Transcription
Now, when I first read about the 1950s black American middle class, I was surprised, and you'll see why as we go over the account.
Now, more importantly, this history matters because it shows exactly how, if people keep thinking and believing the same, they'll continue acting the same and producing children who repeat the same patterns, right? And so, as we go over this 1950s black American culture, we're going to read from this book right here, "Black Bourgeoisie," written by sociologist Dr. E. Franklin Frazier. So let's go on here and let's turn to page 204, where it says this: "The exclusion of the middle-class Negroes from participation in the general life of the American community has affected their entire outlook on life."
Now, what exclusion is he talking about? He's talking about not being accepted by whites, which he describes as one of the primary aims of this black middle-class group and wanting to be accepted socially by whites. It has its roots in this inferiority complex that was developed during slavery. So let's continue. It has meant that whites did not take Negroes seriously, that whites did not regard the activities of Negroes as of any real consequence in American life. It has tended to encourage a spirit of irresponsibility or an attitude of play or make-believe among them. And in this book, Dr. Frazier talks about this group exaggerating their wealth to make it seem like they were doing financially better than what they were actually doing, and that their business, their profession, and their education was not something that they took actually seriously, right? This was part of that make-believe world that they had created.
Now, let's go over to page 207 and let's talk about this play attitude. As a consequence of the prestige of society, many Negro professional men and women take more seriously their recreation than their professions. Once, the writer heard a Negro doctor who was prominent socially say that he would rather lose a patient than have his favorite baseball team lose a game. This was an extreme expression of the relative value of professional work and recreation among the black bourgeoisie. At the same time, it is indicative of the value which many Negro professional men and women, including college professors, place upon sports.
Here we go with the sports. Now, remember, this was written in the 1950s, where we're seeing an account where Dr. Frazier is explaining that these professional blacks were already placing a higher value on sports than their actual profession. Let's continue. Except when they are talking within their narrow field of their professions, their conversations are generally limited to sports, baseball, and football. And if he were writing this today, he would have added basketball to this list as well. Let's continue. They follow religiously the scores of the various teams and the achievements of all the players. For hours, they listen to the radio accounts of sports and watch baseball and football games on television. They became learned in the comments of sports writers. And I remember in the Marine Corps, I knew multiple guys who had, it seemed like, to know all the stats on multiple players like in the NFL and in the NBA, right? They could tell you what team they were on, what team won the Super Bowl, who won the NBA Championship, what year they won it, which college they went to, what stats they had in college. I mean, it seemed like they knew the full thing. Who coached which team, how many years. I mean, the full thing. And at this point, I had already stopped watching sports to any significant degree, so I wasn't up to the latest information. But it was fascinating just how much time and effort that they had spent to accumulate this knowledge, right? Because even when I did watch sports more frequently, I wasn't nearly as knowledgeable as these guys were, right? I played basketball for my high school team, right? And I knew enough to have surface-level conversations about what was going on, right? And after high school, I pretty much lost most of my interest in sports. The only thing that I may watch today is a few highlights from boxing or MMA, and that's about it, right? But if you were to ask me today who won the Super Bowl or the NBA Championship this year, last year, the year before, or whenever, I would be absolutely clueless. And if you ask me about which player plays on which team today, I would be just as clueless, right? Because I don't have a desire to stay informed on that subject. It's not important enough for me, right? But it is surprising to see that the Negro has had a long history of prioritizing sports.
Let's continue. Often, they make long journeys in order to see their favorite teams, white or Negro, play baseball and football games. The prominent role of sports in the serious playing of Negro society stems partly from certain traditions in the Negro community. It reflects, to some extent, the traditions of the gentlemen who engaged in no serious work. But in addition, preoccupation of Negro society with sports is related to its preoccupation with gambling, especially poker. And this culture is stemming from the old Southern culture where the rednecks were involved in these types of activities as well. The blacks were influenced a lot by these types of people in many different areas of the development of black culture, right?
Now, from here, let's go a little bit into their culture of self-hate and low self-esteem in this next part, right? Which is important because it gives insight as to why blacks today take interest in certain programs and why they shy away from certain fields. And so, let's go on here to page 216, where it says this: "Since the black bourgeoisie cannot escape identification with Negroes, they experience certain feelings of insecurity because of their feeling of inferiority. Their feeling of inferiority is revealed in their fear of competition with whites."
