Toni Braxton has exposed Black Friday for the sadistic holiday it is and exposes what the true celebration of Black Friday celebrates and opts out. The term “Black Friday” originated with the practice of selling off slaves on the day after Thanksgiving.
The website Snopes disagrees. According to Snopes, the holiday didn’t become well known until a century later when police officers in Philadelphia used the term to describe traffic jams and probably arrest a lot of black people. Think about it, it’s Black Friday and its a term used to describe making money.
Black Friday stemmed from slavery? It was the day after Thanksgiving when slave traders would sell slaves for a discount to assist plantation owners with more helpers for the upcoming winter (for cutting and stacking fire wood, winterproofing etc.), hence the name …Black Friday.
I bet the shopping stores and malls would sure hate it if black people stopped spending their hard earned money on the latest Jordan sneakers and other foolish items. Can you imagine would happen if on Black Friday, black people actually did something smart, like only spend money at black establishments. That could potentially enrich black businesses by a profit margin of let’s say about 300 percent and keep the black dollar in black communities a little longer. Historically, it would be the longest period of time that black people hold on to the black dollar before giving it to billion dollar white businesses.
Snopes claims that Black Friday wasn’t popularized until 1980’s and that is a bold faced lie. Black Friday can be traced back to at least the 1860’s. I don’t trust these blogs. I believe that the term Black Friday certainly does come from slavery and since I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas then there is no reason for me to celebrate Black Friday. Just another holiday that rich white people get to take money from poor black people. I think I will pass on that myself for real!
According to The Damien Zone, they fully back up Toni Braxton’s claim and point out that her findings are accurate, even though countless blogs all over the internet desperately want to debunk it. I imagine that shopping malls and stores all over want to debunk this article and I wouldn’t be surprised if Snopes.com was paid a handsome commission for debunking the story on their website. If black people wake up and know the truth, this could spell a disaster for corporations all over America who desperately take the last bit of change from poor consumers who will spend their last dollar at the malls and shopping stores.
Well guess what? TONI BRAXTON IS RIGHT! The term Black Friday started in the slave trade and was again brought back into use in the 1930s and 40s when white merchants demanded a cut of black merchants weekly receipts — and historians know it. Why is it being denied?
Sources? No evidence, no proof.
Sad how many people are still under the spell in this day and age. If it is not endorsed or spoon fed by/from the fradulent books written by “massa”, it must be false.
I agree with you implicitly… that is part of and has always been the problem with black America. The worst type of coon is someone who doesn’t realize that’s what they are.
it referred to the practice of downsizing your slave population . .before winter hit .l keeping only those essential to running the plantationl.no need to feed unnecessary hands all winter..so the day after Thanksgiving when folks were in town shopping the men would finger the slaves ..buying n selling while the wives shopped more conventionally..it true folks we were bought and sold..u can Google all u want the bottom line is you would be buck naked on the auction block right now..praying you got a Good master..
Mis-teaching history does not compensate for the fact that we were mis-taught. And while it may make people more comfortable in their wrongness, a lot of people agreeing on wrong information doesn’t make it true.
Good counterpoints, but I understand the hypersensitivity to the term, although I always hoped that it meant that retail companies were going to recover previous quarterly losses and bring the earnings into the black before the end of the fiscal year. That being said, hypersensitivity is no reason to jump on every theory or statement and make it a conspiracy or make something else up to balance it ( Kwanzaa, Tommy Hilfiger, etc). Do I feel like they have black history month in February to keep it short? Probably. Do I think they brought in europeans into the NBA to keep it relevant to white Americans? Good chance. Do I think they called it black Friday to reflect on the slavery days? Not buying that one… but I do like some of the history that has been provided. NC A&T…. Aggie Pride!!
You do know we were in agreement right?
This isn’t true. Black Friday is a term that was made up in the 1980s to describe stores moving into the “black” vs. the “red” profit-wise. The other story doesn’t even make sense. In farming, you need less hands in the winter, so why would a plantation owner buy slaves post harvest? Thanksgiving wasn’t even a national holiday until after the Emancipation Proclamation.
