The Nation (of Islam)
I was watching the Millions More Movement deal on Saturday. Farrakhan spoke for quite a while and among his more interesting comments regarding New Orleans were:
“We charge America with criminal neglect.” Speaking of the delay in assistance after Katrina.
“We want to know what happened to the levees; we don’t want to guess about it and we don’t want to be guilty of following rumors.” This is only interesting because it implies that something other than a Category 5 Hurricane hitting a Category 3 designed hurricane levee caused the breeches. Maybe he means besides the nearly 30 ft storm surge and the 200 mph winds. I can�t be certain. It was less severe than some of his outright speculations on the subject in the last few weeks.
I�ve always been interested in Rev. Farrakhan and I try to see his speeches whenever I can. He�s an interesting figure in contemporary culture. I�ve never found him to be a particularly eloquent speaker and I certainly don�t agree with much of what he stands for. But then he isn�t speaking to me at all and his message isn�t for me. He does have some ideas that I think are worth listening to � these ideas are scattered in with the deservedness of reparations for slavery and his disestablishment rants. For instance, he called again for a unified nation of Africa which I think is a fine idea. Logistically and culturally difficult, and I don�t expect to see it in my lifetime, but it is still a great idea and I�m glad someone is putting it out there. He also called for the government to formally apologize to Native Americans. I�m not sure what that would do, exactly, but I do think it would be a nice gesture. Such an apology could, however, be used as leverage in the litigation process if my understanding of the law is accurate. He denounced George II and the War in Iraq but I�m not going to give him too much credit for that since that�s an easy one.
On the other hand these good ideas are over-shadowed by his tone and his (sometimes) unnecessary use of �shock value� language. He�s a very angry man, I suspect. He seems full of contempt and frustration. I can�t say I blame him for that so much. But I can�t very well trust him either. Indeed, he gives me no reason to trust him � to him, as the average white guy in America, I�m the enemy. So my reaction is appropriate. It wouldn�t surprise me to find he�s flattered by my view of him and my understanding of his view of me.
Rev. Farrakhan also announced the Millions More Movement Disaster Relief Fund but he didn�t very clearly lay out plans for where the money would go, or to who, or how. There may be more info on the website but I couldn�t find it. There is an excellent collection of advice for returning after the storm though. The website really is nice � must be costing them a fortune. It looks like it was done with Macromedia and seems to be javascript based which is a good choice. I like it � nice design.
One thing that really caught my attention during the speech was his fundraising strategy. Genius. He wants everyone to give a dollar a week to the Nation of Islam and on the day you send it, you�re supposed to fast. So you will actually save more than that dollar by fasting than its costing you to donate. I�m not a big fan of fasting and I don�t think that�s the answer to some of the lifestyle issues plaguing African American health. But when you can stand up in front of hundreds of thousands of people and say [paraphrasing, of course] �don�t eat one day a week and send me the money you�d have spent on food for that day� and people don�t boo you into hiding, that�s amazing. Now, in fairness, fasting is a big part of Islam. Ramadan is going on right now as a matter of fact. And I will say that I think the Rev. really believes fasting will help his followers in spiritual ways, but damn! What a thing to say.
I�ll end on a positive note: The Nation of Islam also wants to start a bunch of �Ministries� (i.e. the ministry of information, the ministry of defense, the ministry of commerce, etc.) to sort of interact with things like The Department of Agriculture, etc. on behalf of African Americans. This amounts to establishing another layer of privately funded government infrastructure � some have even said they want to establish an African nation inside U.S. borders (a stretch to be sure). These Ministries would not be as unprecedented of an idea as it sounds on the surface. Lobbyists basically do this on behalf of Business and other groups. If they can pull the financial means together, they may be able to create some new inroads into government. This may create some strained relations with African Americans already established in the government since he rarely seems to point to them as beacons of success. I�m not sure why that is.
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He is an interesting paradox within the Af Am community. Many hate him, but respect his guts; others resepct him but think he’s a dreamer. An odd guy, to be sure. It’s a shame that his rhetoric obscures much of his larger message - about unity and self-sufficiency. I take exception with his anti-whitey speil, but like you, I can respect his dedication. I still want to know where he was when Malcolm was shot, though.
A.
Jack,
Two interesting points I gleaned from the coverage of Farrakhan’s speech: 1. He said something about the barge hitting the levy in the industrial canal. Has the matter of barges breaking the levees been definitively answered? I’ve heard speculation that the barges hitting the levee were not accidents…
2. He distinguished between “blacks” and “creoles” in his speech. I thought that was interesting. I’ve never heard any of the black leaders articulate much about the “mixed” people, so it was odd to hear him single out creoles. The race issue in New Orleans is so much richer and more complex than it is in other major U.S. cities. So many of the people here are mutts (aren’t we all?), and there is a history of black and brown aristocracy, civic and political leadership. Hard to blame all New Orleans’ problems on so-called “white” people.
