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“This is the secret, Melvin. You are a young man in a country in which the founders knew the price of everything but not even the value of humanity outside their narrow Anglo-Saxon male circle – so when a man wants to be a 'big man in America,' just understand what the goal is. I did not realize this soon enough, but see, your grandmother ain't no slave and left me and my money right there until I got it.”
Thomas Stepforth Sr. and his grandson Melvin Trent were walking and talking, and Melvin was astounded.
“Wait, what?”
“The men we have been taught to admire committed crimes against humanity every day for profit – dared to work our ancestors into the ground if they could just for profit so every little nobody from Europe could play God on his own plantation if he could get one – and the women who wanted to be married to these so-called big men were just as cruel, willing to sell out their own souls and bodies and the innocence of their children for that life.
“But at this point, Melvin, it ain't about color. Every person who looks like you and me that is out here selling drugs chasing being a 'big man' is the exact same person, but that does not work as well for us.”
“Yeah, and the only sibling my father has that is still alive is Aunt Victoria, and both of them went into the Army early so they could have money to help Papa V.T. pay for their education. Papa V.T. was poor compared to most of his siblings … but his generation was transitioning from moonshining to drug dealing, and Dad's generation was right there, and only Dad, Aunt Victoria, Papa V.T., and Grandma Jubilee (Gladys Jubilee Trent, a Jubilee-of-the-mountain-born) were willing to go a humbler way.”
“And it broke your Trent grandparents' hearts to see all the destruction that came because of the foolery,” Mr. Stepforth said, “because when you are Black and you try to be a big man in America by criminal means, prison and the grave are your portion. Period.”
“Which is why I'm letting these people in my generation go,” Melvin said. “I've seen my grandfather and my father cry because of the pain in our own family, and my father keeps his guns loaded and taught me how to shoot at just 12 years old – but I never thought about the why … we all went to school and looked at who was admired and why, and a lot of us learned that maing merchandise of other people worked for Washington, Jefferson, and Madison and they got away with it, so why not – and if we didn't have strong dads and granddads to keep us out of gangs of Black men who think exactly the same way … .”
“It was bad when I was your age, but you know how Big Pop-Pop was,” Mr. Stepforth said. “He told all his sons, 'I will not let the prison make you a slave, boy. I will kill you myself if you ever sell out your people.'”
Melvin chuckled.
“Yes, sir, that was Theodore Stepforth … he spoke real soft, and was real old, but everything he said he was going to do he did, so, yeah, that would keep you out of trouble.”
“Look, you notice I didn't say I didn't believe him!” Mr. Stepforth said. “I'm a whole billionaire, and my father is the first of two people in the world that I have met that you better hear them the first time, because you will hear those consequences the second time, and it does not matter how old you are or how much money you are making. You know who the second person like that is!”
“That would be Big Mama Velma!” Melvin said with a laugh.
“I'm still trying to figure out how I married a woman like my dad, not my mom,” Mr. Stepforth said. “But the point I'm making is, both my parents put down the foundation I eventually found my way back to – the only truly Big Man running anything in this universe is God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest of us miss one good heartbeat and we're done.
“So, here is the secret, Melvin – we'll generalize it because we have to be able to work with people of all beliefs or none – listen to people's motivations. Look at who people at admire and want to be like, and what kind of status they want in life, and why.”
“I'm going to ask you a hard question, Pop-Pop – would you have recommended you, 20 years ago? Not that you ever did stuff like exploiting your workers or anything, and I've never heard you talking about having money just to stunt on people, but still.”
Mr. Stepforth sighed.
“No. When I was 46, I was still trying to prove to white people that I was better than them and thinking I had to make enough money to get ahead of all their attempts at revenge. I would have made a terrible mentor for you then, because I was all kinds of messed up in my own unique way. I'm glad that at age 66, I'm back standing on the foundation. The Lord has told us how we are to be as men following His example. He brought me back and then healed our family, but save yourself some time and heartbreak and stay on the foundation.”
“That's the plan over here,” Melvin said.