There is first a fear of competition with whites for jobs. Now, notwithstanding the fact that middle-class Negroes are the most vociferous in demanding the right to compete on equal terms with whites, many of them still fear such competition. They prefer the security afforded by their monopoly of certain occupations within the segregated Negro community. For example, middle-class Negroes demand that two Negro medical schools be reserved for Negro students and that a quota be set for white students, though Negro students are admitted to white medical schools. What they're really saying is that they don't believe that they can compete intellectually with these other groups, right? They may give all sorts of other reasons, but the underlying belief is that they don't believe that they can compete in these areas, right? You got to understand this because you won't find a quota system in professions like basketball or football, right? Because they're confident that they can compete in that area. But when it comes to these intellectual matters and thinking, right? They don't think that they can compete in there because that's what they have come to believe about themselves, right? But you have to understand this, that the truth is that anyone can be competitive in any profession or any intellectual subject if they have a dominant desire to do so. But the blacks, they're never going to be able to be competitive in those areas if they continue to spend vast amounts of time indulging in sports and entertainment. It's just not going to work. It does not work that way, right? You cannot compete against people in intellectual professions who do the opposite, right? And they spend the vast majority of their time on these intellectual matters and minimal time on sports and entertainment, right? These are just the basics that we're talking about, right? These are the basics.
Now, let's continue. "Since the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled against segregated public schools, many Negro teachers, even those who are well-prepared, fear that they cannot compete with whites for teaching positions." Although this fear stems principally from a feeling of inferiority which is experienced generally by Negroes, it has other causes. The majority of the black bourgeoisie fear competition with whites partly because such competition would mean that whites were taking them seriously, and consequently, they would have to assume a more serious and responsible attitude towards their work. And competition would mean that they would have to give up many of the low-value activities like sports and shooting the breeze on insignificant topics, right? And they would have to replace those with higher-value activities like reading, studying more challenging subjects, right? Thinking and analyzing, basically breaking free of the inherited Negro consciousness.
Let's continue. "Middle-class Negroes who are notorious for their inefficiencies in management of various Negro institutions excuse their inefficiency on the grounds that Negroes are a young race and therefore will require time to attain the efficiency of the white man." The writer has heard a Negro college president who has constantly demanded that Negroes have equality in American life declare before white people, in extent of the shortcomings of his own administration, that Negroes were a child race and that they had to crawl before they could walk. And so they were saying that in the 1950s, which I could understand to some degree, but it looks like Dr. E. Franklin Frazier is not buying that excuse, even at that time, right? But it's crazy to hear that people still today say the same thing, right? Going round and round on the hamster wheel and going a whole lot of nowhere.
Let's continue. "Such declarations, while flattering to the whites, are revealing in that they may manifest the black bourgeoisie's contempt for the Negro masses while excusing its own deficiencies by attributing them to the latter." Yet, it is clear that the black worker who must gain a living in a white man's mill or factory and in competition with white workers cannot offer any such excuse for his inefficiency. And most people don't care about the excuse either. They need you to do a job.
Let's continue. "The fear of competition with whites is probably responsible for the black bourgeoisie's fear of competence and first-rate performance within its own ranks." When a Negro is competent and insists upon first-rate work, it appears to this class that he is trying to be a white man or that he is insisting that Negroes measure up to white standards. You see that? That's the black consciousness that has to be separated from because it's a consciousness that's meant to hold people down into the pit. Because the ones who have this mindset, they have zero intention to improve, right? And they have every intention to keep someone down who's trying to improve.
Let's continue. "This is especially true where the approval of whites is taken as a mark of competence and first-rate performance." In such cases, the black bourgeoisie reveal their ambivalent attitudes towards the white world. They slavishly accept the estimate which almost any white man places upon a Negro or his work, but at the same time, they fear and reject white standards. For example, when a group of Negro doctors were being shown the modern equipment and techniques of a white clinic, one of them remarked to a Negro professor in a medical school, "This is the white man's medicine." Again, when was this published? In 1957, and there's still groups of them saying the very same thing, which is absolutely crazy, right? This is the energy current that's working against the blacks, right? And it's preventing progress. That energy current called the black consciousness, it's there, and it's meant to stop people from climbing out of the pit of darkness. You have to understand that.