STEVE O’KEEFE
“Hard to blame all New Orleans’ problems on so-called “white” people.”
well called, Steve. Few outsdie the region realize the intricate dance of N.O. politics and soceity.
A.
For a really thrilling time, check out the history of the Nation of Islam and just what they believe.
For example, according to the NOI istelf, a mad scientist named Yacub many thousands of years ago began a series of genetic experiments involving breeding African human beings with dogs to create a slave race. This resulted in all of the various other races, the last of which is referred to as “White Devils.” The “White Devils” rebelled against their masters and in turn enslaved them, thus resulting in the modern day plight of African peoples. If you go further back in time with your research, you will encounter the entertaining Eligah Muhammed, and the very man who founded the whole cult, Wallace Fard, who, from all photographic evidence, appears quite light skinned, and who vanished mysteriously in 1934.
Farrakhan, or as he was known during his earlier show-biz career, “Calypso Louie,” has gone on record as saying that a gigantic UFO called the “Mother Wheel” follows him everywhere, poised to annihilate the entirety of non-African peoples at his command.
What is also well known is the antipathy between the NOI and the Black Panthers, who claimed that the NOI was in fact a government plot. The two groups engaged in several full-on street wars.
Quite a legacy, eh ?
First, let’s be fair. I read Farrakhan’s speech after reading Jack’s post. I don’t remember reading anyplace where he blamed all of New Orleans problems on ‘white people.’
On the question of the levees though, I think Farrakhan is right to question whether not the flooding was caused by more than just storm surge. The New York Times has been providing comprehensive coverage of this issue, better than our own Times Picayune in my opinion.
Last week, the NYTimes reported on the finding of an investigation by the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the American Society of Civil Engineers and United States Army Corps of Engineers which concluded that “…after inspecting the levees and reviewing storm data, all three investigating teams agree: Hurricane Katrina hit Lake Pontchartrain with far less strength than it did the Gulf Coast, and the storm surge fell well short of the tops of the levees. In fact, a design or construction flaw caused them to collapse in the face of a force they were designed to hold.”
The Times laid blame for any problems with the levee on the federal government, saying it was “entirely the responsibility of the federal government, through the Corps of Engineers.”
As for the barge question, the T-P did report on September 6th that Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi said that a “barge was found on the land side of the [Industrial Canal] floodwall, leading corps officials to believe it could have crashed through the wall and sent a huge amount of water - which was already pouring over the top of the wall - into the neighborhoods immediately downriver…If it did strike the floodwall, Naomi said, the barge would have ‘precipitated a tremendous collapse’ that would have quickly flooded the Lower Ninth Ward and then St. Bernard Parish.’
There is no need to make it a race issue because both blacks and whites, rich and poor have been effected by Hurricane Katrina. I know both wealthy white folks in Lakeview and middle class black folks in the Ninth Ward who lost their homes. Nevertheless, it is becoming more and more clear that ‘human error’ may have something to do with the levee problems and human nature was the catalyst for exposing these issues and others.
He is a racist. And blames the white race. If you beleave in a guy who said he was beamed up to a space ship then you and him are smoking some good stuff!
It’s not that he believes in space ships and stuff…lots of famous weirdos like Jimmy Carter talked about ‘em too, as well as many successful radio hosts of various religious persuasions.
It’s the UFO that is poised to eliminate all of the races except one that is striking, though, and the breeding with dogs by a mad Black scientist part that is sooooooo Calypso Louie Farrahkahn.
And I’m a BIG fan of absolute lunatic nutjobs like Robert Tilton…the really sick showmen.
But race always sells. It’s a real big ticket; a real bread-and-butter kind of grift.
Here is one Black Professor, who comes off as a retarded Revilo P. Oliver :
–
“And then finally I want to say that we need one idea, and we’re not thinking about a solution to the problem. We’re thinking about all these other things, but we’re not dealing with a solution to the problem. And we have to start to think about a solution to the problem so that these young brothers and sisters who are here now, who are 15, 16 or 17, are not here 25 years later talking about these same problems.
Now how do I know that the white people know that we are going to come up with a solution to the problem. I know it because they have retina scans, they have what they call racial profiling, DNA banks, and they
Why do white people get so offended when the truth is spoken. Instead of worriying about Farrakhan, you need to worry about Bush. He hates you poor white’s as well.
I can just tell that you whites are poor. Because elite whities don’t care about stuff like this. No nonsense conversation that is.
