"40 Million Dollar Slaves"

I don't do reviews, not on here anyway, but this is a special occassion. This is in celebration of my enlightenment thanks to William Rhoden's "40 Million Dollar Slaves." I enjoyed every second of reading this book, not only because I learned so many things I was previously unaware of, but because at its very core, it's not even a book about sports, or money, this book is about what it means to be Black in America. This book is about the Black Promised Land; its ever changing definition and the ever-shifting, unsteady, journey toward it.

The book is lovingly littered with a lot of gems of sports-knowledge, but the most important thing I walked away with, was a strong sense of William Rhoden's voice - he was clear, concise and entirely unapologetic. A rare find when most books one picks up about race is either filled with instantly apologetic double-talk, i.e 'so sorry if you're white, please buy my book;' or otherwise unneccessarily verbose academia - both approaches escaping accessibility to the average reader, and to be honest if the revolution will not be televised, I'm gonna at least need a TV Guide whilst I march in unison with the struggle. This is not to say that Rhoden's book is over-simplified, far from it, only to say that it is what it needs to be; a conversation between reader and author, a conversation that progresses with such ease that you cannot help but wonder why you never connected the dots yourself.

Rhoden takes a few quality shots in his book; 'Be Like Mike?' - not so much - Bob Johnson/BET also gets its fair share of criticsm, and that is why this book is so important, it ignores niceities, to articulate a core issue that surrounds Blackness in America today - the lack of communal direction - where some see Rhoden's words as anti-integration, I see them, and so does he, as pro Black success, which if we all believe James Baldwin's words, is pro American success. You need only to read of the demise of the Negro Leagues and the tragic later years of its visionary, Rube Foster, to long for a business landscape in America today where Black-owned businesses can compete fairly with their White-owned counterparts.

This book should be a required read for any Black child who decides they want to pick up a basketball, and also this book is for the parents of those children, but most importantly, this book is for every Black athlete with as many BMWs as there are days in the year - don't stay on the plantation, only you can lead yourself out, and would it not be wonderful if you took us all with you.

But of course if this book is about anything, it is about self-sufficiency, finding where you fit in the struggle, without waiting for Shaq to tell you, and applying yourself to helping define that Promised Land because 40 Acres is so wholly inadequate now.

First of course, you have to understand that the struggle never ended, then you can understand where you need to be headed.