July 17, 2025 • 61 mins
In this episode, John Hope Bryant unpacks 400 years of economic history in just 40 minutes—tracing the roots, roadblocks, and resilience of Black Americans from slavery to modern-day capitalism. Blending personal history, financial insight, and strategic empowerment, John challenges long-standing myths and explains how systemic barriers—from slavery to redlining to exclusion from the Homestead Act—shaped the economic state of Black America today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
this is John O'Briant and this is Money and Wealth.
I'm so honored to be with you again for another
(00:24):
hard hitting episode. And this is also part history, lesson,
part business plan, part healing. I really need to think,
we need to We have to heal so that we
can effectively deal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
A lot of what has been done to now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm always talking about everybody, success for everybody, but this
particular episode is committed and dedicated to African Americans because
they're the only group enslaved on American soil, and they lie.
We lie at the bottom of the economic equation. Everything negative, unfortunately,
(01:07):
are the lowest categories of economic growth. We sit there,
including credit scores, home ownership, and a range of other indexes.
There's a lot of positives in this story. But we
have got to understand how we got here and that
we're not this narrative that we've been told that we're
somehow unintelligent or idiots or we're lazy, all of which
(01:30):
is untrue.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So we have to heal so we can deal.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
But a lot of our story has been bound up
in emotions and civil rights, which is essential, by the way, essential.
I wouldn't be here without civil rights. My second grade
grandfather in response to the Emancipation Proclamation called by Lincoln.
His name is George Young. He joined as a slave.
(01:57):
He joined the Emancipation Proclamation call for the Emancipation Proclamation
to defend the city of Memphis, the same city where
Doctor King was assassinated some one hundred years later. So
this is personal to me, and I respect civil rights
and social justice deeply. I'm not that said. I'm not
(02:18):
a civil rights leader. I'm a sivil rights leader. I'm
in the suites made possible by those who are in
the streets. I think capitalism is a gladiator sport. It's
business is not personal. I've been very successful, been very sorry,
fortunate to be successful or have a shot at success
through the free enterprise system. I've used financial literacy as
(02:41):
my weapon. It is the I believe the civil rights
issue of this generation. It has worked for me, and
so I've endeavored to have it work for you. And
when I say you, generally speaking, I mean you everybody.
I think that, as doctor King said, I'm here to
he said I'm here to red don't redeem the soul
of America.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
He said. He didn't say I'm here to say black people.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
He said, I'm here to redeem the soul of America
from the triple evils of war, racism, and poverty. He
thought by helping poor whites, he was helping America. By
helping Black Americans, he was helping America. By helping Asians
and Latinos and Native American Indians and women and other
he was helping American. I agree with him, and I
also thought, I think that he thought I'm being a
(03:24):
little presumptuous here, but I had good chance talked to Bastiary,
Andrew Young and Bernice King and others about this. He
thought that also by helping African Americans, it helped America.
And by not helping African Americans, you really are defaulting
on the constitution, that Bill wrights the dream of America,
(03:47):
by defaulting on the promise made to African Americans, the
only people in slave in American soil. So in many ways,
this question, this lingering question about African Americans, is the
stain that just won't go away in this country because
we've never really dealt with it. But that's another podcast
for another day. There's another book for another day. At
some point I write an attempt to write a book
(04:09):
to advance this conversation. The time for that is not now.
The time for now is action, positive action through healing.
So I want you to heal so you can deal,
so you can move forward from a surviving mindset to
a thriving mindset to a winning and building mindset. And
a lot of what's got you off balance is emotions
(04:31):
and anger and frustration, and like it's like hugging jello right,
you just can't get your hands around it. It's like
where's the problem. It's Everywhere's nowhere. You can't get your
hands around it. And I think also we've been fighting
the wrong battle in the wrong ways. One of the
reasons I like math to quote my friend Melody Hops
and it's her quote. I want to give her credit
for it, this quote. I like math because it doesn't
(04:52):
have an opinion. It's not emotional. It is what it is.
So I'm going to dedicate this episode to America's GDP
and her untapped potential, but also to you if you're
African American listening to this, so you know somebody who's
people African American tells them to listen to this podcast.
(05:13):
We're going to solve four hundred years in less than
forty minutes. I'm gonna try to do this really quickly.
Hopefully I won't go over forty minutes to an hour
for this, because I want you to be able to
listen to this while you're driving to work or home,
or walking your dog or taking it or exercising. I
want you to be able to listen to this and
do something else and then pass it on. The episode
(05:37):
is called the Economic Arch, the Economic Arc, sorry, the
economic arc of Black America, the economic arc of Black
America from sixteen nineteen to now.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
In the Road Forward.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm gonna explain to you in forty minutes four hundred years.
But I'm explaining in a way I believe that no
one's ever explained it to you. We're sitting by the
way coincidence has gone where remaining Anonymous and Andrew Young
Quill were sitting here. I'm sitting here recording this podcast
in New Orleans. New Orleans, some would say, and this
(06:11):
is a city that played a very impart in American
history because the French owned New Orleans and they were
going to sell it to America. This is a side story,
but it's interesting because I'm here, and because Haiti was
such an economic engine for France, it allowed them to
go fight wars all around the world. Where Haiti decided
(06:32):
to push back. Napoleon's brother oversaw Haiti. The leaders of
Haiti pushed back on Napoleon's brother, defeated him. Napoleon came,
they defeated him. No one had beat Napoleon ever, accept
the Haitians and because of the pain and the struggle
(06:52):
in the drama and the trauma, well not the trauma
Theatians were traumatized with slavery and oppression, but the economic
pain caused to France from the rebellion of one of
their most valuable outposts, which at that point was Haiti,
caused them to have to respond by not just selling
(07:13):
New Orleans to America, they had to sell with the
equivalent of thirteen states. It was called the Louisiana purchase.
That was directly related to what happened with Haiti. So
much for Africans being dumb, stupid, and not valuable, they
were valuable enough to create the economic engine for what
was then a world leader and caused them to go
(07:37):
to war and to proclaim war on Haiti for five
hundred years with with a group of European allies who
are committed that this would never happen again. And if
you look at Haiti today, unfortunately that promise has been kept.
You know that Haiti actually pay had to pay reparations
to France. It's another it's another taler for another day.
Let's fast forward now to helping you to unpack the
(07:59):
American story. So we're gonna trace four years of economic history.
This is the economic arc of Black America. In forty
minutes or so, we're gonna talk about the struggles, the setbacks,
and the comeback plan that we can control. This is
(08:20):
not a history lesson. This is a power lesson. And
we end with the business Plan for Black America, our
Blueprint Forward. I wrote this business Plan for Black America,
presented it on the fifty seventh anniversary of Doctor King's
assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Please go to dream Forward Comma
Operation Hope it can search that or dream Forward Comma,
(08:43):
John O'Bryant, Dream Forward, Comma the Business Plan for Black America.
You search that it'll come up. Please print that and
listen and read that, or read that post this podcast.
Here's part one, the foundation of it all. I've done
a whole podcast unpacking slavery and the fact that we
(09:06):
were not stupid. We're not dumb. We were agricultural geniuses
of the land. We were the only folks who could
take dead land and bring it back to life again.
I'm not going to spend time on this because I
dedicated the entire podcast explaining it. A couple podcasts now
explain the economics of slavery. Please go back and listen
(09:28):
to those prior podcasts. There's one coming up soon also
that I think is very interesting, and it talks about
the differences between African Americans. African Caribbeans and African Africans
were the same but culturally different. And I explain why
in my opinion, and what's in the power of us
(09:48):
coming back together. But I'm gonna now make a statement
that is unique. I think slavery wasn't about race first.
It was about economics first. It was bad capitalism. So
bad capitalisms where I benefit and you pay a price
(10:08):
for it. Good capitalisms where I benefit and you benefit.
More so, watching this podcast. Listening to podcast might be
good capitalism on your phone that you paid.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
For listening to music.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Buying a hair brush is good capitalism and good entrepreneurship
because an entrepreneur made the hair brush, the phone, et cetera.
So these are the differentiation between good capitalism and bad capitalism.
Enslaved black people were America's first great economic engine. Again,
(10:42):
so I'm gonna glaze over some numbers. Come back later
on I half time before the podcast is over, and
go deeper. The value of black slaves against again people
saying we were incidental to history.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We're stupid? Where this or that?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Okay, hold on, let's look at this from an econo
a perspective.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
The value of black.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Slaves in connects of labor alone without pay between the
sixteen hundreds and eighteen mid eighteen hundreds is twenty about
twenty four trillion dollars in today's money valuation. If you
(11:28):
add in this is these are reports, This is now
studies from very credible sources. Add in lost opportunity, reasonable
conservative estimates of lost opportunity on top of unpaid labor,
which is a very reasonable thing to presume. And I'll
talk about what those some of that lost opportunity was specifically,
(11:51):
that's as much as forty one trillion dollars. And before
you start talking about we should go get our reparations,
that's a bridge too far, certainly in this current political environment.
In any political environment, I think it'll be a tough sale.
In the current political environment, I think it's dead on arrival.
That's just my opinion. I'm a practical person. I'm not
(12:13):
saying whether it's right or wrong or should be. I'm
telling you, I want you to vent your life in
your lifetime, my lifetime, our children's lifetime, or grandchildren's lifetime.
I want you to do something that can be done right.
So I'm not going to give you a history lesson.
I give you a strategy lesson.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The point of history is so that you understand and
can understand, can contextualize, can heal, and can now be
of clarity of you and see where you can have
an impact. And what I'm going to propose to you
doesn't require a vote from Congress, does require a majority
vote from the US Senate, the House representatives that in
(12:51):
the President the United States does not have to sign
your legislation or give you dignity. This is something when
I get finished, you can do for yourself. Doesn't that
feel good?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Good? Hello?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
A friend of mine once told me that it's entirely
possible that the only true freedom is financial freedom, because
if you get it, unless you mess it up, no
one can take it from you. Someone can take your
as you're seeing, as you're beginning to see. They can
take your political freedom, they can take your social justice freedom,
they can take your religious freedom, they can take your
physical freedom in some cases. But they can't take your
(13:25):
economic freedom unless you mess that up and hand it
to them. So let's go back to the framework. The foundation,
as I discussed, was rooted in economics, and it was
(13:47):
rooted in free labor from black slaves. And we were
worth more than railroads, banks in most industry combined. In
the mid eighteen hundreds, America industrialized on cotton and labor.
Black bodies built the base for that. Let's now get
(14:11):
into details the broken promises of freedom. The end of
slavery eighteen sixty five, we got emancipation with no land,
no tools, no money, which equaled economic limbo. There was
Field Action fifteen, which was Savannah, Georgia Secretary of war.
(14:37):
In general, Stanton had advanced a discussion with twenty black ministers,
asking what do you want after slavery? Did they say
they want a welfare program, a handout program? No, they
said they want land. They want to do for themselves.
And so they were given about allocated about four hundred
thousand acres Field Action fifteen January. I believe it was
(14:58):
January eighteen sixty five, and that land crested or followed
the coast North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, along the coast,
which was not great land. But they worked at lance
so hard. They were so industrious. They came back and said,
my god. A month later, there's so industrious. A thousand
(15:18):
folks took control of the land, started working at their
so industrious, give them a mule, forty acres and a mule.
The bank came after that, which was March third, eighteen
sixty five. The Freedman's Bank charted to teach free slaves
about money. Just making sure that you're tracking.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Me here as we.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Build the wall of promise for you and knocked down
the wall of ignorance. Promises made land set aside for freemen.
