Reverend Darius Pridgen is head pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. His church was featured on an episode of the tv show “Undercover Boss”. For those who are not familiar with the premise of the show, top level CEO’s and Owners go undercover inside their own businesses and spend several days working along side low level employees. The idea is for them to gain perspective from the lowest level in the company and see where they can make effective operational changes if need be.
In that episode Don Fertman, the chief development officer, for subway restaurants, went undercover to work at a few locations; one of the locations being Pridgen’s church. Later in the episode he speaks with Pridgen on how the idea of putting a subway inside of their church came about. Here’s what Pridgen had to say,
“The reason we actually put it in the church was because there weren’t a lot of opportunities in this neighborhood when I got here. We had a high murder rate, and a lot of people not working. So, a lot of people always talk about, ‘Just give people jobs.’ Well, that’s not the key, if they haven’t been trained. So we started collecting an offering. We called it a “franchise offering” – literally called it a “franchise offering.” But we’ve got to do more than build a business. We’ve got to train people. We try to push people into the next level of life.”
Now I realize that there may be people shaking their heads thinking this is just another religious institution “shaking down” it’s congregation. But I would challenge you to see it from a different perspective. Whether you love or hate religion, its a very strong foundation in the black community and represents one of the last community bonds left in many if not most black communities.
Investment into black neighborhoods has always been a huge problem facing just about every black community in America. The unemployment rate in most black neighborhoods is higher than just about any other racial group in America. This is mainly due to systematic racism.
Yes, I hear the conservative keyboard warriors starting their “personal responsibility” war dance getting ready to hit me with crime statistics and other “facts” which in their minds disproves “systematic racism.” What conservatives fail to see is that systematic racism is an illness which has many symptoms. Some of those symptoms include: high crime, drugs, unemployment, urban decay, illiteracy, teenage pregnancies, and self destructive behavior; just to name a few.
Talking about systematic racism isn’t about “blaming the white man”, it’s about understanding the disease the produces these symptoms in order to find a cure. Policies such as “Jim Crow” and “Redlining” helped create a huge gap between the wealth in black and white communities.
Using black churches to help encourage and build up businesses within the black community is a good step in the right direction. The black community needs to re-establish itself through businesses that can circulate wealth and create opportunities within their own communities, not just ship money outside of their communities. The best example of that was “Black Wall Street“, which was a great American success story and one of our nation’s darkest chapters.
Here is the full episode. Just fast forward to the 24:00 mark to get to the story about the church.
