Minister Louis Farrakhan failed to deliver the keynote address at the 11th anniversary celebration of the 1995 Million Man March. Complications from cancer treatments forced the Nation of Islam (NOI) leader to cancel the first major address he has missed in his 29 years of leadership. The 73-year-old Farrakhan was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991 and in 2000 underwent… return to article
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Reader Comments (35)Page 1 of 1 pagesOh, please stop this whitewashing of Farrakhan. Didn’t he have a hand in Malcolm’s assassination ? What “moderation” has he ever shown ?
We are supposed to intimidated by someone even worse taking his place ! He will be as much of a loss as the Grand Dragon of the Ku klux Klan. Are the African Americans aware of the large Arab role in the slave trade ?
Posted by blondemike on Nov 14, 2006 at 12:03 PM The FBI assassinated Malcolm X.......
The NOI has also been very instrumental in keeping young black men out of prison....
Yu know BM , yu sure sound like a republican wannabe....rather than a leftist progressive....
Extremely opinionated on aspects of the black community...that yu appear to have little understanding of.....
And yes...Islam was very much involved in the slave trade before the Christians got in the game....The genocide in Darfur is a direct result of Islam imposing its religion....
But ....Afrikans in Amerika have there own agenda....we cannot forget all the indignities suffered in this country...because a law was passed or because some white folks have got there stuff in line and are willing to deal straight up....This ain’t about yu…
Again....Farrakhan is hated the same reason Malcolm X was killed...because they exposed the uncomfortable truth about Amerika and the ongoing racist/classist nature of the culture.....
Yu compare Farrakhan to the Klan....but Farrakhan has never lynched anybody...much less manipulated the judicial system to get off free and clear....
Yu are over sensitive to agendas that have nothing to do with yu.....actually the article is somewhat disparaging of Farrakhan....
Your generalities are misplaced...and at a point , bigoted....
This is the main point Redhorse hears when reading your posts..”.Yu expect black folks to share your value system “...but if we did...we would first have to turn the tables on whites...and profit off of your exploitation...in return for the exploitation imposed on us....
Now yu wouldn’t want that......this is why yu don’t like the leadership in your city...because the individuals with the say so...practice what Amerika preaches.....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 15, 2006 at 12:32 PM Actually the Black Muslims assassinated Malcolm X.
The leadership in my city has been disgraceful, whether the 20 years
of the Wilson-Harris Black Machine or the 8 years of Jerry Brown.
Farrakhan is hated because he’s an anti-white racist and an anti-semite.
I don’t “expect” anything. Decent people will share good progressive
values and the racists of ALL stripes won’t.
If Farrakhan could get away with lynching, he would. He probably helped do in Malcolm X. No way he has clean hands.
There’s been nothing “bigoted” about my posts, the only offended people ARE bigots.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 15, 2006 at 3:16 PM Of what ? Of racists ? I recognize them regardless of the shade.......
Posted by blondemike on Nov 15, 2006 at 4:12 PM Yu have no understanding of what racism is or does...Farrakhan may have made statements that you do not agree with or like...but without folks like him or MalcolmX....
....NO SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN THIS NATION…
Farrakhan or a Malcolm X , SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF MAINSTREAM WHITE COMMUNITIES....FORCING THEM TO DEAL WITH THE MORE MODERATE BLACK FOLKS....
Without the driving ugly realities that a Farrakhan speaks of....plus the organizational perspective of the NOI...BPP...etc...white folks wouldn’t have moved squat shit...towards any symbol of equality.....
Yu seem to admire Malcolm X....but hate Farrakhan....interesting because MalcolmX was accused of the same indignities as yu throw at Farrakhan....
WAS IT TRUE THEN...BUT NOT NOW....?
OR NOT TRUE THEN...BUT TRUE NOW....?
Redhorse has a hard time keeping track of white folks and their multi-dimensional sensibilities....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 15, 2006 at 5:53 PM Racism is not rocket science, Redhorse. I recognized white racists when I was growing in the 50s and 60s and I recognize black racists.
Try being the first white couple to buy in a borderline black neighborhood. It’s an eye-opener ! There are as many black racists
as there are white racists and the trick is not let them turn you into
a racist.