Freedmen were destroyed when Abraham Lincoln in April of eighteen
sixty five January February March April same year, four months
(16:03):
when Lincoln was assassinated for promising, amongst other things, blacks
the right to vote, and Booth said, that's a bridge
too far. You won't give another speech. This wasn't five years,
it was four or five months. Here comes Andrew Johnson,
the vice President who was part of the Confederacy, who
took over the for Lincoln. I believe this was a
second coup by the way, but that's another history discussion
(16:25):
another day. I can't prove it. But Andrew Johnson reversed
the Field Action fifteen and gave the land back to
the Confederate families that owned it in the first place.
This is not this is unfortunately literally true. Now why
is that important Because in eighteen sixty two, which are
(16:45):
three years before this, the Homestead Act was put in
place nationwide to allocate what became ten percent of all
land in America, two hundred and seventy million acres to
anybody to go west.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And that was not forty acres.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
It was in many cases one hundred and sixty acres,
in some cases more and ninety nine percent of the
allocation of that two hundred and seventy million acres went
to white settlers. Now, get this, by the way, the
(17:29):
purpose of the Freeman's Bank was to teach free slaves
about money financial literacy. And oddly enough, blacks could not
get loans from the banks, but the white overseers took
loans from the banks, and the bank cratered because of
the mismanagement and the corruption from those in Washington who
controlled that entity, not because blacks mismanaged it and default
(17:51):
on the loans. Actually put their deposits into the bank,
and it took decades to get even half that money back. Again,
folks say that the country's great or whatever. I'm not debating.
I'm just saying, when has it been great? As you'll
hear from I mean, when has it been great for
African Americans? At what point it's been great for af Americans.
We're trying to make our experience great, right, So let's
(18:14):
just deal with the facts. The Homestead Act went to
mostly white families. And get this, the government hired engineers
and helpmates and tutors and encouragers called an affirmative action
eighteen sixty two, eighteen sixty five eighteen seventy to help
(18:37):
white settlers to seed, to see the land, till the land,
to help them to become farmers. They didn't know what
they were doing, so the government helped them and gave
them support in addition to giving them the land. So
you had these sort of outposts all across the country
going east to west, south and east to west. That
set up a system of development of these first families
(19:02):
that end up controlling two hundred and seventy million acres
of land. Ninety nine percent of that were to white settlers.
Blacks were completely left out of this, or not completely.
It was a I think six thousand plots, if my
memory serves me correctly, But they were left out of
(19:24):
systemic wealth building and denied that opportunity twice.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
They didn't get a chance to access to.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The Homestead Act and the forty acres and the Mule
Field Action fifteen was literally reversed. Even though that was
you could call that a pilot project. In fact, my
second great grandfather would have been denied the Field Action
fifteen forty acres of the Mule as they said he
was a Union Army.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Veteran, one of a few black officers.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Now, let's deal with systemic exclusion the twentieth century. You
had in nineteen thirt before FAHA, the federal government redlining.
This wasn't banks making doing the red lining, this was
the federal government. The federal government policy marked black neighborhoods
in red meaning no investment. The FAHA Federal Housing Authority
(20:18):
had the authority to guaranteed loans for which banks would
then would feel comfortable if there was an insurance on
the mortgage, which means the banks would not be at
risk if the loans defaulted. If the government had authorized
that loan with a guarantee, then of course the banks
would be happy to make those loans. But the neighborhoods
(20:39):
that were red line were not okay for FHA guarantees.
Guess where those neighborhoods were Black neighborhoods. So where did
the banks go make loans Where there was yellow and
green and no green, no one intended. But where it
wasn't redline, and those were white neighborhoods, that's where the
(21:00):
mortgage insurance went, and that's where the mortgages went. That
doesn't mean that the banks were racist. Back to by
the way banks in the twentieth century, many of them
were racist, but this particular act because they were family controlled,
whereas today is very hard to say a bank is
races because I own Wells Fargo Stock, Bank of American
Stock versus Horizon Stock. You know, I own the truest
(21:20):
stock we all in our four oh one k's or
whatever we own publicly traded. It's a whole different situation.
They just want to make good loans that pay them back.
We got to remove the bias in their brain that
suggests that we're not good credit risk, which is what
in many ways, what I'm doing with Operation Hope is
getting the bank out of the no business and back
into the yes business at Scale.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
By the way, what's my mission?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
My missions is to my life mission at John O'Briant Enterprises,
John O'Brian Holdings, Brian Groow Ventures, Operation Hope, Brian Grew.
We're to say, Brian goop Digital, Brian all the stuff
I'm doing. What's my mission at the holding company to
unleash untapped human potential at Scale. I'm a private equity
investor in you, and the first investment of private equity
(22:04):
in human capital was me and I'm using me to
affect you. So Unlesia napped human potential at scale for
the purpose of well through creating an economic creating economic
plumbings for underserved America. That's primarily Operation Hope that serves
all of God's children as the biggest in the country
(22:24):
for the purpose of what popping GDP, growing GDP by
taking the bottom third of the country and turning them
into capitalists and creating a ladder, rebuilding the ladder from
the bottom all the way up, putting that ladders, digging
it in the ground, and letting you step on that
ladder through your self determination and go up that ladder
to become owners of society. And the case of black
(22:47):
folks is not just black lives matter, Black capitalists matter, Okay.
And so this is very systemic for me because I
think the financial literacy is a civil rights issue with
this generation.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And I think that.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
We've got to go from the streets to the suites.
We need green rooms to match the red ones. Red
ones are identifying institutions and people and organizations and acts
that hurt good people with bad things. I think we
need green rooms that green light good things for good people,
like internships, apprenticeships acts as the capital access opportunity, positive
tax policy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So redlining
(23:26):
FAHA in the nineteen thirties of federal government was of
course antithetical to what I'm talking about. It restricted black
wealth creation. That's why you have today white neighborhoods that
are multiple times more valuable fifteen minutes away from a
black neighborhood that has a depressed value. Because this legacy
(23:48):
lives on that started in nineteen thirty four with the
FAHA in red lining. You have the GI Bill in
nineteen forty four. Yes, the GI Bill is nothing wrong
with the GI Bill itself. Actually think it's a great thing.
But it helped again overwhelmingly, just like the Homestead Act
ninety nine ninety eight percent, some crazy number in the nineties,
(24:11):
overwhelming white veterans to build the white middle class, even
though there were tons of black people fighting for their
country that wasn't protecting them. By the way, in the
nineteen forties, in World War Two, ninety nine percent of
black veterans denied benefits for home loans and college access,
not a handout. It was their right, it was their privilege,
(24:34):
it was their benefit and once again denied again. Don't
trust me on all this. With all the technology in
your hand today you have a phone, make it a smartphone,
not a dumb phone. Research this yourself, confirm what I'm
telling you. But when you start to see these bricks
add up, you'll see the wall of resistance against your progress.
(24:56):
You're not dumb, and you're not stupid. It's what you
don't know that you don't know is killing you, but
you think you now. I don't want you to get mad.
I want you to get even because I'm going to
tell you a strategy that's going to allow you to
go forward and let this.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Be your season.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Doctor King One said that hate and evil, something I'm paraphrasing,
has within it the seeds of its own destruction. So
I don't want you filled with hate. I don't want
you pervying negative energy. I don't want you attacking anybody
or going ham on somebody because of this thing. I'm
telling you. That's not a productive use of your energy,
(25:33):
your time, and disease is often disease. That stuff will
jump on you and cause you to rot from the inside.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
You need to leave that alone. Ly that to God.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I want you to follow the light and do what's
right over mess, not in it. You know you're having
church today listening to the podcast did you Urban Renewal?
Black Removal? This is eighteen fifties to nineteen seventies, So highways,
slum clearance, displacing thriving black in many cases, thriving black neighborhoods.
(26:08):
There were those in South central LA that were thriving.
There was a black wall street in South central Lay.
Were all across the country, but in many cases they
were cleared because they were considered slums, and you and
highways were put in their place with no recompense to them,
to those who lived in these communities because they had
(26:29):
no political power. The story never got corrected, the narrative
never got corrected, and history became his story. So again
you had black wall streets in Tulsa, Durham, Detroit, Los Angeles, etc. Okay,
here's the comeback code, today's opportunity. So I just walked
(26:51):
you through and then okay, then you let me finish
this narrative. So now you have World War two, You've
got that fifties, sent the seventies, and including with that
is doctor.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
King and my mentor Andrew Young.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The civil rights movement with Dorothy Heyde, Credit, Scott King,
and all the sheroes and heroes who were really framers
of a new constitution of justice and freedom, were really
architects for continuing America. They were as important as the
original framers of America. These civil rights leaders, these heroes
(27:25):
and sheros.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
T T.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Vivian and all these amazing heroes who we cannot let
history forget.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
They didn't say black folks.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
They saved America and provide and ensure that it would
continue to be a light on the heel for all
people around freedom and opportunity. And President Kennedy and President
Johnson advanced policies that were friendly to people of color
(27:54):
African Americans, understanding the slight the indignity of that visit
it uniquely upon black people. Black people are owing folks
enslaved in American soil. This is not my opinion. It's
a fact and affirmative action which was created for blacks
after doctor King's assassination. Some thought that it went too far.
(28:17):
After every reconstruction, by the way, there's a pushback period.
So first reconstruction pushback I've already described that second reconstruction.
I'm describing that now with what happened doctor you know Kennedy, Johnson,
doctor King, doctor King's assassination, Kennedy's assassination, by the way,
(28:37):
Bobby Kennedy's assassination, Malcolm X's assassination, a range of other
civil rights leaders and other people who just thought this
stuff was going too far. It was too much change
for society in too many different directions. They'd messed with
power structures, and folks had to go. It's had to stop.
Some people thought, isn't it interesting by the way that
(29:00):
Bobby Kennedy, President Kennedy, and doctor King were all sole
assassin theories to this day, three of the most powerful
people in the world, but disposedly they were taken out
by a lone gunman who was crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
It's unique.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's nice, neat narratives that most people can get their
heads around, and I guess except possibly improbable, but people
accept it. Fast forward are the King's assassinated sixty eight
April fourth, I believe nineteen sixty eight, Lincoln It was
(29:40):
the same month, by the way, about one hundred years earlier. Again,
too much truth and benefits of affirmative action, went to
white women, which, by the way, I applaud and by
the way, white women are well. Sorry, women of all
races are of a third of the US GDP give
or take today. If we had not done that right,
(30:00):
the American economy would be a fraction of its size
today and we would not be the economic superpower in
the world. And if you're not the economic superpower, you
cannot be the political superpower. Hello, if you're not the
biggest economy, it's never been superpower. That wasn't the economic
power at the same time, it's my point. So there
(30:28):
was again pushback in the second reconstruction, and I believe
that the third reconstruction started in a twenty twenty the
pandemic and George Floyd's murder, and I think it's in
the last ten years, but it was interrupted hello, two
or three years into all of this so called progress,
when many people said, that's just gone way too far.
And by the way, some of it did go too far.
(30:50):
And I think in many cases African Americans got freedom high,
as they would say in the sixties, and start beating
their chest and some of this that was just ridiculous,
that was said by after Marion leaders I won't get
into that. We say very focused, but we got again,
they got emotional, they got I think arrogant.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I got.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Full of the full of I think full of not
full of themselves, but full of their sense of that
this was their moment and could not be stopped. That also,
I think stopped the progress that happened to Haiti. They
just too much if they just stopped with the win
and didn't go further with right rioting and all kinds
(31:33):
of things that they were done to the French in Haiti,
and then go over to the Dominican Republic. I think
the French, I think the Haitian story would be different.
