Emerging out of the debilitating legacy of slavery without our birthright of wealth 4 million ex-slaves began their journey to become in this day what is approximately 40 million African Americans still without their birthright, but hopefully not for much longer. It is the goal of Forty Million And A Tool to convince the best and brightest among us to help lead all African Americans into the wealth, power and prosperity that we’ve long sought and long been denied, but so richly deserve. It is also a parallel call to all of us to contribute to this undertaking no different than how we support our churches and the multitude of causes close to our hearts. For too long we’ve relied upon the generosity of others and handout programs. And for too long we’ve looked upon the government as the parent of our upbringing. While we must protect true gains made we must also bring honor and fulfillment to our ancestors and to our continued struggle to emerge within America as a healed, prosperous and civilized people.

1865 – 1900

DUPED & DECEIVED

Freedmen/Coloreds

Spirituals

Still reeling from the tug of war (Civil War) fought over them and the preservation of the Union (America) ex-slaves entered a very hostile and predatory environment, one that duped and deceived them at every turn as they strove to carve out a life in freedom. Carrying in their hearts the false belief that Abraham Lincoln actually cared about them they were literally any snake oil salesman’s dream and there were plenty to go around. Clearly, the biggest deception of this period was the promise, partial fulfillment and rescinding of “40 acres and a mule.” Every manner of swindle aimed at these newly freed people ran rampant; many, if not most, were forced to return to their former jobs in the fields (sharecropping) and other forms of subservience just to eat and feed their families. Our official title was freedmen, soon to give way to coloreds. We didn’t have music as a genre, per se, but we had songs that sprang from our deepest suffering and yearnings called spirituals. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced “that old negro spiritual” the reference went directly to our period of enslavement up to our official emancipation in 1865. Referring passionately to songs that soothed aching souls with the promise of salvation; songs that embodied secret “steal away” messages and songs that beseeched the Lord to send us our Moses. We had long been a newly produced people on the earth; long been invisible as we listened to our enslavers plan their own liberation from colonial masters, all the while spouting beautiful phrases of liberty and freedom meant only for them. But as we listened we understood and as we understood our hearts filled with that same quest for freedom and Peoplehood. That day having seemingly arrived we made our first foray into the world. Young and naive, tattered and torn, unlettered and afraid, yet resilient, eager, resourceful, thirsty and braced for anything. From the womb of slavery we entered an America not yet practicing full-fledged Jim Crow and still ripe with promise and opportunity – or so we thought.

1900 – 1935

DOWNTRODDEN

Coloreds

Blues

Amidst the turbulent political upheaval of Reconstruction and leading into the turn of the twentieth century some significant gains were made by the ex-slaves and their offspring, particularly in the areas of state and local politics, farming and general entrepreneurship. Unfortunately for these ancestors, when white America state by state began to adopt the notion of a brutally strict segregated society from top to bottom – even enacting laws to back it up – they had to relinquish property, political office, voting rights and their very dignity. Jim Crow was solidly on the scene and being honed to hideous perfection. While this period still saw flashes of our greatness to come, with the likes of Mary McLeod Bethune, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, T. Thomas Fortune, Madame C.J. Walker and others, by the time the Great Depression hit (where many whites became poor) our middle name was already abject poverty.

Perhaps the greatest black mind of the time was W.E.B. DuBois, who at the age of 42 helped initiate a bold step for equality with the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As downtrodden and ragged as we were black excellence and perseverance flourished as if anticipated. Building on the faith and courage displayed by ancestors Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, along with William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown and the vast network of Abolitionists and Quakers, this period sowed the seeds of modern struggle, proving to be a most prolific organizational period. Although Colored was our official name “nigger” and “boy” is what we answered to by every white man, woman and child who wished to order us about or degrade us for their delight and pleasure. Talk about open season; lynching was so commonplace they were incorporated into family outings and picnics. And while spirituals were still sang in church different words now emerged from that same material of yearning and longing to create what is now called “the blues.” More and more our mantra became “just make the best out of a bad situation.” Despite Ragtime to dance to and other avenues of escapism available to us, there was never a shortage of misery and blues.

1935 – 1970

DESPERATE

Negroes

Gospel/Jazz

It is often said that desperate times call for desperate measures. While this period without question unleashed the greatest display of black literary and musical genius ever seen in America, it also contains perhaps our most shameful display of self-hate. In many ways it simply was a natural outcome of a social system that blatantly told everyone what their place was; so much so that it was summed up in the saying: “If you’re white, you’re right, if you’re yellow, you’re mellow, if you’re brown, stick around, but if you’re black, get back.” Given this mentality is it any wonder that during this period black people by the thousands were trying to turn themselves white? Not only desperate to look like white folks, but also desperate to convince white folks of how hip they were and how sophisticated they could act. Where the ability to “pass” as white ended the creation of a black society that imitated white society in every other way began. We can thank Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Noble Drew Ali and others that self-hate didn’t totally engulf us. We were one desperate bunch of people.

This period could easily be characterized as the period of the double edged sword, for as the opportunities came to interact socially with white and black alike, as well as the chance to compete along side one another in sports, we lost just that much in unity, cohesiveness and self-sufficiency. Still, we were proud of our heroes; they represented us on the national and world stage where proof of our ability would be evident. We said goodbye to separate, but equal in a very symbolic way; we also became full-fledged Negroes, as the New York Times even decided to capitalize the letter N out of respect. Finally, we sounded the death kneel for black institutions like the Negro Leagues as integration began to cut both ways. And as Lady Day continued to sing the blues, it’s twin (spirituals) evolved and came into its own as an accepted genre called Gospel. At the same time this thing called Jazz devoured the remaining elements of Ragtime in becoming the “only original American art form” and the defining music of the period.

1970 – 2005

DANGEROUS

Afro Americans

Rock’n Roll/Soul/R&B

Undoubtedly our most proud and perilous period as a physically free people, where we see generations of black folk genuinely unafraid of white Americans simply because they were white. We also reveal to the world what brings out the worst in most white Americans: black unity and calls for justice, including reparations. But Negroes needed to grow and they grew into proud black men and women. No more bowing and scrapin’; no more eyes averted downward; and no more shufflin’. America found herself in a black vice between militants and separatists on one side and integrationists on the other, forever fearful of any permanent alliance of the two. The ever watchful FBI with its domestic Counter-intelligence Program (Cointelpro) and King Alford Plan were more than up to the task, ready for any and all contingencies where these loud-mouthed uppity niggers were concerned. Whether militant or peaceful, both got the batons, the bullets, the cattle prods, the fire hoses and the German shepherds. This was indeed a very dangerous time.

As identity became more crucial to us than ever, this period produced more attempts at name change than all of the previous periods combined, igniting the charge of a sacred pledge to “name ourselves.” While Afro American was the official moniker of record, as the government tried to both stay current and satisfy its census and classification needs, “black” was the going term in the ‘hood and many a household. And as the black power movement took shape we gradually began to see concessions as more and more dark faces joined the rolls of city councils and school boards, along with a few notable mayoral-ships. Suddenly there were funds available for social and cultural programs throughout the ghettos of America. Some tried to advance the cause of reparations to no avail, until finally we were rocked back to sleep by a slew of “Negro firsts,” blaxploitation movies and a heroin epidemic.

Our music was just as dangerous, particularly rock’n roll, which thrilled young white girls to no end, sparking a frantic music industry scramble to find enough white male performers to cover our songs. So as rock’n roll gradually took on a totally different hue and sound, we promptly transformed Do-Wap into Soul, complete with its own king, queen and godfather. Soul subsequently evolved into rhythm & blues (R&B), proving our music to be so dynamic that naming and labeling it was just as much a dilemma as naming us as a people.

Having noted the integration achieved in sports it’s relevant here to note the dangers it posed, as exemplified by Jackie Robinson’s struggle to play in the major leagues and culminating with Hank Aaron’s historic 715th home run that knocked Babe Ruth out the box. What should’ve been just fun, entertainment and accomplishment became life and death drama for both of them and their families. Then we set our sights on football, basketball and Hollywood only to find another dangerous stereotype lurking that sought to pigeonhole us as physical specimens without intellect. Had not Jimmy (The Greek) voiced that sentiment on national television when he did, that perception might have enjoyed a longer life-span.

