By Jamila Surles-Walker
There have been a lot of discussions around the unifying of the African American community in Chattanooga, and across the United States.
There are always items in the local budget, including the tourist and suburban areas, meanwhile the inner city sees little to no growth. Therefore, many are coming to realize that innovative actions must be taken to see current status of the African American communities improve. I spoke with Frenise Mann, who has been in the finance industry for over 20 years. She is passionate about making an impact and improving the financial trajectory in these areas.
She feels strongly that we are seeing some progress towards unity in the African American community, and stands behind the circulation of dollars within to make up for the deficit when it comes to closing the economic gaps.
She feels this is the “season, the time, and the atmosphere” to bring the necessary changes.
“We need programs to change mindsets,” she said.
There are many reasons she feels we have been in a bit of a holding pattern, and that can be attributed to slavery and the “slavery mindset.” She said there are things that have been passed down from generation to generation that keep us from collectively advancing. She feels systematic institutions, as stated in the Willie Lynch letters, have a hand in the status quo. The basis of this being the degradation and dissolution of the black family.
Mann outlines some solutions that will make a huge difference. She emphasized the power of education, obtaining necessary knowledge and literacy.
“We need to implement the information after we obtain it,” she said.
Areas she said needed additional funding, resources, and overall improvement include equality in the marketplace, funding and useful programs for viable healthcare, regulations in manufacturing areas with high toxin exposure, and more opportunities for loans and mortgages.
“Once there is a successful individual among us we need to reach back and get somebody else, build platforms, offer real support and stop expecting the hook up,” Mann said.
She also stated the benefits of us cooperatively working together would be generational wealth, a sense of pride, it will spark innovation among us, black on black crime will decrease, and mental health challenges would be reduced. We will have a sense of achievement and the ability to break the cycle of generational debt.
These barriers can be broken if we tap into the strength that we always had and establish a financial system based on our efforts.
“We built America even through fear, manipulation, violence, and still made it and survived.”
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