When Malcolm preached anti-white hatred I didn’t admire him though I liked his self-help ideas. I didn’t like it when Malcolm invited George Lincoln Rockwell, Commander of the American Nazi Party to speak at a Black Muslim convention. But Malcolm evolved, he stopped lumping all people of the same race into one mold. You might try it sometime.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 15, 2006 at 6:47 PM So Farrakhan is dying? Oh well. How relevant is this guy and his movement. He shares with the neo-Nazis a common love of the discredited tract, The Protocals of the Learned Elders of Zion. I heard once that he commands the support of ten percent of the African-American community. This is to bad. Could anyone imagine ten percent of the American Jewish community supporting the likes of the JDL and Mier Kahane? The Jewish Community is rather small. Ten percent of them would be less than 600,000 souls. That this many people could support a clerico-fascist bigot is unfathomable. It is said that 26% of the Jewish vote went to Bush in 2004. That would make less than one million votes. And Bush is not himself a clerico-fascist and the post-9-11 atmosphere also makes this transgression of one quarter of the Jewish community comprehensible especially with the terrorism and Israel/Palestine War. Still it is only Bush. The idea of over four million people in a key community supporting an out and out clerico-fascist bigot is chilling!! The fact that a movement that produced the killer of Malcom X, the articulate spokesman of Black Revolution, is now revered by so many is also chilling. What was the beef with Malcom X. NOI is racist and backward. They believe that race is the key just as the Nazis do. What is the real difference. Does NOI have any real cogent analysis of anything at all. Have they done anything to help build Black economic independence or political empowerment like they promise to do. American society in all its diversity has done far more to promote the very Black middle class that hews toward NOI with all its hatred of whites and America. Religion has never really had the long term effect of bringing diverse groups in any society together. Democracy has had that effect. So has secularization. I know of NO faith whose long term effects are compatible with Democracy. Never before have religious parties been so powerful in Israel. They currently hold more than two-thirds the parlaimentary seats in a country that was once 80% secular. The new trend shows. Israel is as racist, violent, and reactionary as ever. Islam is the same way. US clerico-fascist fundamentalist Christianity is war-mongering and reactionary. In Modern India, a country fast becoming one of the world’s economic and technology leaders, the rise of fundamentalist Hinduism has created pockets of sexist violence against women whose husbands reserve the right to divorce than immolate them to death or do so if they cannot produce a sufficient bridal dowery. Organized religion belongs on the scrap heap of history. This certainly includes the NOI in the US. The future poses a choice of progressivism or barbarism. Organized Religion has chosen the wrong side time and again. Let the Black community reflect on this as Louis Farrakhan nears the end of his life. The survival of their community and all of the rest of us are at stake!!
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Nov 16, 2006 at 2:33 AM No...what you saw was Black folks reaction to the institutionalized racism in this country....not understanding the context, because the rules don’t apply to you, is the reason you assume black folks can be racist....Racism may not be rocket science , but there are diffinite markers that distinguish racist ideology from bigotry or just plan ol’ distrust of motives....As a blackman I may not like you for a number of reasons...but to actually practice racism against you blondemike...I would need more than my personal dislike of you based in ethnic origins...most folks won’t go for that pigeon hole approach...so to make racism work yu need the propaganda and rhetorical vehicle to institute the non-reality...Laws have to be passed...no reading for yu...underfunding...and tax fraud...redlining on mortgage loans...My point being is that the institution of a racist state gov’t , creates a racist social structure...wthout that...racist mentalities are just that...individuals, with their own petty hangups...Which is not this Horses concern...I draw a distinct line between racism as opposed to a bigoted viewpoint...Both are ugly...but one can kill...were the other is just a foul personality disorder....
If you want to see black folks practice racist ideology...check out Clarence Thomas...or Condelezza Rice....these folks have positioned themselves to executed policies that are not only racist but fascist in nature...They have the vehicles of propaganda at the ready......Plus a rhetorical agenda that has the possiblities of convincing the general public..that what you see and hear ...is not really what you see and heard....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 16, 2006 at 4:43 AM Ya know...cabdriver...I don’t particularly agree with your perspective on Farrakhan....But the end analysis is true....traditional organizational religions are and have been obsolete for qiute sometime now…
How yu get folks to accept knowledge over beliefs is the 64000 dollar question......
