Dear African Echo!
THANK YOU for a most interesting and informative newspaper, and one which really tries to get to the heart of Africa's problems. And it is with this in mind that I felt your readers should get a chance to see how " American whites" really think of us. Recently, a letter was read on NYC Radio regarding what the whites thought about black people and when I heard what the letter said, I knew that every word was true for many black people. So I'm sending this letter to you because your readers must get the chance to learn from this.

"They're 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. We now live in the information age, and 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 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 the 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 90% in achieving a better life.

Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their own 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 endeavour 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 the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness?

They steadfastly refuse to see that together each achieve more (TEAM). They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own. Most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty themselves. 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 organisations 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!!!!" Please prove them wrong after reading this letter!

Samuel Olu