"40 ACRES & A BENTLEY": Hip-Hop Tycoon To Begin "Reparations Awareness Campaign" (NOT A JOKE)

KMEL Radio ^ | June 20, 2002 | L.N. Smithee

[L.N. Smithee]

Okay, this isn't really a story...yet. It's more of a head's up for what's coming up.

At my current workplace, for the moment, I am performing a tedious task, and I listen to the radio to keep me awake. Unfortunately, there are only a few radio stations that come through loud and clear through the steel office walls - none of them are the AM talk stations I prefer. I constantly am flipping up and down the dial on my Walkman.

One of the stations that come in clearly is KMEL, one of the two hip-hop stations in the Bay Area. As I was dialing to find something that I could stand on the radio, I heard a promo spot talking about the newest thing from Russell "Run" Simmons, half of the pioneer rap duo Run-DMC, multi-millionaire record executive, television producer (Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam, Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry), and founder of the lucrative Phat Farm clothing line. He will be in San Francisco for a preview before the World Premiere of a series of live performances of "Def Poetry Jam." But there's more cooking than that.

The radio announcer also said that Simmons was going to be present at another location to discuss "40 Acres and a Bentley," something referred to as a "reparations awareness campaign."

Now, as many of you probably know, "40 acres and a mule" are NOT promised freed slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation. Rather than just send slaves on the road to fend for themselves, land was proposed to be granted them via the Freedman's Bureau, but this plan was dismissed by President Andrew Johnson (the first impeached chief executive -- Clinton is the second). To my knowledge, there is nothing in any official government document that makes reference to a mule being part of the bargain.

I went on the web looking for information about "40 Acres and a Bentley," but there is none. There is nothing on the site for Def Jam, the Def Poetry Jam site, or the Phat Farm site. It looks like the first public announcement about "40 Acres and a Bentley" will be at the get-together after the preview for the poetry business. But replacing "mule" with "Bentley" is a good indication of what is in store from Simmons.

If the press allowed in this meeting, I wonder if someone will ask Simmons how he became so successful without reparations.

[micronaut]

First of all your facts are wrong.
Russell was ever in nor has he ever been in Run DMC.
His brother was.

If you want to argue the point of reperations based on an anecdote at least get your facts straight.

Russell owns Def Jam which he started with Rick Rubin who produced the group called the Beastie Boys. Please get yur facts straight before starting this stupid debate..



I will nver be caught dead in the circular arguments and hateful talk that arises in the actual debate of reperations.

later..

[goldstategop]

I think the idea is WEIRD. I can't recall any one asking for 40 acres and a Rolls Royce either. ;-)

[leadpenny]

I think you missed the whole point of LN Smithee's post.

What was your point again, L.N.?

[L.N. Smithee]

First of all your facts are wrong. Russell was ever in nor has he ever been in Run DMC. His brother was. If you want to argue the point of reperations based on an anecdote at least get your facts straight.

You are correct. Joseph Simmons -- now known as "Reverend Run" -- was the Simmons in Run-DMC. That's ONE fact wrong, not "all [my] facts..."

Russell owns Def Jam which he started with Rick Rubin who produced the group called the Beastie Boys.

I got that one right. Read the thread again.

Please get yur facts straight before starting this stupid debate...I will nver be caught dead in the circular arguments and hateful talk that arises in the actual debate of reperations. later..

OK, the facts are straightened out (as if Russell's bio was central to this announcement), but what's this? You have already decided I am "starting [a] stupid debate..." I have done no such thing. I simply said that Simmons is planning this entire deal. I haven't commented on anything that has been said by Simmons because he heretofore has revealed nothing.

It really doesn't make any difference whether you WANT to engage in this debate, because guys like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and now, Russell Simmons are going to bring the issue to you as a racial Rorschach test, and you will be judged by whether you agree with them or not.

I -- for one -- am not afraid of this issue. I am a black man, born free in the USA, who has never been a slave, and who will proudly say I will refuse white guilt money if it is made available to me.

[L.N. Smithee]

Read the first line of the thread.

[Flyer]

If you want to argue the point of reperations based on an anecdote at least get your facts straight.

I don't see where any argument on reparations was taking place in the post.

Get your facts straight.

[leadpenny]

I was trying to be cute. You're right about the "Heads Up."