This is interesting as it seems plausible. Do you have more information on this please. The dates etc. Thanks
The term Black Friday was used during the slave trade to describe
Friday afternoons in Port Au Prince, Haiti and Havana, Cuba as far back
as the 16th century. These were days when large amounts of slaves who
had gone unsold were given one last chance on the auction block before
the ships departed for Louisiana.
“It was thought to be too expensive to keep slaves around
who were injured or sick or old and they had these sales in the two
major ports that were used to unload slaves at very cheap prices,” said
historian “Raymond Totondi” — a physician and research genealogist who
works at the Skylight Institute for Historical Enlightenment in Bern,
Switzerland.
“People with less money that the average slave owner
would converge on these sales and the streets would be crowded to
overflowing. Most people could not afford to buy slaves but an average
person would take a chance for $60.00 in silver for a slave who could
not walk or was lame, and use him as a shoe repairman or a to operate a
sewing machine or a loom. Many old women were used as housekeepers and
maids by white families of modest means as a way to boost their status
in the community. ”
Totondi continued:
“There was no way they would ship these people back to
Africa or to other parts of the Caribbean, so they reserved Fridays
–usually the last Friday of the month — for selling this kind of
overstock in human trade. The problem was that so many people were
seeking bargains that most of the slaves who were being sold went for
more than market value.”
“Even still, the market place was so crowded with
onlookers and bargain hunters that local businesses thrived. It was
then decided to have these Black Friday sales once a
month and each slave would actually be bought by a fake bidder. It
became a big ruse and continued for nearly 60 years.
“The real intention was to drive people to the market
place to drive up the local economy. When the sale of these fake slaves
was over and the local merchants counted out their daily earnings for
goods, they had to give 20% of their profits to the slave sales company.
Handing this money over to the slave traders angered
the local merchants and they too started to call these days Black
Friday because they felt that they were being robbed by the slave
traders. They said the salve traders had black hands — hands tarnished
by coins and always held out demanding their cut. Later, the term Black Hand traveled to Italy where it was used to describe extortion or protection rackets.”
So there you have it, folks. Toni Braxton’s story is NOT an urban
legend. Of course a lot of big business wants you to think it’s all an
urban legend, but it is not.
According to another historian, the term Black Friday entered back
into the language during the Great Depression when black owned shops and
poultry farmers in the south started having to pay “protection” money
to merchants with bigger businesses. Most of the small businesses were
owned by Blacks and they had to hand a certain amount of money over to
the local white merchants so they could stay in business. They were
warned that it would be a “Black Friday” if they didn’t pay.
Black Friday in the USA as it pertains to Thanksgiving is a marketing term. For retailers who make most of their money this season. Believe it or not.
This I also understand could be true due to the ignorance of people and there understanding of history. Thanks
I want you to break out of the bondage you are in and think for yourselves. A million blogs had a goal of attacking this knowledge and undoubtedly some were paid. In your mind, “White people say this is not so, so it must not be so.” From this article you ask for proof and references that prove the holiday wasn’t targeted at slaves. But in all of my research, I haven’t seen one article that can prove Toni Braxton’s claim to be false. Do the blogs get a free pass on supplying sources based on the fact they are claiming Toni Braxton is incorrect? Furthermore, why would you want to defend a holiday that makes white billionaires even richer white billionaires? How many black business’s do you think benefit off of Black Friday compared to white business’s? I have a suggestion, if you must shop on that day and any other Nubian must shop on that day, why not at least use that one day to spend on black business’s? Why doesn’t Snopes.com say that’s what black people should do? I’ll tell you why… because black people are notorious for one thing, which is making white people richer and staying poor. And they will battle and make it their duty to fight anyone who interferes with that program running in their minds. It goes like this, “Must make white people richer! Must make white people richer!” Give me a break! If their accusations are on point as the claim is made, then really, Christmas should be called Black Friday. My research actually indicates that Black Friday is perhaps one of the least profitable holidays of all. It’s a day that overpriced items get marked down and sold for normal prices. They bring in more money but it’s not necessarily as profitable as the rest of the year when they charge 10x the worth of the actual item and make more money selling less items. Not the black businesses though. They are left out in the cold. This is why I actually never supported Black Friday, Thanks Giving, Christmas, or any other holiday. I’m just hoping that black people wake up! Use that money to rent early next month. Invest in the children’s college fund. Start a black business! Stop buying junk that will break in a few months or over priced outfits you only get to wear a few special occasions. If I was those white owned billion dollar businesses, I would hate Toni Braxton too and call her all sorts of idiots.