But there was a reaction to that. There's a reaction
to what was happening. It happened in the year two thousand.
I think defund the police was a very silly policy.
You don't want to defund the police. You want to
fire bad police. If you can bugging my mother, I'm
(31:55):
calling the police. I want you to come get this
bad guy or bad woman. So I think they just
went too far, and folks were looking for a reason
to end the season, and so I don't think it's over,
but I think it's been interrupted the third reconstruction, and
it's on schedule. This is what happens, but I'm going
to give you reason to push right through it. And
(32:17):
this uniquely benefits actually America. So this time, this push
through might actually work. My rich friends need my poor
friends do better, if only to stay rich. The color
is not black or white or red blue anymore. The
color is green as an economy, as in economics, and
coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. God really does
(32:38):
have a sense of humor. This time, God actually might
be literally visible in the business plan in the blueprint
for the first time. This country cannot succeed unless all
of God's children do too. Because demographics our destiny, and
the demographics are today are radically different than they were even.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
From nineteen fifty two and nineteen fifty two.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
America's ninety percent caucas which meant that if you had
eighty eight percent of blacks, that what doctor King and
Andrew Young and Critis Scott King and all these leaders
did in that period Rosa, Parks, et cetera was nothing
short of ingenious.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It was a moral calling.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
But today America's forty percent black and brown, and within
ten years it will be a majority of minorities, et cetera,
et cetera. You cannot succeed increasingly unless you make the
bottom half, the bottom third capitalists and let them to
empower them to be ladder climbers and wealth builders. As
(33:38):
the baby boomers leave the field of economic prosperity and
go play golf all at the same time, most of
them are white, wealthy and trying to retire all as
a group. So they need a replacement group. They need
a farm club, and it's us the comeback code. Despite
these setbacks, Black America still has one point seven trillion
(34:01):
dollars an annual buying power despite everything I just told you.
So you've had all these sort of negative headwinds, and
you have negative I think you have negative head winds now,
at least in the political environment. They're not certainly not
positive headwinds for African Americans, things like D E and
I. I could care less about D and I. With fifth
(34:22):
on the list. Why are we making why why are
we the poster child for D E and I programs?
I've said it before, I'm saying it here like that's
a distraction that they from somebody wants you to be
the poster child for DNA. Somebody wants you to get emotional.
They may want you to go riot. Who knows. I'm
glad we didn't do any of that. But it's a
distraction because this country doesn't work without diversity. The economy
(34:46):
doesn't work without diversity. That's all of God chosen. The
most profitable companies are diverse. The most profitable cities in
America are diverse. The companies the cities that are you know,
dying have are stuck in nineteen fifteen reviews and refused
to embrace the future. And the economies reflect that. So
(35:07):
you don't need to argue over this. Argue with the
food proofs. There are two.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Not went out to.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
My self esteem depends on your acceptance of me like that. Again,
I love math because it doesn't have an opinion. So
a generation of black professionals, creators, and entrepreneurs are.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
On the rise.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Atlanta is a tenth lars economy in the entire United States.
It's not a black city, It's an American city. And
Andrew Young, who is the only mayor era mentored by
doctor Martin LA King Jr. The last living lieutenant for
doctor King is Andrew J.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Young.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
He built Atlanta as the only international city in the
South on the back of what Maynor Jackson did creating
black wealth, and all the other mayors and leaders who
did great things.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And should all be noted. Arm current Mayor.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Andre Dickens included, who is doing Hope Child Savings Council
with Operation Hope as we base Silver Rights s I
l V E R in Atlanta for all of our
operations and use it as a spring Ford Ford and
an ecosystem to show that you can do well and
do good to Atlanta's economy is almost as big as Singapore's.
(36:17):
It's about the same size business airport in the world.
That's the land the international city that Andrew Young built,
brought the Olympics there, turned it into an international city
and showed that capitalism can be a force for good.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
But it also is an unbanked city.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's got people was left behind, which again makes the
case by the way, that the issue is not today
primarily race. You have black wealth in Atlanta, you have
Black poverty in Atlanta. If race was everything, wouldn't everybody
if black was just targeting black folks when in Atlanta
to make sure every black person was successful. But people
(36:59):
have got to take advantage of the opportunity. I have
to have reasonably good parents, reasonably good access, reasonably good education.
And so Atlanta is trying to upgrade its own software
in real time while it's still succeeding. If race was
the only issue, you wouldn't have the largest population of
poverty in this country being poor whites.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Hello, all whites, so you would be wealthy.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
You would not have a differentiation as I've done in
another podcast between different black groups Black Africans, black Caribbeans,
black Americans. It would just be everybody would be the
same net worth or same situation. But culture is different.
Do you know, by the way, that the racial word
white is a made up word? I want to get
to the podcast and my promised time periods. I can't
(37:44):
spend a lot of time on this. Maybe I'll double
back if I've got a cople minutes the on the
back end. But this is this is something I really
need you to understand. We fight race, race, race. This
is a game before the sixteen hundreds in America, before
this word was introduced in Virginia and in Maryland by
(38:04):
the planters and those who owned plantations and the traders.
This was introduced by them, this racial word white. Before that,
the distinctions were you were English, you were Irish, you
were part of the royal class, you were a landowner.
You were Christian. You were Christian, you were Catholic. It
(38:24):
was a descriptor of class, or religion or geographic identity.
The racial word white happened because black and white in
digit service were getting along, and it all percolated with
I think it was called I'm gonna say this is
wrong Baker's rebellions. You can look it up. There was
(38:48):
a rebellion in the sixteen hundreds. They ran away blacks
and whites together. They were caught, and the overseers were like, boss,
we got a problem. These blacks and whites are getting along.
We cannot have a class riot. We're the class. So
let's create racial distinction. So they told the whites, the
poor whites, you're poor like You're sorry, you're white like us.
(39:10):
And poor whites didn't say, what, yeah, but I'm poor.
They didn't say that because they didn't have the education,
their experience, or exposure to accepted this rationale. And they
were given access to a little bit of land, the
ability to own slaves their former friends, and they were
put in and they were their digital servitude was limited
(39:32):
to a couple of years. Blacks were given in digital
servitude for life. That was the beginning of slavery. And
you had none of those rights. So there's your class distinction, right,
So these friends became nemesis. To this day, this persists,
poor whites and poor blacks at each other's throat. Don't
trust me on this, do your own research. Literally, this
(39:54):
has always been about money, power and position in the world.
And somebody made this other stuff up and had us
urg viewing over it and fighting over it, and now
we're completely distracted by it. It happened again in the
nineteen sixties the White Citizens Council, a group of not
so nice business people quote inspired the resurgence of the
(40:14):
Ku Kus Klan and.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Villa Valante groups to go after.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Blacks and creating again this poor white against poor black narrative.
And the business people who sort of faded back off
in the background and handled their business, which was what
they were all about in the first place. I'm just
trying to promote good capitalism, and there was a lot
of good capitalists out there who would love to join
me of all races, and some of them are already
(40:45):
joining me. We're trying to expand that deep in that
and have that be the next movement, a movement for
capitalism for good. So we are not starting from scratch,
We're starting from history. This is where the installed. But
we don't have to forget d I throw it away.
(41:07):
We stopped finding about it, stop arguing about it. Right
Diversity is your birthright and your strength and your hustle
is your advantage. You've been doing so much with so
little for so long. You can almost do anything with nothing.
So here's the business plan for Black America. Here's the
(41:29):
pivot point. Okay, now again, you can argue over reparations
if you want to. That's I don't a camel's or
horse designed by committee. You're gonna have to get all
these folks that you don't control to agree with you
and vote and all that kind of stuff. And God
bless those who want to pursue that. I don't think
(41:49):
it's a viable approach right now. And even if you've
got reparations, it wouldn't be anything close to what's owed,
which is the literally somewhere between twenty four trillion and
forty one trillion. I think you'd get Black and Bever
get three hundred billion, maybe six hundred billion in a
good day over twenty years. I'm gonna show you how
that's a small number in comparison of doing it for yourself.
(42:11):
So wealth is not income. Here's the premise, right, Wealth
is ownership. Income is like literally making a living. Okay,
So the last reconstruction, access to jobs, education, whatever, the
secondary reconstruction. The sixties civil rights movement gave you access
that gave you ability to cash a check. I want
(42:31):
you to now talk about owning the check, Casher. I
don't mean that literally, but I want you to talking
about writing the check, not just cashing. And I want
you to talk about not rocking the mic, but owning
the mic in the theater and the stage. Wealth is
not income. Wealth is ownership. You build wealth in your sleep,
(42:54):
make money during the day. You build wealth in your sleep.
Thank you Tony Western for telling me that. Give me
that lesson early, my friend Tony Resler, who is a
great businessman. The goal is to move Black America from
consumers to capitalists. It's not like we try this and
it failed. We've just never tried it at scale for
twenty twenty five to twenty thirty. I want to raise
(43:14):
black credit scores by one hundred points, giving you access
to prime credit. Now, if we just do this, just
raise credit scores. I know it doesn't sound sexy, but
most great things are actually pretty boring. Okay, it's only
in the dictionary does it work. Success come before the
word work because it's alphabetical. Okay, So if you raise
credit scores one hundred points, because the average credit score
for African Americans is below six to twenty, which means
(43:36):
half of us are locked out of the free enterprise
system when we get up in the morning. So we
obsess about police brutality and all these other things which
are really important, but no one's talking about the fact
that half of Black America can't get a decent loan
in a car. You can't get a mortgage loan below
seven of the credit score. And I just told you
they average for us at six twenty. And you can't
forget a small business loan. It's risky credit. I don't
(43:57):
care how big of a good your idea is. There's
no idea, no, no, no bearing on your idea. Your
credit score is five eighty six hundred is toe up
from the flow up six twenty six'. Ten no one's
going to give you prime, credit so you're going to
get those who pay who have the least pay the.
Most so you're going to get this terrible access to
credit at rates that you cannot pay.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Back you've got a. Default what do you see in our?
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Neighborhoods by the, way check, cashers pay day loan, lenders
rental own, stores title, lenders liquor, stores pawn, shops fast food,
restaurants and a church down the. Street trunk so you
don't Go craig create once a. Week by the, way
fast food. Restaurants it's not a direct, correlation But i'm
convinced that the drive throughs of the fast food restaurants
(44:42):
are indirectly inspired by blacks being denied access to the
front of the. House you have to go to the,
side to the, back to a window to get your.
Food back in the nineteen sixties and nineteen, fifties the
drive Through. HELLO i can't prove, that but who can
deny the correlation is too close to be just purely.
(45:05):
Accidental but here's something that is. Truthful the whole nine
to one to one, system the whole paramedic. System it's.
Black black folks couldn't couldn't go to hospitals and all
that kind of. Stuff so we created our own. System
by the, way we could argue That uber And lyft
were inspired by black the black taxi system then in the,
sixties because we couldn't get on the. Buses so we
created our own busing system with private cars driving around
(45:27):
transportation system they call the black car, system so that
we'dn't have to ride on buses that were. Racist and
that's was the basis For Doctor king's first. MARCH i
shut down the bus company shut, down their revenue bank
almost bankrupted. Them that's when they, said, okay okayok To Andrew.
