A friend of mine sent me the following article:
*************************************************************************************
For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading
this morning on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't
hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote
it.
Dee Lee, CFP
Harvard Financial Educators
Dee Lee
THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the
Blacks without the effort of physical slavery Look at the current
methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED,
and SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once
said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along),
but few read consistently, if at all.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).
Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being ! primari ly a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.
They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them
"Status" or that they have achieved their Dream.
They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty
because their greed holds them back from collectively making better
communities.
With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often
broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to
see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even
jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the
fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show
off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits
from our businesses that we market to them.
SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the
major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois
said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented
Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are
segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success.
However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read
that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented
Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has
created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people
or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we
have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together
on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together,
their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.
They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels,
and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best
speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness?
They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)
They do not understand that they are no better than each other because
of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but
one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the
control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.
Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to re ad,
continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping"
their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other
than hold lavish conventions in our! hotels . By the way, don't worry
about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!
(Prove them wrong. Please pass this on! After Reading it.
*************************************************************************************
When I first read this, I was deeply insulted by the letter's condescending, self-righteous tone, but, as that simply may have been a device to enrage "black folk" into action, I'll set that aside. I'd rather focus on the main assumptions of this article--assumptions that, though were meant well, only perpetuate the very problems the author is railing against.
According to the author, the reason black people are "still slaves" is largely their own fault. We get three reasons for this: ignorance, greed and selfishness. And we could easily solve all these problems if we (A) read books on how to create successful businesses, (B) saved and invested money in black businesses and (C)helped "less fortunate black folk" reach "economic prosperity" as well.
I understand and appreciate the author's intentions, but this article is racist, not because it begins by saying, "THEY are still our slaves," not because it points out faults within the black community, but because it identifies ignorance, greed and selfishness as specifically BLACK problems.
These are not just "black problems." They're not even American problems. They are HUMAN problems. People of all races are systematically oppressed and economically exploited in ALL parts of the world.
My question to the author is this: "What of the poverty-stricken 'white people' who are just barely scraping by? What of the 'white people' whose own ignorance, greed and selfishness keeps them stuck in a never-ending cycle of self-destruction? Are they your slaves as well? Are you sending out chastising letters to them? There's this assumption that all "white people" are living in the lap of luxury, which is absurd. This whole "race struggle" in America has never really been about race; it's about CLASS. Obviously, a large percentage of black people in America are on the short end of the economic stick, but to call it a "black problem" is a red herring, distracting us from the truth.
During the 1700s, the upper-class was terrified that black slaves and white indentured servants (who were essentially slaves) would join forces and stage a rebellion (it had already happened during Bacon's Rebellion)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_rebellion
The solution? More rights and privilleges and land were granted by the states to these indentured servants, and they made the point that the reason these servants were getting these privilleges was because they were superior to their African-descended counterparts. This marked the beginning of what we now know as "middle class America."(For more info, check out "A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn). The middle class then began to serve as an efficient buffer between the have-nots and the have-a-whole-LOTS.
In other words, we are all in this TOGETHER. We got a lot of "history"--some good, some bad...actually A LOT bad. But as long as we allow ourselves to be distracted into thinking this is a "black thing" or a "white thing" or an "us versus them" thing instead of realizing that we ALL are sharing the same living space, this is never going to end. This is not to say that our cultural heritage is not important, but to the extent that our heritage obscures the fact that the most fundamental truth about all of us is that we are HUMAN, it's an impediment.
It's for this reason that I don't believe that creating and investing solely in "black businesses" is any kind of real solution. What the author is suggesting is that our loftiest goal is economic empowerment. Now, at first glance, this makes sense. After all, if you want to get things done in this world, you need money, right? In fact, the U.S.A. provides a pretty good example of how you can pretty much do whatever you want as long as you have the dollars and resources to back it up. That's why it invades other countries, overthrows governments (either in secret or out in the open) and sets up U.S. friendly dictators in their stead. For the resources and dollars that those countries provide. It subjugates as many people as it can through economics, even--an especially--its own citizens. Playing into the "American Dream" of being an entrepreneur in order "to get ahead" feeds into that very system. Sure, we may get a few scraps from the table...just enough to keep us pacified so that we don't get outraged by the fact that we and millions of other people are getting royally screwed.