I’m not defending Black Friday. I’ve never supported Black Friday. I prefer local, small businesses. Always about that. That said I’m also about truth, accuracy, and actualities. We don’t have to make stuff up about the capitalistic debauchery that is Black Friday. The original post is incorrect. That’s all I said. You failed to distinguish telling the truth about something from defending the practice.
Everyone here is referring to Snopes. Always check multiple sources od information, process it with agenda of the writer in mind and make a thoughtful, well-developed, intelligent decision about it. Don’t fall into affirmation bias and lazy thinking. You can look stuff up just like I can.
You keep saying it’s not true, it doesn’t make sense. Several readers have provideded credible information NOW you say well that was other counties. Well do you think American slave owners came from???
What sources? There was one citation. I said I couldn’t find it. What credible information?
Well believe what you want, and let others do the same. You want to quote or be supplied with quotes from history books, but what history book accurately portrays the slave trade as it was occurring? Do you really think the true atrocities of slavery and the associated despicable acts and processes were truly depicted, recorded and published at the time? By whom?
Everyone can find a way to justify whatever they are doing and at the time slave owners did not believe what they were doing was wrong.
Better than whether this is right or wrong, I think educated African Americans should talk about and take the action of what should be done instead. Don’t buy the clothes etc at the mall, but open a sharebuilder account for your children and yourself and start investing in the stocks of these companies and build your families’ wealth.
Just my 2 cents…
Exactly, the information will be in books, not on Google. And conventional wisdom leaves me hard-pressed to believe slaves were NOT treated similarly to the way companies treat inventory today.
You are more than willing to argue me down saying that everything you’ve ever seen in print is BS, except for this right here. Because Toni Braxton has better information than Henry Louis Gates, Michael Erick Dyson and Cornell West all together. There’s only one source supporting it and that one’s only been quoted here or in one other blog showing the exact same language, but by none of the people who study and write about this. Correct information counts. We know the price of wrong information. I’m not saying trust history books. I’m saying investigate and research so that we don’t mis-teach history too. It’s more than opinion. You can believe 2 and 2 is three but that doesn’t make it three and I hope you wouldn’t tell people that. My 4 cents.
Felecia, I wouldn’t be surprised if your profile was fake, and you’re really a racist white person trying to be an antagonist on this topic.
From everything I stated, what you took was I’m arguing you down that everything I’ve ever seen in print in BS…?
When you’re ready to have an intelligent discussion about this topic, I’ll be right here…
Talk to me about solutions, talk to me about what you do and what should be done and continue to be done to positively uplift the race and bring continued success, but don’t talk to me about your citations. Sorry, not interested…
I am black woman. I am a liberal, problack black woman from an urban upbringing by two black parents. I write. I teach. I employ. I work to help my city. I am HBCU educated. Member of Mensa, Tensa, High IQ Society. I read and I hate the extent that we are driven by misinformation. I’m ready to have an intelligent discussion about solutions, when we quite this BS which is a distraction, when do you want to start? I was ready to start on my first post.
I have more factual information than Snopes or any other blog who contests this information has. This is not a distraction. This is an example of black people waking up out of a deep sleep that has lasted too long.
Great, I’d love to see real facts. What source documents did you use? The only one that’s been brought up in this thread if Totondi and the Skylight Institute in Bern but I can’t find any other references to them, even the institute itself, besides this one reference.
Agreed.
It’s no use. Some people will never accept the truth.
You hit upon it. Some people will never accept the truth and will waste your lung power as well as your patience in these asinine displays. We have to learn to turn the scope of analysis on them. If these people haven’t read a single book on these topics and just fomenting dissension-guess what, that is their agenda.
The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shopping but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.
The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the officially sanctioned—but inaccurate—story behind the tradition.
