Is an Urban Exodus the Solution for African Americans?

[im_sleep]

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Basically Mr. Turner’s argument is that the Urbanization of our population has caused us to be dependent on the system which is constantly working against us.

To summarize the solution is to go back to our rural roots, go off the grid, and become producers instead of consumers.

His message gets a lil at times as he fails to address the numerous issues throughout our history that made so many of us leave the rural South to begin with and put us in this predicament. However the overall point I can dig.

My question is, is this possible for us at this point in time or would there have to be a financial boost to get the wheels in motion?

He makes a big deal about changing our mindset but I don’t think that’s as big an issue as he’s making it out to be, my concerns are with the financial sustainability, getting young Black folks on board will come a lot easier IMO if they can be shown the viability.

Thoughts?

 

[Black Haven]

I've actually been thinking about owning farmland when I'm more financially able in the future, mainly to isolate myself from urban or the main society in general.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

we'd still be under the same exact system whether we live in the wild or the concrete jungle

not to say we shouldn't look into alternatives

but much like the countryside, the cities/urban areas offer resources and a measure of sustainability, especially those with disabilities.

if anything, suburbs need to be converted to be more eco-friendly and walk-able.replace the dead shopping malls/plazas with farm land and foliage would do wanderers as oppose to full upheaval.

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Nah, not wise to leave the cities seeing as how they are the center of power and influence within their respective regions. Black farmers should definitely get more support and if there are Black people that want to do so they can go into farming. But en masse might not be a great idea.

 

[ColdSlither]

I don't know about an exodus. I am all for people leaving if they feel they need to or if they are done with city life. But life in a more rural area is going to have it's share of issues as well. It's trading one set of griefs and bullshyt for another.

 

[Savvir]

how lucrative is privately owned and run farms in 2018.......?

last i heard, farm country relies heavily on government subsidies to even exist....

 

[Jimmy from Linkedin]

Depends on the clientele. They determine the crops, that determines your subsidies. Corn, Wheat, Soybeans in most states are what are subsidized. Anything else is usually a "specialty crop" and therefore either has some (smaller) incentives, or no incentives. There are markets for what you want and usually what it takes is a heavy degree of marketing/networking to have a constant clientele such as restaurants and then you having enough labor to produce value-added items. Sauces, breads, chips, herbal blends, meal preps etc. If you can set up shop with a greenhouse and start producing microgreens, you get yourself into a restaurant that already knows what that means and is looking for that, you become their local "farm-to-table" $$$upplier. Once they start marketing you heavy then you can begin to set up your own CSAs or community sponsored agriculture, where the people purchase shares (futures) on what you have already determined you are going to make and weekly they get an abundance (generally below market value) of what you harvest.

how lucrative is privately owned and run farms in 2018.......?

last i heard, farm country relies heavily on government subsidies to even exist....

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

I will say however that agriculture is a great way to begin integrating markets within the diaspora and could also help connect us with the continent.

Also here at home, Black farming needs to be utilized to combat the food deserts that are in the inner city.

 

[frankster]

Blacks already left the South and fled North in what was called the Great (northward) Migration to escape Peonage, Segregation (jim crow) Laws and being conscripted into Involuntary (prison Labor camps) Servitude. Of the three forms of oppression mention above Martin Luther King has done much to change the laws regarding segregation....the other are still with us albeit more covert than overt. Today we speak of Black Flight, which is blacks leaving the inner (urban) city slums and move to the suburbs. Some have argue that blacks are actually being push out by a political policy known as Benign Neglect and a socio-economic policy known as Gentrification.
Blacks In America returning to the Land is a good idea for many reason, so I cannot for any reason be against it. The most I can say is that Africans on the Continent need our trade and we should begin to invest heavily in the continent because until the African Continent is Free and Strong we African all over the world will not be free.
The Greatest fear of the European Nations is a Union of Africans States working Together toward a common goal.

 

[CoryMack]

There has always been a divide between urban and rural, especially among the decision makers. Rural people are more independent and self-sufficient. If things go bad in the cities that population can be controlled because they need to eat and can’t produce anything. It’s not like that with rural folk.

We do need to get back to farming and agribusiness in a major way. I’m sure a good number of our families still own small family farms or some land out in the country that can be used to farm.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Farming is just a tiny aspect. You gotta have industries that turn the things you farm, natural resources you have into products.

This is why you have places like the Ivory coast where people are skilled at coco farming but all of the industry that turns the coco into something meaningful are outside of the country and the end products are what is truly profitable.

We need to be looking at end to end solutions and not just farming/taking care of the resources around us.

My girl is from a rural town with fertile land but there is no industry there so farming that occurs simply ends up with that stuff getting sent off elsewhere to turned into something more meaningful to end consumers.

I’m using “we” in the context of me being a black man in America.

 

[BigMan]

invest in black farming, agriculture, and similar industries that involve black ownership of resources? Absolutely
An urban exodus? Absolutely not, even though through black suburbanization this is already happening which i feel will be bad news in the next coming decades.

 

[SouljaVoy]

Black people need to look into being self-sufficient. (off the grid)

Literally if you own your land, build your own house, grow your own food (or a portion of it), get a rain water collection system, solar panels.

You can live pretty well for the rest of your life.


White folks regentrifying the cities anyway, so we should turn lemons into lemonade.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

if you have any disabilities, physical or mentally you better off staying put tbh

I don't know about an exodus. I am all for people leaving if they feel they need to or if they are done with city life. But life in a more rural area is going to have it's share of issues as well. It's trading one set of griefs and bullshyt for another.

 

[David_TheMan]

Inspired by these videos






Basically Mr. Turner’s argument is that the Urbanization of our population has caused us to be dependent on the system which is constantly working against us.

To summarize the solution is to go back to our rural roots, go off the grid, and become producers instead of consumers.

His message gets a lil at times as he fails to address the numerous issues throughout our history that made so many of us leave the rural South to begin with and put us in this predicament. However the overall point I can dig.

My question is, is this possible for us at this point in time or would there have to be a financial boost to get the wheels in motion?

He makes a big deal about changing our mindset but I don’t think that’s as big an issue as he’s making it out to be, my concerns are with the financial sustainability, getting young Black folks on board will come a lot easier IMO if they can be shown the viability.

Thoughts?

Urbanization hurt the blacks in Chicago, NYC, California, and etc.
I think this is why the black family was able to maintain a strong bond in the south, they could still achieve a measure of self sufficiency and interconnectedness down here and weren't isolated and left reliant on white handouts like non-southern blacks.

both sides of my family have extensive farm land, and its my dream in 10 - 15 years to purchase 200- 300 acres of land myself for a homestead.
I would suggest all my young black professionals think the same.