Minister Louis Farrakhan began preaching about Black empowerment and self-reliance long before President Barack Obama was born. And, based on his appearance at last week’s crusade in Jamaica to mark the 19th anniversary of his Million Man March, the eighty-one-year-old Farrakhan will probably be preaching about the same long after Obama leaves The White House.
Unfortunately, his message has become so distinguished by hollow rhetoric and financial schemes that one could be forgiven the impulse, in his case, to shoot the messenger. In other words, Farrakhan speaks like a shaman (offering panaceas for all that ails Black people everywhere), but he behaves like a con man (competing with lotteries to rob poor Blacks of what little they have). Only this explains why he hustles more for money at Black political rallies than Pete Rose does at Baseball trade shows. Not to mention his Final Call online store, which is like the Wal-Mart of inspirational and self-help quackery….
This is why (in his mind, heart, and soul) Farrakhan is more snake-oil salesman, like Reverend Ike, than Black empowerment preacher, like Malcolm X.
I should disclose here that I am a disaffected fan, having been thoroughly disillusioned by his rhetoric and profoundly swindled by what will go down in history as his most notorious and profitable scheme, the Million Man March. Therefore, I speak from experience when I admonish my Caribbean compatriots in Jamaica and elsewhere to take everything Farrakhan says with a pinch of salt.
He claimed (in an interview published in the October 20th edition of Jamaica’s oldest newspaper, The Gleaner) that he decided to mark this anniversary in Jamaica “because both of his parents were from the Caribbean” (his father from Jamaica; his mother from St. Kitts). But I suspect he decided to do so because people all over the United States have become so wise to his rhetoric and schemes that he had to go abroad to break up his fallow ground. So, Jamaica, be not proud.
In any event, given Farrakhan’s MO of sowing the same seeds everywhere he goes and hoping they fall on fertile ground, I have decided to mark this 19th anniversary with the same commentary I wrote to mark the 10th – followed by closing remarks on his visit to Jamaica.
I wrote “Millions More Movement (and that’s millions more dollars, not people…fool!),” on October 17, 2005. More to the point, I did so as one who heeded Farrakhan’s call to join his original Million Man March (in October 1995), only to become so disillusioned, disaffected, and duly disgruntled that I marked that 10th anniversary more as a recovering victim than as an enabling follower.
Sadly, my testimony is as relevant today as it was on that seminal anniversary. But it should serve as a cautionary tale for any Jamaican or other Caribbean national who was or becomes inspired by Farrakhan’s words – especially on such issues as economic empowerment and lotto-like delusions of reparations for British slavery.
__________________
“Millions More Movement…”
Minister Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam (NOI) marked the 10th anniversary of their Million Man March (the March) by calling Black men, women, and children to the National Mall again on Saturday to launch their Millions More Movement (the Movement). But, considering that I am still in despair over dashed hopes and broken promises from the March, I thought it would be too politically masochistic to join the Movement.
However, thanks to C-SPAN, I could not resist tuning in from the comfortable home my Caribbean work ethic and unparalleled opportunities in America have enabled me to own. And it saddens me to affirm that what I saw of Saturday’s activities only vindicated my decision not to dignify this occasion with my presence.
(It seems appropriate to note here that fellow Caribbean native Wyclef Jean delivered the most instructive and useful message of the day. Feigning self-deprecation, he begged the crowd to excuse his perfect English as he shared his immigrant story of coming to America at the age of 10 and working several jobs at once (“the way we West Indians do”) to get by. He ended his story by declaring this self-evident truth: that if he could achieve such stellar success in America, then there was no reason why every Black American could not do the same! Unfortunately, speaking such obvious truths was not on the Movement’s agenda for this day, as every other speaker … made patently clear.)
Farrakhan is easily the most articulate, visionary, inspiring, provocative, dynamic and intelligent public speaker in America today (as he has been for decades). But many of us who have been energized and moved by his anti-establishment polemics have come to realize that Farrakhan is little more than a performer who delivers speeches full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and then is heard from no more … until his next curtain call.
For example, in March 1995, Farrakhan led an army of one million Black men in a spirited denunciation of White supremacy. More importantly, he exhorted Blacks to atone for their self-inflicted maladies and for the serial failures of Black leadership. Of course, the irony that his failures are paramount in this respect was completely lost on him.
Yet he exuded such infectious majesty on that occasion that even pedestrian Black leaders delivered speeches about self-help, Black empowerment, and personal responsibility with such eloquence that one might have mistaken them for historical Black luminaries like Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But none of them reached the rhetorical heights where Farrakhan’s rhetoric soared – from the opening of his speech until he ended it with this, now trademark, pitch:
Now brothers, the last thing we want to say, we want to develop an Economic Development Fund… Inside of one month, we would have over $100 million. And in one year, we would have $1 billion … which means that no Black organization will be accountable to anybody outside of us… How many of you would like to see all our Black organizations free?
