Taking it back Black

Devin Robinson is "Taking it back Black", with a cooperative economics movement in the hair care industry. Spearheading the "100 stores in 100 days" movement under the Black Beauty Supply Association, he illustrates the very nature of Dubois' plea for black wealth sustained and cultivated not on the backs of blacks but to the benefit them. To create the fight for this however Robinson had to run into a rather unsettling experience.

While shopping in yet another Asian owned beauty store for his own salon, the Korean owner threatened him with a golf club and threw him out without any explanation. Still, Robinson utilized the experience to create change.

There had always been an entrepreneur in him; before the incident Robinson had been writing self help books and opened a salon in the interest of his friend. He like many in the Black community recognized the need for black owned and run businesses in the inner city and had already started to make efforts to combat our situation. Still, when thrown out of the beauty store Robinson sprang into action!

"I'm not trying to cast out the Asian influence in our communities I am trying to increase black ownership instead of just employees," said Robinson. And he has, by taking an active role in changing the dynamics of black business in our society and recently releasing his new book, "Taking it back: How to become a Successful Black Beauty Supply Store Owner."

The book is an instruction guide for blacks who want to regain control of an industry that has been stripped from their hands. He stands as an example for all business men and women to go into their communities and cultivate strength and economic solidarity with one another. Eighteen months after he opened his first store he had three more opened in inner city communities.

Cooperative Economics is based on successful blacks going back to their communities and giving back by creating examples for the youth to do more than just what the music videos imply, as well as nurturing black influence on our national economy by increasing the value in our neighborhoods and lives in general.

"The common denominator in our communities is education," said Robinson. We tend to find less equipped schools and institutions here. The kids are blinded by the media portraying people that made it to the limelight without an education. But what they don't understand is many of those people have innate business skills, and an enterprise sense about them enabling them to have their own clothing line or record label.

Robinson's books do well to instruct aspiring Blacks to accrue a better business sense about them selves. He's starting a movement that is bigger than his name and the hair care industry combined.

"It's not about me. It's very important for me not to be selfish. Oprah could loose it tomorrow. If you go through life thinking its all you, you're causing more harm to the community than help," He stated. "You want to have a community that will take care of you and to do that you have to take care of your community. We must start now and pass the knowledge. Many people think you loose something in sharing knowledge but we can't think like that. We can all benefit on a larger level. It is about predecessors." Creating black money and black self-value on a level that isn't purely aesthetic like in a video or painted on acrylic nails, Robinson has taken a truly abstract approach in that he started with the beauty industry, ironically flipping the scene on the values of the black community during"bling-bling blindness." He notes that we can not continue to believe life is a lotto ticket true wealth is not created and cultivated that way, but it takes discipline.

You can find information and works about and by Devin Robinson at his website Devinrobinson.com.