Gerald Massey stated in the last chapter of his collection of lectures...Gerald Masseys lectures...chapter title “ the Coming Religion “...."We have but just begun to ascertain the meaning of the good old facts that preceded the good old faith....” additionally...."They have based religion on erroneous grounds. They have made us the victims of false beliefs, and a false belief will make despicable cowards of men who would otherwise have looked facts in the face, and been true to themselves and honest to others...”
Begone, you foolish preachers !
Howlers, snufflers, screechers !
You miserable teachers !
You God-of-blood beseechers
You forgers of God’s features !
Who make us the devil’s creatures ;
Shut up, you foolish preachers !
Get out, you hell-fire screechers ,
Go home , you played-out preachers!Gerald Massey........
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 16, 2006 at 5:29 AM Chicago Cab Driver, as usual you are right on the money. Redhorse
confuses capitalism with racism and makes convoluted arguments
that exempt all black racists like Farrakhan and include all whites as
racists. Blacks can be as racist as whites as Redhorse oddly acknowledges when talking about about Thomas and Rice !
White condescending tolerance of black racism has done nothing
but severe harm to blacks.
My only caveat with Chicago Cab Driver is that he severely underestimates the amount of anti-Arab racism among even other progressive Jews. Even my own wife has some of this. Very few US
Jews identify with the JDL/JDO thugs but some of Kahane’s core
beliefs have a wider resonance unfortunately. At least 1/3rd of the
Jewish Community in Israel are out and out fascist/racists. One
named Lieberman just got in the Cabinet there.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 16, 2006 at 11:09 AM Mr. Muwakkil
I’m disappointed you feel that, “Through an artful combination of outrageous rhetoric and mollifying gestures, Farrakhan has managed to maintain his radical base without undermining his mainstream credibility. “ While I don’t agree with everything Farrakhan, he’s much more than “outrageous rhetoric and mollifying gestures”. I found this comentary to be condescending toward Min. Farrakhan and the NOI. Are you trying to maintain “mainstream credibility” by mocking Farrakhan?
Posted by theloneous on Nov 16, 2006 at 11:43 AM BM....Ya know....you are just an anal retentive pathological xenophobe....You cry progressivism...but talk like a trolling little spoiled bitch....I did not include all white folks...and if I AGREE that some blacks have exhibited racist behavior...mostly against their own community...you try to turn it all around into something else…
BM....your duplicitous ostentatious cripple act is short...played out...and weak.....It is telling that you live in a state that is only ; what 4% black population , and all you can see is how afrikan amerikans are screwing you....Apparently...your problem centers around your inablity to get over your own racist ideological tendencies , not wanting too admit this; not even to yourself....yu project these insecurities onto the source of your supposed and or actual contempt....And then try to balance it all out by kiss up to the Cabdriver...genuflecting and shit...all the while thinking...GENTRIFICATION.....yu just a fake ass troll....
Hows the ol’ saying go....” If you throw a bone into a pack of dogs , the only one that yelps, is the one that got hit....”
Classic....seen it a million times...I should get paided...somebody write me a check.....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 16, 2006 at 5:22 PM theloneous....Apparently the horse that got us to the dance is no longer needed....
Dualism when applyed to the race issue are hard for many to swallow...especially when those dualities deal in anyway with Black Nationalism....
Critical analysis is one thing....apologetic generalities are another....whenever an article directly dealing with the issues of afrikan amerikans is presented...I see a prevalence of the apologetic generalities...and very little critical analysis....
As a matter of course...to attempt a conversation of that level...in this forum...is extremely difficult as the Horse has just experienced with blindmike...oh..my bad blondemike
It’s like feeding aspirin to a child...first yu got to crush it down...and then mix it with water or juice....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 16, 2006 at 6:00 PM Redhorse, the problem with arguing with an idiot like yourself is that people after a while might not be able to tell the difference.
My “racism” consists solely in reacting to the racism of blacks who
have attacked me and my family solely for being white.
Oakland has been well over 50% black for 50 years, some people
now claim it’s down to 31% black but blacks still commit 78% of all
crime.
Case closed.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 16, 2006 at 6:28 PM So move your punk ass somewhere else...fool.