Young we went to go meet with one hundred business
leaders after a few weeks of. Marching marching should have a,
(45:47):
purpose by the, way you don't just, march you don't
just protest a. Boycott you should have a, purpose and
the purpose should be that everybody. Wins so it's win
when and you achieve something otherwise just an emotional outburst or.
Whatever so Doctor king would march for the purpose of
shutting down the, economy for the purpose of showing economic
(46:09):
strength for the purpose of them cutting a deal to
get black people access and benefits in. Return and then
and he wanted to make sure that whites were not
in the business people were not, Dedignified so he would
Have Andrew young go meet behind closed doors in a
business suit with no media and cut a deal to
take down the whites only. Signs did you know that
(46:30):
it was all? Economics? Okay so and he didn't want
to Even my philosophy is talk without being, offensive listening
without being, defensive and always leave even your adversary with
(46:51):
their dignity because if you don't spend the rest of
their life working to make you, miserable it becomes. Personal
back to, so paramedics and all that stuff created by black,
people by the, way go do their research is pretty.
Fascinating the entire paramedics industry was inspired by and created
by black, people and not on one came from, that
the emergency response. System so we are, brilliant, Right we're
(47:13):
doing so much with so little for so long we
can almost do anything with. Nothing and when the rules
are published and playing for those level we kill. It the,
arts professional, sports, faith, politics we kill. It SO i
believe we can succeed. Here, also you just need a.
Plan so if you raise your credit score is by
one hundred, points if black people do that right from
(47:36):
six twenty to seven to, twenty over twenty, years we
pop our wealth seven hundred and fifty billion dollars seven
hundred and fifty. Billion what DID i say is going
to be the booby prize for reparations if you get
it at some point three hundred billion to a maximum
of six hundred billion over twenty. Years so that's begging
(47:57):
the government to do what a fraction of what they should,
do in which they probably will never.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Do if history is indoo.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Communication but you just raise your credit, score which you
have to complete control over, yourself you beg anybody does
it require a vote For. Congress this requires a vote from,
you and you can work With Operation hope and others
who do. This this is WHAT I Operation jobe, does
raise his credit, scores lowers, debt increases savings so you
can get the bank out of the no business back
to the s business at. Scale why, banking because you
(48:24):
cannot revitalize the community without access to, banking to capital
and the people's, capitalists the people's venture, capitalists the people's private.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Equity the people's capital source.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Is in general banks are in general, Banks but you
gotta get the banks to want to say yes to.
You that's what we're, Teaching that's what we're. Doing that's
why we have four point five billion dollars in capitalists
flow to underserve communities with the Strategies i'm talking. About
i'm not giving you wolf. Tickets i'm telling you what
we have. Done it has. Worked everybody. Wins so you
(48:57):
get the credit score. Up that's seentre than fifty billion
of wealth. Creation by the, way we do, nothing black
wealth will be zero by twenty fifty. Three that has
nothing to do with the current political. System that was
a statistic five years. Ago if you then use a
prime credit to now access home, ownership which stands at
forty four percent home ownership rate compared to seventy five
(49:17):
percent of our mainstream count of barts and the number
one way you do wealth In america is home. Ownership,
okay the whole tax policy is designed around becoming a.
HOMEOWNER i would do a podcast just on the process
start to finish of becoming a, homeowner step by, step
by the way other things you want me to talk
about on the, podcast leave me comments on social media
(49:39):
when you see my, POSTS i read those comments often
respond to. Them, so now you become a, homeowner and
if you just move from forty four percent to sixty two,
percent that's worth about eight hundred billion dollars in wealth.
Creation so seventy to fifty eight, billion credit score, increase
eight hundred billion home. Ownership that's about one point five.
(50:01):
TRILLION i didn't mention the government, yet, right then there's
another trillion available by buying. Businesses don't do startups very.
Tough i'm not saying not to do. It i'm saying
there's an easier route with more of a return and.
Investment go buy a business that does not have a
plan To you, know there's no plan for that sixty
(50:25):
five year old person to give that business to their.
Kids the kids don't want. Them they want to Go
the kids want to cast the, bonds the, stocks.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
The.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Houses they want to go party with daddy's. Money they
don't want to go start. Up they don't want to
run daddy's. Business it's too much. Work so you can
buy that. Business it's, successful it's, profitable it has cash,
flows it has real. Estate is it is the most
popular plumbing business in that. Town it is a franchise a.
(50:56):
DENTISTS i mean it is the most prominent dentist office
in that. Town or whatever that business, is, architect law, firm.
Etc go buy. It it is an existing business and
that's worth a trillion. Dollars artificial intelligence it's another trillion.
DOLLARS i did describe two and a half to almost
four trillion dollars of wealth creation that is under your.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Control and you don't have to go.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Talk to the government or anybody else or get a
vote In congress to do. It somebody should talk To,
congress by the, way, somebody this is Something congress should be.
Doing But i'm just saying it's not What i'm. Doing
that's not my. Job my job is teach you how
to do for, yourself so you him a political force
and you can go fund by the way politicians to
being poor people don't have. Lobbyists that's one of the
(51:41):
problems that that underserved communities don't have anybody vouching for
them promoting their. Interests and you can solve that by
doing What i'm talking, now which is to build wealth for.
Yourself so owned businesses via acquisition homes and investment portfolios
evers to eighty eight, trillion one hundred trillion dollars a
(52:02):
well transfer that's coming because baby boomers are retiring all
the same. Time and did a whole podcast just on.
That here are your key pillars financial literacy at. Scale
go To Operation hope will provide scholarships with a thousand
dollars over twelve months so to teach you how to
become a proper. Capitalist no one taught. You is nothing
(52:23):
wrong with. You it's what you don't know that you
don't know but you think you. Know no one's ever
tried to Take Black america and turn us into capitalists at.
Scale there's been a tulsa experience that have been to
this experience of that, experience but it's never been our
experience in. Total it's not like we tried it and it.
Failed we just never tried, it AND i am trying
to convince everybody to try. It it's like, saying why
(52:46):
SHOULD i Try? God Because god cannot possibly mismanage your
life worse than you have give him a. Shot capitalism
and democracy are horrible systems except for every other system
and by the way its work for everybody. ELSE i
joke sometimes and call it the Black we need A
Black jewish business. Plan i'm, joking But i'm sort of
(53:08):
serious Because jews were distrainated against for six thousand, years
didn't didn't have a, home and they were scattered around the,
world and they couldn't own.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
Land it was.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Illegal so they, said, well how CAN i control my economic.
Destiny let me be financially literate and learn, finance and
that allowed them to go buy, land businesses and other thing,
things and a very small group people now have enormous
power because they took control of their economic. Destinies this
is something that we should learn. From we shouldn't be,
(53:38):
jealous we should be applauding, them we should be.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Copying.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
Them but capitalism generally has worked for everybody in this
country to come. Up every ethnic group and there are
almost two hundred of them in this. Country the three
groups that were left behind Poor, Whites African, Americans Native American,
indians and we enough lack the same levers to Empowerment
(54:06):
again another podcast WHERE i break that down home ownership
in real, estate stop, rending start building, equity banking, relationships
don't just do. APPS i want you to create actual
connections with relationship capital at these, banks because banking is
a trust business and the work credit comes from the
(54:26):
latter room work, creditoe which is. Credibility, right it's a trust.
Business and capital comes from the latter word copy toass
which means the. Head so it is knowledge in the.
Head so isn't thing to do with. Money they have
to trust. You you have to have, credibility and they
got to feel like you know what you're.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
Doing, hello financial.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Literacy And i've accessed a couple Hundred just one loan
was two hundred million dollars of non recourse capital for
one of the businesses THAT i sold and recapitalized and
doubled down. With i've now, EXITED i mean the process
of exiting in that particular business AFTER i sold it
for over one hundred million. Dollars BUT i was able
to access non pree coourse capital with the power of
(55:06):
What i've built the assets underneath it in my, name
without having a person put a personal guarantee Of, now
that's gangster in the most positive term of. Phrase it's
one of the largest access of capitals by a black entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
In a decade and we can do.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
It and it was a boring industry of real. Estate
it wasn't you, know bet going public or. Something oh
that's a great. Thing you, know by the, way that's very.
Unique maybe Only Bob johnson and his wife could do.
That What i'm telling you everybody can. Do use policy,
smartly but don't wait on. It SO i do believe
(55:49):
we need groundwater, change groundwater. Effects these policy changes are, really,
really really. Important i've made examples of how policy has
been used against After americans to come up and very, hurtful,
deceitful not even they're not even hiding the. Ball it's.
Horrible i'm just, saying don't wait on. It this is
(56:11):
a people powered. Plan this is something you can do for.
YOURSELF i want you to have a New black manifest.
Destiny we can't rewrite, history but we can reroot our.
Future we can become, history become the future that you
want to see in the. World and the change the
(56:32):
economic arc bent against us now it bends back to
us and with, us and success for.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
The country requires. Us it's a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (56:49):
Saying you can take no pleasure from the fact that
there's a hole in my end of our. Boat this
country needs it doesn't realize it doesn't realize it, yet
but this country and let's we want to Speak mandarin
in twenty, years meaning that we want to give in
to everyone wants to be An.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
American But.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Americans there is all these there's these four countries that
want to take us, Out, Iran North, Korea, russia And.
China the only real threat Is, china and they can't
win in a fair. Fight they can only win if
we shoot ourselves in the, foot we trip each other's,
Up we end these little food fights against each, Other
american Against. American i'm trying to get you out of
(57:27):
that food. Fight we got to figure out whether we're better,
Together like any good relationship is multiplication not. Addition twoth
plus two sh equals, six eight or. TEN i think
the answer to that is, yes AND i think that
we will come to that. Conclusion even the races. Wins
when black people succeed because THE, gdp the economy goes.
Up we're Not if you're not at the, table you're
on the. Menu, Right so this is a call to.
(57:48):
ACTION i don't want to Speak mandarin in twenty. YEARS
i don't think MY i don't think even races want
to Speak. Mandarin in twenty, YEARS i think they will
hold their nose and SAY i THINK i Like black
people if they have to in order to make sure
The america is a light on the. Heal so the
call to, action and then they may realize they actually
(58:08):
liked black people after hanging around and eating our food
and listening to our jokes and feeling our. Warmth they're,
like you, KNOW i hate to admit, it BUT i
really like you. Guys i'm sorry for being so hateful
for so, long and we'll forgive them because we're. Loving
forgiving people lead judgment To. God here's a call to.
Action pick up this business, plan share, it live, it be.
(58:30):
It this Is john. O'Brien this Is money And. Wealth
this podcast was the economic arc Of Black america from
sixteen nineteen to now and the road forward four hundred
years and forty.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Minutes it was a little than forty, minutes But i'm
thinking you got the. Point you can do it in a.
Walk share this with.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Your people you, love pass us, around printing out that business,
plan live it and tell me how you. Doing this
Is john. O'Brien go get my Book financial legacy for.
All get your scholarship for coaching counseling From Operation hope
for one thousand. Dollars get your credit score, up your debt,
down your savings up so the bank can say yes
to prime credit to you and you have the dignity of.
(59:08):
Ownership and by the, way get your artificial intelligence. Knowledge
that's another way that will level the planes of, everybody
because nine to nine percent of white folks don't know
anything ABOUT ai and black nine nine percent Of black
folks don't know anything ABOUT ai either other than this.
Coming so everything's changing at the same. Time be the
change you want to see in the. World get the,
book get the tell you friends about the, podcast go
(59:30):
To Operation, hope and let's be the change we want
to see in the. World this is our time and
we need each. Other john, O'Brien i'm out see. You
the finish. Line money And wealth With john O'Brien is
(59:55):
a production of The Black Effect Podcast. Network for more
podcasts from The Black Effect Podcast, network visit The iHeartRadio,
App Apple, podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Shows
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
this is John O'Briant and this is Money and Wealth.
