What do we own?

What do we own?

A simple question with a not-so simple answer. I was trying to think
of what we actually own; what we as black people can call 'our own'.
My immediate focus was BET, Black Entertainment Television, then I
realised it was bought out by Viacom. Still concentrating on
entertainment, I gathered that as musicians we own our masters to our
songs. However, upon further research, only a handful of artists
actually own their music. Classic nostalgic artists such as Michael
Jackson and Chaka Khan are still fighting with their respective labels
to own their music.

I subsequently thought about the financial industry, but to no finding
of any black ownership. It’s rare to find a convenience store that is
black owned, or a gas station, franchised grocery stores, or
restaurant. Furthermore, if there is a black-owned restaurant, it
will only sell food that we can relate too. In theory that is
acceptable, however why can't we sell to others? Meaning instead of
the Asian selling us our food & clothing, we should sell the Asian his
food & clothing. Our businesses are to niche; not utilising a full
spectrum approach. As a people we need to be concerned of business
ownership that sells to a wide-range of folk.

Furthermore, not only concentrating on entertainment, but also media, financial, amongst others. Only when we start owning a bigger piece of the pie, then we can demand how the pie is baked.

Think about that …

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DesieB