Let's continue. "Negroes who adopt the standards of the white world create among the black bourgeoisie a feeling of insecurity and often become the object of both envy and hatred of this class." The standards that he's talking about is what they call the white man's medicine or the white man's science or the white man's professionalism, and so forth. And so, when they take on those standards, it is looked at with hatred and with envy because it's looked at as a challenge to how those people believe that someone who they think of as black should act, right? It's that self-defeating black consciousness that's there, right? And it's the consciousness that some of you have to escape from.
Let's continue. "Among the women of the black bourgeoisie, there is an intense fear of the competition of white women for Negro men." Uh oh, it's about to get spicy, right? Now, let's continue. "They often attempt to rationalize their fear by saying that the Negro man always occupies an inferior position in relation to the white woman or that he marries much below his social status." They come nearer to the source of their fear when they confess that there are not many eligible Negro men and that these few should marry Negro women. That such rationalizations conceal deep-seated feelings of insecurity is revealed by the fact that generally they have no objection to the marriage of white men to Negro women, especially if the white man is reputed to be wealthy. In fact, they take pride in the fact and attribute those marriages to the peculiar charm of Negro women. You see that? Now, do they still have those same inner thoughts today? You tell me.
Let's continue. "In fact, the middle-class Negro woman's fear of the competition of white women is based often upon the fact that she senses her own inadequacies and shortcomings." Her position in Negro society and in the larger Negro community is often due to some adventitious factor, such as light complexion or a meager education, which has pushed her to the top of the social pyramid. And so, these are external qualities which don't contain much substance and they're not as valuable as inner qualities. And so, Dr. Frazier is saying that her outer qualities is what took her to the top of the social pyramid in the black world.
Let's continue. "The middle-class white woman, not only has a white skin, which is not really white, but it's like a pinkish-orange skin and straight hair, but she is generally more sophisticated and interesting because she has read more widely and has a larger view of the world." You see that? So, this is what he's saying is really making her feel insecure.
Let's continue. "The middle-class Negro woman may make fun of the plainness of her white competitor and the latter's lack of wealth and interest in society. Nevertheless, she still feels insecure when white women appear as even potential competitors." Both men and women among the black bourgeoisie have a feeling of insecurity because of their constant fear of the loss of status, since they have no status in the larger American society. The intense struggle for status among middle-class Negroes is, as we have seen, an attempt to compensate for the contempt and low esteem of the whites. Great value is therefore placed upon all kinds of status symbols. Academic degrees, both real and honorary, are sought in order to secure status. Usually, the symbols are of a material nature, implying wealth and conspicuous consumption. And a person is never going to feel any real sense of security if they are primarily materialistic and they place very little value on the internal things, right? It just doesn't work that way, right? And the blacks have built an entire culture around external things.
Let's continue. "Sometimes Negro doctors do not attend what are supposedly scientific meetings because they do not have a Cadillac or some other expensive automobile. School teachers wear mink coats and maintain homes beyond their income for fear that they may lose status." The extravagance in social life generally is due to an effort not to lose status. But in attempting to overcome their fear of loss of status, they are often beset by new feelings of insecurity. In spite of their pretended wealth, they are aware that their incomes are insignificant and that they must struggle to maintain their mortgaged homes and the show of wealth in lavish social affairs.
Now, in the book, Dr. Frazier talks about how the black middle class was spending and attempting to live comparable to the white upper class, right? As far as income is concerned. And so they had a lot less money, but they were trying to buy things to make themselves seem and appear as if they had more money than what they actually did, right?
Let's continue. "Moreover, they are beset by a feeling of insecurity because of their struggles to maintain a show of wealth through illegal means." From time to time, wealthy Negro doctors are arrested for selling narcotics and performing abortions, which is crazy, right? But to maintain their show of wealth, some of them had to operate illegally within the black market. Because in the 1950s, abortion was still very illegal. So this is the report that Dr. Frazier left behind describing that time, which sounds absolutely crazy to hear about doctors being in the drug game, right? This is crazy.
Okay, so now that we have that background, let's shift gears, and Dr. Frazier is going to provide us with some insight on the 1950s black family structure, right? And you're definitely going to want to hear this part here. Here we go.
