Thursday, November 24, 2011

Urban Prepping: Why are there so Few Black Preppers?

By Reginald Kaigler (DEMCAD)



A journalism student recently contacted me about setting up a phone interview on the issue of black preppers. On my main youtube channel, I created a video entitled "
Why are there so Few Black Preppers?" The journalist wanted to get more of my views on the issue and the following was my reply.

This is a very interesting topic, because it touches on a number of social issues. So even if you don't care about prepping, this issue is relevant. You can't talk about the challenges of being a black prepper without issuing the lack of (economic) cooperation in the black community. How can you organize an emergency plan in a community where people don't even support other local businesses or talents. Black people rarely support black businesses, but are quick to send every cent at an Asian-owned store or corporation. Not that I refuse to shop at non-black stores, but I at least try to support black businesses.

Another challenge is convincing other blacks that the government could fail to provide for us. Even after Katrina, most blacks look for the government for solutions.

Another issue is security. Being black means, you're likely to live among blacks. And since we have a much higher homicide rate than any group, simply being black dramatically increasing the likelihood that you will be murdered both under normal conditions and during a crisis.

Ironically, blacks are generally anti-gun rights. Don't take my word for it, read it yourself. A pathetic 30% of use valued gun rights or gun control. Am I the only person who notices that black cities trend to be the most pro control areas, while having the very worst crime levels.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1858/gun-control-rights-division-demographics-party-ideology-religion-region-tea-party

PDF file
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/gun-control-2011.pdf

So if something happens and you're among blacks, you're going to be dealing with much higher crime and neighbors who are less likely to be armed. Two extremely big disadvantages and that's why you will most likely inherent simply because of the color of your skin (or being white in a black area.)

Blacks also control a less percentage of resources (relevant to our population) than whites. How have more failing schools, more poverty, shall I control. Granted, many (if not most) of our problems are caused by ourselves, but not all of them.

The reason why there are so few preppers in the black population is because of cultures don't value self-reliance and pro-activity. Not that I'm completely self-relevant, but I at least practice using firearms, collect ammunition, store food, acquire first aid materials and attempt to prepare for disasters. Many blacks (and whites) seem to suffer some normalcy bias and can't conceive a situation where the systems fail.



Here are my videos.
Challenges of Black Preppers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVev3ckAOEo

Why are there so Few Black Preppers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFswM-5Nmzs

14 comments:

  1. Great videos and ideas. Any places I can go find more in the same vein as you?

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  2. Ever hear about Mr. Will Allen in Milwaukee and his urban farm?

    http://www.growingpower.org/

    I know he's not a prepper, if you go by your definition.

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  3. Never mind being a black prepper, its refreshing to see a black libertarian. Not that being prepared isn't a bad thing. Keep up the good work, spread the word.

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  4. Man, i just found this post...and it is refreshing to hear someone with similar concerns and views. Most preppers seem to be white conservatives/evangelicals(& unfortunately sometimes borderline bigots/racists), so when it comes to collaboration, it can be an awkward situation. hopefully I will keep finding more diverse-at least more diverse white people-preppers. I will be keeping up with your blog. Thanks for posting.

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  5. I am a black female prepper. We must be careful of everyone. I can the veggies I grow each year. Have self defense items. I sew, knit, crochet. Am currently growing veggies using hydroponics. In process of starting aquaponics system. Wish one of my brothers would start a group for us!!! Hint, hint. Where are our muslim brothers on the issue of prepping and protecting?

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    1. If you start a group, I would join in a heartbeat. I'm a black female who wants to prep but outside of the Television show Doomsday Preppers, have no real resources. I live in the south and the prepper groups around here are caucasion, conservative racists. Not a good fit for me and my family.

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    2. Lets just do it! We don't have to wait for anyone else to start a group. Why wait to be prepared? I am a black female who also has high aspirations as far as prepping goes. I have studied, read, tried and now it is time to DO! Some of the things I am doing are sprouting seeds in my kitchen, growing small veggies in my kitchen (lettuce, green onions, sunflower greens etc.) will be joining a community garden this summer to grow some of my food, experimenting with fermentation, applying for my carry and conceal, at which point my wonderful police officer wife friend will start helping me learn how to handle guns, experimenting with various types of food preservation, studying for my ham radio license. There is a lot more but you get it. My situation makes prepping a bit more challenging, but I'm still trying. I'm not a natural leader and I don't know what goes into a process like starting a group like this, but I could imagine skyping, ovooing, and facebooking aren't bad places to start. I say welcome to the first three members of the Black Female Preppers Network! Membership is open to all! Please feel free to contact me at the email in my name. I would LOVE it if this was the first of many productive conversations.

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    3. good to see people preparing, Katrina should had been a lesson.

