An Open Letter to Ice Cube

Why are We Still Begging?

“I submit the Contract with Black America to start the hard conversations to create a future of harmony where everyone can benefit.” – Ice Cube

Now the dialog, “hard conversations”, that we need to have, can begin.

“This contract with Black America strikes at the heart of racism and represents a blueprint to achieve racial economic justice.” – Darrick Hamilton, Professor of Economics, The New School

With all due respect to Dr. Hamilton, I maintain, this contract with Black America strikes at the heart of begging white America for reparations and is another blueprint that will continue to deny racial economic justice, something capitalism was designed to do, and still does very well.

“While Capitalism is a good system, it requires capital to participate.” – Contract with Black America, Courtesy of Ice Cube

Again, with all due respect, I must disagree. I am sure my brother, in all sincerity, believes Capitalism can work for our tribe, if adequate capital resources were available. Unfortunately, his understanding is based on lies perpetuated by the ‘ruling elite’, 1/10^th of 1% of the world’s population (7,000,000 people) who own and control 90% of our Earth’s resources.

Capitalism is not a good system.

Even if you had the capital, Capitalism is not an economic paradigm designed and established to administer freedom, justice, and equality of opportunity for humanity, and Africans in particular.

“It is a common myth within capitalism that the individual through drive and hard work can become a capitalist. In the USA it is usual to refer to an individual like John D. Rockefeller, SR as someone who rose from ‘rags to riches. To complete the moral of the Rockefeller success story it would be necessary to fill in the details on all of the millions of people who had to be exploited in order for one man to become a multi-billionaire. The acquisition of wealth is not due to hard work alone, or the African working as slaves in America and the West Indies would have been the wealthiest group in the world. The individualism of the capitalist must be seen against the hard and unrewarded work of the masses.” – How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney, 1975

Capitalism created, and continues to perpetuate, racism. My book, Capitalism Birthed Racism: When Racism Will End, and What Will Replace Capitalism: Equism is the Harbinger, c. 2022, is very detailed in this regard, and is available upon request.

In his book, Myth of Black Progress, Cambridge University Press, London, 1984, Alphonse Pinkney offered the following observation regarding capitalism and racism; as true today as the day it was written, almost 40 years ago.

“…This results from centuries of oppression, and from the privileges white people enjoy over black people. Capitalism, at its core, is exploitation, for it thrives on one group’s maintaining dominance over another. As long as American society is based largely on class, it is likely that visible members of minorities will be victims of oppression. That is not to say that racism has disappeared from societies that have become transformed from capitalism to socialism. However, the eradication of capitalism is seen as a necessary if not sufficient condition for the elimination of both prejudiced attitudes and discriminating behavior.”

And A.M. Babu’s Postscript to How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by Walter Rodney, drives the point further.

“After reading the harrowing accounts of the brutality of slavery, of subjugation, of deprivation and humiliation, when whole civilizations were crushed in order to serve the imperialist interests of the West: when settled societies were disintegrated by force of imperialist arms so the plantation owners of the ‘new world’ could get their uprooted, and therefore permanent labor force to build what is now the most advanced capitalist economy, it becomes absolutely clear that the only way out of our current impasse is through a revolutionary path – a complete break from the system which is responsible for all of our past and present miseries.”

Equism is the harbinger.

Equism, which I derived from the word ‘equity,’ is a new economic paradigm that provides the true freedom of ‘individual free enterprise’ and the ‘collective cooperation’ of humankind necessary for societal advancement.

As defined by The American College Dictionary, Third Edition, 1993, equity means “the state, quality, or ideal of being just, impartial, and fair. Something that is just, impartial, and fair.” We presently experience a world that is not just, not impartial, and not fair. Poverty, climate change, pandemic, war, and rampant racism, are just a few of the existential threats humanity faces today; all perpetrated and perpetuated by capitalism.

I know that I’m not the first person to consider questions regarding the efficacy of capitalism, and I won’t be the last. European thinkers like Marx and Engels knew European/Caucasian workers were being exploited by capitalists in their new “Age of Industry” and developed what is today called ‘Marxism’. They also co-authored “The Communist Manifesto,” 1848, which produced variations that today are called ‘Communism’ and ‘Socialism.’

Marx and Engels addressed the problems faced by European/Caucasians, not the problems of Africans. Less than 40 years later King Leopold of Belgium convened the 1884 Conference of Berlin, where the Europeans divided African among themselves, and even allowed America to have its own colony by giving them Liberia. [What a novel concept, a colony owns a colony?] There were no boundary lines on the Continent of Africa until the European/Caucasian drew them in 1884.

Marx and Engels, and many of their interpreters and critics offered European-inspired perspectives that could never be a solution for Africans. Their perspective was jaundiced by a culture that survived in the hills and caves of Europe for over 40,000 years. [Check out the meaning of a ‘three dog night’.]

