The What If Letter: The Breaking of a Slave
The What If Letter is a powerful wakeup call for a new kind of life, one consciously centered on the benefit, empowerment, and enlightenment of the Black community, written by a man who made it, but not in the traditional sense. Quick-witted and razor sharp, Brandon S. Hardy's open-ended letter is a direct response to the "Willie Lynch Letter," presenting a string of questions that encourage you to see, think, and feel differently about everything that you observe, hear, and experience in the world around you.
Hardy asks you to start with an open-mind and seriously consider things like:
What if we did away with the concept and stigma of the "Main chick/Side chick" paradigm and embraced the financial, emotional, and creative team work of a polygamous relationship in some of our households to better support our families and communities?
What if we stopped giving all our money to the black churches across America every Sunday, that does nothing but deposit our money into a white bank on Monday? When none of it is ever recycled back into our communities?
What if every rapper used their earnings from their music sales and recycled that money back into the communities, cities and area that they come from. Buying the apartment complexes and project buildings they once sold drugs in?
What if LeBron James or Kevin Durant started their own shoe brand companies fully funded by themselves or fellow black investors and created their own shoes without the endorsements and backing of these already known brands like Nike, Reebok or Adidas?
What if there was no Bloods, Crips, no Vice Lords, etc... What if there was no individual sets, crews, and squads. If there was no set of guys claiming this street or that hood. Yet, instead was a major network of one. One body, one force, one nationwide movement.
What if you asked yourself a question like, are we only programmed to kill our own? Are all the guns we rap about, take pictures with on Facebook, go to jail for, brag about and tote, only good enough to kill our brother? But never raise a hand at a Racist Police Officer, Racist store owner or someone other than your own who has violated your community?
What if the slavery story was told to us in reverse? What if not all of your ancestors came come off a boat from Africa? What if you're a direct descended from the copper colored native Americans/aboriginals that were already here? What if a Massive number of Native Americans/Aboriginals were shipped to west Africa from the Americas and not the other way around like they originally taught us in school?
The What If Letter asks the black community to think about themselves, and the larger community of people of color around the world, as a self-sustaining, empowering ecosystem and challenges us to make it a reality. With a positive, creative, and determined message paired with timely quotes from influential black voices, Brandon S. Hardy's book is one of passion, open-mindedness, and an honest reckoning with black culture, society, and what it means to challenge the status quo.
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