Thank you. I also read it was used by police in Philadelphia in the 60s to talk about the traffic and heavy sidewalk crowds on the day after Thanksgiving.
http://m.chronicle.augusta.com/news/bill-kirby/2015-11-25/sometimes-dark-history-black-friday#gsc.tab=0
I can’t locate your source, Dr. Totondi, or the institute in a Google search. Is he published?
I do believe this to be credable
Now that is truth for you…sad other blacks are actually in here arguing against the article. We have never been told truth by the people that have us in captivity. We still trapped in ancient Rome people.
Some people are so ignorant, they believe anything they read, by anyone.
Thanks for the research. Not all is in the books with ISBNs! We have been so inundated with B/S that truth is much stranger than fiction(lies). Given the nature of slavery in the United States this assessment agrees with sound reasoning.
“Open your eye and tune your ear so you know what you see and understand what you hear.” Listervelt Middleton, “On the Origin of Things”
Brilliant!!!!! Thanks for the edification, sistah
so yeah, the Damien Zone is satire and Dr. Totondi is fake.
BLACK PEOPLE HAVE BEEN PROGRAMED FOR DECADES AND THIS PROGRAMMING HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO KEEP THEM IGNORANT OF THE CRUEL WAYS OF WHITE CORPORATE AMERICA. THE ONLY WAY FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO WAKE UP IS THAT THEY HAVE TO BE DEPROGRAMMED. WELL HOW DO YOU DO THIS YOU MIGHT ASK? THE OLD NEGROS HAVE FORGOTTEN WHERE THEY CAME FROM BECAUSE THEY ARE BRAINWASH AND THIS BRAINWASHING IS HARD TO GET RID OF SO IT IS THE CHILDREN THAT MUST BE THOUGHT THE TRUTH AND NOT SOME BRAINWASH LIES THAT CONTINUE PROGRAMMING THE SAME OLD SYSTEM FOOLS. THE BLACK YOUTH ARE DISCONNECTED FROM HIS TRUE IDENTITY AND SELF WORTH SO HE LOOKS TO MIMIC HIS ENVIRONMENT OF POVERTY, NO JOBS, GANGS VIOLENCE, PANTS OFF THE ASS, SELF DESTRUCTION AND MANY MORE NEGATIVE SELF BELITTLINGS. BLACK CONTINUE TO HAVE THE OLD CRAB IN THE BUCKET SYNDROME AND WHEN ONE GET OUT OF THE HOOD TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF HISELF HE IS HATED BY HIS PEOPLE FOR DOING SO AND A HIT IS PUT OUT ON HIS LIFE FOR GETTING OUT AND MAKING SOMETHING OF HIMSELF. WHEN WHOLE FAMILIES ARE DESTROYED BY THEM SYSTEM EVERYONE ELSE FALLS APART. TONY BRAXTON IS RIGHT AND ALL ONE HAS TO DO IS READ. THERE IS NO REASON THAT BLACKS SHOULD CONTINUE TO LIVE IN IGNORANCE BECAUSE THE INTERNET IS A WEALTH OF INFORMATION. BLACKS DO NOT SUPPORT OTHER BLACK BUSINESSES BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED NOT TO SHOP WITH BLACK OWN BUSINESS. I KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE BECAUSE I AM A BLACK BUSINESS OWNER. BLACKS DO NOT KNOW THEY HAVE THE POWER FOR CHANGE BUT IS ALL STARTS INSIDE AND BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN MADE TO FEEL POWERLESS FOR SO LONG ITS LIKE A DISTANT GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY. THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE WITH THE LIES, DEGRADATION FROM WHITE AMERICA THAT THEY HAVE BECOME AS A BLIND MINDED MEN WALKING. THE TIME FOR BLACK AMERICA TO WAKE UP NOW BECAUSE WHILE THE AFRICAN CAN NEVER BE EXTINCT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN CAN AND IS LOSING LIFE DAILY. WAKE UP BEFORE ITS TO LATE.
1000% on point!
Its up to the seeds, the old heads are too damn rooted in ignorance.