I don't see economically powerful black people as being any more advantageous than economically powerful white people. It's the system of economics itself--the absurd belief that value can be put on a piece of green paper and that someone must lose in order for someone else to gain--that I find to be the problem. And this is not to suggest that people shouldn't start businesses or make a livelihood for themselves. Far from it. But whatever you do in this world, it should be an expression of what you truly desire, of what you truly wish to be, with no thought to the "power" it will bring you.
If we really want to change this world, it's not going to be through businesses, and it's not going to be through legislation, unfortunately. People must change from within. I think it's important that we understand who we are and what we're doing here. We walk around constantly in a daze, in a dream world, accepting what's put in front of us, not questioning anything, living mostly by reflex. We've carved up the earth into these nation-states, giving each other labels, raising borders, trying to do everything we can to keep ourselves separate from each other.
These are artificial constructs. They mean nothing. We come from the same Source. This is not mere mysticism, but fact. We are made of the building blocks of the Universe itself--stuff that has been in existence since before the beginning of time. This is what it means to be a "child of God." And as my siblings, I believe that everyone on this planet has as much right to freedom, health and happiness as I do. So I'm not content with one race within the human family being free and happy. I am content with nothing less than the human race ITSELF lifting itself out of ignorance and oppression, and into the full realization of its glorious Self. This is our true destiny, and we deserve nothing less than that.
Any thoughts? Obviously, I don't have all the answers. I'm still searching too. But this article struck me, and I needed to respond. Let me know what you think.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
To my understanding this was written by a black male comedian/radio host
I did a brief check on the web to see what I could find out. I came across a couple forums where someone said that the wrong Dee Lee was credited, and that it indeed was a black radio host.
So that's definitely my faux pas for not doing more fact checking. That being said, I still find the article bothersome...
The issue of who acutally wrote the article is irrelevant. That's not the point. What matters is the validity of the content.
The writer is on point with his rebuttal.
If we simply continue to play the game of "Us & Them",
then we will fail to see the real reasons that lies behind the problem.
Ignorance, Greed & Selfishness are HUMAN problems indeed. The rebuttal strikes at the heart of the problem
when the writer speaks of the rise of the middle class as a buffer between the "have-nots" & the "have a whole lot MORE. The root of the problem can be best be summed up as "ELITE-ISM".
The intent was to get people to begin to think and do an assessment of their present situation. If it has managed to get people thinking and talking, then it has served its purpose very well.
I want to start this post by saying above all I do believe that the Black community is in dire need of support, guidance and is indeed still not free. this letter’s truest contribution to society is that it reveals that there are well respected, educated white who realize exactly how it is that they have been able to maintain their level of economic, social and political superiority.
The first claim made by the author is “THEIR” IGNORANCE. I will take this moment to explain how using the term “their” is the authors way of automatically relieving everyone except for black from any responsibility they may have had in causing a situation where Black folks could not educate themselves. The author assumes that anyone and everyone has accessibility to places like Barnes and Noble, or borders, or even the internet as he also sites Amazon as a place where Blacks could go to become more knowledgeable. The truth is that rarely if ever do you find any of those book stores in the black community that actually need them. the black communities that are suffering from (yes folks I’m going to say it because it’s still true) poverty, unequal education, and the infestation of drugs. The companies that owns Barnes and Noble and Borders are not interested in building their bookstores in “those places.” they fear or “know” that they will not make business there.