I'm so honored to be with you again for another
(00:24):
hard hitting episode. And this is also part history, lesson,
part business plan, part healing. I really need to think,
we need to We have to heal so that we
can effectively deal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
A lot of what has been done to now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm always talking about everybody, success for everybody, but this
particular episode is committed and dedicated to African Americans because
they're the only group enslaved on American soil, and they lie.
We lie at the bottom of the economic equation. Everything negative, unfortunately,
(01:07):
are the lowest categories of economic growth. We sit there,
including credit scores, home ownership, and a range of other indexes.
There's a lot of positives in this story. But we
have got to understand how we got here and that
we're not this narrative that we've been told that we're
somehow unintelligent or idiots or we're lazy, all of which
(01:30):
is untrue.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So we have to heal so we can deal.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
But a lot of our story has been bound up
in emotions and civil rights, which is essential, by the way, essential.
I wouldn't be here without civil rights. My second grade
grandfather in response to the Emancipation Proclamation called by Lincoln.
His name is George Young. He joined as a slave.
(01:57):
He joined the Emancipation Proclamation call for the Emancipation Proclamation
to defend the city of Memphis, the same city where
Doctor King was assassinated some one hundred years later. So
this is personal to me, and I respect civil rights
and social justice deeply. I'm not that said. I'm not
(02:18):
a civil rights leader. I'm a sivil rights leader. I'm
in the suites made possible by those who are in
the streets. I think capitalism is a gladiator sport. It's
business is not personal. I've been very successful, been very sorry,
fortunate to be successful or have a shot at success
through the free enterprise system. I've used financial literacy as
(02:41):
my weapon. It is the I believe the civil rights
issue of this generation. It has worked for me, and
so I've endeavored to have it work for you. And
when I say you, generally speaking, I mean you everybody.
I think that, as doctor King said, I'm here to
he said I'm here to red don't redeem the soul
of America.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
He said. He didn't say I'm here to say black people.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
He said, I'm here to redeem the soul of America
from the triple evils of war, racism, and poverty. He
thought by helping poor whites, he was helping America. By
helping Black Americans, he was helping America. By helping Asians
and Latinos and Native American Indians and women and other
he was helping American. I agree with him, and I
also thought, I think that he thought I'm being a
(03:24):
little presumptuous here, but I had good chance talked to Bastiary,
Andrew Young and Bernice King and others about this. He
thought that also by helping African Americans, it helped America.
And by not helping African Americans, you really are defaulting
on the constitution, that Bill wrights the dream of America,
(03:47):
by defaulting on the promise made to African Americans, the
only people in slave in American soil. So in many ways,
this question, this lingering question about African Americans, is the
stain that just won't go away in this country because
we've never really dealt with it. But that's another podcast
for another day. There's another book for another day. At
some point I write an attempt to write a book
(04:09):
to advance this conversation. The time for that is not now.
The time for now is action, positive action through healing.
So I want you to heal so you can deal,
so you can move forward from a surviving mindset to
a thriving mindset to a winning and building mindset. And
a lot of what's got you off balance is emotions
(04:31):
and anger and frustration, and like it's like hugging jello right,
you just can't get your hands around it. It's like
where's the problem. It's Everywhere's nowhere. You can't get your
hands around it. And I think also we've been fighting
the wrong battle in the wrong ways. One of the
reasons I like math to quote my friend Melody Hops
and it's her quote. I want to give her credit
for it, this quote. I like math because it doesn't
(04:52):
have an opinion. It's not emotional. It is what it is.
So I'm going to dedicate this episode to America's GDP
and her untapped potential, but also to you if you're
African American listening to this, so you know somebody who's
people African American tells them to listen to this podcast.
(05:13):
We're going to solve four hundred years in less than
forty minutes. I'm gonna try to do this really quickly.
Hopefully I won't go over forty minutes to an hour
for this, because I want you to be able to
listen to this while you're driving to work or home,
or walking your dog or taking it or exercising. I
want you to be able to listen to this and
do something else and then pass it on. The episode
(05:37):
is called the Economic Arch, the Economic Arc, sorry, the
economic arc of Black America, the economic arc of Black
America from sixteen nineteen to now.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
In the Road Forward.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm gonna explain to you in forty minutes four hundred years.
But I'm explaining in a way I believe that no
one's ever explained it to you. We're sitting by the
way coincidence has gone where remaining Anonymous and Andrew Young
Quill were sitting here. I'm sitting here recording this podcast
in New Orleans. New Orleans, some would say, and this
(06:11):
is a city that played a very impart in American
history because the French owned New Orleans and they were
going to sell it to America. This is a side story,
but it's interesting because I'm here, and because Haiti was
such an economic engine for France, it allowed them to
go fight wars all around the world. Where Haiti decided
(06:32):
to push back. Napoleon's brother oversaw Haiti. The leaders of
Haiti pushed back on Napoleon's brother, defeated him. Napoleon came,
they defeated him. No one had beat Napoleon ever, accept
the Haitians and because of the pain and the struggle
(06:52):
in the drama and the trauma, well not the trauma
Theatians were traumatized with slavery and oppression, but the economic
pain caused to France from the rebellion of one of
their most valuable outposts, which at that point was Haiti,
caused them to have to respond by not just selling
(07:13):
New Orleans to America, they had to sell with the
equivalent of thirteen states. It was called the Louisiana purchase.
That was directly related to what happened with Haiti. So
much for Africans being dumb, stupid, and not valuable, they
were valuable enough to create the economic engine for what
was then a world leader and caused them to go
(07:37):
to war and to proclaim war on Haiti for five
hundred years with with a group of European allies who
are committed that this would never happen again. And if
you look at Haiti today, unfortunately that promise has been kept.
You know that Haiti actually pay had to pay reparations
to France. It's another it's another taler for another day.
Let's fast forward now to helping you to unpack the
(07:59):
American story. So we're gonna trace four years of economic history.
This is the economic arc of Black America. In forty
minutes or so, we're gonna talk about the struggles, the setbacks,
and the comeback plan that we can control. This is
(08:20):
not a history lesson. This is a power lesson. And
we end with the business Plan for Black America, our
Blueprint Forward. I wrote this business Plan for Black America,
presented it on the fifty seventh anniversary of Doctor King's
assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Please go to dream Forward Comma
Operation Hope it can search that or dream Forward Comma,
(08:43):
John O'Bryant, Dream Forward, Comma the Business Plan for Black America.
You search that it'll come up. Please print that and
listen and read that, or read that post this podcast.
Here's part one, the foundation of it all. I've done
a whole podcast unpacking slavery and the fact that we
(09:06):
were not stupid. We're not dumb. We were agricultural geniuses
of the land. We were the only folks who could
take dead land and bring it back to life again.
I'm not going to spend time on this because I
dedicated the entire podcast explaining it. A couple podcasts now
explain the economics of slavery. Please go back and listen
(09:28):
to those prior podcasts. There's one coming up soon also
that I think is very interesting, and it talks about
the differences between African Americans. African Caribbeans and African Africans
were the same but culturally different. And I explain why
in my opinion, and what's in the power of us
(09:48):
coming back together. But I'm gonna now make a statement
that is unique. I think slavery wasn't about race first.
It was about economics first. It was bad capitalism. So
bad capitalisms where I benefit and you pay a price
(10:08):
for it. Good capitalisms where I benefit and you benefit.
More so, watching this podcast. Listening to podcast might be
good capitalism on your phone that you paid.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
For listening to music.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Buying a hair brush is good capitalism and good entrepreneurship
because an entrepreneur made the hair brush, the phone, et cetera.
So these are the differentiation between good capitalism and bad capitalism.
Enslaved black people were America's first great economic engine. Again,
(10:42):
so I'm gonna glaze over some numbers. Come back later
on I half time before the podcast is over, and
go deeper. The value of black slaves against again people
saying we were incidental to history.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We're stupid? Where this or that?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Okay, hold on, let's look at this from an econo
a perspective.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
The value of black.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Slaves in connects of labor alone without pay between the
sixteen hundreds and eighteen mid eighteen hundreds is twenty about
twenty four trillion dollars in today's money valuation. If you
(11:28):
add in this is these are reports, This is now
studies from very credible sources. Add in lost opportunity, reasonable
conservative estimates of lost opportunity on top of unpaid labor,
which is a very reasonable thing to presume. And I'll
talk about what those some of that lost opportunity was specifically,
(11:51):
that's as much as forty one trillion dollars. And before
you start talking about we should go get our reparations,
that's a bridge too far, certainly in this current political environment.
In any political environment, I think it'll be a tough sale.
In the current political environment, I think it's dead on arrival.
That's just my opinion. I'm a practical person. I'm not
(12:13):
saying whether it's right or wrong or should be. I'm
telling you, I want you to vent your life in
your lifetime, my lifetime, our children's lifetime, or grandchildren's lifetime.
I want you to do something that can be done right.
So I'm not going to give you a history lesson.
I give you a strategy lesson.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The point of history is so that you understand and
can understand, can contextualize, can heal, and can now be
of clarity of you and see where you can have
an impact. And what I'm going to propose to you
doesn't require a vote from Congress, does require a majority
vote from the US Senate, the House representatives that in
(12:51):
the President the United States does not have to sign
your legislation or give you dignity. This is something when
I get finished, you can do for yourself. Doesn't that
feel good?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Good? Hello?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
A friend of mine once told me that it's entirely
possible that the only true freedom is financial freedom, because
if you get it, unless you mess it up, no
one can take it from you. Someone can take your
as you're seeing, as you're beginning to see. They can
take your political freedom, they can take your social justice freedom,
they can take your religious freedom, they can take your
physical freedom in some cases. But they can't take your
(13:25):
economic freedom unless you mess that up and hand it
to them. So let's go back to the framework. The foundation,
as I discussed, was rooted in economics, and it was
(13:47):
rooted in free labor from black slaves. And we were
worth more than railroads, banks in most industry combined. In
the mid eighteen hundreds, America industrialized on cotton and labor.
Black bodies built the base for that. Let's now get
(14:11):
into details the broken promises of freedom. The end of
slavery eighteen sixty five, we got emancipation with no land,
no tools, no money, which equaled economic limbo. There was
Field Action fifteen, which was Savannah, Georgia Secretary of war.
(14:37):
In general, Stanton had advanced a discussion with twenty black ministers,
asking what do you want after slavery? Did they say
they want a welfare program, a handout program? No, they
said they want land. They want to do for themselves.
And so they were given about allocated about four hundred
thousand acres Field Action fifteen January. I believe it was
(14:58):
January eighteen sixty five, and that land crested or followed
the coast North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, along the coast,
which was not great land. But they worked at lance
so hard. They were so industrious. They came back and said,
my god. A month later, there's so industrious. A thousand
(15:18):
folks took control of the land, started working at their
so industrious, give them a mule, forty acres and a mule.
The bank came after that, which was March third, eighteen
sixty five. The Freedman's Bank charted to teach free slaves
about money. Just making sure that you're tracking.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Me here as we.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Build the wall of promise for you and knocked down
the wall of ignorance. Promises made land set aside for freemen.