A task force will be formed … to make sure that the things that we say today will be implemented… [W]e want an outside accounting firm to come in and scrutinize every dollar that was raised from your pockets to make the Million Man March a success… We will come back … and we will account for every nickel, every dime, every dollar…so that you can trust. I put my life on this.
To rob you is a sin. To use you and abuse you is a sin. To make mockery of your love and your trust is a sin. And we repent of all sin and we refuse to do sin anymore.
(Courtesy of C-SPAN, October 16, 1995)
I am ashamed to confess that I not only bought every word Farrakhan uttered back then, but also contributed to his phantom Economic Development Fund (EDF). And I derive no consolation from having enough sense not to contribute to his equally dubious Economic Exodus (slush?) Fund.
The point is that, based on my research and inquiries, Farrakhan did not implement any of the Black empowerment initiatives he outlined or fulfill any of the fiduciary promises he made (that is, if any of them were ever intended to be). Frankly, it shall redound to his eternal shame that Farrakhan did, in fact, use and abuse the trust we vested in him and (did) make a mockery of the love we bestowed upon him as a leader who, we hoped, would create a “third force” to compel the American establishment to address the concerns of the poor and powerless.
Therefore, watching events unfold on Saturday, I had an appalling sense of déjà vu as speaker after speaker delivered essentially the same words I heard 10 years ago. Only this time, instead of projecting the aura of historical Black luminaries mentioned above, they looked and sounded more like second-rate actors spouting off hackneyed lines about Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq. And, instead of professing atonement for their own sins, they were blaming President Bush for everything from causing the levee breaks in New Orleans to cutting back their welfare checks.
Indeed, what I watched, from my 1995 vantage point, smacked of a bunch of thieves returning to the scene of their greatest heist and trying to pull off a similar heist a decade later. Specifically, one of the longest speeches on Saturday was a shameless (but decidedly shameful) solicitation for money by one of Farrakhan’s boosters. In what must be a patented NOI version of Three Card Monte, he entertained the crowd with jokes (like a Saturday night comedian) and threw them a few religious platitudes (like a Sunday morning preacher), all while coaxing them to put their “Benjamins [100 dollar bills] in the receptacles” (like an everyday street hustler).
(These receptacles were conveniently placed all over the Mall and guarded like Fort Knox by NOI praetorian guards. But it speaks volumes about Farrakhan’s intent that this was the first political rally on the hallowed Mall at which organizers had receptacles to collect cash instead of trash…?)
To deliver Saturday’s pièces de résistance (think Sermon on the Mount), Farrakhan descended the steps of the Capitol like a deus ex machina (Black Moses) – escorted by his personal security detail from the Fruit of Islam (FOI) – and wowed the longsuffering crowd with vintage farrakhanisms.
The highlight (or, depending on your vantage point, the most irresponsible part of his speech) was his call for a separate Black United States of America comprised of “Black, Brown, Red and Poor people.” Never mind that Brown and Red people would probably be inhibited by reasonable suspicions about Blacks treating them in a Black United States just as Whites treated Blacks in the United States.
Still, Farrakhan went so far as to detail the ministries he envisioned, including those for Agriculture, Education, Trade and Commerce, Defense, Information and Religion. And he promised that his Black United States of America (presumably with him as the Black George Washington) would forge economic and political solidarity with a United States of Africa and a United States of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Intriguing stuff … until one realizes that it’s merely a repackaging of the grand platform for the “global advancement of Black people” he presented 10 years ago. But to perfect his recidivism, Farrakhan sounded the end of this speech with his familiar refrain:
Now brothers [and sisters] we need money.
Only, instead of using the pretext of an EDF, he announced the founding of a National Skills Bank where millions of Black people – who wish to contribute to his borrowed vision of a Pan-African world – could register their names “for a small deposit of $20? and donate “as many Benjamins as you can.” (Farrakhan even pulled a $100 bill out of his pocket at this point and held it above his head so that there could be no confusion between Benjamins and Georges [one dollar bills] when these new suckers make their deposits.)
As for the “millions” who attended, you can believe NOI counters or your lying eyes…
Of course, I won’t be at all surprised if – 10 years from now – Farrakhan has nothing of substance to show for all of his talk about the Movement. And I suspect many other Black men who joined his Million Man March are now just as cynical. Not least because aerial shots – juxtaposing the one million men who heeded Farrakhan’s call in 1995, with the smattering of men, women and children who heeded his call on Saturday – provide irrefutable evidence that many of us have become justifiably disillusioned with Farrakhan’s hollow rhetoric and financial schemes, and no longer want to be associated with him.
(Listening to speaker after speaker on Saturday marveling at the mirage of “millions” in attendance and suggesting that DC authorities might deliberately undercount them for political reasons, one could not help thinking that NOI disciples were propagating a Big Lie about the size of the crowd for their own political reasons.)