This is due to the very ignorant stereotype that blacks don’t read. Yet we forget many times as Americans to put history into perspective. When the integration of schools occurred after Brown, there was also a second ruling called Brown two(look it up) in which the judges declared that the process of such integration could be delivered with deliberate speed. What does deliberate mean: fully considered not impulsive. it took till well into the 80’s before the last school desegregated Virginia(about 25 years after Brown and Brown 2) More importantly while black students were being bussed to white schools there were no white students bussed to black school. White parents would not have that. Thus, black school remained unequal in their quality. Whats the point? That combine that with assassination or unjust imprisonment of many black leaders(or them being exiled) from SCLC(King’s Group) CORE, SNCC, Black Panthers and many other civil rights group. yes it was not just king and malcolm that got it done) plus the introduction of crack in these already impoverished community is in large part why they are in the state they are in. thus to solely chalk i up to “their” ignorance without illustrating or analyzing how history has put some of our communities in a position where trying to eat, and get paid comes before a book as a vital need to survive, is irresponsible.(I do believe that a book can get our communities out of those situations sadly because of what happened to many blacks in the 70s with drugs and such that history of reading was lost) Yet again this author would have you believe that we did all this to ourselves.
moving on to his second point Greed which he calls a powerful weapon of containment.How the author was able to come up with those figures is dumbfounding. His source should be asked for and we should look and see what population of blacks is he specifically talking about. Either way let’s analyze his statements. He says that it is “our GREED” and lack of investing that has us in poverty. Not of course the fact that our ancestors worked for free for nearly three hundred years and then after they were no longer enslaved(that also was done with deliberate speed as many black were not told) some ended up buying land from the same slave master. but how you might ask since indeed enslaved folks had no money. well the slave masters were nice enough to give them loans, which the slave masters wrote up them selves, for the land . Thus Black Americans were immediately in debt (notice I say enslaved not slaves because our people were not slaves there were citizens of west African countries that were enslaved)
Thus again where is the history in our Black culture of investment. Not too many Black Americans knew how to read back then. And for a people who had nothing we were trying leave our generation something and we did: we left them our debt. The author is correct BET is sending negative images to our youth along with many other rap artist and such yet notice that whites are getting the same images thrown at them and yet though they will appropriate many of our clothing styles and language somehow they end up faring better then their black counter parts: why is that? do whites genetically know how to handle their money better as a whole(because ill tell you about some poor whites that have the same troubles as some of our Black folks)? Or is there something about not having money, about being impoverished that makes you more susceptible to not prioritizing your spending(notice i did not say all impoverished folks ARE susceptible but rather being impoverished increases your chances) By the way BET and MTV are both owned by VIACOM. Think about that.
Finally the most absurd point “our SELFISHNESS”. The Author is totally correct with his statements about the “Talented Tenth” and what W.E.B. Dubois believed should be their task. Now where the author falls of is in his assertion that educated, successful Black Americans are not helping the others is because of selfishness. One should ask how did these Black folks get to that point to begin with? Usually it was about worrying about themselves trying to put all their energy in getting past more than likely economic and racial obstacle on top of the everyday obstacles that mostly everyone else faces. Thus, once they reach that pedestal they are then in a position where they have some decisions to make yet namely these two are made: a) abandon their fear that there white counterparts will think differently of them if they started fighting for the “other kind of black people” or sometimes called “the threatening negro”or they will succumb to their fears further attempt to embrace their new fond sense of security in the white world and be satisfied being the non threatening negro” yet knowing or maybe not, that their is still a glass ceiling between them and where white folks stand. Now you could chalk it up to selfishness or we can dig deeper and investigate what is exactly how is what is happening around them sociologically affect them psychologically. Is it survival? Is it just not knowing how? Feeling powerless? If you thought that putting your self out there for certain Blacks who, because of your status might not be very welcoming at first, would mean losing everything you worked for would you do it?(i of course believe it should be done no matter what yet I am not everyone and everyone is not myself) This is not the place nor the point of this post so I will now conclude.
