Monday, March 27, 2023

Discover Why One Of The Wealthiest Black Areas Prince George’s County Is Challenged As The Promised Land

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IS PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY: THE PROMISED LAND FOR
AFRICAN AMERICANS?

By Op-Ed Contributor Tolson Banner

A recent article in the Greater Washington publication proclaimed Prince Georges’ County may be losing its status as the Black Promised Land. Spoiler alert: According to the latest Census data Charles County now owns that title.

But what does it mean to be the wealthiest Black county in these United States?  And more importantly how do we measure when we have arrived at this place we call “the land of milk and honey” or “cabin in the sky?” 

The ancestor legend Bob Marley crooned the answer this way, “If you know what life is worth you will look for yours on earth”.  Maybe that’s why this article examined black homeownership (not black land ownership?) as being the hub in the wheel with health, schools, economic development, racism, and crime as spokes not necessarily correlating an index of self-reliance for us to address poverty, homelessness, mental health, food apartheid and the inability for us to feed and clothe ourselves in a state where Black farmers exceed the national average.   

From a historical point of view, our first collective definition of the Black Promised Land emerged with the abolition of the American enslavement trade in tandem with hope and promise following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Forty Acres and a Mule was ominously dangled before us like a carrot on a stick – always just beyond our reach.