Daudi M.’s Post

The black liberation movement is in my view a 3d tactical chess game. Someone once asked me what my game strategy was when playing chess. I told them I play to navigate at least one of my pawns to the other side of the board to become a queen. You need your pawns to win any war, they are the foot soldiers limited but many. In doing so I can calculate the sacrifices I can make in the course of the game with other players who have limited or specific movement ability. If I have two queens on a chess board and two other pieces one being a castle you can likely navigate to checkmate with the king to be used only as augmentive. For those of you who don't know the game of chess I said a lot here. The only ones who can see the strategy are the ones who understand the game and how to play it. Black liberation cannot be a movement because the stakes are too high and the rules of the game were written by the masters. Movements are visible and loud focused energy the yields minor result. Black liberation must be built on strategic moves coordinated across the board by pieces/players who know how to position themselves to serve victory even unto sacrifice. If you are not that kind of player you are playing the wrong game. The liberation will succeed when black people can work together like ants. Not one word said but communication is constant and the work is progressive with an objective even against advisarial events and circumstances. We have a work to do first by mastering the art of the game because it should be the last and only one we need to play for victory.

Great leadership makes you believe that you can do big things, that you can change the world around you. That’s how my friend Harold Pettigrew, Jr. led at Wacif. Harold set us firmly on the path we walk now, with a commitment to investing $100 million in local communities, reaching 5,000 underserved entrepreneurs with advisory services, ultimately helping those entrepreneurs create or retain 100,000 local jobs by 2030. Harold built a team to well-equipped to create and sustain that impact. More fundamentally, he helped us see that we could change world around us, at scale. That belief – in our ability to change the world – echoes in the history of Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the organization Harold now leads. “Let’s Change the World” was the rallying cry of South Shore Bank, the first and ultimately largest CDFI, when it was founded in 1973. “Every. Person. Counts.” – it’s what Lisa Mensah, OFN’s immediate past President and CEO, reminded us during her 2019 OFN Conference keynote. We can change the world. It’s not corny. It is reality. The organization that would ultimately become OFN, NACDLF, held its first conference in Waltham, MA in 1985. Sixty-five people, representing 47 loan funds, and 27 million in assets participated in that three-day conference in October. Chuck Matthei’s opening remarks were titled “Who We are, What We’ve Learned, and Where We’re Going.” Look at where going and a bright future emerges. That gathering of 65 financial justice pioneers just 40 years ago became last year’s OFN Conference, which brought together 2,000 attendees, including senior leaders from across our ecosystem, including many of the world’s largest financial institutions, representing trillions of dollars in assets. We made and are delivering on plans to help entrepreneurs grow businesses and create wealth in underserved communities, make homeownership more accessible, and transform the health of the environment. We are changing the world. Right now. As OFN Board Chair Donna Gambrell shared from the OFN Conference stage, “The CDFI Industry is strong. OFN is strong. And there is so much more we can do.” There is so much more we can do. Harold showed us this at Wacif, positioning us definitively for an exciting future. I know he will do the same at OFN. 

Other countries have long since abandoned the ‘English Victorian Gradgrind model of education’. They have realised especially with the advent of AI that creative thinking problem solving digital and communication skills are the basis of education that equips young people for a fast changing future . England still carries on with its endless consultations and the writing of reports with recommendations that go absolutely nowhere ! Meanwhile children in the UK are deemed to be the unhappiest of twenty one economically advanced countries according to a UNICEF report. Certainly 1.8 million have decided to quit school and countless others are excluded- effectively kicked out of school. Why? As they spend much time out of lessons and miss learning- they are possibly not going to ‘pass their exams’ so risk messing up the school's position in the accountability league tables. The majority of these children have special educational needs - undiagnosed, unmet or both, or are from socio-economic backgrounds ( disadvantaged), so are unable to achieve as well as their peers. How is their achievement measured? Not through valuing the progress that children make from their starting points, or indeed, in subjects that they may excel at- creative technical or vocational, but through an academic suite of subjects that they may struggle in. The EBAcc curriculum is not taught as relevant or meaningful to their lives, or indeed contextualized in 'real world' learning. Some children cannot access the secondary curriculum because their reading age is below their chronological age. Attainment and progress measures are 'normative' and these children are measured against their peers. In truth, is that a fair or equitable education system? Will this normative assessment succeed in closing the gap between those that pass their GCSEs and the one third that do not? A 'pass or fail' education system presents a bleak picture - but then Thomas Gradgrind the notorious school board Superintendent in Dickens's 1854 novel Hard Times ended up with some very unhappy school children, while children in the UK today present as the unhappiest in Europe with a 'particularly British fear of failure partly to blame' according to the Annual Good Childhood Report ( 2023). Is that just a mere coincidence? I fear not. Building in failure into an education system will not result in happy children motivated to achieve their full potential. Its time for a radical change.

As the joyous festival of Dussehra dawns, it not only marks the triumph of good over evil but also carries with it the promise of success in our business endeavours. Just as Lord Rama's unwavering dedication led to victory, may our relentless pursuit of excellence and integrity in business lead us to new heights of prosperity. Let us celebrate this auspicious day with gratitude for our achievements so far and hope for even greater accomplishments on the horizon. Happy Dussehra, and may it bring not only the victory of virtue but also the triumph of our professional aspirations. 🪔🌟 #happydussehra #dussehrawishes #dussehrafestival #shapingfutures #personalgrowth #professionalgrowth #BuildingConnections #TransformativeJourney #ConfidenceBuilding #teambuilding #individualgrowth #KnockWalkCommunity #BusinessSuccess #BusinessGrowth #TeamEmpowerment #ProfessionalDevelopment #productivity #DiscoverYourStrengths #KnockWalkRetreats