The greatest error of this letter is the most common error in most arguments made by non blacks about the black community: it forgets that we all belong to the HUMAN RACE. Thus most arguments are “how come blacks aren’t helping those poor blacks?” when it should be ” how come we all people are not helping those blacks?” and the reason why non blacks do not ask that of themselves is because that is the real truth that hurts. because the answer to that question contadicts everything we believe in as a modern society. You’ll see white interviewers ask Jesse Jackson why aren’t Black leaders doing anything and J says why aren’t any leaders regardless of color doing anything. When children need education we don’t say “well those children should take care of that problem” when one of own, humans, is ailing we all are ailing. the number of poor, lower social economic status black folks is higher than their opposite. we can ask the few to do it all.
And even if it was Dr. Arthur Lewin, a black man, in a desperate attempt to stirs us and awaken us all no matter how that occurred, we still need to understand the other side to the letter’s argument. In this country we question the validity or truthfulness of the stories of victims or survivors of rape instead of pursuing the person being accused. Thus, we treat the issue of race in the same way. I don’t think anyone would wish their people to be uprooted, enslaved, be denied equal education, and then would want to maintain a lower quality of life for themselves. how can we ignore how the past has brought us to this state. Instead of uplifting our own communities we tend to blame them and scold them for their impoverishment and lack of education. Instead of committing ourselves to the betterment of each other’s lives. How fitting is it then that in 2008 approximately four hundred and eight years removed from the first appearance of black slaves on the mainland of what is now the United States of America, that we are still like the enslaved African of then believing that we have solely done this to our selves and thus continue the self-deprecating attitudes that have plagued us before. We cannot rise unless we rise together through support of one another.
I want to start this post by saying above all I do believe that the Black community is in dire need of support, guidance and is indeed still not free. this letter’s truest contribution to society is that it reveals that there are well respected, educated white who realize exactly how it is that they have been able to maintain their level of economic, social and political superiority.
The first claim made by the author is “THEIR” IGNORANCE. I will take this moment to explain how using the term “their” is the authors way of automatically relieving everyone except for black from any responsibility they may have had in causing a situation where Black folks could not educate themselves. The author assumes that anyone and everyone has accessibility to places like Barnes and Noble, or borders, or even the internet as he also sites Amazon as a place where Blacks could go to become more knowledgeable. The truth is that rarely if ever do you find any of those book stores in the black community that actually need them. the black communities that are suffering from (yes folks I’m going to say it because it’s still true) poverty, unequal education, and the infestation of drugs. The companies that owns Barnes and Noble and Borders are not interested in building their bookstores in “those places.” they fear or “know” that they will not make business there.
This is due to the very ignorant stereotype that blacks don’t read. Yet we forget many times as Americans to put history into perspective. When the integration of schools occurred after Brown, there was also a second ruling called Brown two(look it up) in which the judges declared that the process of such integration could be delivered with deliberate speed. What does deliberate mean: fully considered not impulsive. it took till well into the 80’s before the last school desegregated Virginia(about 25 years after Brown and Brown 2) More importantly while black students were being bussed to white schools there were no white students bussed to black school. White parents would not have that. Thus, black school remained unequal in their quality. Whats the point? That combine that with assassination or unjust imprisonment of many black leaders(or them being exiled) from SCLC(King’s Group) CORE, SNCC, Black Panthers and many other civil rights group. yes it was not just king and malcolm that got it done) plus the introduction of crack in these already impoverished community is in large part why they are in the state they are in. thus to solely chalk i up to “their” ignorance without illustrating or analyzing how history has put some of our communities in a position where trying to eat, and get paid comes before a book as a vital need to survive, is irresponsible.(I do believe that a book can get our communities out of those situations sadly because of what happened to many blacks in the 70s with drugs and such that history of reading was lost) Yet again this author would have you believe that we did all this to ourselves.