The final danger of this period that I will address is the self-destructive tendency of ours toward what I term as “irrational individualism,” embodied in the quest, as we say, to “get mines.” There’s not a damn thing wrong with desiring to live better lives and in better surroundings, perhaps even provide the same for one’s family. That’s not what signals “danger, Will Robinson.” What signals danger is the mentality of self-importance and better-than-ness that has led many of us to disconnect from our historic oppression, somehow forgetting that we weren’t enslaved as individuals. Our captors didn’t take me and let you go or choose who would be a slave on the basis of our individualism or personality. Jim Crow didn’t discriminate between which one of us drank from the colored water fountain. We simply don’t have the luxury to forget that we were enslaved as a group, Jim Crowed as a group and discriminated against as a group. How in the hell are you gonna be duped and deceived again, this time into believing that you must now succeed and enjoy the fruits of wealth, fame or prosperity only as an individual? Why can’t we have both? Don’t tell me that the only things we can have collectively in America is slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, poverty and racism. I’m not the one!

2005 – Present

DARLING DARKY

African Americans

Rap

The explosion of blackness in terms of extraordinary talent and intelligence is now commonplace in America. Our “official” name is now African American and we became the darlings of everything we touched and created. Too many to name all (past & present), but here are some highlights. Television: (Dianne Carroll,John Amos, Sherman Helmsley, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Redd Foxx, Ice T, Monique’, The Wayans familiy, Jaime Foxx, LL Kool J), Basketball: (Kareem, Magic, Michael, LeBron, Steph, KD), Tennis: (Arthur Ashe, Venus & Serena, Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Zina Garrison, Naomi Osaka), Golf: (Tiger Woods, Harold Varner III), R&B: (Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, The Whispers, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Usher, Aliyah, Chris Brown), Hollywood: (Cecily Tyson, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Tyler Perry, Regina King, Chris Tucker, Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburn, Taraji P. Henson), Media: (Bryant Gumbel, Carol Simpson, Michel Martin, Lester Holt, Eugene Robinson, Gwen Ifill, Don Lemon, Al Sharpton, Abby Phillip, Victor Blackwell, April Ryan, Yamiche Alcindor), Baseball: (Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Derek Jeter, Dontrelle Willis, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Tim Anderson, Andrew McClutchen, Josh Bell, David Price), Business: (Robert L. Johnson, Ken Chenault, Cathy Hughes, Richard Parsons, Stan O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson), WNBA: (Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, Dawn Staley, Tamika Catchings, Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles, Tina Thompson, Yolanda Griffith, Brittney Griner), Boxing: (Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones, Jr.), Religion: (Reverend Ike, Calvin Butts, Kirk Franklin, T.D. Jakes), Politics: (Shirley Chisholm, Floyd Flake, Charles Rangel, Alan Keyes, Harold Ford, Jr., J.C. Watts, Barack Obama, Hakeem Jeffries), Government: (Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, Condoleezza Rice, Susan Rice, Rod Paige, Eric Holder Jr., Lloyd Austin III) … and on and on ’till the break of dawn.

African Americans have the Midas touch, but no gold as a people and seemingly no ambition for such. We have thousands of rich or wealthy individuals, many of whom flaunt it in the rest of our faces. It’s not hard to peep what the mentality is these days; all we need do is observe what our people do and say. Perhaps more importantly, we need to pay attention to what they’re NOT talking about: the unfinished business we have as a people. And that’s not to say that our luminaries, our heroes and our life models aren’t doing great things towards the cause of our overall advancement as a people. What it is meant to say is that we must now snap out of the holding pattern we’re in and realize how poised we are as a people to finally claim and take our birthright and move us all into prosperity with a forever plan that no one else can or will provide. And we shouldn’t expect Robert L. Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry or any wealthy African American to huddle us all together and start dividing their wealth with us. That’s not the power move we need to make. The only thing that will do is guarantee we’ll all be broke. This isn’t the time to start scheming on what others have; they worked for every cent they have and they still deserve their birthright of wealth right along with the rest of us.

Musically, the blues, jazz, gospel and rock’n roll have all enjoyed longevity, but it is rap music that dominates the here and now with no shortage of darlings flooding the video, CD and movie markets with our image. It is rap and its attending culture (Hip Hop) that bridged the gap of a black political and social movement that collapsed and ran underground for cover back in the mid seventies. Out of those ashes a new cultural revolution was born and what a culture its grown to be. While the first generation of Hip Hop was supposed to be a throw away parasitic underclass they are instead revered as pioneers of a culture and music genre so dynamic that none can totally harness its power and potential. With its unabashed embodiment of what can be described as the best and worst of black folk behavior, Hip Hop, while criticized, denounced or embraced, lives by no set rule except the street driven mandate to “keep it real.”

Borrowing heavily from the previous period’s militant thrust and hustling lifestyles, along with a reality of continued poverty, impotent black leadership and gang proliferation, Hip Hop has struggled mightily for identity and now stands on the threshold of cultural theft as it infuses popular culture with its music, its style, its fashion, its language and, most of all, its money making magic, said to be in the billions. Therefore, lacking a strong national apparatus for its furtherance, guidance and fierce protection, Hip Hop has seemingly succumbed to the impulse to simply amass individual wealth at the expense of all else.

Forty Million And A Tool is inspired to forge a lasting synthesis of the wealth impulse with a clear sense of identity, birthright and true freedom, for this impulse is the very same freedom impulse that has sustained us and characterized our struggle throughout. Our youth know it in their bones that they’re supposed to have wealth; they just don’t know why and our leadership has yet to admit our collective failure to move beyond the politics of waitin’ and beggin’ and to re-connect our offspring with the concept of Peoplehood. From its inception Hip Hop has had to fight for its life, not only from a hostile dominant culture, but from black folk themselves who chose to attack everything they deemed vulgar and distasteful about Hip Hop rather than offer some culture and refinement or simply did not recognize a powerful, revolutionary idea and genre whose time had come.

How dare any of us seek to hang these originators or Hip Hop artists today out to dry when it was the elders who bore the responsibility of guiding them. The founders of Hip Hop were hard and raw because they were born in the void and chaos created by the government’s campaign to wipe out black grassroots leadership, but they are still ours! That period, with its blistering assassinations of two Kennedy brothers (which most black folk felt was indirectly directed at them), Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, George Jackson, Fred Hampton and others, ended ugly. The current period started ugly (including Hip Hop), but how many times have we taken ugly and shaped it into world class beauty? It’s our specialty. How ugly was that ex-slave just starting out? How ugly were those downtrodden and desperate niggers ravaged by Jim Crow? You can travel all throughout this land right now and find black folk still living in what amounts to slave cabins. Seems each skin we shed left its remnants so that we never are without reference and never without fuel. Hip Hop is now part of that connection and now Hip Hop gives us fuel. To my Hip Hop comrades I send much love, but also issue the following admonition in a language you know so well:

” ….climb aboard this ride

Get wit the truth stride for stride

You can brag all you wanna

And boost your self esteem

There’s nothing wrong with that

‘Cause I know you’re mean

Hip Hop Swings and Hip Hop sways

It embodies our lifestyle and our ways

Spokesmen and spokeswomen too

The Hip Hop culture doin’ what they do

Of course you must profess to be the best

How could you relegate yourself to anything less?

But take a page from Ali and Frazier

Hype up the battle, get paid and share leisure

Time to cultivate your mind

Keepin’ perspective and knowin’ the time

Never forget that you’re still labeled

A parasitic underclass not able

To rise – not fit for the prize

Isn’t that a familiar disguise?