Before commenting I had to really delve deep in research to get the answers to the questions your comments have raised within me. Black Friday: According to truthorfiction.com, and scope.com, “Black Friday” derived from the selling of slaves after Thanksgiving. The slaves who could not be sold were brought up on an auction block for a what I call a last chance purchase. Black Friday is a day that retail stores have enough sales to put them “in the black”- an expression used in accounting that states that all losses be recorded in red and all profits in black. Upon further research I have discovered that Black Friday derived from “Black Tuesday.” On 09/24/1869 a day of Stock market catastrophe was observed. The crash was started by two greedy gold speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. These two buffoons tried to corner the gold market causing it to fail miserably which caused the gold market to collapse and the stock market to crash. It would not be until 10/29/1929 that would began the start of the Great Depression. That day was on a Tuesday, hence the term “Black Tuesday”. Now on 10/19/1987, the largest one day drop occurred dubbing that day “Black Monday”.
My point in mentioning all these things is in hopes of allowing you all to know that you each are correct. There is no real need to debate over something that everyone clearly is correct on. Do you guys notice that when ever something goes wrong in finances for this country, they always use the term “Black”? It sickens me to the core.
I agree with you. The language exposes hearts alone.
Both of those sites have pay listings
Where can I get the source matter or oiginal links for this column.
Yes. The EP was in January 1863. Thanksgiving hadn’t been celebrated regularly. Washington did it once and it came up again at end of the war of 1812. Lincoln established it as a national holiday for the last Thursday of each November in November of 1863.
Well in supply and demand you buy when you don’t need in preparation for a coming year after a successful harvest and the people are able to gather and sell for what they made in profits, thus I’m sure there was a day which they choose sell slaves on after they exchanged a harvest. It is probably more correct than Thanksgiving and Christmas and of course the story of Jesus.
Amen on that sista!
That is almost not at all how supply and demand work. We can look to current migrant worker hiring practices as a simulation model on farm labor requirements.
Thank you sista! This is what our common sense tells us, not just history books that we didn’t write ourselves. At least you are not blind to the truth. Most are simply because they choose to be.
Sad to say but this is very true. Do the research. Don’t believe Snopes.com who was probably paid to make less over this. They also try to say it was a term that cops in Philadelphia created, but the truth is, that was the original meaning of Black Friday. Don’t be afraid of the truth.
It’s not Snopes. I was at an HBCU in a marketing class when stores started opening on the day after Thanksgiving. It was very rare at the time. The rest is actual history-dates are easy to find.
There’s nothing new under the sun. Nothing started in the 1980’s, things just came back to popularity. The selling of black slaves cheap AFTER Thanksgiving makes perfect sense. Just like it makes sense to buy winter clothes in the spring when they will be DISCOUNTED. Slaves were discounted, after being used to serve the whites for their wicked pegan holidays…the day of mourning. You probably still celebrate all these wick holidays???
You can attack me if you want. That doesn’t change the validity of either of our arguments, it’s just a sign of weak thinking. I believe your argument is not based on historical fact, whether you choose to believe it or not.
No one attacked you, I just made an statement. Believe what you want, keep enjoying your holidays instead of holy days, I’m fine with it, as forearm my house, we will serve YHWH. Shalom
Lol, sign of weak thinking, ure very fun. Whoever wins the war, writes history, ever heard that one at HBCU?
Hello ma’am what HBCU did you attend?
Hey Bobby, a Rattler ’til I die.
This is something that I did not know. I have had an aversion to black friday fcr some time now, but this? I am really going to speak out against it now.
IT;S HARD FOR A BRAINWASH, PROGRAMMED NEGRO TO SEE THE TRUTH EVEN THOUGH IT IS STARING THEM IN THE FACE. YOU ARE A PRIME EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF NEGRO. THERE NO WAKING YOU UP SO YOU CONTINUE TO SLEEP IN YOUR BLISS OF IGNORANCE.
Typing in all caps, doesn’t change the validity of the argument, Erma. I’m not the ignorant one here. I’m actually asking that we all be less ignorant and not just follow some celebrity’s spewing of random thoughts without doing our own research and thinking. But I guess it’s hard for the ignorant and brainwashed to hear that.