You don’t expect me to believe you can’t afford someplace else…
If this is all you can afford...it would seem you are quite ungrateful....true.
Typical...Same bullshit...different State....
You just confirmed my earlier hypothesis..
Either yu are a failure at supplying a more comfortable lifestyle for yourself and your family, therefore attempting to blame this personal lack of achievement on others , who symbolize a diversion from your actual lack of integrity ; or you are a gentrification freak....
This is why I have been refering to yu as BM....synonymous with Bowel Movement.
Either way...Redhorse is done with ya............
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 16, 2006 at 8:16 PM Redhorse:
Shortsigted amerikan culture tends to trash everything when its shelf life appears over, as is the case with Mr. Muwakkil regarding Min. Farrakhan in this commentary. Either by habit or ignorance, the amerikan mindset wants to kick the elders to the curb as if there’s no room on the bus, not realizing they’ve already encountered every fork in the road on lifes’ highways.
Dualism implies some sense of balance and racist corporate amerikan capitalism is the antithisis of anything resembling balanced. Black nationalism would necessarily counter amerika and force it to at least acknowledge non-white autonomy as a possibility, ie...white folks worst nightmare. Don’t expect any honest critical analysis on matters of race, it would shatter the amerikan dream. Long live the spirit of the Million Man March. Peace.
Posted by theloneous on Nov 17, 2006 at 8:46 AM theloneous....Ya know....I’m not really a fan of Farrakhan...or any other religious personality for that matter, I have listened to many of his lectures,so I know what he has said...as opposed to what the media has propagandized about him ; to pigeon hole this man as all bad is not true…
Blondemike is a good example...I feel comfortable in assuming that he has never really listen to or heard one full lecture by Farrakhan, but he knows this guy this bad, a racist...so he pre-judges the guy as a racist...without a complete hearing..So what does that make him( blondemike)..by his definition of racism...not my definition, which would let him off the hook...no, his definition...Now MalcolmX is ok...first, because he’s dead...secondly, because MalcolmX has become more vogue in Amerikan culture...so it’s cool to be down with MalcolmX...get me a MalcolmX hat, maybe a poster to hang on the INSIDE of his bedroom closet door...yu know..just as fake as it gets… Then he claims to want some sort of solidarity...but is not willing to let go of that dreaded ostentatious cripple mentality...When confronted by a black person who things for himself...he freaks and starts calling everything Afrikan and independent minded....racist...Everybody in his Oakland Ca. , neighborhood is a racist...if he is the unfortunate victim of a crime, it’s because he is white, and black folks are targeting him....He fails to understand how condescendingly ridiculous this is....I doubt seriously that this guy even knows his neighbors or the ‘hood he resides in.....Shallow veiwpoints to complex realities...he sounds more like a child than a grown man in his 60’s....Truthfully I’ve had more meaningful exchanges with republicans than this guy…Theloneous....300 years of white skin privilege, has driven much of the Amerikan psyche....INSANE...walking, talking psychopathic...MANIACS....regardless of political affiliation....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 17, 2006 at 5:32 PM BM....tell the truth...yu thought MalcolmX meant Malcolm Ten...for the longest...didn’t yu.....come on...be honest for once...and qiut the bullshit....yu have no clue...and black folks scare the hell out of yu...don’t they....Yu see a black guy on the street...and secretly yu want to run and scream...like some ol’ punk.....dont yu.
See yu can’t admit it to yourself or others, because outwardly yu got to keep up this facade of the cool ol’ white guy from DC...who’s down with progressive agendas and shit...but really yu hate black folks...yu hate us and yu hate yourself...but yu just won’t confront the reality...because to yu...Amerika means “ land of the white way “...whether progressive, green, democrat , republican or independent...no veiwpoint is legit unless some aspect of euro-centered anglo-saxon culture says it’s so....
Total and complete blondemike BM.....
Quit the “God Bless White Amerika “ bullshit....and join the human race.....
