Freedom Fighters

“dat nigga gon git us kilt … o’mebe free.”

 -A petrified slave

I’d never heard the term “freedom fighter” uttered more than I did during the 1980’s, particularly by Ronald Reagan in reference to the Contras.  These were people who held power in Nicaragua by mass murder, rape, torture and the disappearance of thousands.  They were overthrown by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas who, by all accounts, did not commit these types of atrocities as they fought to free Nicaraguans from this brutal tyranny.  So why did the Contras get America’s support and, more strangely, the label “freedom fighters.” 

The answer was obvious.  Sandinistas were led by people with Marxist/Communist convictions and we all knew then that Communism, as particularly spewed by that Evil Empire (The U.S.S.R.), represented the enslavement of people worldwide.  Therefore, anyone who fought against enslavers were freedom fighters.  Makes sense to me.  So as I processed this rationale it hit me that “freedom fighter” was precisely what Nat Turner was.

Immediately I was engulfed by the realization that our history in America is literally replete with freedom fighters.  Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey are the three most noted leaders of American slave revolts or insurrections that either got off the ground or were crushed before they had a chance to.  In the face of moral bankruptcy, tyranny and crimes against humanity, freedom fighting efforts anywhere in the world carried with them the gravest of dangers, but none so seemingly insurmountable as the dark period of slavery.  We can be proud that on our road to freedom we had fearless warriors who now deserve to be recognized in the true light of history for who and what they really are: Freedom Fighters!  To them all, known and unknown, we owe the highest reverence, for they provoked in their brethren the utterance “dat nigga gon git us kilt …… o’mebe free.”  That is the predicament in which a true freedom fighter places his/her people, especially if such freedom-seeking moves are of a life or death nature.

When Harriet (Moses) Tubman received her mission, took up arms and said “let’s take our freedom,” what do you think her fellow slaves said?  I’ll tell you what they said.  They said “dat nigga gon git us kilt …… o’mebe free,” but she never lost a passenger.  To me, she is the greatest freedom fighter we’ve ever had; her uncompromising plan of how to get a slave free (take him or her) is the perfect example of how to get our birthright of wealth.

 In the last 155 years our freedom fighters were well aware that though the physical chains were gone from our hands and feet, freedom (in the full sense) was still a very elusive thing for us in America.  While physical freedom must’ve felt like winning a war, major battles lay ahead.  In a large respect we were more vulnerable to violence than we’d been as slaves, for the protections that came with being one’s property were gone.  We walked a minefield where the slightest transgression or the flimsiest accusation could mean certain death. Yet, even in the face of this, our freedom fighters continued to emerge and chip away at the oppressive laws and conditions that still enslaved us.  They honed and mastered every conceivable method of attack, appeasement and protest to gain some measure of equality and live to see it.  Every now and then we’d utter “dat nigga gon git us kilt… o’mebe free,” as we pressed on into a mindset that made death for many of us more desirable than inhumanity, for freedom has always meant more than simple liberty.

Today when black leaders stand up against injustice they are, more often than not, left hung out to dry.  We seem to only rally around them in reaction to highly publicized acts of police brutality or some other racially charged incident.  Whatever happened to our fight for full and complete freedom? Would we still rally around that if our leaders would but mention it?  The same urgency we’ve always faced is still there; just check the statistics and, while you’re at it, check the condition of our people.  Where are our freedom fighters today?

Have you noticed how we don’t fear for our lives when today’s leaders call us to mass protest or civil disobedience?  I’m not saying that we should, but I pose the question to ask is there anything left in our quest for full and complete freedom worth dying for?  It looks like that ended with the Martin and Malcolm era.  Now in the Jesse,  Farrakhan and Al Sharpton era we’ve tasted varying degrees of freedom and have become complacent; so much so that a sizeable percentage of our people will tell you that they’re fully free, yet only a fraction of us live comparable to the freest white person in every category that measures quality of life, wealth and power.  Four million freed slaves that in 155 years turned into forty million African Americans and not even 5 million are millionaires.  Worst than that not even 10 are billionaires. Does this not scream at us that we have one more major battle to win before we disappear into the melting pot?

While the success of Forty Million And A Tool is not designed to depend on the wealthiest African Americans, it certainly will galvanize us all with their active involvement.  They are the most experienced of our next frontier: the attainment of wealth.  I don’t know anything about investments or the world of high finance, but Daymond John does.  I don’t know how to keep a multimedia conglomerate generating millions and millions of dollars annually, but Oprah Winfrey does.  How about parlaying the gift of “rapping to the beat” into ownership of multiple businesses worth a few billion?  Jay-Z, Dr. Dre and Diddy know.  If at any time they didn’t know, but good things continued to happen for them, they soon made it their business to know.  Are we paying attention?

Forty Million And A Tool insists that we lift them up in reverent recognition of who and what they represent at this critical juncture in our history.  They and hundreds like them are the gatekeepers of our birthright.  Those of us who don’t know how to build wealth must learn from our leaders in this arena.  I’ll tell you one thing, if I wanted to learn how to shoot free throws, I wouldn’t go to Tyler Perry – I’d go to Stephen Curry.  Likewise, if we, as a people, want to learn how to build and keep wealth we must go to those of us who’ve proven to be the best at it.  Otherwise, we might as well keep giving our dollars to bling-bling, fancy cars and the lottery.

If ever there was a time when we needed to depend on the best and brightest among us now is that time.  With America now on course to terrorize people of color for years to come and with almost every major employer cutting their work force because of Covid or the next pandemic it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who’s going to be hardest hit.  We can’t wait around any longer watching America (especially white America) conduct a modern day Civil War because the country is becoming too dark, too Hispanic or too Asian.  America is supposed to be that capitalistic, multi-cultural superpower all about the paper.  True colors are coming to the surface in 2021 and now we’re beginning to see that our hyper-focus on just basic equality of opportunity still has the same downside to it – it leaves us at the mercy of those that dispense it.  That is not freedom as a people.  Where are our freedom fighters?