This country is fast approaching a time when there will not be a racial or ethnic majority, and that will be a good thing. What is not a good thing is the fact that people like jj, fat Al Sharpton and Eddie Bernice-Johnson, Chairwoman of the self-proclaimed Congressional Black Caucus, and others, continue to turn up the volume on reparations. Americans are going to have to choose whether to go down the path of destruction or to a path for a brighter future.

[JZoback]

I'm a converted Jew with a Russian background who is under 5' 9" and needs to lose 40 pounds.

Who do I ask for repararations from? I mean every one in some point has had someone in their distanse past do something wrong to them

The commies who no longer run Russia who denied my family free enterprise

The Egyptians from 6,000 years ago who enslaved my people and now give Hollywood goofy stories to gave a WWF actor more meaty roles for us to endure

Germany's Hilter who didn't actually kill any of my relatives but, hey he's an evil white guy

Anyone over 5' 10" because I have to look up to them

Anybody thin who makes my feel guilty eating a whopper with chesse.

Someone is going to pay me big time

I knew Cheese would appear in the thread at some point

[Puppage]

There's no guilt involved at all. That's just media friendly spin to gain favor with the public because the "you have to give us money" ploy AIN'T WORK'N. As digusting as slavery was the fact remains that AT THE TIME, it was legal. So, the question that comes to mind is.. do we now go back through all of history, identify what was legal at THAT time, and pay reparations to the "relatives" of those people because they were hurt by the legal act which now is illegal? Certainly leaves the door open for a never ending merri-go-round.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

[mhking]

I simply said that Simmons is planning this entire deal. I haven't commented on anything that has been said by Simmons because he heretofore has revealed nothing.

I'm somewhat surprised by Simmons getting sucked into this foolishness - he has struck me as a more reasoned businessman than this would reflect. Ah, but what can I say - I thought Earl Graves was more reasonable until I met the man...

Any other details floating around about this yet?

[Tired of Taxes]

LN, is it possible that he's simply poking fun at the reparations movement? Maybe that's why there's nothing listed online, and maybe that's why he's referring to it as "40 Acres and a Bentley"?

[1Old Pro]

40 acres and a Bentley?? What an idiot, why not 1 acre, a small house and a compact car....something useful.

I can just picture people sleeping in their Bentleys parked on their 40 acre lots.

[rdb3]

You really thought Graves was a reasonable man at one point?

I hear ya, L.N.

[mhking]

You really thought Graves was a reasonable man at one point?

I was young, foolish, and still in college at the time...[g]

[PhiKapMom]

Article and Post #5 -- outstanding! Don't see why people cannot see what Jackson, Sharpton and others are up to. In fact, I cannot understand why Jackson even has a voice on the stage anymore.

What has Jackson truly done for the black community -- people should ask themselves if they are better off with following the likes of Jackson and Sharpton and their handout campaign or would they be better off to follow the people like the Rev Jerry Peterson that want to help people achieve success with work and dedication to improve themselves.

From what I am reading more and more black entrepeneaus and small business people are turning their backs on the likes of Jackson and Sharpton. I believe that the day is fast approaching when a lot of members of the black community are going to stand up and say -- Enough is Enough to the likes of Jackson, Sharpton and others that have made a career out of keeping people down for their own personal gain!

[rdb3]

Oh, now I get it! ;-)

[Gumlegs]

Cool. Can my son have his 40 acres in downtown New York City?

With clear title to that, he won't even need the Bentley.

[Dick Bachert]

I consider Alan Keyes, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams possessed of three of the finest minds extant today. In case you don’t know them, all are black.

So far as I can tell, Keyes, Sowell and Williams oppose this idiotic call for reparations.

The modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions who are now calling for reparations need to remember a few things:

They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ANYWHERE !

Had they NOT been sold to the slave traders, the blood of their ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago and these modern day would-be "plaintiffs" would not even exist.

And should the great-great-great grandchildren of the approximately 3,000 SLAVE OWNING BLACK plantation owners in this country also be subject to PAYING these reparations?

If so, how do we find THEM?

Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writer’s Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of “Roots.” Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the “Rebel” flag incorporated into that state’s flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.

Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice:
“Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it.” He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, “Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.”

What about the millions STILL living in slavery, held there by members of THEIR OWN RACE in Africa and elsewhere today?

And how about the MILLIONS of WHITES and ASIANS who have slavery in their backgrounds?

Next problem!