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 17, 2006 at 6:23 PM Cabdriver....Your analysis on the NOI and Farrakhan is shortsighted and incomplete...Yu also assume MalcolmX, was the only articulate voice for the radical black left...his assassination was done by the FBI...Redhorse is surprized that one so knowledgable of history would miss that obvious point...Every black revolutionary organization during the sixties had been infiltrated...COINTELPRO gov’t paid provocateurs were everywhere....A former BPP DC chapter member talks about his experiences working for the party...The FBI raids their office and arrests everybody, about 25 to 30 individuals....After the fact ; the party brings a law suit against the Gov’t...for the raid, arrest and harassment and such...When the case got to court, 6 or 7 of the defendants could not sue the Gov’t because they were employees of the Gov’t...To make it plain...they were informants…
Now why does the fact that many afrikans in amerika admiring this man Farrakhan send chills through you...do yu get chills from the nonsense Pat Robertson pulls off..advocating for the assassination of the democratically elected Mr.Chavez...Or the billoins of dollars foolishly sent in to these TV preachers so that they will pray for us poor lost sinner souls....Farrakhan is no different, only Islam is the shill...remember Rev. Ike or Sweet Daddy Rich...used to come on TV sunday mornings, on the VHF channel...no different , just that Farrakan is a muslim , he’s selling Al Islam..
Where do you think , Redhorse saw the photo of then CIA director George Bush, sitting on a couch in the office of former Panamanian strongman Maneul Noriega...in Panama...Now this is the same Bush, how later , when questioned about Noriega in reference to the Iran/Contra scandal...stated that he had never meet Noriega, and did not know that Noriega was a cocaine kingpin...But he’s sittin’ their talkin’ to the man as the top man in the CIA...; that photo was run in the NOI’s Final Call newspaper, nobody else ran that photo...definitely not the mainstream media ..
Finally… in a world for black folks,here in Amerika..that is constantly propagandizing negative bullshit about us and who, and why....Farrakhan offers a clear truthism...not truth...but truthism, an alternative to rhetoricalized misrepresentations that hurt our communities, especially the young adults,teenagers and children....So think about giving the brother a break...yu may gain a deeper perspective on world history and the pedagogy of resistance...It’s not an exact science..yu know.
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 17, 2006 at 7:47 PM As far as the Neo-Nazi tag...Cabdriver again, this is not a very objective analysis of the whole situation...neo-nazis are part of the imperialist super-stucture...The NOI is not even close...their work was originally centered in keeping young BLACK MEN, OUT OF PRISON...All the other stuff is secondary...further...again...the progress made by black amerikans was in very large part due too the hands on work and hardline rhetoric of organizations like the NOI...AGAIN, THEY STRUCK FEAR IN THE HEARTS OF WHITE PEOPLE, FORCING CHANGE ...To marginalize this is to miss the essence of what was really happening during those times…
The sixities revolution was a military defeat, because so many were killed or more directly assassinated...but it was a moral victory, because the world , for the first time clearly saw and understood the evil, wrenched duplicity of the Amerikan psycho-drama called Jim Crow or segregation or racism...The NOI and Farrakhan and MalcolmX, were an intricate part of that struggle....marginalization of that fact , does not change it...just like a preacher can’t preach away the realities of the falsifications of his christian beliefs.......
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 17, 2006 at 8:17 PM People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?
Posted by David in Canuckistan on Nov 18, 2006 at 1:17 AM David.....Redhorse tryed to get along with Mr.BM, truthfully I really tryed ,but he keep farting in my house,and then blaming the Horse for the stink...Additionally he would bring his trash into my yard, then try to say it was my trash, when everybody knows that funk belongs to him…
Soo , I had no choice but to tell him to go fuck himself with a rusty flag pole…
.I think he’s much happier now.....
Canuckistan...?
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 18, 2006 at 5:23 AM Redhorse, very poor writers uniformly use a great deal of unnecessary
verbiage, they have trouble spelling, they cannot compose a proper
english sentence, they project onto others exactly what they are (racist
in your case) and their pathetic attempt at argumentation consists of the
repeated use of the ad hominem fallacy (see Aristotle’s Logic.)
You have no idea of my career situation, the Bay area housing market or
how many times I’ve heard a Farrakhan lecture. (Too many is the short
answer.) Actually Farrakhan in an interview with The Spotlight back in
the 80s had much harsher things to say about the black mo fo culture
than I have here.
Horse, I was never in your house. This is the ITT public forum.
As to where all the great heat with very little light is coming from I’ll let
the readers here by the judge. (Hint----"redhorse.")
