The Fallacy of 40 Acres and a Mule

I find it appropriate to address this subject now, as it is near the end of Black history month. I don’t know how folk will take it, but I am without a doubt certain that Carter G. Woodson would approve and appreciate the thought processes engrained in what I am about to state.

At least twice this month (and I won’t go into the number of times over the years), I have heard several claims that Africans in America, or at least freed slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule upon emancipation. I have read references to such scantly; however, I have been unable and unsuccessful, even in light of my penchant for research and detail, to verify such.

What I can say accurately is that during the period of and after the civil war, the radical Republicans as they have been called throughout history really had only one interest, which was not slaves or black folk, but rather the goal of using the military might of the union (North) to destroy the plantation aristocracy of the south and bring in a new area of capitalist democracy by ensuring that blacks could both vote and own property. This is where the idea of forty acres and a mule originally started.  But Democrats, like then Editor of the New York Tribune like Horace Greeley were against this in mass. See, although they were upset with Southerners, they felt, to use Greeley’s words that: “because the wealthier class of southerners, being more enlightened and humane than the ignorant and vulgar are less inimicable to the blacks,” that former slaves should never be given land or property in any form especially from the confederate rich.

In fact when the republicans tried to force property confiscation in the initial acts of Reconstruction in 1867 (against the desires of moderate Republicans), when ThaddeusStevens brought the “40 acres” measure to the floor in the House, it receivedless than 40 votes.

Although history books tell us that folk in the north were on the side of slaves and against slavery, they fail to mention specifically how their views, votes and politics were never behind and would never tolerate giving black folk land – specifically the property of former confederate rich white folks. Even that democratic weekly THE NATION noted that by giving the land of rich men to poor ignorant Negroes would shock and destroy America’s entire political system and lead to the destruction of liberty for all Americans (In The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877 by Kenneth Stampp, 120-130).

With this kind of NATIONAL sentiment, it is easy to see why 40 acres was never made law and really never promised to freed blacks.  Not to mention it should have been obvious seeing it is well know that the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) excluded freeing slaves in Union states and those stats in the South behind union lines.

What this means is that without any land redistribution or confiscation, slaves would still remain slaves just under a new system and made it even worse.  Now they would be sharecroppers, which gave land owners control over them from giving them advances on supplies, even food from stores they owned, way above market price and charging the to live on land that they would never own or ever be able to accumulate wealth. By the time Rutherford B. Hays became President in 1876, this new system was firmly entrenched and Northern democrats and republicans turned their back on what they initially considered their cause to protect the poor, landless and oppressed black working class of former slaves.

This is why industrial capitalism grew so fast during this period of American history – they still had an endless supply of cheap and uneducated workers.  Although some misread history and often say the civil war was America’s second revolutionary war, it wasn’t. I mean from my perspective, during revolutionary wars, the oppressed take up arms and start the war. And any person who can read, or considers themselves educated can tell you that since then, the 14^th amendment has done little if anything to protect black folk in America, and really only serves to protect corporations and advance industrial capitalism. Through the 14^th amendment, property got the ultimate political protection from state governments, not freed slaves and the US currency was put on an invincible footing via the resumption of specie (money in the form of coins rather than notes) payment.

So when folk banter around that we as black folk were promised 40 acres and a mule, or that the 14^th amendment was instituted to protect black folk, you should ignore them and accept their ignorance as an offering and reflection of what is wrong with we as black folk in America, which is 60% of the time we talking loud and ain’t saying nothing and 30% of the time we truly don’t know what we talking about.

2012: And Negroes More Slaves Than Ever

“Ugly is what ugly does,” that what my grandmother used to tell me. It was one of the many philosophical idioms she used to instruct me throughout my life as I was growing up as a child. Over the years I started to understand what she meant. I take that it means that people stuck on stupid and fixed on foolishness are ugly and means that you must be judged by your actions. It means that and intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid. You are what you do.

And without the aid of any screed, I will like to use this to present the premise that regardless of what we call ourselves, African descendants in the united States are even more of slaves now than they were prior to the emancipation proclamation and display more disdain and rancor for who we are than ever in any time prior. To validate this apriorism., will use three recent examples: the newfangled excursus pertain to the description of whether we are African American or Black, the cruel and demoniac, beating on 20-year-old Brandon White and Roland Martin for his perceived homophobic tweets during the Super Bowl.

The first is part of the problem, whether or not people should call them Black or African American. In a nut shell it suggest that conformity has no boundaries and even worse – that African descendants in these United States have successfully been imbued with the outcomes desired by colonialism since we continue to select to define and see ourselves through the spectacles of white European culture. This may be why we tend to be more responsive than proactive. As such, no wonder that African Americans spent $507 bill (out of our total estimated buying power of $836 billion) in 2009 on hair care & personal grooming items. Or that we spend more on self mutilating products (perms, fake nails, and fake hair) than any other ethnic group. As a people in general, we spend almost $50 billion on vehicles alone while less than 50% of African Americans owned their homes as opposed to whites (70%).

The reasons for those that deny any connection to Africa reflect more of a bland and opaque sciolism than actual reality. “Africa was a long time ago” or “It denotes something else to me than who I am.” To even have such a discussion in evidence of a people without any direction and we all know that in order to have direction, as in math and science there must be a starting point. Why is that of all the humans in the world, we are the only people who are afraid to own our connection with our history without apology? Although other ethnic groups from India, Iran, China or wherever, although they came via means other than slavery, when their kids grow up her, they still remain connected to their ethnic heritage. Why, because they accept who they are. If we cannot believe in ourselves and do not accept who and what we are via our colonial indoctrination, we will never succeed as a people.