"In the South, the middle-class Negro male is not only prevented from playing a masculine role, but generally, he must let Negro women assume leadership in any show of militancy." This reacts upon his status in the home, where the tradition of female dominance, which is widely established among Negroes, has tended to assign a subordinate role to the male. And this is another part of black consciousness. It includes women running the house and the men being submissive to the women, right? As the standard, right? Like he said, well-established within the Negro community. And I feel bad for both the masculine woman and the feminine man who find themselves in this type of relationship because they both live a very frustrated life. Both of them. And later on, in other videos, we can do some lessons for the men to make sure that you never end up in this type of relationship because ultimately, it's up to you, right? It's up to you to develop yourself in such a way that allows a woman to feel comfortable expressing her feminine nature with you. But it starts with the man. And yes, there are a whole bunch of masculine women in America, but there's also a whole bunch of feminine men who balance out the equation. And a feminine man is someone who's always complaining, arguing, has no emotional control, easily agitated and angered, right? Has minimal ambitions and goals, no purpose, right? No self-improvement, always blaming, and always waiting for someone to come and do something for them. And a woman is never going to respect someone that's like this, right? And so, being masculine is one of the ways she expresses that frustration with the man. But this could all change, right? I promise you, this could all change. But those other things, they have to be worked on first. But let's continue reading.
"In fact, in middle-class families, especially if the husband has risen in social status through his own effort and married a member of an old family or society woman, the husband is likely to play a pitiful role." The greatest compliment that can be paid such a husband is that he worships the wife, which means that he is her slave and supports all her extravagances and vanities, which is absolutely ridiculous, if you ask me.
Let's continue. "But of course, many husbands in such positions escape from their frustrations by having extramarital sex relations." So here we go with the cheating.
Let's continue. "Yet, the conservative and conventional middle-class husband presents a pathetic picture." He often sits at home alone, impotent physically and socially, and complains that his wife has gone crazy about poker and society and constantly demands money for gambling and expenditures which he cannot afford. Sometimes he enjoys the sympathy of a son and daughter who has not become a socialite. Such children often say that they had a happy family life until Mama took to poker. They spend large sums of money on their children for toys and especially for clothes. They provide their children with automobiles when they go to college. And here's why they do it: all of this is done in order that the children may maintain the status of the parent and be eligible to enter the social set in Negro colleges. It's a status symbol. That's what many blacks were about back then, and that's what many blacks are still about today, right? And that's a major part of black culture.
Let's continue. "When they send their children to Northern white colleges, they often spend more time in preparing them for what they imagine will be their social life than in preparing them for academic requirements of these institutions." And when you understand this, it points to one of the many reasons why blacks score the lowest on many of the tests, right? They have a culture that they have developed that places a much higher value on social things rather than studying, right? And we all know this.
Let's continue. "Sometimes they may project upon their children their own frustrated professional ambitions." But usually, even when they send their children to Northern white universities as part of their social striving within the Negro community, they seem to hope that their children will have an acceptance in the white world which has been denied them. Because middle-class Negroes are unable to indulge in aggression against whites as such, they will sometimes make other minority groups the object of their hostility. For example, they may show hostility against Italians who are also subject to discrimination. But more often, middle-class Negroes, especially those who are engaged in a mad scramble to accumulate money, will direct their hostility against Jews. They are constantly expressing their anti-Semitism within Negro circles while pretending publicly to be free from prejudice. They blame the Jew for the poverty of Negroes and for their own failures and inefficiencies in their business undertakings. And expressing their hostility towards Jews, they are attempting at the same time to identify with the white American majority.
The repressed hostility of middle-class Negroes to whites are not only directed toward other minority groups but inward towards themselves. This results in self-hatred, which may appear from their behavior to be directed towards the Negro masses, but which in reality is directed against themselves. While pretending to be proud of being a Negro, they ridicule Negro physical characteristics and seek to modify or efface them as much as possible. And that's how you get a lot of women pressing and perming their hair, which is something that is not allowed in the hero community, right? It's not allowed in the hero community. The standard is natural hair only for the women that are evolving from the black community, right? That's how you start gaining more respect for yourself and stepping out of the slave mindset, right? Which many people in the black community want to continue to perpetuate.
Let's continue. "Within their own groups, they constantly proclaim that inwards make them sick." The self-hatred of middle-class Negroes is often revealed in the keen competition which exists among them for status and recognition. This keen competition is the result of frustrations which they experience in attempting to obtain acceptance and recognition by whites. Middle-class Negroes are constantly criticizing and belittling Negroes who achieve some recognition or who have acquired a status above them. And that's the black consciousness of trying to pull people down into the pit when they're starting to climb out, right? That's the black consciousness.
