting point for a similarly successful organization in USA.

As such, we strongly recommend individuals and groups in USA to explore this group for it is already succeeding brilliantly in  a manner that we were hoping to become a catalyst for. We would be very happy to see some African American group take on such a project, looking ahead with self sufficiency but not forgetting the past.

As such, the famous of the Sankofa bird might feature in its brand identity.

Credit: Sankofa Illustration courtesy of vrcoleman@outlook.com

The Sankofa is a mythical bird that originates from Ghana and has been adopted as a powerful emblem for modern cultures who seek to move forward while not forgetting the lessons from the past. The bird is always represented as reaching back to remind itself to take the power of growth (the egg)  while facing towards a new future. In this illustration, the artist has added an Ankh , the Ancient Egyptian symbol for life, to the egg and, by the brightness of the colors, implied a glowing future.

It can be thought of a conveying the message that it is important to reflect on the lessons of the past while building a successful  future. That seems to be an appropriate emblem for a group that is pragmatically focused on building opportunities for African Americans and other Black people.