We gave ’em blues, gospel, jazz and rock’n roll

But now Hip Hop is here to take control

And take back the dignity that they stole

40mil is here to enlighten – not to frighten

If you lack heart – you did from the start

I’m only here to do my part

Yes, it goes deep, but you can peep

The plan that put you to sleep

And out of step – a slave wept

The wealth was kept and you were left

Out of the dream, treated mean

Times were lean -Jim Crow lurkin’ on the scene

To keep you outta the mix – the game was fixed

There was no abolition of the many tricks

It persists today in every way

But don’t give sway and never lay

In bed with the head that kept ya dead

And now gotcha seein’ red, white, blue

The joke is on you because only a few

Will enjoy the illusion

The rest are shunned, kept on the run

Systematically oppressed at the point of a gun

That’s the nutshell of our living hell

Now sucka MC – what you trynna tell…?”

Finally, the question remains: what are we African Americans gonna do? What will the next 20 years bring? Another moniker and music genre? Or a new state of mind powered by the attainment of our birthright? As we approach 2025 we not only approach the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, we also approach the most pivotal juncture in our history as free people in America. We can write the history of our remaining years in advance or we can live out the history written for us by others. It’s not hard tell that our government will not be entertaining a reparations agenda, not in this post 911 era and not ever. And frankly, I don’t see any agenda favoring African Americans specifically getting any traction except retraction. In a very historic way conditions are once again mounting that will leave us no choice but to act in our own behalf for our survival as a people. And since 20 years are gonna pass anyway what’s the harm in each of us giving $1 per week or $5 per month for that amount of time and beyond? It certainly won’t make us any worse off than we already are, but think of the budget we’ll have to work with if we but start contributing to the fund NOW and stay the course.

  FELONY CONVICTIONS

The one thing that will permanently bar a person from having the legal right to carry a concealed weapon is a felony conviction on their record.  Have you got yours yet?  Felony convictions and African Americans are fast becoming as synonymous as pie and ice cream.  We show up at the courthouse for any assortment of crimes, pick up our felony (or felonies) and leave branded for life.  You’d think life was difficult enough for African Americans without adding the forfeiture of rights that a felony conviction brings and the employment opportunities that disappear as well.  But how do you impart this to 13 and 14 year old black boys who don’t know what their rights are and are too young to work?  Yet, this is who wants to run around the ‘hood on gun-slinging crime and murder sprees.  They’ll grow up (or not) unable to legally protect themselves or their loved ones with a firearm because even that act will land them in prison.  To the largest extent we have none to blame but ourselves.  These traps that we and our children step into have been laid for years.  When we willingly step out there on whatever mission we think we’re on we’d better know that there’s an apparatus out there called the Criminal Justice System waiting for us to feed it and countless families at the expense of our own.  This understanding needs to be taught to our children as early as possible if we are to interrupt the cycle.  We don’t necessarily need guns, but in America, they’re not the worst thing to have a legal right to.  In this scenario staying sucka free means staying felony free.

WAR TALK

Did you know that there are a bunch of white people around the country training and preparing for what they believe is a coming race war?  I kid you not; they’re out there with arsenals upon arsenals of guns and weaponry that would make your head spin, just waiting for the right impetus to come along or, in some cases (such as the Dylan Roof case), try to become the impetus.  Personally, I believe government sponsored reparations to African Americans for slavery would set it off.  This element of Timothy McVeigh type terrorists have been a grassroots underbelly of domestic terror for more than 140 years and their default purpose has always been to deprive ex-slaves and their descendants the fruits of American prosperity.  We got a very good glimpse of them on January 6, 2021 as they laid siege to the U.S. Capitol.  They march, they strategize, they recruit and they practice all manner of paramilitary training in preparation to kill you and me and any who would aid us.  And guess what?  Virtually every weapon/firearm they have is legally registered and backed by law.  As free speech protects the garbage they spew, no one has the legal authority to step to them and take their arsenals away either.  We need to be in a similar position, minus the rhetoric.  Again, we should look at the example of the state of Israel.  Armed to the teeth so that no one ever again enslaves them or subject them to hideous brutalities.  Given our history in America we can’t afford to be unarmed, defenseless sitting ducks with hostile elements out there planning our demise.  War talk and threats must be taken seriously.

 POLICE PROTECTION

How much police protection is available to us when police departments all over the country are widely viewed as a hostile occupying force in our ‘hoods? Just look at the numerous killing of unarmed black men, women, boys and girls by police officers who shoot first and ask questions later.  While we should not throw a blanket indictment over all police, the track record we have to work with does not lend itself to a lot of trust.  What we’ve come to trust is that the fastest police responses materialize when it’s said “a black man did it.”  The best example of this is the case in Boston where Charles Stuart killed his pregnant wife Carol, called 911 and blamed it on a black man.  Boston police ran down on the ‘hood and sure enough, came up with a suspect.  We have a long way to go before we can rely on a police officer’s gun being pointed anywhere other than at us. 

The vital point here, however, is that many genocidal traps are laid all around us and we march much too often right into them like sheep marching to their slaughter. Then we cry entrapment and set up, always looking for the loophole instead of avoiding the traps altogether or taking responsibility for our actions afterwards.  So when we practice death and self-destruction what’s to prevent more Bernhard Goetzs’ from getting a little live target practice in?  Nothing!  Certainly not the law because by and large the laws tend to protect white police or white people who kill black people.  All they have to do is utter one of the magic phrases: “I felt threatened” or “I feared for my life.”

Everything in America is an industry.  Food, airlines, clothing, cosmetics, transportation, media, entertainment, sex, tobacco, travel – you name it. Anything that you can produce or acquire, market and sell, can grow into an industry.  It just has to be made appealing to the public, produce jobs and generate revenue.  It’s absolutely what you’d expect from a capitalistic society.  In the last 45 years politicians and lawmakers, along with business and community leaders, have done just that with state prison systems throughout the country.  Care to guess what the main product is?  It’s no big secret.  It’s African Americans.  

While the New York State prison system is the specific focus here, I have it on good statistical authority that what’s said here reflects the nature and operational philosophy of prison systems across America, with only slight variations.  One thing’s for sure: the prison industry, unlike most other American industries, is not one where we are under-represented.  Now why is that?   It’s a far cry from the prison movies I watched as a child where all of the prisoners were white.  Or was I just tuned in to one of the industries (TV/Movies) where we were under-represented?

 Throughout the 60’s and 70’s many communities in New York State staunchly objected to any plans by the state to build new prisons in their areas.  Fears of all kinds abounded – from mass prisoner escapes to the erosion of property values – and prompted what came to be the standard response to any such proposal: “not in my backyard.”  Fast forward to the 80’s and 90’s and you find some of these same communities competing with one another to secure a prison in their town.  Even rural communities, overlooked for lack of infrastructure and resources to support a prison, put together very ambitious proposals to land prisons for their areas.  In fact, rural areas have been more successful than higher populated areas in and around New York City.  The upper areas of eastern, central and western New York are prison bonanzas with no shortage of inmates in sight.

In the last 45 years New York State prisons have grown more than 150% from roughly 27 facilities in 1973 to 70 in 2003 and has since trailed of to 52 prisons in 2021.  What happened during this span of time to quiet those voices of opposition?  Why are all of these prisons overwhelmingly populated by African Americans?  How relevant is it that “not in my backyard” was mostly a rural/suburban outcry or that over 90% of new prisons reside in Republican counties?  These and other sociopolitical questions certainly deserve their fair share of scrutiny.  But the main concern of Forty Million And A Tool is our participation, wittingly and unwittingly, in this madness.