Let's continue. "They prefer to submit to the authority of whites than to be subordinate to other Negroes." And why is that? Because that's the relationship that the slaves understood. That's what the slaves knew: the whites running the show and the blacks following the orders and following along, right? Which is a consciousness that they have passed on from generation to generation, right? So the black had a problem taking authority from someone that he viewed as black because he saw himself as worthless, and he projected those views onto that other person who he also saw as a black person.
So let's continue. "For example, Negro scholars generally refuse to seek advice and criticism of competent Negro scholars and prefer to turn to white scholars for such cooperation." In fact, it is difficult for middle-class Negroes to cooperate in any field of endeavor. You see that? That's the black mentality, unable to cooperate on anything meaningful because someone is always trying to outshine the other person, right? Someone's always jealous, someone's always envious of the next person, someone's always trying to scam the next person, no emotional control, right? Self-hatred, right? These are just a few of the reasons why it makes it very difficult for them to work things out, right? But the good news is that this could all be overcome, but you have to stop believing yourself to be a black person, and you have to drop the black consciousness, or you're just going to continue going round and round on the hamster wheel and doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results. Understand.
Now, let's continue. "It is as if he said, 'You are only a Negro like myself, so why would you be in a position above me?'" And again, that's the black consciousness that I'm talking about, which breeds self-hate. Now, is this still the case today? And if so, that means that you have to do something different, or in the next 70 years, you're going to have offspring still having the same discussions and going nowhere on the hamster wheel. But not us, right? We've already got out of there. The Earth-poised people, we're going in a completely different direction, right? And some of you are going to come too, and the rest of the people are going to continue doing the same thing over and over. Understand.
Now, let's continue. "This self-hatred often results in guilt feelings on the part of the Negro who succeeds in elevating himself above his fellows." He feels unconsciously that in rising above other Negroes, he is committing an act of aggression which will result in hatred and revenge on their part.
"The black bourgeoisie, as we have seen, has created a world of make-believe to shield itself from the harsh economic and social realities of American life." This world of make-believe is created out of the myth of Negro business, the reports of the Negro press on the achievements and wealth of Negroes, the recognition accorded them by whites, and the fabulous life of Negro society. Some of the middle-class Negro intellectuals are not deceived by the world of make-believe. Now, listen closely, because even though it was most, it still wasn't all of them. So, Dr. Frazier says, some of the Negro intellectuals, because there's always going to be some, were not deceived. Now, let's see what these few did differently. Here we go. They will have nothing to do with Negro society and refuse to waste their time in frivolities. They take their work seriously and live in relative obscurity so far as the Negro world is concerned. The only thing that they didn't do is create a new name for themselves and completely separate themselves apart from the rest of the people. And so they still called themselves black, but they were culturally distinct from the rest of the middle-class black folks.
Let's continue. "Others seek an escape from their frustrations by developing, for example, a serious interest in Negro music, which the respectable black bourgeoisie often pretend to despise." In this way, these intellectuals achieve some identification with the Negro masses and with the traditions of Negro life. But many more middle-class Negroes, who are satisfied to live in the world of make-believe, but must find a solution to the real economic and social problems which they face, seek an escape in delusions. They seek an escape in delusions involving wealth. This is facilitated by the fact that they have had little experience with the real meaning of wealth and that they lack a tradition of saving and accumulation. Wealth to them means spending money without any reference to its source. Hence, their behavior generally reflects the worst qualities of the gentleman and peasant from whom their only vital traditions spring. Therefore, their small accumulation of capital and income which they receive from professional services within the Negro community make them appear wealthy in comparison with the low economic status of the majority of Negroes. The delusion of wealth is supported by the myth of Negro business. Moreover, the attraction of the delusion of wealth is enhanced by the belief that wealth will gain them acceptance in American life.
In seeking an escape in the delusion of wealth, middle-class Negroes make a fetish of material things or physical possessions. They are constantly buying things: houses, automobiles, furniture, and all sorts of gadgets, not to mention clothes. Many of the furnishings and gadgets which they acquire are never used. Nevertheless, they continue to accumulate things. The homes of many middle-class Negroes have the appearance of museums for the exhibition of American manufacturers and spurious art objects. The objects which they are constantly buying are always on display. Negro school teachers who devote their lives to society like to display 20 to 30 pairs of shoes, the majority of which they never wear. Negro professional men proudly speak of the two automobiles which they have acquired when they only need one. The acquisition of objects which are not used or needed seems to be an attempt to fill some void in their lives. And when this book came out in the 1950s, this community was hot because it had exposed some of the deepest secrets that they had and their insecurities and also this world of make-believe that they had created.
Now, watch this right here. Here we go. "Moreover, the black bourgeoisie have shown no interest in the liberation of Negroes except as it affected their own status or acceptance by the white community." Right? This new black bourgeoisie, they never cared about the liberation or the upliftment of the people. They only cared about themselves, right? This is not the same type of group that you get like with the Booker T. Washingtons and the W.E.B. Du Bois, who come from a different class of black folks, right? This is a new type of black bourgeoisie with a new agenda.
Let's continue. "When the opportunity has been presented, the black bourgeoisie has exploited the Negro masses as ruthlessly as have whites." And that's why I've said before that it's both the blacks and the whites who are eating off of the black community. It's both of them, right? Both of them are exploiting that community for their own gains. Understand, right? Some of those blacks who are in these prominent positions, they like the system and the condition just the way it is, just like some of the whites in those prominent positions do too. Both of them like it just the way it is. And those blacks, they'll sell the other blacks out just as quickly as those African tribes sold those other African tribes out to the Europeans.
Let's continue. "As the intellectual leaders in the Negro community, they have never dared to think beyond a narrow opportunistic philosophy that provided a rationalization for their own advantages." The single factor that has dominated the mental outlook of the black bourgeoisie has been its obsession with the struggle for status. The struggle for status has expressed itself mainly in the emphasis upon social life or society. The concern of the Negro for social life and society has been partly responsible for the failure of educated Negroes to make important contributions within the fields of science or art. And you see that here, there's a mentality and a mindset within that society that's keeping a lot of these youth who would in otherwise be really prominent in areas like science, it's holding them back, right? It's a mentality in there.
Let's continue. "Educated Negroes have been constantly subjected to the pressures of the black bourgeoisie to conform to its values." Because of this pressure, some gifted Negroes have abandoned altogether their artistic and scientific aspirations, while others have chosen to play the role of phony intellectuals and cater to the ignorance and vanities of the black bourgeoisie in order to secure social acceptance. Since middle-class Negroes have never been permitted to play a serious role in American life, social life has offered an area of competition in which the serious affairs of life were never involved. Middle-class Negroes who have made real contributions in science and art have had to escape from the influence of the social life of the black bourgeoisie. And today, what I'm telling you is that you have to escape completely from the black consciousness altogether, right? If you want to see any real change.
Let's continue. "In fact, the spirit of play or lack of serious effort has permeated every aspect of life of the Negro community." And that's why we had to make the Great Escape in the final phase of freedom, because this lack of serious effort has permeated every area in the life of the Negro community, right? And it has a stronger influence even today within that community.
Let's continue. "It has therefore tended to encourage immaturity and childishness on the part of middle-class Negroes, whose lives are generally devoted to trivialities or unimportant things." And so, this was a very important piece on the dominant black culture as reported by sociologist Dr. E. Franklin Frazier in this book here. And so, accounts like this, they're very important because they don't sugarcoat things, which is what you need to hear because it's better to have a bitter truth than a super sweet lie. But one thing that I want you to understand is that the point of highlighting these things and bringing these up is not to make people feel bad or to stomp people while they're down. It's to highlight these neglected areas that people have to look into so they can better understand how they inherited the mindset that they may have, right? And they can understand the problem if they see it as a problem and they desire to fix the problem, right? Because the problem and the solution, they're two sides to the same pole, right? And the better you understand the problem, the better you understand the solution. And this is, like I said, important for people who have a desire to improve themselves. If someone doesn't see it as a problem and they don't have a desire to improve themselves, then none of this matters at all. It doesn't matter one bit. There's really no problem for you, right? Because you're just doing what you want to do anyway. But for the people who have a desire to improve and to change things, then it's important to understand the problem and to see it from a different perspective, right? So you can better prepare yourself for a solution. And so, hopefully, this has been able to help you out and it has given you some light so that you can better find your way on the path. And so, I want to thank you for watching all the way to the end. My name is Brooklyn St. Michael, and I'll see you in the Free World.