The Duped & Deceived, Downtrodden, Desperate, Dangerous, Darling Darky

This title chronicles 155+ years up from slavery, capturing our evolution as a physically free people from 1865 to the present in name (identity), mind-set and as characterized concurrently by the music we produced. The timeline of this metamorphosis is broken into distinct 35 year periods which seem to accurately highlight our total state of being; periods with overlap and incorporation of significant American events as well as our own internal developments that offer a true and concise glimpse into our sojourn in America. Utilizing the reference points of moniker, state of mind and music helps us stay true to a critical parallel analysis of our experience in the American enterprise, particularly our reaction to oppression and exclusion and the degree to which we were allowed to participate. Who we were and what we were called shaped our thinking and our being, which then was communicated and expressed through our music. All that we are, all that we aspire to and all that we accomplish resonate around these points of reference, for they are the markers that have shaped and continue to shape our unique Americanism.

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.