Without African Americans in New York State prisons the state could close more than two thirds of its number of prisons.  Then take away the Hispanic population and the state can scale down to about five or ten prisons.  Now wouldn’t that be a desirable scenario?  Well, that depends on who you ask and how you phrase the question.  For instance, if you were to ask corrections officers would they be happy to be out of work because crime in urban centers has virtually ceased, they probably would say they’d rather be working no matter what the crime rate is in urban centers – and that, only after they finish laughing in your face.  You see, running state prisons has become a family business for rural whites who would otherwise be planting corn and shoveling shit, but the flip side of that coin is that we’ve made crime and hustling our family business.  So they treat us like the animals we act like and, like slavery, provide us with the bare minimum to keep us alive and able to continue being the driving force of their industry.                                                   

Among the many justifications we have for living lives of crime, or dippin’ and dabbin’ in criminal activity, the biggest one is “I gotta feed my family.”  It sounds real noble; after all, who can fault a man or woman for doing what they have to do to feed their family?  Others are: “I can’t find a job,” “this is all I know,” “I gotta get mines,” and, of course, the ever popular “I’m not working for the white man.”  So we go about creating little criminal enterprises in the ‘hood without regard for the larger society’s laws and rules.  It’s fair to acknowledge here the indisputable fact of poverty and how that alone can force one to become very creative and resourceful, even criminal – but not necessarily criminal.  I will also interject here: if African Americans had their birthright of wealth, poverty wouldn’t be wearing the face of African Americans. Consequently, the many ignorant justifications for our criminality would disappear as well.  But for those of us who’ve traveled the criminal route and uttered the above justifications, we need to ask ourselves one question: whose family are we really feeding in the larger scheme of things?

First the media headlines then the blank stares as we pass through the criminal justice system.  Stares from people that fear and abhor us,  yet rely on us for their daily bread.  Many of them can find jobs elsewhere, but most can’t. That’s not the concern of Forty Million And A Tool.  If every one of them found themselves out of a job because African Americans refrained from criminal activity that would be fine with me.  Perhaps many will re-embark upon those lofty career aspirations they put aside to work in the prison industrial complex.  What is of concern to us is the confidence these prison industry workers have in their relative job security based on their belief that we will continue to flood the criminal justice system.  I believe this helps embolden correction officers to treat prisoners any way they please, talk to prisoners in any vile manner and, in many cases, totally disregard one’s very humanity.  Certainly these things can’t happen if we didn’t show up, but then the jobs dry up also.  That’s the reality that doesn’t seem to resonate on both sides of the equation, yet in any other workplace where the ones who create the jobs are treated anywhere near how prisoners are treated, heads would roll.  You don’t dare disrespect those who provide your livelihood, but because we disrespect ourselves in the process of creating these jobs that message is lost.

When we kill each other in the many ways we do and violate others of the society with mayhem and predatory behavior we need to be removed, but we also need healing and wholeness.  Criminal justice systems across the country have tried to strike this balance for years with varying degrees of success and failure.  Influenced by a number of factors, however, this pursuit can be best characterized as a twenty year alternating shift of emphasis from programs to security and vice versa.  What prisoners eventually realize is that their rehabilitation lies solely in their own hands and whatever support system they can muster.  Everything becomes supremely individualized (as it should be on many levels), but leaves prisoners nowadays oblivious to the power they have as a group to eliminate the conditions that impact them unjustly.  They don’t understand their roles as job creators and are simply clueless as to what their very existence in state prisons bring to a given area in jobs, economic activity and federal dollars.  For example, in New York most state prisoners come from the five boroughs, but are on the census count of  several upstate rural counties, resulting in yet another way we feed families other than our own with this criminal bullshit.                                                        

At the current rate prison personnel can easily plan for a 30 year retirement, maybe more.  This is a direct result of the kind of time African Americans are being sentenced to and in many cases pleading out to.  I remember in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s the outcry that black life wasn’t as valued as white life in terms of crime and interfacing with the criminal justice system.  The cases prompting these charges usually were a policeman shooting a black man or child and the meteoric rise in black on black crime.  In one scenario there’d be no prosecution; in the other only half-hearted investigations.  Whenever convictions were secured the average sentence for the murder of someone black was around 7 years.  Perhaps it’s just coincidental, but parallel with the prison building boom of the 80’s so has the value of black life soared, particularly if we were to use the criminal justice system as a barometer.  Today, 25 to life is handed out like health workers hand out condoms, especially to black defendants who murder other black people.  By and large, policeman who kill black men or boys still do not get prosecuted.  What we’re seeing with the trial of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd is an anomaly.

Every political season for the last 50 years bombarded us with “tough on crime” speeches, producing everything from Rockefeller drug laws to Project Exile, to address criminal behavior.  Never any speeches or pledges to stamp out crime itself.  No politician would dare threaten an industry that has now become vital to so many and at the same time render themselves laughingstocks.  Oh yes, black life has become very valuable; just ask all the yokels who can now afford boats, new pick up trucks and tractors.

We at Forty Million And A Tool are under no illusion that we can dismantle the prison industrial complex in America.  With over 300 million people in the country there are bound to be enough breaking of laws to land many in jail.  We simply wish to extract a mere 40 million of that number from all aspects of incarceration.  Where African Americans are the majority prison population our goal is to shut ’em down.  If this signals to some a threat to their careers so be it.  Shut ’em down from within and without is the strategy we will advocate and support.  To shut ’em down from without simply requires that we stop entering the criminal justice system as defendants, a not so simple task and certainly not an overnight proposition, but doable over time.  I guarantee you, my people, that if we start now to take our birthright of wealth from the American economy, we will be effectively removed from the criminal justice system within 50 years.  All who will remain incarcerated are those currently sentenced to ridiculous amounts of time (provided we can’t get ’em out) and lost causes.

Shuttin’ ’em down from within will vary from state to state, but the basic principles are the same.  In New York State the target can be summed up in one word: CORCRAFT!  Corcraft is the corporate entity that governs prison industry in all the state’s prisons.  Everything from license plates and metal products to furniture and clothing, this is an industry unto itself within the overall prison system driven by prisoner labor at slave wages.  Shuttin’ down Corcraft is the way to force prison officials to abolish inhumane conditions, repressive tactics and predatory practices that prisoners and their families are subject to daily.  With civilized perseverance and coordinated outside support prisons can truly be institutions of learning and redemption.  Forty Million And A Tool will join with existing groups to address prison reform, as African Americans are imprisoned so disproportionately in America.  The acquisition and enjoyment of one’s birthright is not limited to those of us who have our physical liberty.  Many of our people will languish in prisons all across the country for years to come; they might as well do it with dignity, respect and relative comfort as they contemplate the error of their ways and hopefully salvage what they can of their lives.                                                   

With all due respect to victims of crime and their families , once the judge imposes a lawful sentence, that should be their justice as far as defendants are concerned.   They have no right to dictate the manner of treatment a convicted person receives once behind bars, yet that is precisely what lawmakers have caved in to over the last 40 years.  Victims and/or families have gone from a mere statement in open court at sentencing to what a prisoner can and can’t have or what a prisoner can and cannot do – right on up to input at a prisoner’s parole hearing.  This capitulation by state governments and prison officials, coupled with the proliferation of gang warfare, will ultimately lead to another Attica-like situation.  Nonetheless, to allow victims or victim advocate groups to ride shotgun over a prisoners’ day to day incarceration, picking and choosing what activities they would or would not have them participate in, is not closure.  It certainly isn’t healing.  It’s reckless and unbridled bloodthirstiness rammed down the throats of cowardly lawmakers who just want to advance their careers.  It’s a sad thing to see, for as these repressive, revenge-filled and retaliatory measures will not keep most prisoners in prison they will ensure that victims remain victims.  Though it will take a number years to effectively confront the prison industrial complex,  let them now be placed on notice that a change is gonna come.  And that change will start with African Americans recognizing their sucker status in the criminal justice system and beginning the mass exodus out of the prison industrial complex.

When I remind them that Forty Million And A Tool is about SELF-reparations their expression turns from surprise to relief, with a hint of puzzlement, bordering on glee.  It was as if they got from me some sort of absolvement or cleansing of the hands for any culpability of immigrants for the plight of black people in America.  As they are about to leave, seemingly satisfied that they’ve made their case, I quietly ask them “where was the outcry?”  They look at me and ask “what?”  Then I say “you know, that protests against Jim Crow; surely the immigrants, as they yearned to breathe free, saw how black were treated in America.”  That’s when they realize that while they may have escaped the frying pan, they jumped dead into the fire.

