Textbook: Mba Mbulu's Introduction to White History: The History of White America. Click here for purchase information.

Click Here and read the extract from Mba Mbulu's Introduction to White History: The History of White America for this class. Also read Chapter 17 of the textbook, Mba Mbulu's An Introduction to White History. Think about what you read and be able to respond to the following questions.

(1) What type of "established boundaries" are being discussed in this lesson? Are they simply physical, or do they refer to boundaries that are much more than physical?
(2) Were white America's founding fathers willing to go beyond established boundaries? What is the importance of that from a Black perspective?
(3) The fact that white America's founding fathers went beyond established boundaries made them "big time gamblers." Is that a positive or negative characterization?
(4) Did white America's founding fathers take native Americans into account when they decided to gamble on settling the "new land"?
(5) The lesson states: "White America's colonizers and founding fathers gambled, and there is much that an abused people can learn from that." What do you think abused people can learn from gambling? Does that include Black People in the United States?
(6) What is your understanding of the following statement? "Not only did white America's founding fathers gamble, they persevered. They were able to persevere for the same reason they were willing to gamble-- their vision of what they had to gain was much more powerful than their fear of the risks that were involved."

The major difference between individuals and societies has nothing to do with race, intelligence or other such factors. The major difference between individuals and societies revolves around their willingness to manipulate a status quo or go beyond the boundaries or parameters established by a status quo. Those who insist on going beyond the established boundaries become pioneers, leaders and peers, and sometimes martyrs. Those who are content with remaining within the established boundaries become followers, sycophants, peons and victims.

If nothing else, white America's colonizers and founding fathers were big time gamblers who were willing to stretch the boundaries to the limit. The status quo that prevailed in Europe on the eve of the settlement of the new land was their status quo, and they manipulated it to the max. But the land that Cristobal Colon had recently "discovered" was beyond their zone of control, so they had to gamble in order to profit from it. They gambled when they drew up and notarized deeds to a land mass that they did not own. They gambled when they decided to establish businesses in a faraway land that they were not familiar with. They gambled when they repeatedly paid to send criminals, malcontents and other dregs of European society across 3000 miles of ocean in floating death traps to settle the new land. They gambled that they would be able to keep the settlements supplied with goods and necessities until the settlers could produce enough goods and services to support themselves. Native Americans could have practically destroyed their chances of success by killing the settlers en masse every time a ship came to the shores of the new land, but white America's founding fathers gambled that the Native Americans would be too civilized and unsuspecting to do so. And white America's founding fathers gambled that, once they got a foothold established, they would be able to grab ownership of sections of the new land mass, de-populate those sections of its native inhabitants and re-populate them with individuals of their choosing. They gambled they could stretch the odds to the absolute limit and succeed with the right combination of good fortune and ruthlessness (which they called "God"). If in the end they realized they were not going to get their way, they gambled that they could dodge enough arrows to make a clean getaway or, if creased by a few, recuperate, learn from their mistakes and move on to their next project.

They gambled! White America's colonizers and founding fathers took a huge gamble, and it is to their credit that they were willing to do so. Even though most of the white investors and merchants did not succeed, their gamble succeeded, and it was the gamble that meant more than anything else. It was the gamble that made the nascent businesses and colonies in the new land possible, it was the gamble that allowed those nascent businesses and colonies to evolve into profitable corporations and states, and it was the gamble that made what is now called the United States of America possible. White America's colonizers and founding fathers gambled, and there is much that an abused people can learn from that.
Not only did white America's founding fathers gamble, they persevered. They were able to persevere for the same reason they were willing to gamble-- their vision of what they had to gain was much more powerful than their fear of the risks that were involved. Unfortunately for humanity, their vision was of individual riches and profits, not the making of a better world for people in general. As the new land evolved into the United States of America, the vision of white America's colonizers and founding fathers took strong root and rendered the myriad of other visions blurry and inconsequential.