moving on to his second point Greed which he calls a powerful weapon of containment.How the author was able to come up with those figures is dumbfounding. His source should be asked for and we should look and see what population of blacks is he specifically talking about. Either way let’s analyze his statements. He says that it is “our GREED” and lack of investing that has us in poverty. Not of course the fact that our ancestors worked for free for nearly three hundred years and then after they were no longer enslaved(that also was done with deliberate speed as many black were not told) some ended up buying land from the same slave master. but how you might ask since indeed enslaved folks had no money. well the slave masters were nice enough to give them loans, which the slave masters wrote up them selves, for the land . Thus Black Americans were immediately in debt (notice I say enslaved not slaves because our people were not slaves there were citizens of west African countries that were enslaved)
Thus again where is the history in our Black culture of investment. Not too many Black Americans knew how to read back then. And for a people who had nothing we were trying leave our generation something and we did: we left them our debt. The author is correct BET is sending negative images to our youth along with many other rap artist and such yet notice that whites are getting the same images thrown at them and yet though they will appropriate many of our clothing styles and language somehow they end up faring better then their black counter parts: why is that? do whites genetically know how to handle their money better as a whole(because ill tell you about some poor whites that have the same troubles as some of our Black folks)? Or is there something about not having money, about being impoverished that makes you more susceptible to not prioritizing your spending(notice i did not say all impoverished folks ARE susceptible but rather being impoverished increases your chances) By the way BET and MTV are both owned by VIACOM. Think about that.
Finally the most absurd point “our SELFISHNESS”. The Author is totally correct with his statements about the “Talented Tenth” and what W.E.B. Dubois believed should be their task. Now where the author falls of is in his assertion that educated, successful Black Americans are not helping the others is because of selfishness. One should ask how did these Black folks get to that point to begin with? Usually it was about worrying about themselves trying to put all their energy in getting past more than likely economic and racial obstacle on top of the everyday obstacles that mostly everyone else faces. Thus, once they reach that pedestal they are then in a position where they have some decisions to make yet namely these two are made: a) abandon their fear that there white counterparts will think differently of them if they started fighting for the “other kind of black people” or sometimes called “the threatening negro”or they will succumb to their fears further attempt to embrace their new fond sense of security in the white world and be satisfied being the non threatening negro” yet knowing or maybe not, that their is still a glass ceiling between them and where white folks stand. Now you could chalk it up to selfishness or we can dig deeper and investigate what is exactly how is what is happening around them sociologically affect them psychologically. Is it survival? Is it just not knowing how? Feeling powerless? If you thought that putting your self out there for certain Blacks who, because of your status might not be very welcoming at first, would mean losing everything you worked for would you do it?(i of course believe it should be done no matter what yet I am not everyone and everyone is not myself) This is not the place nor the point of this post so I will now conclude.
The greatest error of this letter is the most common error in most arguments made by non blacks about the black community: it forgets that we all belong to the HUMAN RACE. Thus most arguments are “how come blacks aren’t helping those poor blacks?” when it should be ” how come we all people are not helping those blacks?” and the reason why non blacks do not ask that of themselves is because that is the real truth that hurts. because the answer to that question contadicts everything we believe in as a modern society. You’ll see white interviewers ask Jesse Jackson why aren’t Black leaders doing anything and J says why aren’t any leaders regardless of color doing anything. When children need education we don’t say “well those children should take care of that problem” when one of own, humans, is ailing we all are ailing. the number of poor, lower social economic status black folks is higher than their opposite. we can ask the few to do it all.
And even if it was Dr. Arthur Lewin, in a desperate attempt to stirs us and awaken us all no matter how that occurred, we still need to understand the other side to the letter’s argument. In this country we question the validity or truthfulness of the stories of victims or survivors of rape instead of pursuing the person being accused. Thus, we treat the issue of race in the same way. I don’t think anyone would wish their people to be uprooted, enslaved, be denied equal education, and then would want to maintain a lower quality of life for themselves. how can we ignore how the past has brought us to this state. Instead of uplifting our own communities we tend to blame them and scold them for their impoverishment and lack of education. Instead of committing ourselves to the betterment of each other’s lives. How fitting is it then that in 2008 approximately four hundred and eight years removed from the first appearance of black slaves on the mainland of what is now the United States of America, that we are still like the enslaved African of then believing that we have solely done this to our selves and thus continue the self-deprecating attitudes that have plagued us before. We cannot rise unless we rise together through support of one another.
Post a Comment