You see, there was no outcry from the immigrants about our dehumanization; no mass protests against the lynching and the colored water fountain.  No marches, boycotts or work stoppages; not even a single sit-in.  And that’s just one side of the coin.  On the other side was the immediate recognition of how favored white skin was; how it represented a wide open race card to all the opportunity and prosperity that America had to offer.  Did they reject this favored status based on race?  Did they even wonder what kind of horrible place they’d come to that would treat a whole race of people with such inhumanity?  I don’t see it in the history books and I never hear it talked about by the descendants of white immigrants when they cite the proudest moments of immigrant character and fortitude in the New World.  It’s just not there.  Immigrants, for the most part, got down with the American program as it was being run.

Blacks were the doormat they stepped on in their march to prosperity, as America was firmly entrenched in Jim Crow laws.  Immigration through Ellis Island lasted from 1892 to 1954, the year Jim Crow allegedly suffered its first legal blow with Brown V. Board of Education.  So from 1892 until now those 129 years, though grueling and rife with challenges for immigrant families, were also 129 years of white privilege no matter the circumstance.  Looking at the current generations descending from those white immigrants, you’d have to say their grandparents and great-grandparents took full and complete advantage of the staunchly racist America they came to, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the daily indignities heaped upon black humanity.  In their full acquiescence to a system that blatantly relegated others to last-class citizenship and abject poverty based solely on skin color their motto might as well have been “better you than me, nigger”.  And to add insult to injury many of these same descendants of white immigrants are getting their chance to re-institute Jim Crows laws (through their elected officials) with hundreds of voter suppression measures in state capitols all throughout the country right now.

So you tell me, are immigrants and their descendants in any way responsible for the plight of blacks in America?  I give it a resounding YES!  Their crime, however, falls more withing the realm of omission rather than the commission of slavery and for that small amount of complicity they benefited greatly.  Should their offspring now pay slavery reparations for it?  Emphatically not!  People should only pay for their own misdeeds.  Reparations, in any form, is our job now.

                                                   “The one thing we don’t lack is people playing roles.” – James (Mamba) McCuller

There once were three Michael’s, all of whom were held out to the world as role models.  They were praised and paraded before us through the media and by public officials, even Wall Street shot callers.  Then these Michael’s started to change.  Two went to prison and the other got tagged with the most hated of labels: child molester.  Their full names are Michael Tyson, Michael Milken and Michael Jackson.  They were role models, that is, before they were shown to also be human.  Guilty or not, they now no longer qualify in the eyes of society.  Parents today do not encourage their children to go out and be like them anymore.                                                                 

Even more twisted is the saga of Pee Wee Herman.  One minute parents almost religiously place their children in front of television sets to watch Pee Wee, the next minute they bumrush the television network demanding that Pee Wee be canceled.  All because Paul Rubens was shown to be human.  What a precarious, fleeting thing this role model business.  Role model today; scoundrel tomorrow.  What kind of message does this send to our children? The main one, obviously, is that in order to be a role model you must be perfect.  You certainly can’t be human and do the job because the first thing any alleged role model will admit is that they are not perfect.  So, confusion reigns in children’s minds as they continue to see their role models drop like flies; the Michael’s, Spiro Agnew, Vanessa Williams, Rob Lowe, Jesse Jackson, Robert Blake, Bill Clinton, Winona Ryder and more recently, Lance Armstrong, Kwame Kilpatrick, R. Kelly, Martha Stewart and the many ensnared by the MeToo Movement.

The list is endless and it’s not just high profile people we admire and emulate today.  This role model falsehood has been playing out since the very founding of our nation.  George Washington is regarded as a great leader and patriot; a lover of liberty and our first president.  He also owned human beings and is known to have traded one for a mere keg of molasses.  Is he a role model?

History and celebrities aside, the most tragic consequence of role model criteria is that for most children it rules out practically everyone they will ever know.  Can you imagine how barren the landscape is for African American children when they internalize that people who drink, use drugs, gamble, cheat on their spouses or go to prison can’t possibly be role models to them?  To them a role model is someone you should aspire to be like.  Isn’t that what we tell them? Well, when our children reflect back to us and roll back the video tape of all the people we labeled role models and then snatched back from them, all I can say is “Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do.”

It’s time we free ourselves from the straight-jacket of role model and the way to start is to delete the word “role.”  Roles end when the camera stops.  Roles end when we leave our jobs and go home.  The only role that we’re locked into for life is the role of being human.  Next we keep the word “model” because modeling is something we can’t not do.  We model behavior in everything we do: getting dressed, grooming, eating, speaking, driving, dancing, playing sports – whatever.  From the lifestyles we live to the activities we engage in, if there are eyes on us we are modeling for those eyes.  Simply negotiating with life and all that it throws at us sideways we are forced to model some kind of behavior to resolve the conflict, interaction or whatever it happens to be.  This is “life modeling.”

Living life and playing roles are two different things and in the course of a lifetime the only real modeling capable to us is the living of that life.  We can only strive to be “life models” to our children, not some ill-defined, impossible character that better not get caught being fallible or human.  A life model is one who models how to live the best life they can as a human being.  They get back up after being knocked down and they rise above adversity.  They grow, they change and they constantly pursue self-betterment.  They make mistakes, but they own them and correct them.  They kick drug habits and regain custody of children they lost because of it.  They come home from prisons to lead hard working lives and provide for their families.  All in all they exemplify the one thing that being a role model could never truly offer: redemption.

Disgraced role models seldom reappear without the haunting black cloud of their fall from grace hanging over them, but most reappear nonetheless and prove to be excellent “life models” and excellent human beings.  They teach us that it’s not how far you fall or how many times you make a mistake that matters, but how you pick yourself up, accept responsibility for your behavior, make amends where possible and get back to the business of living a life that guarantees only that more mistakes lie ahead.  The key is to not make the same mistakes and to get help where needed.  This is the only kind of modeling that ensures children can forever look to their parents, relatives, neighbors and fellow human beings for much to emulate; not the select, perfect few “role models” who only remain so until such time they too are exposed as human.

I received and accepted that as a voice of spirit clarifying for me that even those contemplations subliminally embodied elements of waitin’ and beggin’.  They did not fully capture the charge that our birthright is something we have to get ourselves, nor did they loudly proclaim or announce that the door is now fully open.  I sat back and marveled at how words I’d first heard when I was ten years old still spoke volumes many years later.

This compelled me to conduct an inventory of my psyche for other words, chants, phrases or lines that could be classified as voices of spirit.  By that I mean voices that speak to us as a people and give us critical guidance, inspiration and pride, often during our toughest moments; words that actively transcend time and place, staying eternally relevant and providing for us the sustenance we don’t find elsewhere.  By merely opening my spirit, out came a barrage of voices: “say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud,” “ain’t no stoppin’ us now,” “brothers’ gonna work it out,” “we’re a winner,” “if there’s hell below we’re all gonna go,” “it’s time (to make a change),” “we’ve been down too long,” “up you mighty race” and “it’s nation time.”

Needless to say, I kept the original subtitle, but I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that these voices and the messages they embody were of vital importance to us.  While lyrics and the like can be copyrighted and owned by individuals, once those words electrify our spirits they become an endowment owned by all and none at the same time.  It is precisely this type of electrification that J. Edgar Hoover sought to dampen when black leaders rose to challenge white supremacy during his tyrannical reign at the F.B.I.  I’d bet ten dollars to a dead rat that each time a song, poem or lyric electrified us en masse an F.B.I. file was generated, the piece cataloged and the writer/performer placed under surveillance, if not outright harassed and vilified.

Today’s electricity is being generated by the word reparations.  It is a word that splits America virtually in half when polled along racial lines. While there are some black people against reparations and some white people supportive of it, the vast majority of opposition vs. support is, percentage wise, evenly split. It kind of reminds me of slavery.  Most whites wanted things to stay the way they were; most slaves wanted their full and complete freedom.  Slaves, however, had very little say in the matter while whites went to war with each other.  As for reparations, I believe whites will go to war with their own government again if reparations were made law, and you and I will find ourselves in a race war at all levels.  Just listen to the venom of the most vocal critics on talk radio.  Visit the web sites of white extremists, conservatives and their many counterparts.  And just look at what happened on January 6, 2021.  Any reasonably intelligent person, black, white or whatever, can see that any form of government sponsored reparations to African Americans will tear this country apart.   I believed this before January 6th and I’m more certain of it now.