Google is white washed providing info that doesn’t discretion nor push the envelope..some things u just use common sense on..if you want to keep splurging and enriching the man on black Friday ..then carry on if u wanna wake up ..then do so..but don’t kiss ass while doing so..if u a rag head then be what u are as for me n mine ..my 3 yes are wide open and sick of the cracker agenda and their lies..
Yes we are! Just trying to soften the blow to the ones that are pissed that we are not blindly jumping into the fray.
sounds like another story that will circulate forever with half the people believing untruths. the “slaves sold on discount” even sounds phony before you read that thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated until much later. then take into account slaves were sold at an auction and their not going to discount them when its a freaking auction, how would that work..duh. its an auction, not “Slaves R Us” you should worry more about teaching positivity and moving forward, because the past is just that, in the past. try and make a better future and quit dragging things down with what happened before. you cant change the past but you can change the future. Tony Braxton is just probably depressed from blowing her fortune and living in a hate bubble these days/ she already blamed Opera for making her lose her money.
Well in all actuality thanks6or shall I say the first successful harvest was held in November 1621 seems to me like a huge jump from 1863 when Lincoln made it a national holiday so factually speaking slavery was still present do the real research ppl speak to family members know your history
This is true, black people learn your damn history!
Coincidence in the names. Do you really believe that the marketing team that coined the phrase knew this obscure original phrase?
Rather it derives from slavery or not, it is still a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and people need to wake up.
Toni spoke the whole truth
Sad how many people are still under the spell in this day and age. If it is not endorsed or spoon fed by/from the fradulent books written by “massa”, it must be false.
I agree with you implicitly… that is part of and has always been the problem with black America. The worst type of coon is someone who doesn’t realize that’s what they are.
Sources? No evidence, no proof.
Mis-teaching history does not compensate for the fact that we were mis-taught. And while it may make people more comfortable in their wrongness, a lot of people agreeing on wrong information doesn’t make it true.
Good counterpoints, but I understand the hypersensitivity to the term, although I always hoped that it meant that retail companies were going to recover previous quarterly losses and bring the earnings into the black before the end of the fiscal year. That being said, hypersensitivity is no reason to jump on every theory or statement and make it a conspiracy or make something else up to balance it ( Kwanzaa, Tommy Hilfiger, etc). Do I feel like they have black history month in February to keep it short? Probably. Do I think they brought in europeans into the NBA to keep it relevant to white Americans? Good chance. Do I think they called it black Friday to reflect on the slavery days? Not buying that one… but I do like some of the history that has been provided. NC A&T…. Aggie Pride!!
You do know we were in agreement right?
Yes we are! Just trying to soften the blow to the ones that are pissed that we are not blindly jumping into the fray.
it referred to the practice of downsizing your slave population . .before winter hit .l keeping only those essential to running the plantationl.no need to feed unnecessary hands all winter..so the day after Thanksgiving when folks were in town shopping the men would finger the slaves ..buying n selling while the wives shopped more conventionally..it true folks we were bought and sold..u can Google all u want the bottom line is you would be buck naked on the auction block right now..praying you got a Good master..
This is true, black people learn your damn history!
Well in all actuality thanks6or shall I say the first successful harvest was held in November 1621 seems to me like a huge jump from 1863 when Lincoln made it a national holiday so factually speaking slavery was still present do the real research ppl speak to family members know your history
Coincidence in the names. Do you really believe that the marketing team that coined the phrase knew this obscure original phrase?
sounds like another story that will circulate forever with half the people believing untruths. the “slaves sold on discount” even sounds phony before you read that thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated until much later. then take into account slaves were sold at an auction and their not going to discount them when its a freaking auction, how would that work..duh. its an auction, not “Slaves R Us” you should worry more about teaching positivity and moving forward, because the past is just that, in the past. try and make a better future and quit dragging things down with what happened before. you cant change the past but you can change the future. Tony Braxton is just probably depressed from blowing her fortune and living in a hate bubble these days/ she already blamed Opera for making her lose her money.
Toni spoke the whole truth
Rather it derives from slavery or not, it is still a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and people need to wake up.