But before too many people register (i.e., pay) to be used, abused, and mocked yet again, I urge all Black people of conscience (especially journalists) to demand the financial reports, which Farrakhan promised in 1995 would be forthcoming on an annual basis to ensure fiscal transparency and good governance of his EDF. And, to help frame our demands in this regard, here are just a few threshold questions I would ask Farrakhan to answer, if I had the chance:
- What is the name of the “outside accounting firm” you promised would audit all of the EDF’s operations and use of resources, and can you have that firm publish a comprehensive (or money for value) audit online as soon as possible?
- You indicated in 1995 that “in one year, we could have $1 billion” in the EDF. What amount did you have after one year, and what is the total amount collected to date?
- One of the most dramatic and “uplifting” moments during your speech in 1995 was when you said that, with so much money in the EDF, you would have your board “call in Myrley Evers Williams and ask her, what the budget of the NAACP is for this year? $13 million? $15 million? Write a check.” How many checks, and in what amounts, Minister Farrakhan, did your EDF write to the order of the NAACP or other minority organizations over the past 10 years?
- At your rather less attended and less celebrated Million Family March in October 2000, you called on 1 million families to donate $100 each for your NOI to fund economic development in blighted Black cities all over America. What cities have since benefited from those funds?
- In a similar vein, please name three ongoing concerns (whether businesses, development projects or community outreach programs), which have been funded by seed money from the EDF and fill you with the most pride?
- When framing your solicitations for donations, you invariably profess an interest in helping Black and poor people of all races, religions, and creeds. Therefore, what has your NOI done to better the lives of non-Muslim Black Americans – besides selling them recordings of your sermons, speeches, press conferences, and, it seems, every other word that has ever proceeded out your mouth? [NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I purchased many of Farrakhan’s recordings before I came to my senses in the late 1990s – a few years after the Million Man March.]
Meanwhile, if purported civil rights leaders – like (the fathering babies out of wedlock) Rev. Jesse Jackson and (chronically indebted) Rev. Al Sharpton – had any credibility or clout left, they would’ve silenced Farrakhan long ago by raising these questions in the public interest. Instead, there they were on Saturday, shadowing Farrakhan, hoping to bask in his reflected glow….
Finally, I feel constrained to note that, at one point in his speech, Farrakhan ridiculed the $40 billion debt relief African Heads of State negotiated a few months ago with G8 countries. He posited that, because England alone had exploited more than a trillion dollars from the African Continent, this purported relief was, in fact, an insult (implying, of course, that the Africans are too ignorant or provincial to recognize this).
Except that his logic raises the following question:
Farrakhan is on record claiming that White Americans amassed trillions of dollars by exploiting Black Americans for centuries as slave and cheap laborers. Therefore, never mind debt relief, how much have Farrakhan and other enlightened Black Americans negotiated in reparations from White Americans?
The answer, of course, is nothing! Which is why Farrakhan’s advice for African debt relief (or Caribbean reparations) should ring every bit as hollow as his plan for a separate Black United States of America.
__________________
Closing remarks
Again, I wrote this “Millions More Movement…” commentary in October 2005. Yet I fully expect the concerns I raised back then to resonate with any Jamaican who has now sobered up from the intoxicating spell Farrakhan reportedly casted over Jamaica during his recent visit.
Beyond that, I fully expect anyone who reads my testimony to agree that Farrakhan’s hollow rhetoric and financial schemes are surpassed in their brazenness only by his sociopathic ego. For only this explains how he remains so unaffected by the inevitable disillusionment, disaffection, and disgruntlement his rote message causes.
This is why I am so dismayed that the Jamaican media greeted and treated Farrakhan more like a Black Moses than a prodigal son.
Of course, he is the purportedly chosen leader who established an “exodus” fund to liberate Black people everywhere from (the legacy of) bondage. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that he aped Moses, not by demanding to let his people go, but by intoning that the Queen must go. Never mind that Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller herself is among many Jamaican leaders who have been intoning the same for years. But such is his political arrogance and self-righteousness….
To be fair, though, Farrakhan did a lot of preaching to Blacks in the Caribbean about becoming self-reliant and independent of their former slave masters in Europe. The problem, however, is that he has been preaching to Blacks in the United States about becoming self-reliant and independent of their former slave masters in America for over 50 years. And even I now understand why his message always fell, and continues to fall, on fallow ground where 99 percent of Black Americans live their daily lives.
I am convinced that his message won’t find much fertile ground in the Caribbean either. I just fear that many Caribbean nationals will suffer far greater disillusionment and lose far more money than I did before they come to their senses about the unrepentant Minister Louis Farrakhan and his phantom Nation of Islam.
Related commentaries:
Millions More Movement
* This commentary was originally published on Friday, Oct. 31, for my weekly syndicated column at Caribbean News Now