That’s why we must elevate the whole reparations debate to a level where there is no debate.  You see, debating reparations is a trap that diverts us from realizing that debate is no longer necessary.  We can extract all the opponents of reparations from the equation and relegate them to the sidelines by simply practicing “Self reparations.”  What I’d expect then from the sidelines is high praise for a people that finally woke up, but I have my doubts.  If my history is correct it’s precisely when black folks mount a serious “do for self” initiative that the saboteurs come out in full force.  Some come with friendly and familiar faces; others simply are outright against our advancement.  The common thread that runs through both camps has been that they (not us)  know what’s best for us.  The questions Forty Million And A Tool will pose to anyone (black or white) who say they have our best interest at heart are these: 1) why aren’t you professing that wealth is the birthright of African American descendants of slaves? and 2) are you ready to support the move from reparations to Self reparations?

It seems to me that after 155 years of emancipation somebody ought to stand up and say exactly what our just due is in plain damn English.  The last several generations of black folk are not trying to hear that tired ass negro first formula of black achievement and prosperity.  We clearly see the “one step forward, fifty steps back” quality of the approach and it’s played out.  Still, as James (Mamba) McCuller would say, “somebody aughta say something.”  As flawed and imperfect as I am (with many amends to make) I’ll say it.  Our just due is nothing short of immense wealth; it’s our very birthright and it’s the only thing anyone who claims to be a champion for black folk should be after.  Once we get that, along with the education and undeterred focus we need, we can solve all of our problems as a people and as Americans.  Then and only then will we be free.

The greatest voice of spirit I listen to comes from Harriet (Moses) Tubman. She got free, but went back because she knew that it wasn’t about just a handful of us making it. The handful of us that have made it today do give back and come back, but are guided by this notion that if they help just one person they will have done their job. That’s another trap that keeps us from remembering that 40 million of us have unfinished business as a group and that accepting crumbs and handouts, no matter where they come from, are tantamount to allowing insult to the original injury.

 -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?

Throughout the darkest periods of our captivity to the turbulent upheaval of the Civil War the one impulse we nurtured like a baby and kept alive was freedom.  Freedom took on many faces and presented itself to us on many levels.  From the house slave free from the fields and the overseer’s whip to full-fledged escape to the North via the Underground Railroad.  Freedom, any measure of it, was still a taste; if only a brief reprieve from the madness it was the carrot that we, more often than not, reached for. 

What becomes clear when we review the history is that divisiveness badly compromised our quest for freedom, setting us on two distinct courses that by the turn of the 20th century became known as “integration vs. segregation.”  It should be understood, however, that this dichotomy already had firm roots because of the plantation system itself and the cordial relations forged between black and white, familial and otherwise.

Part of the inspiration of Forty Million And A Tool was that I travel (historically) along our road to freedom and meet many of the personages key to our struggle and instrumental in charting the respective courses we would ultimately take (see Appendix 2).  While it’s pretty obvious that I regard Harriet (Moses) Tubman as my spiritual mentor, I was most intrigued by the period between the Civil War and just after the end of Reconstruction (also referred to as the 2nd Civil War), a period featuring her, Frederick Douglas and countless unheralded others.

Directly in the mix of this historic flurry of changes stood men like the Rev. Garrison Frazier, spokesperson for the “group of twenty” that met with Generals Sherman and Stanton – a meeting including talks that led to approximately 400,000 acres of abandoned land mostly along the Georgia and South Carolina coast being given to freed slaves.  Men like Tunis G. Campbell who set up what can be described as the first independent black economy on St. Catherine’s Island, but yielding the land back to a white planter rather than fire on the black regiments sent by the government to evict them. Men like John Roy Lynch and Henry McNeal Turner, who along with Campbell and others, won seats in the Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana state legislatures.  But just as quick, these men and all blacks were swept out of government and out of power sharing in America.   When the smoke of slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction cleared, and as we tumbled powerlessly down the paths of Black Codes, sharecropping and Jim Crow, two prominent black leaders emerged as the embodiment of those two distinct courses.  W.E.B. DuBois, along with other founding members of the NAACP, demanded equality and integration, while Booker T. Washington urged us to accept segregation and America’s help in starting us on our way towards self sufficiency.  It’s interesting to note here that unlike future integrationists, DuBois was regarded by the white power structure as militant and uppity, while Washington got invited to the white house and praised as a sensible man. Their political and philosophical lineage, however, would do a complete reversal as the line approached the next two major embodiments of integration and segregation: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

DUBOIS AND WASHINGTON (The unfolding)

Our analysis of these two black leaders or any subsequent two must avoid the unproductive characterization of “house nigga vs. field nigga,” but to remain focused on our people’s impulse for freedom.  While we’ve produced our share of scoundrels, con artists and sell outs, never should our greatest and most significant leaders be painted with any brush other than one that says they carried and pushed forth our impulse to be free.  Even those instances where our leaders themselves branded one another with disparaging labels it was only out of their heartfelt belief that the other was leading us in the wrong direction.  They had to understand that it was counter­productive and played into white America’s need and desire to keep us divided, but when you see the future prosperity of your people at stake, things can and do get a little testy. History, however, removes any doubt as to the hearts of these great and fearless leaders.

While DuBois was an intellectual and Washington more a vocational man, any of our people with an ounce of sense knew that we, as a people, could benefit from both disciplines and many others in between.  So, if white America were going to fund or cater to one and not the other, we had to accept that; we had to take whatever help and keep on pushin’.  DuBois knew that we deserved human dignity and respect right then and there.  Washington knew that the power structure would have none of it and so embarked on an accomodationist program of appeasement, believing that full acceptance would come to us after we’d proven ourselves worthy.

In less than 70 years from the founding of the NAACP racial segregation was outlawed in all its forms, and integration is and will be the face of America for all time – an astounding tribute indeed to DuBois, to his colleagues and to his political and philosophical lineage.  In that same period of time Tuskegee Institute led the way toward the establishment of black institutions of higher learning and thriving black towns like Tulsa and Rosewood, a definite tribute to the philosophy of Washington.  May they both rest in peace.

MARTIN AND MALCOLM (A Deadly Combination)

By the time Martin Luther King and Malcolm X came along the American power structure was firmly in bed with the integrationist camp of black leadership.  The “cast down thy bucket” and “up by your bootstraps” lineage of Booker T. Washington had broken from appeasement and accommodation and turned to more nationalistic and militant stances.   Leaders like Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammed captured the hearts, minds and financial support of black masses with teachings of black pride, self reliance and separation from white America, but without the docile, subservient posture of Washington.  The mantra had become “do for self” and “the white man is the devil.”  Meanwhile, the black clergy, along with notable political/social activists, emerged as the political lineage of DuBois.  They gained favor with the white power structure that now regarded integrationists worthy of its recognition and support, thus continuing its self-preserving manner of legitimizing (in our eyes) black leadership on the basis of who it decides to negotiate with and invite to the White House.  Never was black leadership more divided as during the time of Martin and Malcolm.  Volumes are already written that detail their differences and the impact they had on American history.  We won’t belabor that here, only chart those differences for visual reference:

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.                       EL HAJJ MALIK SHABAZZ

Christian                                                              Muslim

Peaceful Agitator                                                Militant Agitator

Advocated Integration                                       Advocated Separation

Civil Disobedience                                              Any Means Necessary

Loving, Inclusive Oratory                                  Fiery, Raw Oratory

Turn Other Cheek                                               Self Defense

Educated Theologian                                          School Of Hard Knocks

Invited To White House                                     Not Invited To White House

Embraced By White America                            Feared By White America

While this era gave birth to many other movements, most notably the Black Panthers, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Five Percent Nation (now the Universal Nation of Gods and Earths), the Nubian Nation, US (United Slaves) and the Black Liberation Army, black America stood mesmerized when either Martin or Malcolm spoke and it was felt that our surest freedom rested with one or both of them.