Freedmen were destroyed when Abraham Lincoln in April of eighteen
sixty five January February March April same year, four months
(16:03):
when Lincoln was assassinated for promising, amongst other things, blacks
the right to vote, and Booth said, that's a bridge
too far. You won't give another speech. This wasn't five years,
it was four or five months. Here comes Andrew Johnson,
the vice President who was part of the Confederacy, who
took over the for Lincoln. I believe this was a
second coup by the way, but that's another history discussion
(16:25):
another day. I can't prove it. But Andrew Johnson reversed
the Field Action fifteen and gave the land back to
the Confederate families that owned it in the first place.
This is not this is unfortunately literally true. Now why
is that important Because in eighteen sixty two, which are
(16:45):
three years before this, the Homestead Act was put in
place nationwide to allocate what became ten percent of all
land in America, two hundred and seventy million acres to
anybody to go west.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And that was not forty acres.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
It was in many cases one hundred and sixty acres,
in some cases more and ninety nine percent of the
allocation of that two hundred and seventy million acres went
to white settlers. Now, get this, by the way, the
(17:29):
purpose of the Freeman's Bank was to teach free slaves
about money financial literacy. And oddly enough, blacks could not
get loans from the banks, but the white overseers took
loans from the banks, and the bank cratered because of
the mismanagement and the corruption from those in Washington who
controlled that entity, not because blacks mismanaged it and default
(17:51):
on the loans. Actually put their deposits into the bank,
and it took decades to get even half that money back. Again,
folks say that the country's great or whatever. I'm not debating.
I'm just saying, when has it been great? As you'll
hear from I mean, when has it been great for
African Americans? At what point it's been great for af Americans.
We're trying to make our experience great, right, So let's
(18:14):
just deal with the facts. The Homestead Act went to
mostly white families. And get this, the government hired engineers
and helpmates and tutors and encouragers called an affirmative action
eighteen sixty two, eighteen sixty five eighteen seventy to help
(18:37):
white settlers to seed, to see the land, till the land,
to help them to become farmers. They didn't know what
they were doing, so the government helped them and gave
them support in addition to giving them the land. So
you had these sort of outposts all across the country
going east to west, south and east to west. That
set up a system of development of these first families
(19:02):
that end up controlling two hundred and seventy million acres
of land. Ninety nine percent of that were to white settlers.
Blacks were completely left out of this, or not completely.
It was a I think six thousand plots, if my
memory serves me correctly, But they were left out of
(19:24):
systemic wealth building and denied that opportunity twice.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
They didn't get a chance to access to.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The Homestead Act and the forty acres and the Mule
Field Action fifteen was literally reversed. Even though that was
you could call that a pilot project. In fact, my
second great grandfather would have been denied the Field Action
fifteen forty acres of the Mule as they said he
was a Union Army.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Veteran, one of a few black officers.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Now, let's deal with systemic exclusion the twentieth century. You
had in nineteen thirt before FAHA, the federal government redlining.
This wasn't banks making doing the red lining, this was
the federal government. The federal government policy marked black neighborhoods
in red meaning no investment. The FAHA Federal Housing Authority
(20:18):
had the authority to guaranteed loans for which banks would
then would feel comfortable if there was an insurance on
the mortgage, which means the banks would not be at
risk if the loans defaulted. If the government had authorized
that loan with a guarantee, then of course the banks
would be happy to make those loans. But the neighborhoods
(20:39):
that were red line were not okay for FHA guarantees.
Guess where those neighborhoods were Black neighborhoods. So where did
the banks go make loans Where there was yellow and
green and no green, no one intended. But where it
wasn't redline, and those were white neighborhoods, that's where the
(21:00):
mortgage insurance went, and that's where the mortgages went. That
doesn't mean that the banks were racist. Back to by
the way banks in the twentieth century, many of them
were racist, but this particular act because they were family controlled,
whereas today is very hard to say a bank is
races because I own Wells Fargo Stock, Bank of American
Stock versus Horizon Stock. You know, I own the truest
(21:20):
stock we all in our four oh one k's or
whatever we own publicly traded. It's a whole different situation.
They just want to make good loans that pay them back.
We got to remove the bias in their brain that
suggests that we're not good credit risk, which is what
in many ways, what I'm doing with Operation Hope is
getting the bank out of the no business and back
into the yes business at Scale.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
By the way, what's my mission?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
My missions is to my life mission at John O'Briant Enterprises,
John O'Brian Holdings, Brian Groow Ventures, Operation Hope, Brian Grew.
We're to say, Brian goop Digital, Brian all the stuff
I'm doing. What's my mission at the holding company to
unleash untapped human potential at Scale. I'm a private equity
investor in you, and the first investment of private equity
(22:04):
in human capital was me and I'm using me to
affect you. So Unlesia napped human potential at scale for
the purpose of well through creating an economic creating economic
plumbings for underserved America. That's primarily Operation Hope that serves
all of God's children as the biggest in the country
(22:24):
for the purpose of what popping GDP, growing GDP by
taking the bottom third of the country and turning them
into capitalists and creating a ladder, rebuilding the ladder from
the bottom all the way up, putting that ladders, digging
it in the ground, and letting you step on that
ladder through your self determination and go up that ladder
to become owners of society. And the case of black
(22:47):
folks is not just black lives matter, Black capitalists matter, Okay.
And so this is very systemic for me because I
think the financial literacy is a civil rights issue with
this generation.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And I think that.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
We've got to go from the streets to the suites.
We need green rooms to match the red ones. Red
ones are identifying institutions and people and organizations and acts
that hurt good people with bad things. I think we
need green rooms that green light good things for good people,
like internships, apprenticeships acts as the capital access opportunity, positive
tax policy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So redlining
(23:26):
FAHA in the nineteen thirties of federal government was of
course antithetical to what I'm talking about. It restricted black
wealth creation. That's why you have today white neighborhoods that
are multiple times more valuable fifteen minutes away from a
black neighborhood that has a depressed value. Because this legacy
(23:48):
lives on that started in nineteen thirty four with the
FAHA in red lining. You have the GI Bill in
nineteen forty four. Yes, the GI Bill is nothing wrong
with the GI Bill itself. Actually think it's a great thing.
But it helped again overwhelmingly, just like the Homestead Act
ninety nine ninety eight percent, some crazy number in the nineties,
(24:11):
overwhelming white veterans to build the white middle class, even
though there were tons of black people fighting for their
country that wasn't protecting them. By the way, in the
nineteen forties, in World War Two, ninety nine percent of
black veterans denied benefits for home loans and college access,
not a handout. It was their right, it was their privilege,
(24:34):
it was their benefit and once again denied again. Don't
trust me on all this. With all the technology in
your hand today you have a phone, make it a smartphone,
not a dumb phone. Research this yourself, confirm what I'm
telling you. But when you start to see these bricks
add up, you'll see the wall of resistance against your progress.
(24:56):
You're not dumb, and you're not stupid. It's what you
don't know that you don't know is killing you, but
you think you now. I don't want you to get mad.
I want you to get even because I'm going to
tell you a strategy that's going to allow you to
go forward and let this.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Be your season.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Doctor King One said that hate and evil, something I'm paraphrasing,
has within it the seeds of its own destruction. So
I don't want you filled with hate. I don't want
you pervying negative energy. I don't want you attacking anybody
or going ham on somebody because of this thing. I'm
telling you. That's not a productive use of your energy,
(25:33):
your time, and disease is often disease. That stuff will
jump on you and cause you to rot from the inside.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
You need to leave that alone. Ly that to God.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I want you to follow the light and do what's
right over mess, not in it. You know you're having
church today listening to the podcast did you Urban Renewal?
Black Removal? This is eighteen fifties to nineteen seventies, So highways,
slum clearance, displacing thriving black in many cases, thriving black neighborhoods.
(26:08):
There were those in South central LA that were thriving.
There was a black wall street in South central Lay.
Were all across the country, but in many cases they
were cleared because they were considered slums, and you and
highways were put in their place with no recompense to them,
to those who lived in these communities because they had
(26:29):
no political power. The story never got corrected, the narrative
never got corrected, and history became his story. So again
you had black wall streets in Tulsa, Durham, Detroit, Los Angeles, etc. Okay,
here's the comeback code, today's opportunity. So I just walked
(26:51):
you through and then okay, then you let me finish
this narrative. So now you have World War two, You've
got that fifties, sent the seventies, and including with that
is doctor.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
King and my mentor Andrew Young.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The civil rights movement with Dorothy Heyde, Credit, Scott King,
and all the sheroes and heroes who were really framers
of a new constitution of justice and freedom, were really
architects for continuing America. They were as important as the
original framers of America. These civil rights leaders, these heroes
(27:25):
and sheros.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
T T.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Vivian and all these amazing heroes who we cannot let
history forget.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
They didn't say black folks.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
They saved America and provide and ensure that it would
continue to be a light on the heel for all
people around freedom and opportunity. And President Kennedy and President
Johnson advanced policies that were friendly to people of color
(27:54):
African Americans, understanding the slight the indignity of that visit
it uniquely upon black people. Black people are owing folks
enslaved in American soil. This is not my opinion. It's
a fact and affirmative action which was created for blacks
after doctor King's assassination. Some thought that it went too far.
(28:17):
After every reconstruction, by the way, there's a pushback period.
So first reconstruction pushback I've already described that second reconstruction.
I'm describing that now with what happened doctor you know Kennedy, Johnson,
doctor King, doctor King's assassination, Kennedy's assassination, by the way,
(28:37):
Bobby Kennedy's assassination, Malcolm X's assassination, a range of other
civil rights leaders and other people who just thought this
stuff was going too far. It was too much change
for society in too many different directions. They'd messed with
power structures, and folks had to go. It's had to stop.
Some people thought, isn't it interesting by the way that
(29:00):
Bobby Kennedy, President Kennedy, and doctor King were all sole
assassin theories to this day, three of the most powerful
people in the world, but disposedly they were taken out
by a lone gunman who was crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
It's unique.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's nice, neat narratives that most people can get their
heads around, and I guess except possibly improbable, but people
accept it. Fast forward are the King's assassinated sixty eight
April fourth, I believe nineteen sixty eight, Lincoln It was
(29:40):
the same month, by the way, about one hundred years earlier. Again,
too much truth and benefits of affirmative action, went to
white women, which, by the way, I applaud and by
the way, white women are well. Sorry, women of all
races are of a third of the US GDP give
or take today. If we had not done that right,
(30:00):
the American economy would be a fraction of its size
today and we would not be the economic superpower in
the world. And if you're not the economic superpower, you
cannot be the political superpower. Hello, if you're not the
biggest economy, it's never been superpower. That wasn't the economic
power at the same time, it's my point. So there
(30:28):
was again pushback in the second reconstruction, and I believe
that the third reconstruction started in a twenty twenty the
pandemic and George Floyd's murder, and I think it's in
the last ten years, but it was interrupted hello, two
or three years into all of this so called progress,
when many people said, that's just gone way too far.
And by the way, some of it did go too far.
(30:50):
And I think in many cases African Americans got freedom high,
as they would say in the sixties, and start beating
their chest and some of this that was just ridiculous,
that was said by after Marion leaders I won't get
into that. We say very focused, but we got again,
they got emotional, they got I think arrogant.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I got.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Full of the full of I think full of not
full of themselves, but full of their sense of that
this was their moment and could not be stopped. That also,
I think stopped the progress that happened to Haiti. They
just too much if they just stopped with the win
and didn't go further with right rioting and all kinds
(31:33):
of things that they were done to the French in Haiti,
and then go over to the Dominican Republic. I think
the French, I think the Haitian story would be different.
