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Insight News • December 22, 2025 - December 28, 2025 • Page 1
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December 22, 2025 - December 28, 2025
Vol. 52 No. 51 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Building Wealth Part 3:
Legacy Interrupted, Legacy Rebuilt David McGee CEO of Build Wealth MN at the Black Men’s Legacy Summit
By Pulane Choane, Contributing writer The third conversation at the Black Men’s Legacy Summit opened with a truth so blunt it quieted the room: “We perish because of lack of knowledge.” It was David McGee’s diagnosis of why legacy planning stalls among Black men, even when the desire is there and the future feels urgent. If the earlier parts of this series explored why legacy matters and how families begin to build it, this session confronted what happens when legacy is disrupted, delayed, or never taught at all. “There are people working every day in this country who still don’t know the basics,” McGee continued. “How
to use a bank account. How to clean up credit. How to get rid of debt. How credit alone can save you thousands. These are not luxuries. They are the difference between building a future and barely surviving.” That set the tone for a panel that blended testimony, hard-earned wisdom, and a kind of emotional transparency rarely seen in community forums. Bishop Larry Cook, a longtime pastor and entrepreneur, offered one of the night’s clearest through-lines: legacy begins with identity. “I made my first hundred thousand at twenty-six. I bought property at twenty-five. But the only reason I was able to do any of that was because I knew who I was spiritually,” he said. “We can pass down wealth, houses, land, but who
are we passing it to if the next
into generational continuity.
Entrepreneur James Crumble generation does not know who they are spiritually, mentally, emotionally. Identity is the foundation.” His message drew a straight line between economic stability and the deeper grounding that turns financial gains
James “Brother” Crumble then stepped in with a story that captured both the barriers and the breakthroughs. “I believe legacy planning gets delayed because survival gets prioritized over succession,” he said. “When you face housing
discrimination, income inequality, limited access to capital, you are thinking about the bill due next week, not generational wealth.” He pointed to the cultural and emotional distance created when earlier generations lost assets or were denied access to them. But Crumble’s own transformation challenged the idea that interrupted legacy means permanent loss. “Five years ago, I did not own a single piece of property,” he said. “In six weeks, I will be north of one hundred units. And all of that started because David invited me to one meeting. One meeting gave me the information I needed.” The room erupted in applause, not only at the scale of his portfolio but at the simplicity of the turning point. One invitation. One conversation.
One unlocked room. That theme carried into the night’s most pressing question: Where are the young men? Bishop Cook looked around the room and asked, “Where are the men under twenty five? What could a young man do with this information? But they are not here. And if they are not here, how do we pour into them?” He described how his church has intentionally built space for younger Black men to grow without judgment. “Some came in the street. Some came with nothing. Today they are general contractors, homeowners, leaders. That happened because we created a space where they could grow.”
LEGACY 10
A Journey to the Source:
Knubia scholars lead 14-day Kemet Study Tour In August 2026, a select group of scholars, artists, students, and community thinkers will gather on the African continent for an immersive, 14-day group learning experience designed to reconnect participants with the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural foundations of classical African civilization. Hosted by renowned Africana scholars Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr and Dr. Mario Beatty, the Kemet Study Tour will run from August 1–15, 2026, with Cairo serving as the gateway to a sweeping exploration of the Nile Valley. Over two weeks, participants will study more than 50 historic and sacred sites, blending rigorous scholarship with lived experience. More than a tour, organizers describe the Kemet Study Tour as a collective classroom in motion. Drawing inspiration from the late master educator Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, the itinerary is rooted in the African concept of Maat—truth, balance, justice, and divine order— as both philosophical compass and practical guide. Participants will engage directly with pyramid complexes, temples, tombs, mu-
the temples of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. The West Bank offers intimate engagement with royal and noble tombs in the Valleys of the Kings, Queens, and Nobles, as well as Medinet Habu and the Colossi of Memnon. Day excursions extend to Dendera and Abydos, sacred centers associated with Hathor and Osiris, before continuing south through Edfu and Kom Ombo, where exceptionally preserved temples reveal complex theological and architectural traditions.
Aswan, Nubia, and Living Community
From Saqqara’s Step Pyramid to the Great Sphinx at Giza, the tour begins in Lower Egypt with foundations of ancient Kemet. seums, mosques, and churches, encountering African antiquity not as distant history but as living knowledge. Evening lectures, on-site instruction, and guided reflection are built into each day, reinforcing the tour’s emphasis on deep study rather than surface sightseeing.
Cairo, Memphis, and Giza:
Foundations of Civilization
The opening days focus on northern Kemet, beginning in Cairo and extending to Memphis (Hut-ka-Ptah) and Saqqara, home to the world’s oldest stone structures. Participants will explore the Step Pyramid complex, the tomb of Ptahotep—author of the oldest surviving book—and the iconic Giza Plateau, including the
pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, as well as Hor-emAkhet (the Sphinx). Museum study features prominently, with planned visits to the Grand Egyptian Museum (if open) and the historic Egyptian Museum in Cairo, alongside tours of Old Cairo’s Coptic sites and major Islamic landmarks such as the Citadel and Sultan Hassan
Mosque.
Upper Egypt: Temples, Texts, and Timeless Landscapes
After traveling south to Luxor (ancient Waset), the study intensifies. Participants will walk the Avenue of the Sphinxes at Karnak, stand beneath the towering columns of the Hypostyle Hall, and explore
In Aswan, study shifts toward continuity between past and present. Participants will visit Philae (Pilak), the High Dam, and the granite quarries that supplied ancient builders, including the unfinished obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. A highlight of the journey is a flight to Abu Simbel, where the colossal temples of Ramses II and Nefertari stand as enduring symbols of African engineering and cosmology. The tour culminates
JOURNEY 12