“The Truth ?”
Wow ! So a mad scientist named Yacub DID create the various races of the world by breeding Africans with dogs, and a giant UFO follows Calypso Louie everywhere ?
The Truth ?
Care to supply some, er, evidence supporting these incredible, official, and very public N.O.I. talking points ?
Well, you are indeed right that the elites in this country care not one iota about the poor, white or black…you can tell progress is being made when the Black and White chess pawns start to realize just how much they have in common…but the part that bothers people like me is that people actually BELIEVE the insane nonsense the N.O.I. spouts.
And, do your homework on the Black Panthers and the N.O.I. What actually went down might suprise you.
peace,
From one of those pesky dog-bred White Devils.
I would like to say one thing about yur letter and comments on the person of Louis Farrakhan.you will always find people talking about louis farrakhan he give black people many ways to better themself. but if the world of white people say that Farrakhan is a hater for teaching us. then you need to talk about white people and how they talk too us and that you will not do. you see it is easy to talk about peace and love after you have took everything.
I took nothing, nor did my family, or their ancestors, during the period of slavery, which, incedentally, involved mainly the wealthy elites of Europe enslaving their own poor long before they even STARTED with the wholesale rape of Africa.
They were brought over here in chains from the debtor’s prisons of Europe, and worked to death in factories and on farms. The part of my family that arrived here AFTER slavery was abolished also took nothing, and worked brutal 16 hour days in coal mines and in factories.
Look up the Irish Potato Famine and it’s aftermath sometime.
Also, look up the documented inter-breeding between Natives, poor Whites, and Black slaves. They were all neighbors, and a lot more went on than our history books will tell you.
It’s not as simple as Black and White.
After yet another 12 hour night shift at the most dangerous line of work in America, I thought I might underscore a previous point that I was a bit blurry with in my delivery.
Nothing, and I mean, NOTHING, will enrage a cold-hearted racist more than proof of Black-White-Native intermarriage from the 1600s through today. Even one of the very first “colonies” of Europeans flat out abandoned their settlement and totally vanished, leaving nothing behind but a cryptic message. For generations after, all these blue eyed Natives kept cropping up, confusing the hell out of people not “in the know.” And then, there are all the Civil War letters regarding mixed-race children and such.
I have trotted this out in front of various racists, and, oh, how mad they get, at the mere thought of Black or White DNA in their genes…
It’s like the old Convict saying, “There’s a little Wood in the Coalpile, and a little Coal in the Woodpile.”
But then again, this is all on a blog concerning freakin’ New Orleans, which was/ is a case study in racial hybridization and caste systems.
They are two peas in a pod.
Terrorosm is a chicken shit means of war - lazy.. It’s welfare war actually…
As an astute black man fighting with America and it,s bull shit agenda,s and its giving wealth and credit to phony athletes celebritys congress men,and con artists out to exploit my many confused and nonthinking people .Can someone tell me what good has Farrah CON!.,Done with the many checks and green backs these dummies had sent his shucking and jiving movement about a decade ago?.I sure don,t see any positive changes from that bull shit around my block .P.S.and i,m a succeess in my circles but by no help from those hustlers .And did anyone else notice the drama around these Frrrahkahn or CON gettogethers is always about him coming on with his rah rah bullshit.I saw some lady speeking and behind her a gold digger looking chick was getting her groove on with some dude .None of the other people mattered just when is the M.C. LEW,s going to come out for god,s sake they even plugged live commercials plugging water and t shirts wake up followers this guy is lining his pockets really well and probably is giving BUSH a cut ..Or they would of created a scandel or worse on him a long time ago.A gain what strides have been made with the last collection by lew and the boys,collection agency?
JESSIE,SHARPTON,LOUIS F.OPRAH put them all in a bucket and you can pick out leadership that smells like the soil of downtown NEWORLEANS!THESE are the levies that broke down on poor blacks with their exploitation of all of black america .Only GOD can help us all.Again i have a nice life no broken family just a mind to look at me and my people in the mirror.We need more Bill COSBY comments ,not 50 cents or those phony,s mentioned earlier.PLEASE no rally cry,s for unity while those phony,s go to the same folks that they condemn then live and buddy up with them .We should tune them out and make our own piece of the earth together .NewORLEANS only spoke of things for the oppressed in any city or small town .The message look past our so called hero,s bull shit and understand when camera,s aren,t on and no media can be found pray for god and pass the ammo by all means get your,s because our rich detached hero,s don,t really give a flying fuck about you.The meek inherits the earth so i pray that our black leadership never becomes meek because if they do we,re all doomed,GOD help us all….