Oh by the way, there are several blacks in my neighborhood who are as
opposed to the black thugs here as we are. I never said ALL blacks.
You are simply a racist liar. PERIOD.
And Nina & I were writing about the Bush-Contra-North-Hull drug
connections almost 17 years ago in Z. To the extent that I can make
out your wordsalad I think we agree on Bush. And we are great admirers
of Chavez.
If your representative of the human race, I’ll pass.
Let me know when you want your next public ass whipping.
Always happy to oblige a growing boy.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 18, 2006 at 1:22 PM Ya know how I know my insults have hit a homer....the intended starts insulting the Horses word-play.....This argument started over your lack of a balanced critique...I don’t know yu from spit...so your personal bio is not my concern....
Sense yu have obviously read my posts...as opposed to just responding blindly...I will assume that yu understand that Min.Farrakhan is not the issue ; only a symbol of a larger collective....But then again...being BM , I should also assume that yu are not only culturally naive...but metaphorically daft…
Why yu insist on this obnoxious fascination with black folks and what yu precieve to be exhibitions of racist behavior, is a mystery only yu can understand, like yu are surprized that some blacks are against the thugs and somehow the majority of us, are cheering on the criminals...This is ridiculus…
Statements like “ Oh by the way, there are several blacks in my neighborhood who are as opposed to the black thugs here as we are...” Only several....? Why only the” black thugs “...?I would hope that all criminal behavior would be of concern, regardless of ethnicity...and other than the criminals themselves...Redhorse doesn’t know anybody who is for the thugs...Shit...the thugs aren’t even for the thugs…
This is clearly , by your definition of racism, a racist statement...but I personally would say it is patronizingly bigoted...Like yu just figured that out...With friends like yu..no wonder the community is in turmoil…
Stop all of your proselytizing bullshit , and maybe yu will get a civil response...The BM speaks of wordsalads and such...but forgets to use his own , as of yet , unseen powers of communication…
Now concering your pass on my invitation to join the human race...Redhorse is not surprized...300+years of white-skin privilege is hard too walk away from........true.
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 18, 2006 at 4:26 PM Horse,
I know the NOI likes to promote many conspiricy theories such as Whitey spreads drugs and guns in the ghetto to keep Blacks down and killing each other, Jewish doctors deliberately inject black babies with the AIDS virus (Steve Cokely, assistent to Chicago Mayor Gene Sawyer in 1989), Whitey blew up the levees in New Orleans using barges loaded with dynamite (Dick Gregory), and a host of other shit. The Protocals of the Learned Elders of Zion is another NOI favorite. Were it not for the NOI this particular tract would have died long ago instead of being preserved in large swathes of American paranoia. Why does the NOI need to be the purveyer of hateful myths if they do such good work for young Black Men. Those who follow the NOI are surely easily led. So are those who believe in Conspiracy theories white or Black. Its time to lay off this shit and do some real thought. And ease up on the macho talk there big fella!!
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Nov 18, 2006 at 5:05 PM Well Cabdriver...all the Redhorse can tell yu is a bit of the old wisdom, I’m sure you are familiar with this expression , do with it as yu please....
.” Many are called, but few are chosen....”
“… the money changers have gained so much influence over the lives , the very psyche of men… it has become abundantly clear..that.the ablity to experience true solidarity of self , community , and nation , is at a point.... extremely compromised...”
.
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 18, 2006 at 7:51 PM For all your strong verbal skills...Redhorse never realized what a weak mind you have....
Your post was extremely illuminating.....cabdriver.
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.......1932-1972...US Health Services...all you got to do is google.
Additionally...there is the documentary of COINTELPRO...evidence is in abundance...denial is the bitch…
“ The wages of sin are many...ignorance is thy name......”
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 18, 2006 at 7:58 PM I am familiar with the Tuskegee experiments as well as COINTELPRO during Nixon as well as the Bush warrentless wiretaps today. I know both African-Americans and others in the US have good reason for paranoia and mistrust. But it is one thing to direct it at the government or large concentrations of wealth and power like transnational corporations. It is quite another to prejudicially attack ethnic minorities like Jews or tar all Whites (most of whom are poor) with the same brush.