White America was still mounting fierce battles to maintain a separate and unequal society and J. Edgar Hoover was intent on stopping the rise of a black messiah.  At one point Hoover had not one, but two black messiahs with others following in their stead.  He also had two Kennedy brothers rapidly stepping up their support for civil rights.  Tragically, by 1972 the people who represented the most formidable opposition to white supremacy in America were dead of gunshot wounds.  I guess the prospect of a president in office vowing swift change and the combination of Martin and Malcolm having that president in a vise was too much for many to bear.  The mere possibility of Martin and Malcolm joining forces was extremely frightening, as the two did meet face to face and with Malcolm contemplating taking the case of black America to the United Nations for a “crimes against humanity” resolution, thus opening wide the door to possible reparations on a massive scale.

In the end Martin and Malcolm had just as much in common as they had not. They were both great orators, they were full of love for their people, they were devoted family men, and both experienced raw racism as children. They both recognized their common oppressor/enemy, they were equally loved by their people, they were surveilled and hounded by the F.B.I., they each advocated reparations and both died for their beliefs.  May they both rest in peace.

JESSE AND FARRAKHAN (The Culmination)

While DuBois and Washington toiled at a time when the white power structure simply said yes or no to any initiatives or pleas from the “coloreds,” the era of Martin and Malcolm showed us another tactic: discredit black leaders in the eyes of their people.  It didn’t start with Martin and Malcolm (Marcus Garvey got that treatment long before), but it was honed to perfection by the time they rose to prominence.  That brings us to the present day with the torches having been passed to Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan, clearly the heirs to our two-fold road to freedom, but destined, I believe, to culminate as one. After Rev. Jackson and Minister Farrakhan there are no two African American leaders emerging as cut so undoubtedly from the cloth of either lineage concretized by DuBois and Washington.

Our leadership is now in a holding pattern with literally thousands of bright minds in the firmament, each continuing to illuminate in their individual ways our collective aspirations.  Integration and Segregation, as objectives, have equally succeeded with each of us now able to freely choose, not necessarily between the two, but between who and what we truly feel in our human essence makes us happy, alive and whole.  Truth be told, the only thing that keeps any two human beings apart or at violent odds, is ignorance. The vision I’ve been given has Jesse and Farrakhan not as individual persons, per se, but as the culmination of our impulse for freedom, leading us to our birthright of wealth.  Forty Million And A Tool was the vehicle.

At the Million Man March I remember the anticipation that swept through the crowd that Jesse would publicly reconcile with Farrakhan and the two would embrace.  It didn’t happen (at least publicly) and for many of us that was the only negative.  That act would’ve officially and symbolically ended the duality of our house.  Since then three heavily criticized African American men have garnered the most media exposure touting them as the leading African American spokespersons.  They are Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton.  The media’s depiction of them crisscrossing the country to fight or litigate every battle sent a very debilitating message to African Americans that they’re all we’ve got.  This has sown enmity between them and local black leaders nationwide, as well as cast them constantly under suspicion as to their motives.  Since they each have powerful “code words” (Jesse: Infidelity & Shakedown, Farrakhan:Muslim & Anti Semite and Al: Tawana Brawley & Charlatan) attached to them like a burdock, anything other than an agenda of oneness will render them ineffective, irreparably blemished and marginalized. It would also mean that we believed the hype.

It’s time to unite the house; time to unleash all of our stars in the firmament. Singular, charismatic leadership in this day and age can only be an impediment to full and complete freedom.  Any number of us can stand before a microphone, be eloquent and capture the imagination of the masses.  The question is: can we move as one?

UNITY IN THE RANKS (The Fulfillment)

Forty Million And A Tool does not seek political power; political power will be a peripheral benefit of our unity.  Forty Million And A Tool does not ask for any change in belief systems, political affiliations, lifestyles or loved ones.  All it asks is that we achieve our birthright; just that one thing.  We’ve tried and relied on everything and everyone but ourselves.  We are intimately aware of all the reasons why previous attempts at unity and oneness have failed.  Forty Million And A Tool is here to say to us that virtually all obstacles have been removed.  We can thank all those who’ve walked the road to freedom ahead of us, because it is they who removed them and they on whose shoulders we stand.  We can thank all those who’ve walked side by side and hand in hand with us, many of whom died right along with us.  They and their generations are our family too.  Unity in the ranks demands that we first know who makes up our ranks and what their formations are.

When Quakers and Abolitionists responded to our impulse for freedom we knew them by their actions and their commitment, but mostly by their willingness to place life and limb a risk.  From the Underground Railroad to the civil rights marches, even unto today, that line has not been broken.  Forty Million And A tool demands that we recognize our ranks, else we do them a grievous injustice.  Telling the truth of history is one thing; behaving like our worst oppressor is another.  Forty Million And A Tool is not revenged based, anger driven or given to divisive rhetoric of any kind.  Its only objective is to be a beacon on our road to freedom – the one that leads us to true and lasting freedom – our birthright of wealth.

Africans taken during the transatlantic slave trade knew who they were, what land and people they were from and what language they spoke.  History shows that they even understood slavery, captivity and indentured servitude within their respective societies.  They had wars and skirmishes resulting in any variation of these statuses, but nothing approaching lifetime chattel slavery that Europeans and white Americans practiced. 

If there is or ever was such a thing as a civilized way to practice any form of slavery, I’ll dare say that’s what all the world’s people thought they were doing before racially motivated chattel slavery was introduced.  Chattel slavery and the overall manner in which Europeans/whites subjugated darker peoples of the world, particularly in the Western hemisphere, was so insidious and so purposeful that it actually produced brand new people on the planet.  If some prefer to say new or different strains of people, that’s fine with me.  Just let me clear my throat.

Six hundred years ago there were no such people on the planet called Puerto Ricans.  An easy examination of the history clearly shows that Puerto Ricans are a mixture of Spanish speaking Europeans, African slaves and the native Arawak Taino.  It’s out of this genetic pool that Puerto Ricans, as we know them today, were produced.  Furthermore, the name Puerto Rico does not denote ethnicity.  Translated it means “rich port,” the name given the island by the Spaniards.  All it was to them was a very rich port for goods and trade.  It was the island of “Borinquen” to the Taino, but that got trumped by the conquerors.

Current day African Americans didn’t gel quite so easily into an identifiable ethnicity like Puerto Ricans, but make no mistake about it, we are just as much a produced people.  Our genetic pool consists of African slaves, English speaking Europeans and various mixes of indigenous so-called Indians, now referred to as Native Americans.  Hundreds of years of special attention, however, was paid the Africans to ensure they had no identity except that of slave.  So that when we were finally able to lift our heads up as a free people, we nor anyone else knew what to call us.

While “nigger” remained our default moniker, several names (official and otherwise) were tried over the years.  We were “coloreds,” “Negroes,” “Afro-Americans,” “Black Americans” and finally the still very controversial “African American.”  Afrocentric educators asked us to consider calling ourselves “Nubian,” while the Nation of Islam said we were/are the lost tribe of “Shabazz.”  Still, others offered that we were descendants of the original “Hebrew Israelites” of scripture and Warith D. Muhammad tried to name us “Bilalians.”

After 300 solid years of slave indoctrination (which was akin to animal breeding) all substantial traces of “Africanism” except for pigment was gone, though even pigment took some very significant hits through rape and intermixing.  The result was a cut off, formless shell of a people with nothing to call their own, not even the very bodies that carried their weary, hungering spirit.   Certainly we had no culture worth sharing with the world and no identifiable patch of homeland to connect with.  No family histories intact, no continuity of culture, no traditions – nothing!  We were simply a product made in the USA. We are as American as any American product ever produced.

The term “African American” was supposed to put us on par with other ethnic groups who can claim a homeland of either direct origin or the origin of their parents and/or grandparents, but that’s not quite the case.  White people don’t refer to themselves as European Americans.  That’s simply identifying with an entire continent; it’s what we do.  Instead, people of European descent identify with a particular country, such as “Italian­-Americans,” “Polish Americans,” “German Americans,” etc.  Most can tell you what town or village their family comes from and many visit relatives in the “old country.”  Many even speak their native tongue as well as English.  They have thriving communities where businesses and cultural activities flourish, serving to further cement the ties one generation after another.  They literally experience “belonging” in every sense of the word.  When they come to America they retain their heritage right down to the very patch of soil from which their forebears sprang; some even maintain dual citizenship.