“A problem cannot be solved by the consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein

As Solomon said, “with all thy getting, get understanding.” The European/Caucasian mind cannot solve our problem; they created our problem.

African creative thinking is what we need, and it is now finding its voice once again.

“We have declared that we wish to build our economy on the basis of the equality of all citizens and have specifically rejected the concept of creating a class system where one group of people owns the means of production for the purpose of getting profit and another group works for them. We have not excluded private enterprise, and we want people to start their own productive and commercial undertakings. But we have said that the emphasis in our economy should be on ownership by the people, through the people’s own institutions. What we are thus trying to do is build a ‘mixed economy’ which includes both public and private enterprise – with the emphasis on the former – so as to get the most rapid and most beneficial economic development.” – Julius Nyerere, the 1^st President of Tanzania, 1960

Brother Ice Cube, regarding Thomas Jefferson, you said,

“Jefferson also wrote in The Thing that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form.”

Does the “Right of the People” refer to Africans as well? I say yes, do you?

Power is required to be a free people. Caucasian/European power comes from the barrel of a gun.

Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered an automatic weapon.” – General Douglas MacArthur

MacArthur said it facetiously, mocking General Bonaparte’s famous “The pen is mightier than the sword” speech.

“There are only two powers in the world, saber and mind; at the end, saber is always defeated by the mind.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Please understand and accept that Our Power, as Africans, comes from our mind.

“Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think.” – Buddha

And speaking of the ‘mind’, and what we ‘think’, Carter G. Woodson, in his book The Miseducation of the Negro, 1932, had this to say regarding the mind and the mis-education of the Negro.

“No systematic effort towards change has been possible, for taught the same economics, history, philosophy, literature, and religion which have established the present code of morals, the Negro’s mind has been brought under the control of his oppressor, the problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man’s thinking 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. The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worthwhile, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples. The Negro thus educated is a hopeless liability of the race”.

Sound familiar? That was said damn near 100 years ago, and the same conditions exist today. But let’s not forget:

“Dissatisfaction brings about a change.”

How dissatisfied are you Brother Ice Cube?

As long as:

White Supremacy/Racism is Alive
Nationalism, Imperialism, and Militarism are Endemic to Western Culture
War is Western Culture’s only means to conflict resolution
Banks are privately owned, and issue a Sovereign Nation’s currency
Interest (cost of money) and Debt (usury) are acceptable economic practice
Insurance (life, health, home, business, etc.) is privately owned
Foreign ownership of Sovereign land is permitted
Privately owned businesses exploit Sovereign land (metals and minerals)
There is private ownership of Power Generation (nuclear, solar, wind, water)
The Utilities (electricity, water, gas, internet) of the land are privately owned
The nation’s food production is controlled by cartels and conglomerates
Health Care is privately owned, and a cost to citizens
Education (K – Ph.D.) is a cost to citizens
The development of Artificial Intelligence is privately owned and financed
There is no efficient, cost-effective Public Transportation System
Aeronautical operations and Space exploration is privately owned
Media is operated, controlled, and owned by Oligarchs and their families
US Federal Judges are appointed, and not elected (i.e. not democracy)

There will be:

War, and its Spoils
Slavery
Poverty
Famine
Sickness and Disease
Crime
Unemployment
Inflation and Deflation
No civil, or human rights

All of the above are the result of Capitalism.

“People want to believe the great lie and that we are making “progress.” But the system is rigged. A country where the systems inhibit and destroy black progress, whether by law, overt racism or unconscious bias, is designed to produce niggas…” – Ice Cube

Brother Ice Cube, you also said,

“Will a nation that prides itself on being “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all” realize that it has never achieved that? A nation lying to God. The justice wasn’t for “all.” Will a nation whose people put their own children in bondage ever pay for what they have done to themselves? Only when America admits the Founders’ lies can we begin to heal.

The alternative will be the unraveling of this nation because we are too intelligent to accept “bones” of reform anymore.”

Brother, I can only hope you will come to understand that America will never admit the Founders’ lies. Never.

The ‘unraveling of this nation’ has begun, because “we are too intelligent to accept “bones” of reform anymore.” And why should we care about this nation? Yes, we built it; but it isn’t ours.

“Self-preservation is the Duty of Each and Every Living Organism.”

Let’s build our own. As Marcus Garvey said 100 years ago, “Up you mighty nation, you can accomplish what you will?”

Brother Ice Cube, you are strong enough; are you brave enough?

How does it all get sorted? Equism.

I challenge you and your experts to prove me wrong. Let’s talk. [email protected] and/or 215/514-5962 (WhatsApp #) or 856/310-4090 (Skype).