This is why black people think we can earn international respect by becoming the world’s best consumers ''on provable record''. To buy our way into freedom, out of an ''arrested development plan eating PlanET''.

For generations, Black communities worldwide have been caught in the trap of a dangerous illusion: 

that consumer power can be transformed into global freedom and respect. From African nations bleeding wealth to foreign markets, to Black women in the United States and the West Indies spending billions on wigs, skin-bleaching creams, and other beauty products, the enslaved discombobulated totally sacrilegious '' log for the fire '' unworthy brain and mindset is the same—an attempt to purchase respectability, freedom, and social elevation. But has our pursuit of consumption gotten us any closer to the freedom we crave, or has it simply masked a deeper, more obfuscated, convoluted reality?

The Global Consumerism Trap

Black-majority countries are some of the biggest consumers of foreign goods, while their exports of local goods bring in significantly less revenue. Consider Africa’s staggering import costs: as of recent years, African nations spend billions importing luxury goods, electronics, cars, clothing, and food products from Europe, China, and the U.S. 

Nigeria alone, Africa’s largest economy, spent over $4 billion annually on imported food products and goods while struggling to boost local manufacturing exports. Meanwhile, Black-majority countries outside of Africa, such as Jamaica or Haiti, are similarly entangled in this pattern of economic dependence, perpetually importing goods while exporting far less value in return.

Black Women and the Beauty Industrial Complex

Nowhere is this consumption obsession more visible than in the beauty industry, especially among Black women. 

In the United States alone, Black women spend over $2.5 billion annually on hair care products, with an alarming portion going to fake hair, wigs, and weaves imported from South Korea, China, and other Asian countries.

In fact, the global market for Black hair care products, including wigs and extensions, was projected to reach nearly $10 billion annually by the mid-2020s. This spending is mirrored in the West Indies, where Caribbean women, like their American counterparts, contribute to the ballooning demand for imported wigs and beauty products.

In Jamaica, another alarming trend emerges: the widespread use of skin-bleaching creams. Reports suggest that up to one-third of Jamaican women have used these products at some point in their lives. Skin-lightening creams are often laced with toxic ingredients like mercury and hydroquinone, but their popularity persists because of a deeply ingrained belief that lighter skin brings higher social status. This proves a broader reality of Black consumption—where the enslaved mindset of external validation for an entirety of a lifetime leads to internalized harm.

African-American Economic Power: A Double-Edged Sword

African-American consumers are one of the most economically powerful demographics in the United States, generating approximately $1.6 trillion in domestic earnings annually. 

Despite this, a significant portion of that money is funneled right back into the very industries and corporations that contribute to Black marginalization. A report found that 70-80% of African-American disposable income is spent outside of Black-owned businesses, benefiting global corporations and largely white-owned industries.

Meanwhile, the African continent is being drained of resources and wealth by its own elite. In the last five years, billions of dollars have been stolen by African politicians and business elites, who funnel that money into foreign accounts, invest in luxury real estate, or splurge on lavish shopping sprees in Dubai and Paris. This blatant corruption has left African nations kaput, unable to fund the infrastructures and industries needed to inspire their people.

Charity: The Great Black Divide

While Black billionaires exist, their contributions to Black communities and charities are significantly less impactful or altruism minded than their counterparts in Europe, America, and Asia. 

Public records reveal that African billionaires, despite their considerable wealth, have given shockingly little to improve the conditions of their people. In contrast, white billionaires in the United States—such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett—have donated vast sums to American and global causes, sometimes giving away half or more of their fortunes.

Even among the Asian billionaire class, like Lakshmi Mittal and Azim Premji, there is a trend of philanthropy aimed at uplifting their communities. 

Premji, for instance, donated over half of his wealth to education and healthcare initiatives in India. Black elites, however, have largely failed to contribute to meaningful change, instead the opposite is the case, raising difficult questions about the responsibilities of so called black culture [ '?' haha laughable, non existent '?'  ] at the peak or highest echelons of our society, I query the responsibilities of wealth in dismantling systemic oppression.

The Black Celebrity Illusion: White Supremacy in Disguise?

Black celebrities in the West are often idolized as symbols of success and empowerment. However look again, many of these figures  knowingly uphold white supremacist values. From promoting European beauty standards—seen in the popularity of lighter-skinned Black women in Hollywood—to endorsing fashion and luxury brands that exploit Black labor abroad, these celebrities play into the same systems of global capitalism that oppress their own people.

Parental Discipline: A Legacy of Slavery?

Black parents, especially African mothers from my lifetime observation on 2 continents, tend to averagely and are often seen/ known to show an unrealistic strict, harsh disciplinary method with their children especially in public spaces as if the racial burden is a baby's responsibility [ best behavior demands from babies ETC ETC ]. 

But where does this tendency originate? Many believe this harshness is tied to the epigenetic trauma of slavery—a time when the constant threat of violence shaped parenting styles. Black children, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, are often raised with a rigid hand, not because their parents are innately harsher, but because of inherited fear, a need for control, and the enduring scars of systemic oppression. 

Militarized children from day 1, if many would be brutally honest , rarely do parents directly tell their  children ''i love you'', the excuse is, love is felt, not necessarily spoken. This backwards mentality or position of ''DON'T TELL YOUR  CHILDREN YOU LOVE THEM VERBALLY'' in my opinion is mindless or madness

The Horrors of Burning: A Legacy of Violence

The brutal practice of burning Black people, immortalized in songs like The Gap Band’s “Burn Rubber on Me,” has an unsettling origin. 

Though often associated with the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, burning alleged witches, thieves, and criminals was prevalent in certain African societies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In a chilling cycle of violence, these societal practices were internalized and adopted by Black communities, furthering a system of cruelty that dates back to the violence of colonial and slave-era justice.

The Illusion of Freedom through Consumption

Black people’s visible demand '?' for global respect and freedom through consumption is, at its core, a profound misunderstanding of power. 

While we spend billions on luxury goods, beauty products, and foreign imports, we remain economically and politically powerless. Our spending patterns have created and enriched foreign nations while draining our own, and our elites have hoarded wealth, love ETC even indomie basic noodles that should be emergency camp food for '?' unashamedly, wickedly, heartlessly hoarded by these beings instead of reinvesting it into the community.

If we truly want freedom and global respect, it won’t come from the consumer market .

True liberation can only be achieved when we stop trying to buy our way out of oppression into places that tolerate us but ..............errr,  instead we could for once focus on building systems that allow us to be huEman beings [ and not bootleg versions of human beings] from within.

[Olofin / 4Qua Of OrioN]