Do so-called African Americans enjoy all this?  Emphatically not! Because we are not African in any real, livable sense.  We are simply American and original born Americans at that.  Not particularly indigenous to the land, but produced here prior to and along with the founding of this nation called America, just as Puerto Ricans were on that island called “rich port.”  Inasmuch as we want to identify with and cling to certain aspects of African culture – even claim to be proud sons and daughters of its past greatness – “African” does not uniquely identify us, and its greatness, past or present, is not ours to claim.  Our greatness is yet to come.

Time and time again we’ve seen glimpses of the greatness we’re capable of as a people, only to have it derailed by white supremacy – like “truth crushed to the earth.”  At the same time there’s been a successful manipulation of black excellence and protest by shrewd white politicians, as well as behind the­ scenes power brokers – all of which keep the descendants of slaves eternally subservient in what essentially is a shell game of power sharing – with us as the primary suckers who choose wrong most of the time. And because we play along we feel we’re really in the game and can eventually win big.  In the interim we hem and haw, cry and beg, march and sing until more heralded “Negro first” appeasement’s materialize.  Then we settle back down into molasses-paced wealth re-distribution myths,  affirmative action and quotas.  In truth, these can best be described as bad plans with good intentions.

Our greatness and our power will only be realized when we first grasp what it is that’s truly at the root of our problems and rectify that.  Only then can we be players at the big boys table as a people.  That rectification will come when we take from the American economy our birthright of wealth!  Then we, as productive Americans, can produce for ourselves and participate powerfully on the American and world stage.  Finally, we can then resolve the question of who we are and what others should call us.

Wealth in America is really about having options, choice and the resources needed to confidently pursue the best quality of life possible to us.  It’s the currency that can underwrite much of what we aspire to as a people and view as life enhancing.  But because we live in a society that contradicts what our spirit tells us is important, wealth and the pursuit thereof is the one area where we’re not only the most destitute, it’s also the one area where we’re most conflicted. 

Our history of never having wealth, coupled with belief systems adverse to pursuing material or monetary wealth, has short-circuited our grasp of the function of wealth as a liberating force, particularly in America.  Whether we or our belief systems like it or not there is no real freedom in America without the material and monetary wherewithal to ensure for one’s self and family the life enhancing experiences of health, education, opportunity, productive work and personal fulfillment.

Devoid of wealth for more than 157 years now African Americans have been acting alternately out of dependence and resentment, creating in the process very damaging impressions of us in the minds of all other Americans and indeed the world.  People don’t seem to find firm enough footing to connect sympathetically to our history or our struggle, except when incidents like the murder of George Floyd occur.   Otherwise, they see us as whiny, cry babies perpetually in search of a hand-out.  This type of perception helps them cope with being beneficiaries or onlookers of our systematic exclusion from participating equally in American wealth in all its forms.  

Unfortunately, we fortify those perceptions and more when we engage in all sorts of criminal and outlandish behaviors, giving the media the material it needs to foment fear and derision of black people and giving the criminal justice system unbridled justification to incarcerate us in disproportionate numbers and for mad years.  The result is that we are now largely viewed as a predatory people circling the wagons of all law abiding citizens fortunate enough to have a slice of the American Dream, seeking to rape, rob or murder them.   In many ways this makes racial profiling easy, as well as other inventive forms of targeting and discrimination.   Basically it’s simple statistics and probability assessment.  The people most likely to steal, sell drugs and act out criminally are people lacking, among other things, wealth and options.  While some of us escape these self destructive behaviors and outcomes, the statistics still point to us more often than not.

As a child I remember wondering why I never saw black people skiing, surfing, mountain climbing, race car driving, sky-diving or going up in hot air balloons. When I posed this question among family or friends the general consensus was that black people weren’t stupid enough to place their lives in jeopardy like that – only crazy white people.   It wasn’t until I got a little older that I realized these white people weren’t crazy –  just affluent enough to afford exhilarating hobbies and experiences.  I also understood further that black people’s supposed fear of participating in these types of activities really stemmed from a sense of having never truly lived, so that pursuing potentially dangerous hobbies or interests wouldn’t necessarily be on the top of the list   even if we had the money.  This also speaks to some of the sociological and cultural explanations used to downplay economic disparities between black and white.  There are those who would have us believe that African Americans just don’t aspire to do these things or to position themselves so; that we are noticeably absent due to our own choosing.  Kind of like when Ronald Reagan suggested that homeless people choose to be homeless.

If we buy into this thinking then we’d have to conclude that African Americans also aren’t interested in vacationing abroad, owning land and properties, providing for our children’s college education, having retirement savings, owning mammoth corporate entities or simply controlling the wealth in our own communities, seeing that we are noticeably absent from these areas too.  The real truth is that we’ve been deliberately and systematically separated from wealth for so long that the security, the sense of ownership and the range of life enhancing activities it offers others don’t even register as viable options for us.  We’re like Neanderthals in an economic dark age, still stuck on how to simply acquire basic food, clothing and shelter.  We literally watch the world of wealth and bling bling go by like spectators on the sidelines, oftentimes living vicariously through the lives of wealth’s most celebrated representatives.

Yes, as a people, wealth is the thing to pursue.  If anybody tells us different they either already have wealth or they’re scheming up a way to get a piece of what little we may have.  Ever notice how when African Americans (most notably entertainers and athletes) become wealthy they’re immediately thrown into the American mainstream, showered with incentives and endorsements and touted as the quintessential rags to riches American success story?  All kinds of handlers, managers, publicists and family surround them and advise them on how to manage their wealth and promote their image/brand, reminding them constantly how much of a credit they are to their race.  How many of these agents and handlers encourage their “star” to structure a part of their portfolio towards the building of everlasting African American wealth?  The answer is none, yet it is precisely our highly successful and highly visible life models in every arena that we need to lead the effort to extract from the American economy our birthright of wealth – even as they bask in popularity, fame and bling bling.

The bling bling phenomena is a phenomena in name only, as it’s simply a recurring manifestation of our overall freedom/wealth impulse expressed in material opulence and one of many terms coined by African Americans to describe it.  We are a very spiritual, animated and celebratory people; lavish and colorful in our costumes, loud and boisterous in our speech.  Our creativity and innovative ability is without peer  and we love being the center of attention.  Every financially successful flamboyant African American, in the context of their era, exemplified the bling bling flavor.  You pick the era and I’ll show you black bling bling.  In everything we do we either “do it to the max,” “do it ’till we’re satisfied” or “do it to death.”  Love it or hate it – that’s us.  Sometimes we get on our own nerves, but we really don’t mean no harm; we’re just not as self-conscious or uptight as others when it comes to outward expression.

This had led some to label us “sense driven,” “uncouth” and “primitive” in our behavior, yet many more have rightly recognized our soul, our moral and intellectual contributions to the world and the breath of life we’ve breathed into humanity on more than one occasion.  So, we are not unsure of who we be or of the kind of material that constitute our essence.  For the topic at hand, however, we just need a better handle on our notions of wealth in the main and our historical participation in the American system in particular.

Nowadays, with the layers of gold, diamonds and platinum on our teeth, ears, necks, wrists, fingers, waists, ankles and toes, bling bling, as opposed to the solid management of capital, has come to symbolize African American wealth. As a result, terms like buffoon and clownish, along with slanted media depictions, are used to mock and demean certain individuals and, by extension, all of us.  The sad irony is that if all African Americans could afford to drape themselves from head to toe in bling bling, we would see one or two things: 1) no one would be that extravagant because it wouldn’t impress anyone or 2) it would be so commonplace that no one would even notice or care.  But because most other outlets of wealth expression or powerful participation in wealth management was denied us, we’ve only expressed any measure of economic prosperity individually, outwardly and in material trappings of wealth.  And so it remains that without major corporate ownership in financial services, manufacturing, real estate and insurance, bling bling is the equivalent of a slave showing off his new pair of burlap pants and a top hat.