Tom Burrell - Brainwashed

Copyright 2010 by Tom Burrell

Published in the United States by: SmileyBooks

Distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published and Distributed in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.com

Send inquiries to: SmileyBooks, 250 Park Avenue South, Suite 201, New York, NY 10003

Grateful acknowledgement is made to Diane Allford-Trotman for the art and photo research for the Brainwashed Timeline.

Art and Photo Credits:

Branding Slaves, Declaration of Independence, Wedgwood Slave Cameo, and Thomas Jefferson: Courtesy of The Granger Collection, New York; Negro Slave Ad: Courtesy of The New York Public Library

Coon, Coon, Coon sheet music, Cream of Wheat, Black, White, political cartoon: Courtesy of The New York Public Library; Gortons Minstrels: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Civil War recruitment: Courtesy of The Granger Collection, NY; Fredrick Douglas: Courtesy of The New York Public Library

KKK: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; Hanging: The Granger Collection, NY; Ida B. Wells: Courtesy of The New York Public Library

Whites Only sign: Courtesy of Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin; MLK, Credit: The Granger Collection, NY Right On fist, Hulton Archives/Getty images; Olympic runners and Malcolm X: The Granger Collection

JJ Jimmy Walker, Good Times: CBS/Photofest; King Kong: Courtesy Everett Collection; Flavor Flav: Flavor Flav-Arnold Turner/Getty Images

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The opinions set forth herein are those of the author, and do not necessarily express the views of the publisher or Hay House, Inc. or any of its affiliates.

eISBN: 978-1-4019-2669-4

ISBN: 978-1-4019-2592-5

13 12 11 10 4 3 2 1

1st edition, February 2010

Printed in the United States of America

To my wife,
Madeline,
gentle force

Contents

Youve been misled
You been had.
You been took.

MALCOLM X

W e are strong. Survivors of the Middle Passage, the whip, and the chains. We have survived centuries of terror, humiliation, vilification, and deprivation.

We are smart. Even when our literacy was illegal, we learned quickly, invented, discovered, built, taught, and excelled against all odds.

We are creative. Making a way out of No way! and constantly birthing and rebirthing American art and culture.

So then why, after all this time, when calculating the achievement of the American Dream, are we still ranked at the bottom of almost every good list, and at the top of the bad lists? Why, despite our apparent strength, intelligence, and resourcefulness, do we continue to lag behind and languish in so many aspects of American life?

The answer is intricately linked to the hundreds of years blacks have lived with white guilt and black shame. It lurks just beneath the surface of the American consciousness, like a cancer that cant be healed because it cant be discussed honestly and openly.

Forty-five years in the advertising industry have given me personal and professional insight into the power of propagandapositive and negativeand the use of words and images to influence, change, and even transform peoples lives. The knowledge and insights Ive gained have inspired me to provoke an honest discussion in the hope that the healing process can finally begin.

I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. It was at the beginning of the New Deal, the second coming of black dependency. Throughout my community, we Negroes were indoctrinated with the idea that we were unable to take care of ourselves, and that we needed help and handouts from Mr. Charlie in the form of government programs, including public assistance, food stamps, and any other gifts the government bestowed. This unquestioned dependencywhat psychologists call learned helplessnesswas, I believe, one of the many reinforcements of a deep-seated, race-based inferiority.

The message was clear, consistent, ubiquitous, and loud. It was subtly broadcast by the white mass media, and bluntly and repeatedly echoed by its black recipients: A nigger aint shit! It was, for the most part, an advertising pitch not much different from the ones used to sell beer, laundry detergent, or life insurance. The two main ingredients of this campaign created a toxic blend of white superiority and black inferiority. Sold!

In 1971, I and my partner, Emmett McBain, launched what would become Burrell Advertising, a full-service advertising agency specializing in promoting products and services to the then largely ignored African American consumer. Burrell Advertising became an industry leader because of its positive, realistic, and compelling depictions of black life and culture, particularly in the medium of television. We were keenly aware of the power of culturally relevant language and images to influence perceptions and attitudes toward my clients products and services.

In other words, we created and disseminated positive propaganda.

Many years later, while minding my own businessliterallyas chairman and chief executive officer of Burrell Communications, I coined the phrase, Black people are not dark-skinned white people. It was a concise summation of the basis of my business: that black Americans, because of our heritage and history, have a unique culture that could best be reached through strategies, words, and images subtly or overtly related to those historical and cultural factors.

All ad agencies employ creativitywriting, art, photography, and musicto capture the publics much-divided attention. However, the most important part of what we do is study people: why they do what they do and why they buy what they buy.

Understanding what motivates people is a crucial part of my profession. But, being a black man, I was compelled to understand the way blacks are viewed in this country and the way many of us unconsciously view ourselves. Connecting the black dots on a larger level early onfrom slavery and Jim Crow segregation to commercial and social propagandabecame my passion.

Burrell Communications research of the 70s and 80s showed that African Americans have distinct psychosocial needs, desires, fears, hopes, and aspirations, all born of the circumstances arising from our experience as chattel slaves in America. We discovered, for example, that:

• Black preference for high-end status brands was driven by the need to compensate for feelings of low self-esteem.
• Our penchant for a lopsided spending/savings ratio grew out of our need for immediate gratification, based on a chilling pessimism about an uncertain future.
• We over-indexed, spending disproportionate amounts in every product category related to cleanliness (from feminine douches and scented laundry detergent to car deodorizers and household disinfectants), primarily to compensate for being historically stereotyped as dirty.