What If Slavery Wasn’t What You Thought It Was?

By Coach AP

What if slavery wasn’t what you thought it was?

What if we’ve spent so much time looking at the chains that we missed the economics?

Slave owners were building corporations.

They were building businesses, plantations, industries, property holdings, and economic systems designed to produce wealth. They needed labor to build those systems, operate those systems, and make those systems profitable.

And Black people did an incredible job of building them.

Think about that.

Our ancestors planted the crops. They harvested the crops. They built structures. They cooked. They cleaned. They raised livestock. They developed trades. They transported goods. They maintained properties. They created products. They provided services.

They worked.

And worked.

And worked.

Their labor helped create enormous amounts of wealth.

The problem wasn’t that Black people didn’t know how to work.

The problem was that we didn’t own what we were building.

Somebody else owned the land.

Somebody else owned the business.

Somebody else controlled the distribution.

Somebody else collected the profits.

And somebody else passed that wealth down to their children.

Meanwhile, overseers were there to make sure the workers kept working.

Make sure the job got done.

Make sure production continued.

Make sure everybody remained in their assigned position.

Now fast-forward generations.

Look around.

Black people are still some of the hardest-working people in America.

We’re still building corporations.

We’re still operating businesses.

We’re still driving industries.

We’re still creating culture.

We’re still producing entertainment.

We’re still creating trends.

We’re still working in warehouses.

We’re still running departments.

We’re still managing stores.

We’re still filling hospitals.

We’re still working government jobs.

We’re still creating billions of dollars in value.

Only now the titles have changed.

The overseer isn’t necessarily standing in a field.

Now there are managers, general managers, vice presidents, executives, supervisors, and institutions making sure everybody shows up, follows the rules, hits the numbers, and keeps somebody else’s corporation moving.

And when you step too far outside of society’s established boundaries, there are entire systems—including law enforcement—that enforce its laws and order.

So I have a question:

What Truly Has Changed?

I’m not saying employment today is the same thing as chattel slavery.

It isn’t.

Our ancestors were legally treated as property. They could be bought and sold. Families could be separated. Their movement was controlled. Violence and terror were used to maintain that system.

We have freedoms today that our enslaved ancestors could only dream about.

But that’s exactly why my question is so important.

What are we doing with that freedom?

Back then, your physical body could literally be held in bondage.

Today, I believe too many of our people have allowed their minds to remain economically in bondage.

Nobody has to physically force you to believe somebody else is your source anymore.

We’ve been conditioned to believe it ourselves.

We believe somebody else has to hire us.

Somebody else has to approve us.

Somebody else has to promote us.

Somebody else has to give us a loan.

Somebody else has to distribute our music.

Somebody else has to monetize our videos.

Somebody else has to advertise our businesses.

Somebody else has to give us an opportunity.

Somebody else has to discover us.

Somebody else has to validate us.

And somehow, after all these generations, success still seems to begin and end with them.

That’s Mental Bondage.

You can take the chains off somebody’s hands, but if they still believe they need the person who once held the chains in order to survive, how free have they become?

That’s the conversation I want us to have.

Because we’ll complain all day.

We’ll complain about our jobs.

We’ll complain about corporations.

We’ll complain about social media platforms.

We’ll complain about algorithms.

We’ll complain about discrimination.

We’ll complain that our videos generate millions of views while platforms make more money than the creators.

We’ll complain about businesses not hiring us.

We’ll complain about banks not funding us.

We’ll complain that major corporations don’t respect our buying power.

We’ll complain about everybody else getting rich from Black culture.

Then after we’re finished complaining…

we run right back to them.

We clock back in.

We upload another video.

We buy another product.

We renew another subscription.

We spend another dollar.

We give them another hour of our attention.

We give them another piece of our creativity.

We give them another piece of our lives.

And then we call them our oppressors while simultaneously treating them like they’re our source.

Something about that doesn’t make sense to me.

Where Is Your Treasure?

The Bible says:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

People usually hear that scripture and immediately think about money.

But your treasure is bigger than money.

Your treasure is your time.

Your treasure is your attention.

Your treasure is your creativity.

Your treasure is your influence.

Your treasure is your content.

Your treasure is your purchases.

Your treasure is your data.

Your treasure is your labor.

Your treasure is your belief.

And for some of us, family is our greatest treasure.

That’s certainly true for me.

