My Gmail Inbox somewhere in the cloud, sometime in the past.
Me: No, not again!
Sender 01: Please remove me from this distribution list!
Sender 02: Stop replying to all!
Me: I have nothing to do with the future of facility management at Airbus!
My inbox is blinking like the flashlights of a firefighting truck!
Oh, 100 emails, in just 30 minutes, about facility management!
Sender 143: The next person who does reply to all will be fired!
Me: Dude, did you just make a reply to all to ask people to stop hitting the “reply to all” button?
We all made a mistake in letting the trainee send that email on behalf of our department to share how we care about facility management.
Or often, with good intentions, we use the company-wide distribution list to send a newsletter and open the mayhem of the “reply to all” thread in our work inboxes.
Hopefully, in Gmail or in Outlook, there are ways to ignore those emails.
But did you know that using just one field can prevent this in the first place?
I am sure we are all familiar with the two main fields to use when sending emails: the “To” and the “Cc” fields.
The “To” field is the list of primary recipients who either have to act on the information you are sharing or are the main people that must receive the information.
The “Cc” field is the list of people who might need to know about the information you share and don’t necessarily need to act on it.
Well, at least, this is my understanding.
Then you have that hidden field, unknown to many people, the “Bcc” field.
For those of us who are newbies on the subject, below is the definition of this “Bcc” field:
“
Blind carbon copy (abbreviated Bcc) allows the sender of a message to conceal the person entered in the Bcc field from the other recipients. This concept originally applied to paper correspondence and now also applies to email.[1]
“
Source: Wikipedia
By default, this “Bcc” field is not visible on many email programs. Therefore, one needs to go to the settings and make it visible.
The magic of this field is that all the people in this field will not be able to see the recipients in the same field.
I use it, for example, to send emails to different circles of people I don’t necessarily want to know to whom I have sent the email.
I also use this field when I send emails to distribution lists to avoid the situation above and people hitting “reply to all.”
Indeed all people in the “Bcc” field will never appear in the email that will be received. Only the people in the “To” and “Cc” fields will be visible as if they were the only people to know how the email was sent.
The current use of this tactic is to email your colleagues about a project you have done and to put in “Bcc” your boss or manager or whoever you want to shine towards, or to cover your ass, just in case.
Now imagine that I am the Scribe of the Matrix. Today I am mandated by the Architect to write down the history of Human civilization.
As things are unfolding before my eyes and how the winners write History, if I am not Black, I will not even put Black people in any field, not the “To,” nor the “Cc,” and neither the “Bcc” field.
The best case scenario today is that Black people will be “Bcc”ied, and their contribution to Humankind will be invisible to future generations who will receive this email.
I remember when I was in High school in Dakar, Senegal. I never learned the history of Africa or Senegal in detail as much as I knew about the events of the First or the second world war. I was not exposed to Black heroes or inventors that contributed to Humankind.
I could feel the whitewashing of my history by my fellow Black history teachers. However, I am not blaming them. After all, in the early 90s, what we were learning in Senegalese schools was what they “gave” us our independence in the early 60s.
It was just with Youtube that I recently came to learn all the contributions of Black inventors in the history of Humankind:
And even today, we have Elon Musk, the inventor we will identify ourselves with.
Where are the Black Inventors of the 21st century?
They are everywhere, still invisible. Why? Because they have been the victims of the Bcc field.
In the wake of the death of George Floyd, I wanted to bring my contribution to the discussion. As long as we are not writing that email, the best we can get as Black people will always be the “Bcc” field.
Here are, in my opinion, the three things that we have to do as Black people, to not only be in the “To” field but to be the Scribes of our own story:
1. B as Build our empire
2. C as Care about us
3. C as Cultivate our legacy
As usual, let’s dive into each part.
1. B as Build our empire
There is this cliché about Black people loving to be entertained and to entertain. Yet, we are the leaders in the sports arena (NBA, NFL, athletics), the music dance floor (RnB, Hip Hop, Urban), and the entertainment industry. Well, we might be the ones doing the hard work, but we do not own those industries.
