THE ANTI-SCIENTIFIC LIES OF LOUIS FARRAKHAN ON THE CORONAVIRUS WILL GET BLACK PEOPLE KILLED!

by Joe Veale

February 22, 2021 | revcom.us

 

In December 2020, Louis Farra-CON is quoted in the Final Call newspaper saying this: “We will not accept your vaccine so you can slow down, because whenever you bring it out, it’s for your people. You give it to them because we are not accepting death. You are the very representative of death itself: the pale horse. ...” He has also previously explicitly warned, “Don’t let them vaccinate you, with their history of treachery through vaccines, through medication. Are you listening? I say to the African presidents, do not take their medications...”

Farra-CON evokes some historical truths to tell a Big and Murderous Lie, trying to dissuade Black people from getting vaccinated. Let’s take this apart.

First, the truth of the matter is that Blacks are dying out of all proportion because of the effects of this oppressive system and this will get even worse if they are NOT being vaccinated.

Blacks are dying from the COVID-19 virus at a rate 1.5 times of white people when they make up only 13 percent of the population. One study cited in ProPublica website shows that through July 2020 Black people between 35–44 years old were dying at nine times the rate of whites the same age!

This is an expression of the ugly and brutal history of this system in its treatment of Black people—treating them as if their humanity does not count. This has led to worsened health of Black people more generally, with pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 (what are called “co-morbidity” factors, like heart disease, obesity, etc.).

This is made worse by the unequal access to medical care, such as the disproportionate lack of hospitals and health services in Black inner cities. Right now, the distribution of vaccines is lopsided, affecting Black people negatively. And now Black people, as well as Latinos and Native Americans, are NOT being vaccinated at the same rate as white people. Of all the people in the U.S. who were vaccinated as of February 18, only six percent are Black.

Second, Farra-CON is straight up LYING when he says the vaccine “represents death.” The vaccines have proven to be safe and effective through multiple and valid scientific trials. This is based not on suspicions or opinions—but evidence that has been tested repeatedly from different angles and is publicly available.

What if you had a really bad pneumonia infection or strep throat and the doctor prescribed penicillin. Then someone who claims to be “the messenger” comes along and says: do not take the penicillin it will kill you. When in reality it is the infections that are killing you. You would probably say: “Get the fuck outta here!” and go ahead and take the medicine in order to live and get better. Which is what people need to do NOW.

What Farra-CON is peddling is criminal. In dissuading Black people from the vaccine, Farra-CON will get Black people killed!

Farra-CON Takes Advantage of Ugly History Of Oppression Of Black People... To Make Things Worse!

Farra-CON relies on historical suspicions that Black people have toward the system, a system that has repeatedly betrayed, lied to, and murdered Black people, including in health “experiments” like the so-called Tuskegee experiment.¹ He then marshals and evokes this to further peddle blatantly false and unscientific conspiracy theories that lack any actual evidence.

In stark contrast, Black medical professionals and scientists and some celebrities are making real concrete efforts to combat these conspiracy theories, bring science and evidence to overcome these suspicions, and get Black people vaccinated, saving lives versus getting them killed! This is much more what is needed.

The Method to the Madness, the Lies and the Con

But there is method to Farra-CON’s madness, his con and his lies. He has done this before. For instance, Farrakhan has taken the fact that some Jews were involved in the slave trade to single them out for special blame, stirring up anti-Jewish thinking, when in fact the trade was principally run by the English, Dutch, and French as a driving force of the development of capitalism. So Farra-CON targets a small minority, and lets the real driving force of the slave trade—the beginning development of the murderous system of capitalism-imperialism—off the hook.

Then Farra-CON brings in the Bible or Koran—remember how he mixed in “behold a pale horse” from the Book of Revelations into his warning? This gives the impression that the supernatural is controlling what happens in the world and there is nothing anybody can do about it but look to gods—or to the so-called “messenger” of god, a “messiah” like Farra-CON—to rescue them from all the terrible suffering they experience under this system.

What Farrakhan Represents... and THE Leadership and the Outlook We DO Need

Farra-CON covers over what is really the cause of the oppression and suffering that this system puts Black people through. Yes, he is out for himself, but ultimately he represents the bourgeois outlook and program of an aspiring Black capitalist class—a class which has been held down by the white supremacy of U.S. capitalism-imperialism. Sometimes Farrakhan talks about a separate Black state (which would be just another capitalist nightmare if he ever somehow got one), but mostly he tries to build up his influence and funding in this one. A bargaining chip within that is the following that Farrakhan tries to win with his destructive madness.

What is needed is facing reality as it really is. Facing the oppression of Black people the way it is... how all this is rooted in reality—rooted in this system. And to deal with that, just like to deal with a virus, we need science—the scientific method and approach to understand how that oppression is rooted in this system, and how it can only be ended through an ACTUAL revolution to emancipate humanity—not lies, mysticism, and made-up shit.

And there IS a leader who fights for a scientific understanding of the situation we face and the possibility and pathway for an ACTUAL revolution—Bob Avakian. As the article, “Bob Avakian for the Liberation of Black People and the Emancipation of All Humanity” says:

One of the things that most distinguishes BA’s role as a revolutionary leader is his willingness—indeed, his insistence—on telling people the truth, even when they may not want to hear it. This comes through in the way BA exposes and refutes unscientific ways of thinking—all kinds of “conspiracy” theories and superstitious ideas—that lead people, including the most bitterly oppressed people, away from understanding the world as it actually is, and keep them from seeing not just the need, but the possibility, of radically changing the world, in a way that will lead to ending oppression. A big problem that BA has taken on, straight-up, is the role of religion as a mental chain on the masses of Black people, and other oppressed people, and the need to break this chain in order to most powerfully wage the struggle to finally be free of all oppression. BA has repeatedly emphasized that, in order to end oppression, “you have to want revolution badly enough to be scientific about it.”

Science means judging whether something is true, or not, by whether there is evidence that it actually corresponds to reality—and not believing something because it makes you feel good to believe it, or not refusing to believe something because it makes you uncomfortable. In the article “Conspiracy Theories, Fascist ‘Certitude,’ Liberal Paralysis, Or A Scientific Approach To Changing The World,” BA has spoken directly to this problem:

many of the basic masses, who are bitterly oppressed under this system, also are suspicious of and even are inclined to reject science and scientifically-grounded analysis. But this also leaves you vulnerable to all kinds of unfounded “conspiracy theories” and other wrong and harmful ideas, including the notion that nothing people do will make a difference because “it’s all in god’s hands.”

Two different leaders: Farrakhan peddling lies, conspiracy theories, and apocalyptic religion to keep people ignorant and help him get in on this oppressive system; BA fighting for the oppressed people—and sometimes fighting with them—to take up a scientific outlook to be part of freeing themselves and all humanity.

 

---

1. “Between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control studied the progression of untreated syphilis in a group of rural African-American men in Alabama under the guise of giving them free health care. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for having ‘bad blood.’ See American Crime Case #84: Medical Racism and Homicide—the Tuskegee Syphilis “Study”  [back]