One has to wonder, why is that we adopt such positions. One is that we do not own our connection with our history and even worse consequently do not accept such with any apology or reservation. This is what is so problematic with what happened to Martin – a man who should have known better, just one day after the beating of Brandon White.

The actuality is that we spend time on speaking about such, which really are not important, than the root causes of our self-destruction, taking responsibility and things that do mater. We would be more likely to stand and Support the irresponsible and ignorant actions of Roland Martin than take the side of righteousness – even suggesting that what he tweeted was no directed toward gays. “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl” Martin tweeted,

No secret about it, it was. We all know what a “real Bruh” means, “pink” and that any one that looks or is attracted to another man’s crotch are key words. And don’t forget slapping the “ish” out of someone is equal to knocking someone out violently. Yes Martin should have known better but it may be his lack of connection to our community, all of our components regardless of beliefs and practices led him to this outcome. Yes, he can be seen by a reasonable person as cheerleading for violence against men who are excited to see the crotch of another man - gays. Yes like many of us, he was a pawn in the game, defeated by his own self inflicted wounds as many of us, through the main tool of mentacide today – the television.

For example, remembering the television show the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air can provide a vivid example of this. Will Smith’s character was the one most folks attended to. He was book dumb but street smart, he could dance and could get all the girls while Carlton was the one to be hated, an educated black man who could not dance. Even in our schools, the popular kids do poorly academically and cause havoc while the straight A students are looked down upon. About 69% of Black children in America cannot read at grade level in the 4th grade, compared with 29% among White childrenThere is a reason why black folks will break in your home, trash the place and take everything except books. Chances are book shelves are never trashed in robberies.

All of the aforementioned, the discussion of whether we are African American or Black, the beating on 20-year-old Brandon White and Roland Martin for his irresponsible and ill-informed tweets during the Super Bowl are as Dr. Na'im Akbar stated, "We are ignorant of who we are and what we can do.” It means what Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote in "The Miseducation of the Negro," "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."

What we do and say is important and an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid (Roland Martin) and people stuck on stupid and fixed on foolishness are ugly (The Attackers of White). Not valuing who and what we are and where we come from contributes to such idiocy and unfortunately makes me think that Brown versus Board of Education means nothing now, because most of us don’t value education, care to accept our origins are in Africa and don’t care about learning. “Just because a cat has kittens in an oven doesn’t make them biscuits.”

bling bling but no books

I am no better than anyone else, but I do know that the majority of our society has lost their way, are selfish, materialistic and socially irresponsible. This is not a criticism but an objective reality. I can see this through simple observations whether it is the massive drop out rates of African American young folk, the high incarceration rates of African American men in prison, or the exorbitant rates of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in our community.

Truth is that while America spits its anger and venom over the fact that a man of African descent is President of the united States, we are aiding this attitude via our ignorance and none concern to the point that we don’t see it. This troubles me for we can make time and take the time to see that Lil Wayne is in prison or what a bevy of unmarried women who call themselves basketball wives are up too, Brandy and her brother and a washed up gold digging actress by the name of Lisa Raye, but nothing else really of substance.

We know more about the lives of women like super head and Kat stacks and their sordid bedroom activities, women who we dare raise our daughters not to be like or venerate but can’t name what is in any proposal outlined by our current President or proffered via the legislative branch of government unless we hear about it on television. We couldn’t even tell you one amendment of thee constitution which our very freedom and liberty is buttressed upon.

Unfortunately, we think we are free and seem to be more concerned with clubbing and who is the VIPs and what we wear than our intellectual development and education and worse, how we dedicate ourselves to our families. The women and men who raised us, at least many of them, after living and seeing the struggle would never support or practice such behaviors. Unlike days of past, ours is a sexual degenerate culture. In one word we despise drug dealing, gangsters and thugs and folk calling us nigger and bitch, but the reality is we buy the music of those that do such and shack our little butts off in our cars each day singing every word. Music that treats life as being worthless and regards women as merely pieces of meat.

Ours is a problematic state of being, for we lack knowledge of self which is what causes us to participate in our own self destruction. We enslaves ourselves for their was a period when the Likes of Carter G. Woodson, Fred Hampton, Shirley Chisom and Martin King and their words were more wide spread and popular than any musician and this was during the time of the last poets and Marvin Gaye. Even folks Like Marvin Gaye sang about the conditions of our folk and displayed some social responsibility, but such is lacking or no existence today for we don’t value knowledge or understand that information is power. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “nothing in this world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Maybe that is why we sing and have the bling-bling and no books.

I have no problem speaking my mind and I know that some will take this as an affront to modern culture, but it is not . I just never have nor will concede my human dignity for popularity but I do know that they of the minstrel variety will complain and even defend vile, lewd and self destructive behavior as pronounced so vividly in our culture. It was not I but Carter G. Woodson Who said:

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

No wonder we are as we are, today I wouldn't be suprised if an unknown rapper was more reconizable and know about than somebody really worthy of attention, for it is a shame that folk recognize Lil Jeezy more than Neil Degrasse Tyson. Now I know how and what Harriet Tubman meant when she wrote “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."