So when I talk about building generational wealth, I’m not simply talking about becoming rich.

I’m talking about the people I love having something because I was here.

If your family is your treasure, then what are you building for them?

What will your children inherit from your years of labor?

Will they inherit only stories about how hard you worked for somebody else’s corporation?

Or will they inherit something you owned?

A business.

A platform.

Property.

Intellectual property.

A brand.

An audience.

Investments.

Knowledge.

Relationships.

Infrastructure.

Something they can take possession of and build upon.

Because if I say my family is my treasure, then my economic decisions should reflect that.

I don’t just want to provide for my family today.

I want the decisions I’m making today to provide for my family when I’m no longer here.

That’s generational thinking.

That’s why ownership matters so much to me.

A paycheck can feed your family this month.

Ownership can feed your family for generations.

So if I want to know what you really believe in, I don’t necessarily have to listen to what you say.

I can watch where you put your treasure.

You say your family is your treasure.

What are you building that your family can inherit?

You say you believe in Black businesses.

Where do you spend?

You say you believe in Black ownership.

What do you own?

You say you believe in Black media.

Where do you watch?

You say creators should own their content.

Where are you uploading?

You say you believe we need our own institutions.

Which institutions are you supporting?

Because eventually our actions have to match our words.

Don’t just tell me what you love.

Show me what you’re building for what you love.

That’s Why We Built TheBlackTube.

We didn’t create TheBlackTube just because we thought the world needed another website.

The world has enough websites.

We built it because I believe our people need ownership.

We need infrastructure.

We need distribution.

We need an economy.

We need places where Black creators aren’t simply the product being sold to advertisers.

We need places where Black businesses can reach Black consumers.

We need systems where the economic value created by our people has an opportunity to circulate through our people.

We’ve brought more than 250,000 people into this ecosystem.

We’ve created ways for our people to monetize.

We’ve created opportunities for creators to earn.

We’ve created opportunities for businesses to promote themselves directly to our community.

And we’ve built a platform designed around the idea that our culture shouldn’t just create wealth for everybody else.

Our culture should create generational wealth for us.

But building the platform isn’t enough.

Because I learned something.

You can build the door.

You can unlock the door.

You can hold the door open.

But you can’t force people to walk through it.

You Still Believe Success Starts and Ends With Them.

That’s the part that hurts.

We can create our own platforms.

We can create our own businesses.

We can create our own opportunities.

We can demonstrate that another model is possible.

And some of our people will still look outside of themselves for validation.

Why?

Because we’ve been trained for generations to believe that somebody else’s corporation represents security.

Their paycheck feels safe.

Their platform feels safe.

Their approval feels important.

Their audience feels more valuable.

Their money somehow feels more legitimate.

But building something for ourselves feels risky.

Think about how backwards that is.

You’ll give a corporation 40 hours every week for 30 years without knowing whether they’ll replace you tomorrow.

But investing 10 hours into your own dream feels risky.

You’ll spend thousands of dollars every year buying products from companies that will never know your name.

But spending money with a Black-owned startup feels risky.

You’ll upload hundreds or thousands of pieces of content to somebody else’s platform and help increase their valuation.

But uploading content to a platform built for your own community feels like too much work.

You’ll spend decades making somebody else’s shareholders wealthy.

But investing in yourself?

Suddenly you need guarantees.

I Didn’t Wait for a Guarantee.

I invested in me.

I invested in us.

I put my money where my mouth was.

I put my time where my mouth was.

I put my reputation where my mouth was.

I put my energy where my mouth was.

I could have spent all of that time trying to get somebody else’s attention.

Instead, I decided to build.

And guess what?

It worked for me.

So now I have to ask myself:

Am I truly an anomaly?

Am I some special exception to the rule?

Was I simply lucky?

Or did I make a decision that more of us are capable of making?

Maybe the difference is simply that I made up my mind:

If I invest in me, and if I invest in us, I can’t lose.

That doesn’t mean every business decision will work.

It doesn’t mean every investment will make money.

It doesn’t mean every idea will become successful.

I’ve made mistakes.

I’ve lost money.

I’ve had ideas fail.

I’ve had to start over.

But even my failures belonged to me.

The lessons belonged to me.

The experience belonged to me.

The intellectual property belonged to me.

The relationships belonged to me.

The knowledge belonged to me.

And when something finally worked?

The equity belonged to me too.

