You may have gotten an email chain letter with the subject line “MOST BLACKS DONT READ? feedback now, thanks. ” You may even have gotten it several times. It’s a provocative subject line. What’s more provocative is the title of the supposed article: “THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES” – in caps. Furthermore the article is written by “Dee Lee.” Who is Dee Lee? Being a common name notwithstanding, according to the article and her picture in the email, she seems like a lovely lady in 50s, who happens to be white. And that’s the real the provocation.

If you read the article, you would assume that Ms. Lee is the grand master of the KKK . In the article, she claims black people are still enslaved to whites, they are ignorant, selfish, and greedy. It’s these characteristics, according to the author (whoever that maybe), that whites can still enslave blacks -without black people actually knowing that they are enslaved.

Unfortunately, this is all wrong. Ms. Dee Lee is indeed a lovely woman who has dedicated her life to educating all people about financial literacy. She writes books and provides seminars on retiring early, on making women smarter with money (all women), on how to save, and more. In fact if you Google her name, her homepage pops up and you can easily find this out in a matter of a few seconds. In fact, here is her website: http://www.deelee.net/index.html

One startling fact is that she states on her homepage that this email chain has been circulating for six years. That’s a long time. And clearly she is bothered by it or the consequences of it because she addresses it on the first of her website. This is sad. This is a woman who doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed as some bigot with an axe to grind when with all likelihood the opposite is true.

STOP the email chain. It doesn’t serve any of us. Yes, we need to stop buying Nike, because Nike as a company is racist. Yes, we need to read more because an informed public will always make better decisions. Yes, we need to save money and prepare for the future because the future is unpredictable. But destroying someone’s reputation, especially when her reputation is the source of her bread and butter in the process of making a point is unnecessary and wrong.

By the way for those who have not received the email chain and are curious to read it, here it is:

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 prov ide 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 primarily 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 read, 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)