This is why Black nationalism (or Zionism or any other kind of nationalism) is weak in its critique of current society and not at all liberating as a movement or worldview. Its not about cultural identity but social class. All societies and the various social groups within them are highly stratified and these strata differ in their wealth, power, “life-chances”, and access to resources. This is where analysis should start not with cultural identity. Aren’t Condi Rice or Clarence Thomas more influential than many poor Israelis who move here to do unskilled, low wage jobs?
Progressive movements should unify people. NOI most certainly doesn’t prioritize unity of all progressives. Jewish intellectuals never really dominated the civil rights movement but there was heavy Jewish participation. I don’t know that this either harmed the movement or twisted its direction. The death of MLK and the consequent power vacuum certainly left things wide open and after the Jews pretty much disappeared from the movement by the early 1970s there was much infighting. Some like Ralph Abernathy threw his support to Reagan thinking economic growth and a renewed role for religion would have an uplifting effect. He was more practical than ideological (I met him and talked briefly with him at a talk at the UW and he had no time for ideology!) but differed greatly with most Black folks who really didn’t like Reagan. I part with some progressives over the issue of racism. Race is still a key issue. But I think class is even more important. I realize that identity is one important basis on which capitalism organizes productive relations but the question of identity can become over essentialized. At this point we have prejudice, infighting, bitterness, and a divided movement and the powers that be ultimately win the political struggle.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Nov 19, 2006 at 1:08 PM OK..Cabdriver....thats a valid analysis...I can understand your prospective....But race...in terms of ideology for afrikans from amerika...is still very much a serious issue...In terms of education, career dev.,family values....etc....our identity as afrikan people is paramount to an ability to move past the racist / classist elements that infect our community....The NOI was never perfect, no resistance movement is...the times and realities of the 30’s when Elijah Mohammed founded the organization, when Jim Crow was in full effect ; are not that different than what is happening now ; the difference is in the sophistication...ok. Does this imply that the NOI is more problematic than in the past..? Yes. Does this means that the NOI is obsolete...? No.
The identity of Afrikans in amerika should be one that is heavy on the Afrikan-centered ideology, this might scare the shit out of many white folks; but that can’t be our problem...This is the major message behind the NOI( yu got to wash that whiteman out of your hair; literally and figuratively)..This is the process, it has nothing to do with killing white folks , a conspiracy against the State, or resistance to progressive agendas…
Ever wonder why Afrikans from the continent do so well when they get here, or folks from south of the border or people from the Caribbean...They bring a center of confidence that is culturally based...this is the process..like it or not… Black folks understand this is also a class issue...Cabdriver if you moved one step in the direction of understanding the pedagogy of change in the afrikan community...you would find that the Farrakhan’s of the community are just what I stated earlier...A muslim Rev.Ike or a Sweet Daddy...remember Alan Keyes...now we have...ol’ whats his name..got money from Bush to push the religious agenda in black churches...Jakes..Rev.TD.Jakes…
Look , many good God fearing non-racist white amerikans admire George Washington, regardless of the fact that he bought and sold slaves...they see past that ugly reality...and admire the man...Amerikan history is replete with these individuals...Why would you expect Afrikans from amerika to be any different...especially given the realities of Amerikan history....It really is just a matter of being reasonable...showing some empathy, respect...before you launch into your concerns about what and when and why....
It has been my personal experience that in day to day contact most white folks seem to respect culturally-center Afrikan people more so than . some clone of themselves...Now thats a very general observation, but again ,thats what I’ve experienced...Doesn’t mean they like you...but you do get more general respect....
Talk to the Redhorse...not at the Redhorse…
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 19, 2006 at 2:39 PM Redhorse, you have not been oppressed for 300 years and neither has anyone else. Very few people live to 100 years. Because of the composition of my neighborhood the thugs are black. In fact, even
though Oakland is allegedly only 31% black now, blacks still commit
78% of the crime. case closed.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 20, 2006 at 11:26 AM Yu are a dumb fuck....I really do not wish to correspond further.....BM.
Actually , I lied about my age...I’m 347 years old..............
Posted by Redhorse on Nov 20, 2006 at 2:26 PM Redhorse, this is the ITT board, I hadn’t considered that we were having
a correspondence. Your profanity, ad hominem attacks and racism
condemn you more than anything anyone else could say.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 20, 2006 at 4:17 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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