Two Questions for Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam

by Carl Dix | April 4, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Question #1: What Is There to Like About Donald Trump?

Speaking at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviour’s Day, Minister Louis Farrakhan said: “[Trump] is the only member who has stood in front of [the] Jewish community and said, ‘I don’t want your money.’

“Anytime a man can say to those who control the politics of America, ‘I don’t want your money,’ that means you can’t control me. And they cannot afford to give up control of the presidents of the United States.

“Not that I’m for Mr. Trump,” Farrakhan said, “but I like what I’m looking at.”

What? What do you see that you like in Donald Trump? Him calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals? Or him saying Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S.? Do you like his call to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it? Do you like him saying women who have abortions should suffer punishment, or him calling women “pigs” and “bimbos”? Do you like him calling for openly torturing people who are suspected of being involved in what he calls “terrorist” attacks on the U.S.? Do you like the way he whips up his supporters to physically attack protesters at his rallies? Do you like his call to torture people suspected of links to “terrorists” and to kidnap and murder their family members? Do you like the way he’s at the head of a gathering fascist surge in this country? Or is it the way he trades in anti-Semitic drivel about Jews and "Jewish money" controlling U.S. politics, which just covers for the real ruling class in this country, the capitalist-imperialists?

Again, just what the hell is it you find likable about Donald Trump? And what does it say about your interests and aspirations that “I like what I’m looking at” when you see this fascist blowhard?

Question #2: Where’s the “Or Else” in “Justice or Else”?

I mean, hundreds of thousands of people were in DC in October 2015 for the massive rally called by the Nation of Islam (NOI) under that theme. The militant thrust of this gathering drew people who wanted to see the genocidal assault the system is inflicting against Black people stopped.

Well, the attacks haven’t stopped. The police are still getting away with murdering Black people. Black people are still being warehoused in prison in disproportionate numbers. State officials in Michigan got caught pumping contaminated water that leached lead into the tap water of the majority-Black population of Flint, Michigan, and while state, local, and federal officials pointed the finger at each other, that poisonous water has continued to flow. There is certainly no justice, so where is the “or else”?

Was it the call for people to invest in Black-owned farmland that was issued at the rally back in October? Or does it include the planned nationwide Red, Black, Green and Clean effort on April 16 being coordinated by the Chicago Justice Or Else Local Organizing Committee?

The description for April 16 is as follows:

Black people across America will:

Pick up paper and trash on their blocks

Clean their streets and alleys

Clean vacant lots

Clean away graffiti

Cleanse the spirits of our children

Plant flowers, shrubs, trees and grass

Report dangerous and open abandoned houses

Report abandoned cars and trucks

Back when I was growing up in Baltimore, the Afro-American newspaper chain sponsored what they called a clean-block competition where people got together to do much the same thing on their respective blocks. But the Afro-American never claimed that cleaner streets would do anything to stop the attacks the system inflicted on Black people.

So I have to ask the NOI, are you saying this is the Or Else that’s going to make the capitalist rulers of this country stop unleashing their pigs to brutalize and murder Black people? Or make them stop warehousing Black people in their prisons or any of their other attacks that are part of the genocidal assault this system is bringing down on Black people?

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