No post racial America for Farrakhan. He is a great speaker and one of those people who is one half crazy, one half brilliant, and 3 halfs ego-maniac (yeah, that’s 5/2s, I know). I heartily recommend old Farrakhan Speaks videos for those who aspire to public speaking. He is a master.
Anyway, he’s in the news urging black muslims to remain pissed:
The 76-year-old Nation of Islam leader said in a speech commemorating the 14th anniversary of the Million Man March that people shouldn’t become pacified by the election of the first black president.
“This can pacify you and lull you to sleep in a dangerous time, making you think that we live in a post-racial America — when the opposite is true,” he said to loud applause.
The Chicago-based Nation of Islam has embraced black nationalism since its founding in the 1930s, and has used Obama’s election as a launching point for celebration, intellectual discussion and a call to action.
“You may not be pleased with everything he’s saying and doing, but you have to understand that he’s been voted in to take care of the affairs of a nation, and not yours and mine particularly,” Farrakhan said. “He’s the American president, not the black president.”
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 8:14 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
He’s actually not telling anybody “to remain pissed,” he’s actually telling them not to blame Obama for the fact that he is not the savior of Black America and his being president will not change the reality of their neighborhoods, but that it is their own responsibility to change their own community and no one else can or will do it for them.
This is the classic Black nationalist, self-help message that the NOI has always taught….Farrakhan actually is much too apologetic for Obama and was much too supportive of and enthusiastic about his election for my tastes…however he like many other ‘Black nationalist’ advocates of different stripes are savvy enough to know that no one’s going to get anywhere in the Black American community today hating on Barack Obama.
Buzz 8:37 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
Well, you be the judge…that looks incendiary to me. Plus, Abu Noor…come on….its frickin’ Minister Louis Farrakhan: OF COURSE HE IS ASKING PEOPLE TO BE PISSED!
He is slipping a little, I just realized as I reread that passage. The “opposite of post-racial america” is pre-racial america (which is also civil – but will presumably become racially biased). But I know what he meant.
lol
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 8:54 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
Well, he’s explicitly asking people not to be pissed at Obama…as to the larger question I think he’s trying to walk the classic NOI line, he wants people to adopt what is an essentially an accomodationist position (stress on individual and community morality, do for self economics) but to do so not out of any notion a black conservative may have that America is essentially good or racism is “not as bad as people make it out to be” but out of a realization that America is so profoundly racist and oppressive that it would be foolhardy to wait upon the power structure to help you out.
In any event, I know what you mean, but I think it’s important to recognize what is the “genius” of the NOI message, what attracted me to it orginally even as a white Irish American lapsed catholic and what I still have fondness for as a Sunni Muslim who takes his theology very seriously — the “genius” of the NOI position is to make adopting traditional middle class values and a puritan lifestyle (what would traditionally be called ‘conservatism’) as a radical critique of and rejection of the existing power structure.
This requires more discussion but inshAllaah you get what I’m saying, I think I understand what you’re saying although I have to say that people often have different underlying assumptions of what they think we all know that Farrakhan stands for and these understandings and perceptions are actually quite different depending on a person’s background or perspective. Since you seem to be familiar with Farrakhan’s speeches over time, perhaps you have a fairly accurate grasp on what his message is, but I don’t want others to misunderstand.
Allaah Knows best.
Buzz 9:01 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
Holy Cow
That makes you a much more interesting blogospheric than I would have ever guessed. I never would have believed you would support NOI as anything but a aberration. I prefer the W Deen Muhammad movement, myself and even, as a white guy, attended one of their conferences (which raised some eye brows and led to a few comments).
No, Farrakhan is not asking Black Muslims to be pissed at Barack, of course. He is saying that electing a black president does not purify American society as a whole or even indicate a movement towards equitable racial treatment.
This has to be his stand as a black nationalist because there is no need for black nationalism in post racial america. Is he right? I don’t know. But, yes, I think you and I understand each other now.
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 9:09 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink
I’m actually preparing a presentation right now that I have been giving for several years on the intellectual history of African American political ideologies and how they relate to the civil rights movement (a larger framework for something which centers on discussing the different approaches of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King). This will be the first time I’m giving it since Obama’s election and I really look forward to the discussion of what Obama’s election means for Black nationalism….so I’d welcome any thoughts you or others have on that…
At least writing from the south side of Chicago, the idea that we are in a “post racial” America is a nonstarter. But the election of Obama definitely does pose interesting rhetorical and strategic if not necessarily philosophical challenges for Black nationalist thinkers, of course, this is not a new phenomenon…Black nationalism has always been present in the Blackamerican community but its strength has ebbed and flowed and its meaning shifted in response to the relative state of African American optimism in the larger American project.
shams 11:42 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink
Abu Noor do you read Ta-nehisi Coates?
He is very brilliant…..he wrote one of the most beautiful things i have ever read about his travel to the south during his research on slavery and the Civil War.
You are very correct about Farrakhan….the people don’t need handouts and charity….the people need dignity and justice.
The Wu-tang are all about justice too….I just ordered RZA’s book…The Tao of Wu.
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 9:03 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
Reading through my comment, I have to underline my phrase “this requires more discussion. What I mean to emphasize is that certain aspects of the NOI culture and program would normally be seen as ‘conservative’ not to allege that the NOI is actually calling for ‘conservatism.’ This is important because I in no way want to be seen as advocating that the Muslims community adopt ‘conservatism’ of any kind…what is undoubtedly true though is that there are part of the message of Islam that might be seen in certain contexts as ‘conservative.’ Coming in the context of the Islamic message as a whole, these things are not in actuality conservative.
One of the greatest dangers I see for a religiously motivated engagement of Muslims with the political system anywhere is to drift towards some kind of conservatism or upholding of the status quo.
Anywhere on earth today, Islam properly understood (of course my view of ‘properly understood’ by definition will be as I understand it…I don’t mean to imply a monopoly on truth but simply that I really do believe what I believe) is a radical message seeking to uplift the oppressed and challenge sources of privilege and oppression.
bingregory 10:01 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink |
I love my brother in Islam Abu Noor Al-Irlandee. You really ought to write more. How about putting that lecture online?