We love dancing and playing music. Yet most of what we do is use tools we didn't develop. So yes, it is good that Dr. Dre sold Beats to Apple. However, it would have been more influential if Dre had started Apple in the first place.
Most industries today are created and owned by non-Black people. We are just consumers, going from one Black Friday by Amazon to a Cyber Monday by Ali Baba.
We love to buy those nice, fancy German cars and pimp them to show how much money we have.
We work in big corporations created and owned by most non-Black people. Then we complain that we are stuck in the basement of such corporations.
If we want to lead the world, most notably our world, the first step is to be in charge and take control.
We must own the control tower and not just be the passenger in the plane landing in the west indies on our vacation complex hotel that we built and do not own.
As long as we are not the architects of our lives, we will always be left on the sideline of History.
We have to create to control our businesses. Then we will be able to promote our people.
One inspiration to me is Tyler Perry with his studios, by Us for Us.
2. C as Care about us
That brings us to the second step to being Black History writers.
As long as we are not in power as Blacks, we cannot empower other Black people.
Yes, we can raise funds and march to change the world. Because when facing the heat, the establishment will always concede something. Yet it is always something that will not threaten their power and the system in place designed to ensure that they are the ones in charge.
We can complain about the lack of support in big corporations regarding promotions and not being the preferable candidate for the CEO position. As long as we are not in charge.
It is Human nature to connect with people like us. After all, even if we are not conscious, most of our decision-making process happens in the primitive area, the reptile area of our brain.
The wind will not blow in our direction if we are not legion on the Boards of Directors and the Executive committees.
We have to empower and support our people. The only way to do it is to have our businesses from top to bottom. Only then can we support each other.
We can march as far as we want. Then, finally, we might arrive at the Pyramids. Unfortunately, history will only remember those for whom the Pyramids were built, not those who created them.
One inspiration for me is Trevor Noah, who uses his platform, the Daily Show to talk about Black Excellence.
3. C as Cultivate our legacy
That brings us to the 3rd pillar, which is building a legacy of Black Excellence and, more than that, Black legacy.
I have seen a lot of wealthy Black people in Dakar, Senegal, and all over the world. It always strikes me that most Black people will get rich and then keep it to themselves.
I am not talking about sharing the money in any shape or form. I am talking about educating other young Black people and inspiring the rest of us by sharing how they did it.
In Amazon, the number of books of non-Black people sharing how they made it is ridiculously high. We, Black people, just like to make it and then enjoy it.
We don’t take time to educate Black people about financial freedom, about how to set up and run a successful business.
The worst part I am part of is the corporate Black people. I mean by that, no matter how great or how high you get on the ladder, you cannot pass on your corporate title to your children.
No, I am not talking about nepotism and dictators in certain African countries who are taking everything and trying to ensure it will never leave their families.
I am talking about the fact that we are Black; we generally like it easy. But, of course, like every rule, they are some exceptions. Don’t get me wrong.
The issue is that those who like it easily are the majority. And to make systemic and structural changes, we need to hit that critical mass of Black people in charge to build our Black legacy.
Coming back to Black people in corporations, we are just passive. We just get our paycheck and then move on to the next month. Yes, this is the case for non-Black people, also.
I am saying here that we, Black people, are suffering today, the way the world is set. It is not set to our advantage. I am not saying that it is set against us, either. It is just that the people on the steering will, as all human beings, have the interest of their kind first, consciously or not.
If we want our Pyramids, statues, and History books, we must do more than just wait for them to fall into our laps.
We have to write our own story to add contrast to the one being written today, without us
One inspiration for me is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I will let her explain the dangers of a single story:
If we use the three steps above, We Black people will be the writers of our own stories. We will not just sit and hope that someone will eventually “Bcc” us.
We are the writers of our own stories!
What are you doing to empower Black people?
What are you doing to contribute to the story of Black people?
What are your thoughts on the role of Black people in Humanity's History?
Leave a comment below.
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Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash