40 Ounces of Genocide - Malt Liquor
by Alfred "Coach" PowellThe incredible success of Olde English 800 malt liquor suggests to me that far too many Black people are out of touch with the history of the African holocaust (maafa) experience. A marketing brochure for Olde English 800 noted that the product is "brewed for relatively high alcohol content (important to the ethnic market)! Pabst Brewing Co. has a serious scheme to take our money, our minds, and our lives and we're falling for it. The more I see Olde English 800 malt liquor in the hands of young Black men and women, the more I'm convinced that the American educational conspiracy to stamp out African memory is in full effect.
Have we forgotten who snatched 150 million African children, women, and men from the shores of their beautiful land, capitalized on the trade of human cargo, launched a wholesale genocidal attack on the Native Americans, then had the nerve to call themselves landlords, slave masters, and Christian? Lest we forget again, it was the olde English. Although many European countries were involved in the African slave trade, including Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark, it was .the olde English who monopolized the unholy trade. When Pabst decided to name their malt liquor after the same people who enslaved our ancestors, it was an "in your face," move against the Black community. And since Pabst chose to promote their high octane malt liquor to communities of color, we have the right, in fact it is our duty, to expose the murderous legacy of the olde English.
The 40oz rite of passage has become as deadly as the very first passage the olde English provided for us. It was called the middle passage, and it was the ultimate trip. A dead man in a coffin was given more room than the slaves who were chained to one another in the bottom of the olde English slave ships. Enslaved Africans had only a couple of inches to move their heads. As children take up little space, ships built to accommodate 500 were able to squeeze in 800 or more. To the olde English, African bodies simply meant profits, and the more the merrier. For the Africans, however, more bodies meant serious health problems, including yellow fever, malaria, leprosy, measles, smallpox, chills, and infections of the bowels, lungs, and throat-not to mention a spiritual and emotional sickness from which we have not yet healed. The death rate per ship ranged from 15-30 per 100. For eight to ten weeks, our ancestors suffered the unbearable stench of feces. disease, and the horrifying screams of women birthing live and stillborn babies. This hell was justified by the "moral" and religious beliefs of the olde English. The unholy trade continued from the mid 1500s to the end of slavery.
Yet, Pabst Brewing Co. honors the olde English by naming their power brew after them. Olde English 800 enslaves our people just as the olde English did, causing illness, pain and death. Clearly, the sale and promotion of Olde English 800 can be interpreted as a reenactment of the enslavement of Black people. Consider the barbaric legacy of the olde English and their historic interactions with people of color, especially Black people. The olde English used alcohol to enslave, colonize and kill, then and now.
On the label, the name Olde English is surrounded by crowns. The combination of the crowns and the Olde English name suggests the British Crown. The olde English bought and sold African slaves with a currency they called a "crown"; one crown equalled 25 pence. The Olde English 800 label bears 33 crowns, 32 of which appear in a circle. To understand the relationship between the crowns and the number 800, multiply the 32 crowns by 25: 32 x 25 = 800. Coincidence?
According to historian Basil Davidson, Britain worked a deal with the Spanish king that gave them a virtual monopoly of the slave trade. "The British were to provide 144,000 slaves over thirty years or an average of 4,800 a year. This monopoly they purchased from the Spanish king for 200,000 crowns and agreed to pay a duty of 33 1/3 crowns for each slave landed alive." Davidson lists the price of a slave at 33 1/3 crowns. W.E.B. DuBois gave the price at 33 1/2, while other historians say 33.
Thirty-three crowns are depicted on the OE label. Thirty-two crowns are strategically placed in a 360 degree circle. Now a crown is often used to symbolize the sun or sun rays in art. Thirty-two crowns arranged in a 360 degree circle symbolizes the sun. And as we all learned in our Eurocentric history classes, the sun never set on the British empire. No continent escaped the domination of British colonialism. No Black community in America has escaped the invasion of Olde English 800.
(This excerpt is taken trom the book "Message 'N A Bottle: The 4007.. Scandal"
by lecturer and author Alfred "Coach" Powell).
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