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  6. Ditto!!!! to the 13th power. I believe in prepping for any plausible scenario that could play out.... except zombies. I believe that black prepping is a necessity for our descendants if never needed in our own lifetimes. Our grandchildren or someone else's will honor us for thinking of them. Although I am incredibly optimistic, it is not blindly faithful. Many of us will never overcome some of the barriers of our own design. Prepping is a barrier that will afford us at least a little time to decide what directions will be advantageous for our families to take in order to deal or better cope with catastrophic events and the possibility of a catastrophic status quo.

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  7. Wow I'm so glad I found this post. I'm a African American woman prepper too, by way of my son. He has talked about this sense he came home from the military. He has given me some tips and even shown me the importance of getting over my fear of guns. At first I attributed his insistence on the subject due to his military background, but when some of the things he was saying was confirmed by some world events reported by the news one of them being the things that guy Snowden exposed I started to look at this thing through different eyes. I say better safe than sorry. I would like to connect with more AA preppers, I've gotten a lot of info from other prepping sites and found that I am really a country girl at heart. I garden, grow vegies , I also sew and find that I'm very interested in learning to spin my own yarn. I'm a very outdoorsy type and have gotten my daughter and other son to take the need to be prepared more seriously, they have even gotten some of there friends to start thinking about this as well. Even though I'm beginning to see an increase of African Americans as well as other minorities prepping I would still like to see and connect with others. One thing I do worry about is the fact that we live so close to the DC area not very close but close enough to make my son tell us to get away from this area (Virginia) and get to the middle of the country if I hear of as he puts it "boots on the ground" I'm seeing people of other races setting up bug out communities. Has anyone heard of a community being set up for us? would love to hear from anyone with some ideas. My son is in Germany right now but when he gets home I'm sure he will really get us moving. In the mean time I would love to hear from more people not just AA's with the same mind set.

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  8. Its hard to find like minding people who are concerned about the plight of our community. I can not find a single black prepper, group or organization in the milwaukee area that teaches survval skills. I am very very concerned. I am a beginner prepper. There are groups on facebook. But thats not enough. We need communites that are physically interacting with one another.

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  9. I, too, am a female African American urban prepper. I work from home and am 56 years of age. I live in Center City Philadelphia, and my research only turned up a group 50 miles away in another State. I think AA preppers are out there, but I think they're secret preppers. Right now I too am working on an urban organic garden. I have a fig tree, dwarf lemon tree, a Haas avocado tree, blueberry bush, poblano peppers, cucumber plant, along with sweet basil, sage, chives and thyme growing atop twin bookcases each having a decorative grow lamp above them in my living room. In my living room window I have different greens, baby plants now, and I've just started on tomatoes and beans. Canned goods I have in the form of chili and I have a 3 months stash of freeze-dried chicken with assorted veggies. I'm looking forward to canning some organic corn, and some of my veggies ... if they don't die on me. So I don't have to rely on refrigeration, as well as getting cheeses on sale that I can preserve in wax. Just learned how to preserve eggs with mineral oil, which will have a shelf life of up to 9 months. My bug out back is packed with a BioLite Camp stove that utilizes wood chips, not propane, and will charge my cell. I have two sets of walkie-talkies continually charging, in case cell towers were overwhelmed. I have a special tub liner in case there's a chance to get non-contaminated water before the water is sabotaged. I also have a roll of duct tape with a flowered print hanging on a discreet nail in the bathroom in case I need to shelter in place. On top of all of this, I have a 3 month stash of prescription meds for my neuromuscular disorders that I scavenge by getting refills in the week before the actual prescription runs out. I have 3 rare muscle disorders, 3 mutations on the same gene, and all rare. Lucky me, right? No Marvel comic book power like "invisibility" for me. The point is that I never want to be unable to get medications because of adverse weather. Protection? I purchased bear repellent, but I also have commercial pepper spray and a taser, but because I want to have something that doesn't require I be in close quarters I'm going fill up a "monster" water gun with pepper spray for either wild animals or crazy humans. Because I live alone, I want to get a recording of a man's voice to scare off the unscrupulous. For bugging-in I have about 6 gallons of water, but would like to develop someone kind of rain catchment system in the window that won't be noticeable. I'm proud to say that I've put together at least 10 bug-out bags for friends, all single women of various ages. One elderly friend couldn't get out this winter for a week and told me she was able to get by with the canned tuna I put in her emergency backpack. You can help others with the emergency bags by simply scouring the $1 and $5 dollar stores. Simple stuff like Sudoku puzzle books, Vaseline, cotton, matches, rope, small first-aid kits, raincoats, tampons, surgical and dust masks, goggles and duct tape can be found in these places to fill up $5 backpacks, and for the more expensive items, I'm always on the lookout for sales on the more expensive items, like the NOAA radios. During both Hurricanes Irene and Sandy I saw my sister in New jersey unprepared and left without electricity for days. To get news I ended up placing my cell phone to my TV so she could hear. You can setup up a prepper network with most of the participants not even realizing. Hey, if FEMA and the RedCross are putting out the word, preppers should be golden in the eyes of the world. I think to myself, none of us would be here if God hadn't commanded Noah to prep.

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