But there was a reaction to that. There's a reaction
to what was happening. It happened in the year two thousand.
I think defund the police was a very silly policy.
You don't want to defund the police. You want to
fire bad police. If you can bugging my mother, I'm
(31:55):
calling the police. I want you to come get this
bad guy or bad woman. So I think they just
went too far, and folks were looking for a reason
to end the season, and so I don't think it's over,
but I think it's been interrupted the third reconstruction, and
it's on schedule. This is what happens, but I'm going
to give you reason to push right through it. And
(32:17):
this uniquely benefits actually America. So this time, this push
through might actually work. My rich friends need my poor
friends do better, if only to stay rich. The color
is not black or white or red blue anymore. The
color is green as an economy, as in economics, and
coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. God really does
(32:38):
have a sense of humor. This time, God actually might
be literally visible in the business plan in the blueprint
for the first time. This country cannot succeed unless all
of God's children do too. Because demographics our destiny, and
the demographics are today are radically different than they were even.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
From nineteen fifty two and nineteen fifty two.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
America's ninety percent caucas which meant that if you had
eighty eight percent of blacks, that what doctor King and
Andrew Young and Critis Scott King and all these leaders
did in that period Rosa, Parks, et cetera was nothing
short of ingenious.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It was a moral calling.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
But today America's forty percent black and brown, and within
ten years it will be a majority of minorities, et cetera,
et cetera. You cannot succeed increasingly unless you make the
bottom half, the bottom third capitalists and let them to
empower them to be ladder climbers and wealth builders. As
(33:38):
the baby boomers leave the field of economic prosperity and
go play golf all at the same time, most of
them are white, wealthy and trying to retire all as
a group. So they need a replacement group. They need
a farm club, and it's us the comeback code. Despite
these setbacks, Black America still has one point seven trillion
(34:01):
dollars an annual buying power despite everything I just told you.
So you've had all these sort of negative headwinds, and
you have negative I think you have negative head winds now,
at least in the political environment. They're not certainly not
positive headwinds for African Americans, things like D E and
I. I could care less about D and I. With fifth
(34:22):
on the list. Why are we making why why are
we the poster child for D E and I programs?
I've said it before, I'm saying it here like that's
a distraction that they from somebody wants you to be
the poster child for DNA. Somebody wants you to get emotional.
They may want you to go riot. Who knows. I'm
glad we didn't do any of that. But it's a
distraction because this country doesn't work without diversity. The economy
(34:46):
doesn't work without diversity. That's all of God chosen. The
most profitable companies are diverse. The most profitable cities in
America are diverse. The companies the cities that are you know,
dying have are stuck in nineteen fifteen reviews and refused
to embrace the future. And the economies reflect that. So
(35:07):
you don't need to argue over this. Argue with the
food proofs. There are two.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Not went out to.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
My self esteem depends on your acceptance of me like that. Again,
I love math because it doesn't have an opinion. So
a generation of black professionals, creators, and entrepreneurs are.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
On the rise.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Atlanta is a tenth lars economy in the entire United States.
It's not a black city, It's an American city. And
Andrew Young, who is the only mayor era mentored by
doctor Martin LA King Jr. The last living lieutenant for
doctor King is Andrew J.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Young.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
He built Atlanta as the only international city in the
South on the back of what Maynor Jackson did creating
black wealth, and all the other mayors and leaders who
did great things.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And should all be noted. Arm current Mayor.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Andre Dickens included, who is doing Hope Child Savings Council
with Operation Hope as we base Silver Rights s I
l V E R in Atlanta for all of our
operations and use it as a spring Ford Ford and
an ecosystem to show that you can do well and
do good to Atlanta's economy is almost as big as Singapore's.
(36:17):
It's about the same size business airport in the world.
That's the land the international city that Andrew Young built,
brought the Olympics there, turned it into an international city
and showed that capitalism can be a force for good.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
But it also is an unbanked city.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's got people was left behind, which again makes the
case by the way, that the issue is not today
primarily race. You have black wealth in Atlanta, you have
Black poverty in Atlanta. If race was everything, wouldn't everybody
if black was just targeting black folks when in Atlanta
to make sure every black person was successful. But people
(36:59):
have got to take advantage of the opportunity. I have
to have reasonably good parents, reasonably good access, reasonably good education.
And so Atlanta is trying to upgrade its own software
in real time while it's still succeeding. If race was
the only issue, you wouldn't have the largest population of
poverty in this country being poor whites.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Hello, all whites, so you would be wealthy.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
You would not have a differentiation as I've done in
another podcast between different black groups Black Africans, black Caribbeans,
black Americans. It would just be everybody would be the
same net worth or same situation. But culture is different.
Do you know, by the way, that the racial word
white is a made up word? I want to get
to the podcast and my promised time periods. I can't
(37:44):
spend a lot of time on this. Maybe I'll double
back if I've got a cople minutes the on the
back end. But this is this is something I really
need you to understand. We fight race, race, race. This
is a game before the sixteen hundreds in America, before
this word was introduced in Virginia and in Maryland by
(38:04):
the planters and those who owned plantations and the traders.
This was introduced by them, this racial word white. Before that,
the distinctions were you were English, you were Irish, you
were part of the royal class, you were a landowner.
You were Christian. You were Christian, you were Catholic. It
(38:24):
was a descriptor of class, or religion or geographic identity.
The racial word white happened because black and white in
digit service were getting along, and it all percolated with
I think it was called I'm gonna say this is
wrong Baker's rebellions. You can look it up. There was
(38:48):
a rebellion in the sixteen hundreds. They ran away blacks
and whites together. They were caught, and the overseers were like, boss,
we got a problem. These blacks and whites are getting along.
We cannot have a class riot. We're the class. So
let's create racial distinction. So they told the whites, the
poor whites, you're poor like You're sorry, you're white like us.
(39:10):
And poor whites didn't say, what, yeah, but I'm poor.
They didn't say that because they didn't have the education,
their experience, or exposure to accepted this rationale. And they
were given access to a little bit of land, the
ability to own slaves their former friends, and they were
put in and they were their digital servitude was limited
(39:32):
to a couple of years. Blacks were given in digital
servitude for life. That was the beginning of slavery. And
you had none of those rights. So there's your class distinction, right,
So these friends became nemesis. To this day, this persists,
poor whites and poor blacks at each other's throat. Don't
trust me on this, do your own research. Literally, this
(39:54):
has always been about money, power and position in the world.
And somebody made this other stuff up and had us
urg viewing over it and fighting over it, and now
we're completely distracted by it. It happened again in the
nineteen sixties the White Citizens Council, a group of not
so nice business people quote inspired the resurgence of the
(40:14):
Ku Kus Klan and.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Villa Valante groups to go after.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Blacks and creating again this poor white against poor black narrative.
And the business people who sort of faded back off
in the background and handled their business, which was what
they were all about in the first place. I'm just
trying to promote good capitalism, and there was a lot
of good capitalists out there who would love to join
me of all races, and some of them are already
(40:45):
joining me. We're trying to expand that deep in that
and have that be the next movement, a movement for
capitalism for good. So we are not starting from scratch,
We're starting from history. This is where the installed. But
we don't have to forget d I throw it away.
(41:07):
We stopped finding about it, stop arguing about it. Right
Diversity is your birthright and your strength and your hustle
is your advantage. You've been doing so much with so
little for so long. You can almost do anything with nothing.
So here's the business plan for Black America. Here's the
(41:29):
pivot point. Okay, now again, you can argue over reparations
if you want to. That's I don't a camel's or
horse designed by committee. You're gonna have to get all
these folks that you don't control to agree with you
and vote and all that kind of stuff. And God
bless those who want to pursue that. I don't think
(41:49):
it's a viable approach right now. And even if you've
got reparations, it wouldn't be anything close to what's owed,
which is the literally somewhere between twenty four trillion and
forty one trillion. I think you'd get Black and Bever
get three hundred billion, maybe six hundred billion in a
good day over twenty years. I'm gonna show you how
that's a small number in comparison of doing it for yourself.
(42:11):
So wealth is not income. Here's the premise, right, Wealth
is ownership. Income is like literally making a living. Okay,
So the last reconstruction, access to jobs, education, whatever, the
secondary reconstruction. The sixties civil rights movement gave you access
that gave you ability to cash a check. I want
(42:31):
you to now talk about owning the check, Casher. I
don't mean that literally, but I want you to talking
about writing the check, not just cashing. And I want
you to talk about not rocking the mic, but owning
the mic in the theater and the stage. Wealth is
not income. Wealth is ownership. You build wealth in your sleep,
(42:54):
make money during the day. You build wealth in your sleep.
Thank you Tony Western for telling me that. Give me
that lesson early, my friend Tony Resler, who is a
great businessman. The goal is to move Black America from
consumers to capitalists. It's not like we try this and
it failed. We've just never tried it at scale for
twenty twenty five to twenty thirty. I want to raise
(43:14):
black credit scores by one hundred points, giving you access
to prime credit. Now, if we just do this, just
raise credit scores. I know it doesn't sound sexy, but
most great things are actually pretty boring. Okay, it's only
in the dictionary does it work. Success come before the
word work because it's alphabetical. Okay, So if you raise
credit scores one hundred points, because the average credit score
for African Americans is below six to twenty, which means
(43:36):
half of us are locked out of the free enterprise
system when we get up in the morning. So we
obsess about police brutality and all these other things which
are really important, but no one's talking about the fact
that half of Black America can't get a decent loan
in a car. You can't get a mortgage loan below
seven of the credit score. And I just told you
they average for us at six twenty. And you can't
forget a small business loan. It's risky credit. I don't
(43:57):
care how big of a good your idea is. There's
no idea, no, no, no bearing on your idea. Your
credit score is five eighty six hundred is toe up
from the flow up six twenty six'. Ten no one's
going to give you prime, credit so you're going to
get those who pay who have the least pay the.
Most so you're going to get this terrible access to
credit at rates that you cannot pay.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Back you've got a. Default what do you see in our?
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Neighborhoods by the, way check, cashers pay day loan, lenders
rental own, stores title, lenders liquor, stores pawn, shops fast food,
restaurants and a church down the. Street trunk so you
don't Go craig create once a. Week by the, way
fast food. Restaurants it's not a direct, correlation But i'm
convinced that the drive throughs of the fast food restaurants
(44:42):
are indirectly inspired by blacks being denied access to the
front of the. House you have to go to the,
side to the, back to a window to get your.
Food back in the nineteen sixties and nineteen, fifties the
drive Through. HELLO i can't prove, that but who can
deny the correlation is too close to be just purely.
(45:05):
Accidental but here's something that is. Truthful the whole nine
to one to one, system the whole paramedic. System it's.
Black black folks couldn't couldn't go to hospitals and all
that kind of. Stuff so we created our own. System
by the, way we could argue That uber And lyft
were inspired by black the black taxi system then in the,
sixties because we couldn't get on the. Buses so we
created our own busing system with private cars driving around
(45:27):
transportation system they call the black car, system so that
we'dn't have to ride on buses that were. Racist and
that's was the basis For Doctor king's first. MARCH i
shut down the bus company shut, down their revenue bank
almost bankrupted. Them that's when they, said, okay okayok To Andrew.
Young we went to go meet with one hundred business
leaders after a few weeks of. Marching marching should have a,
(45:47):
purpose by the, way you don't just, march you don't
just protest a. Boycott you should have a, purpose and
the purpose should be that everybody. Wins so it's win
when and you achieve something otherwise just an emotional outburst or.
