The public and private sector can help agreed Mr. English. “But the most important question is what can we do to provide jobs for our young people ourselves?” he asked.
Corporations and politicians certainly have a responsibility, but it is up to the Black community to initiate job creation based on the assets they own in the community. Blacks must look at what they have and not what they don’t have, he explained.
“I’m a firm believer in do for self and then reach out and ask for help,” Mr. English told The Final Call.
Clergy, civil rights groups working collectively with the Black community is a start, said Mr. Jackson. But, he added, the typical political and economic solutions offered today won’t work. He said the Do for Self program of Nation of Islam patriarch, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad which among many practical principles, teaches and trains Black men to be entrepreneurs, industrious and landowners is what is needed today.
“We’re going to have to go back to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on this one. We’re going to have to do for self. There is no one from Washington, D.C. who’s going to ride into our community and save us.”