That’s the difference.

Stop Making Everybody Else Rich First.

Imagine what happens when thousands of us make that same decision.

Imagine if we stopped asking:

“How do I get hired?”

and started asking:

“What can I build?”

Imagine if creators stopped only asking:

“How do I get more followers on their platform?”

and started asking:

“How do I turn my audience into something I own?”

Imagine if business owners stopped asking:

“How do I get these corporations to notice my business?”

and started asking:

“How do we create our own distribution?”

Imagine if consumers understood that every dollar they spend is essentially a vote for which businesses they want to exist tomorrow.

Imagine if our children grew up seeing ownership as normal.

Not exceptional.

Not impossible.

Not something reserved for somebody else.

Normal.

That’s how generational wealth begins.

I’m Not Telling You to Quit Your Job.

Understand what I’m saying.

I’m not telling everybody reading this to walk into work tomorrow and quit.

I’m telling you to change your relationship with that paycheck.

Your employer is not your source.

Your job can become an investor in your freedom.

Use the paycheck.

Fund your idea.

Buy equipment.

Learn a skill.

Start the company.

Purchase assets.

Build your audience.

Support businesses within your community.

Create intellectual property.

Build something your children can inherit.

There’s nothing wrong with working for somebody.

The danger comes when you begin believing you are incapable of surviving without somebody giving you permission to work.

There’s nothing wrong with using another social media platform.

The danger comes when you spend your entire creative life building an audience that you have absolutely no ownership over.

There’s nothing wrong with buying from major corporations.

The danger comes when we send nearly all of our economic power outside of our communities and then wonder why our communities lack economic power.

Do You Really Believe in You?

Forget motivational quotes.

Forget social media posts.

Forget hashtags.

Forget what sounds good.

I want you to answer this privately.

Do you really believe in you?

Because if you believe in yourself, eventually there should be evidence.

Have you invested in yourself?

Have you invested in your idea?

Have you invested in your education?

Have you invested in your business?

Have you invested in something you own?

Then here’s the harder question:

Do You Really Believe in Us?

Do you believe Black people can build world-class companies?

Do you believe we can build technology?

Do you believe we can build media companies?

Do you believe we can build financial institutions?

Do you believe we can build distribution?

Do you believe we can create our own opportunities?

Do you believe we can circulate enough economic power among ourselves to create generational wealth?

If you do…

prove it.

Not to me.

To yourself.

Put your money where your mouth is.

Put your time where your mouth is.

Put your content where your mouth is.

Put your attention where your mouth is.

Put your creativity where your mouth is.

Put your purchasing power where your mouth is.

Invest in us.

Build with us.

Create with us.

Advertise with us.

Buy from us.

Support us.

Correct us when we’re wrong.

Help us make our institutions better.

But stop standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to build the future you’re constantly saying you want.

Freedom Has to Become More Than Physical.

Our ancestors fought so we could have freedoms they never had.

What are we going to do with them?

If they were denied ownership, shouldn’t we pursue ownership?

If they were denied education, shouldn’t we pursue knowledge?

If they couldn’t control the product of their labor, shouldn’t we build things where we can?

If their families couldn’t inherit the wealth they created, shouldn’t we be obsessed with leaving something for our children?

Maybe the next stage of freedom isn’t simply about removing something that’s holding us back.

Maybe it’s about building something that moves us forward.

That’s the mission.

That’s why I build.

That’s why I invest in myself.

That’s why I invest in us.

And after everything I’ve experienced, everything I’ve built, everything I’ve lost, and everything I’ve watched grow, I keep coming back to the same conclusion:

I did it.

It worked for me.

So am I really an anomaly?

Or did I simply make up my mind that I was no longer going to spend my entire life waiting for somebody else to determine what I was worth?

I decided to bet on myself.

I decided to bet on us.

And I believe that when we collectively begin doing the same thing, we’re going to discover something incredibly powerful:

We were never lacking the ability to build wealth.

We’ve been building wealth for centuries.

The question has always been:

Who Were We Building It For?

Now it’s time to build it for us.

For our businesses.

For our communities.

For our children.

For our families.

For the generations that haven’t even been born yet.

If family is truly your treasure, build something your family can inherit.

If you believe in yourself, invest in yourself.

If you believe in us, invest in us.

Build what we own.

Because our children shouldn’t have to start from zero.

— Coach AP