Whatever so Doctor king would march for the purpose of
shutting down the, economy for the purpose of showing economic
(46:09):
strength for the purpose of them cutting a deal to
get black people access and benefits in. Return and then
and he wanted to make sure that whites were not
in the business people were not, Dedignified so he would
Have Andrew young go meet behind closed doors in a
business suit with no media and cut a deal to
take down the whites only. Signs did you know that
(46:30):
it was all? Economics? Okay so and he didn't want
to Even my philosophy is talk without being, offensive listening
without being, defensive and always leave even your adversary with
(46:51):
their dignity because if you don't spend the rest of
their life working to make you, miserable it becomes. Personal
back to, so paramedics and all that stuff created by black,
people by the, way go do their research is pretty.
Fascinating the entire paramedics industry was inspired by and created
by black, people and not on one came from, that
the emergency response. System so we are, brilliant, Right we're
(47:13):
doing so much with so little for so long we
can almost do anything with. Nothing and when the rules
are published and playing for those level we kill. It the,
arts professional, sports, faith, politics we kill. It SO i
believe we can succeed. Here, also you just need a.
Plan so if you raise your credit score is by
one hundred, points if black people do that right from
(47:36):
six twenty to seven to, twenty over twenty, years we
pop our wealth seven hundred and fifty billion dollars seven
hundred and fifty. Billion what DID i say is going
to be the booby prize for reparations if you get
it at some point three hundred billion to a maximum
of six hundred billion over twenty. Years so that's begging
(47:57):
the government to do what a fraction of what they should,
do in which they probably will never.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Do if history is indoo.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Communication but you just raise your credit, score which you
have to complete control over, yourself you beg anybody does
it require a vote For. Congress this requires a vote from,
you and you can work With Operation hope and others
who do. This this is WHAT I Operation jobe, does
raise his credit, scores lowers, debt increases savings so you
can get the bank out of the no business back
to the s business at. Scale why, banking because you
(48:24):
cannot revitalize the community without access to, banking to capital
and the people's, capitalists the people's venture, capitalists the people's private.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Equity the people's capital source.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Is in general banks are in general, Banks but you
gotta get the banks to want to say yes to.
You that's what we're, Teaching that's what we're. Doing that's
why we have four point five billion dollars in capitalists
flow to underserve communities with the Strategies i'm talking. About
i'm not giving you wolf. Tickets i'm telling you what
we have. Done it has. Worked everybody. Wins so you
(48:57):
get the credit score. Up that's seentre than fifty billion
of wealth. Creation by the, way we do, nothing black
wealth will be zero by twenty fifty. Three that has
nothing to do with the current political. System that was
a statistic five years. Ago if you then use a
prime credit to now access home, ownership which stands at
forty four percent home ownership rate compared to seventy five
(49:17):
percent of our mainstream count of barts and the number
one way you do wealth In america is home. Ownership,
okay the whole tax policy is designed around becoming a.
HOMEOWNER i would do a podcast just on the process
start to finish of becoming a, homeowner step by, step
by the way other things you want me to talk
about on the, podcast leave me comments on social media
(49:39):
when you see my, POSTS i read those comments often
respond to. Them, so now you become a, homeowner and
if you just move from forty four percent to sixty two,
percent that's worth about eight hundred billion dollars in wealth.
Creation so seventy to fifty eight, billion credit score, increase
eight hundred billion home. Ownership that's about one point five.
(50:01):
TRILLION i didn't mention the government, yet, right then there's
another trillion available by buying. Businesses don't do startups very.
Tough i'm not saying not to do. It i'm saying
there's an easier route with more of a return and.
Investment go buy a business that does not have a
plan To you, know there's no plan for that sixty
(50:25):
five year old person to give that business to their.
Kids the kids don't want. Them they want to Go
the kids want to cast the, bonds the, stocks.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
The.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Houses they want to go party with daddy's. Money they
don't want to go start. Up they don't want to
run daddy's. Business it's too much. Work so you can
buy that. Business it's, successful it's, profitable it has cash,
flows it has real. Estate is it is the most
popular plumbing business in that. Town it is a franchise a.
(50:56):
DENTISTS i mean it is the most prominent dentist office
in that. Town or whatever that business, is, architect law, firm.
Etc go buy. It it is an existing business and
that's worth a trillion. Dollars artificial intelligence it's another trillion.
DOLLARS i did describe two and a half to almost
four trillion dollars of wealth creation that is under your.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Control and you don't have to go.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Talk to the government or anybody else or get a
vote In congress to do. It somebody should talk To,
congress by the, way, somebody this is Something congress should be.
Doing But i'm just saying it's not What i'm. Doing
that's not my. Job my job is teach you how
to do for, yourself so you him a political force
and you can go fund by the way politicians to
being poor people don't have. Lobbyists that's one of the
(51:41):
problems that that underserved communities don't have anybody vouching for
them promoting their. Interests and you can solve that by
doing What i'm talking, now which is to build wealth for.
Yourself so owned businesses via acquisition homes and investment portfolios
evers to eighty eight, trillion one hundred trillion dollars a
(52:02):
well transfer that's coming because baby boomers are retiring all
the same. Time and did a whole podcast just on.
That here are your key pillars financial literacy at. Scale
go To Operation hope will provide scholarships with a thousand
dollars over twelve months so to teach you how to
become a proper. Capitalist no one taught. You is nothing
(52:23):
wrong with. You it's what you don't know that you
don't know but you think you. Know no one's ever
tried to Take Black america and turn us into capitalists at.
Scale there's been a tulsa experience that have been to
this experience of that, experience but it's never been our
experience in. Total it's not like we tried it and it.
Failed we just never tried, it AND i am trying
to convince everybody to try. It it's like, saying why
(52:46):
SHOULD i Try? God Because god cannot possibly mismanage your
life worse than you have give him a. Shot capitalism
and democracy are horrible systems except for every other system
and by the way its work for everybody. ELSE i
joke sometimes and call it the Black we need A
Black jewish business. Plan i'm, joking But i'm sort of
(53:08):
serious Because jews were distrainated against for six thousand, years
didn't didn't have a, home and they were scattered around the,
world and they couldn't own.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
Land it was.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Illegal so they, said, well how CAN i control my economic.
Destiny let me be financially literate and learn, finance and
that allowed them to go buy, land businesses and other thing,
things and a very small group people now have enormous
power because they took control of their economic. Destinies this
is something that we should learn. From we shouldn't be,
(53:38):
jealous we should be applauding, them we should be.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Copying.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
Them but capitalism generally has worked for everybody in this
country to come. Up every ethnic group and there are
almost two hundred of them in this. Country the three
groups that were left behind Poor, Whites African, Americans Native American,
indians and we enough lack the same levers to Empowerment
(54:06):
again another podcast WHERE i break that down home ownership
in real, estate stop, rending start building, equity banking, relationships
don't just do. APPS i want you to create actual
connections with relationship capital at these, banks because banking is
a trust business and the work credit comes from the
(54:26):
latter room work, creditoe which is. Credibility, right it's a trust.
Business and capital comes from the latter word copy toass
which means the. Head so it is knowledge in the.
Head so isn't thing to do with. Money they have
to trust. You you have to have, credibility and they
got to feel like you know what you're.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
Doing, hello financial.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Literacy And i've accessed a couple Hundred just one loan
was two hundred million dollars of non recourse capital for
one of the businesses THAT i sold and recapitalized and
doubled down. With i've now, EXITED i mean the process
of exiting in that particular business AFTER i sold it
for over one hundred million. Dollars BUT i was able
to access non pree coourse capital with the power of
(55:06):
What i've built the assets underneath it in my, name
without having a person put a personal guarantee Of, now
that's gangster in the most positive term of. Phrase it's
one of the largest access of capitals by a black entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
In a decade and we can do.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
It and it was a boring industry of real. Estate
it wasn't you, know bet going public or. Something oh
that's a great. Thing you, know by the, way that's very.
Unique maybe Only Bob johnson and his wife could do.
That What i'm telling you everybody can. Do use policy,
smartly but don't wait on. It SO i do believe
(55:49):
we need groundwater, change groundwater. Effects these policy changes are, really,
really really. Important i've made examples of how policy has
been used against After americans to come up and very, hurtful,
deceitful not even they're not even hiding the. Ball it's.
Horrible i'm just, saying don't wait on. It this is
(56:11):
a people powered. Plan this is something you can do for.
YOURSELF i want you to have a New black manifest.
Destiny we can't rewrite, history but we can reroot our.
Future we can become, history become the future that you
want to see in the. World and the change the
(56:32):
economic arc bent against us now it bends back to
us and with, us and success for.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
The country requires. Us it's a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (56:49):
Saying you can take no pleasure from the fact that
there's a hole in my end of our. Boat this
country needs it doesn't realize it doesn't realize it, yet
but this country and let's we want to Speak mandarin
in twenty, years meaning that we want to give in
to everyone wants to be An.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
American But.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Americans there is all these there's these four countries that
want to take us, Out, Iran North, Korea, russia And.
China the only real threat Is, china and they can't
win in a fair. Fight they can only win if
we shoot ourselves in the, foot we trip each other's,
Up we end these little food fights against each, Other
american Against. American i'm trying to get you out of
(57:27):
that food. Fight we got to figure out whether we're better,
Together like any good relationship is multiplication not. Addition twoth
plus two sh equals, six eight or. TEN i think
the answer to that is, yes AND i think that
we will come to that. Conclusion even the races. Wins
when black people succeed because THE, gdp the economy goes.
Up we're Not if you're not at the, table you're
on the. Menu, Right so this is a call to.
(57:48):
ACTION i don't want to Speak mandarin in twenty. YEARS
i don't think MY i don't think even races want
to Speak. Mandarin in twenty, YEARS i think they will
hold their nose and SAY i THINK i Like black
people if they have to in order to make sure
The america is a light on the. Heal so the
call to, action and then they may realize they actually
(58:08):
liked black people after hanging around and eating our food
and listening to our jokes and feeling our. Warmth they're,
like you, KNOW i hate to admit, it BUT i
really like you. Guys i'm sorry for being so hateful
for so, long and we'll forgive them because we're. Loving
forgiving people lead judgment To. God here's a call to.
Action pick up this business, plan share, it live, it be.
(58:30):
It this Is john. O'Brien this Is money And. Wealth
this podcast was the economic arc Of Black america from
sixteen nineteen to now and the road forward four hundred
years and forty.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Minutes it was a little than forty, minutes But i'm
thinking you got the. Point you can do it in a.
Walk share this with.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Your people you, love pass us, around printing out that business,
plan live it and tell me how you. Doing this
Is john. O'Brien go get my Book financial legacy for.
All get your scholarship for coaching counseling From Operation hope
for one thousand. Dollars get your credit score, up your debt,
down your savings up so the bank can say yes
to prime credit to you and you have the dignity of.
(59:08):
Ownership and by the, way get your artificial intelligence. Knowledge
that's another way that will level the planes of, everybody
because nine to nine percent of white folks don't know
anything ABOUT ai and black nine nine percent Of black
folks don't know anything ABOUT ai either other than this.
Coming so everything's changing at the same. Time be the
change you want to see in the. World get the,
book get the tell you friends about the, podcast go
(59:30):
To Operation, hope and let's be the change we want
to see in the. World this is our time and
we need each. Other john, O'Brien i'm out see. You
the finish. Line money And wealth With john O'Brien is
(59:55):
a production of The Black Effect Podcast. Network for more
podcasts from The Black Effect Podcast, network visit The iHeartRadio,
App Apple, podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
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