[Editor’s note: The following article contains excerpts from the third part of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Saviours’ Day keynote address he delivered at the U.I.C. Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, February 24, 2013 titled “Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint: Ending Poverty & Want.”
It contains important analysis about why Black America must change her course and produce for herself and protect herself. This full message was also aired on Saturday, August 17, 2013 as part of the historic series, The Time and What Must Be Done. Please order this message in its entirety on MP3, DVD and CD by calling 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200, or visit store.finalcall.com.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful
How did we become a “nation of consumers”?
›Did you know that is learned behavior from our experience in slavery, and then, the sharecropping system? But we must know our history to understand it.
When most Blacks emerged from slavery, most of us tried to get as far away from our former slave masters and their plantations as possible. We even set up more than 60 all-Black towns, where we had our own government, and began a strong tradition of “do for self” without the oversight of our former slave masters. And many of these 60 Black towns were in Indian territories.
Did you know that the Native People have lots of land and resources, mineral strength, today? But The Enemy is right on Indian Land, taking the gas, taking the uranium; taking whatever their lands have, and giving them nothing! Suppose we, and our Native Brothers, found a way to unite? And we help them with the Knowledge we have; and, the land is there, and we help?
However, brothers and sisters: You can’t go to your brother with the mentality of your former slave master to “take advantage of others.” You have to go with the mind of one who wants to serve them; and in so doing, you help yourself.
Guess what? When The Enemy saw us building those 60 towns, did you know they helped to destroy all 60 of those towns, and began to set up a series of laws that came to be known as “Jim Crow Laws”? Their purpose was to return Blacks as close as possible to the state of slavery that we had previously been in; and most important, to force us back into the cotton fields to keep the cotton-based economy from collapsing. Under these wicked laws, “money in the hands of Blacks” was treated as though it was a “weapon of mass White destruction.”
Under “Jim Crow”: Whites made it “illegal” to sell property to Blacks, and Blacks were forbidden by law to sell their own farm products without written permission from a Caucasian, thus criminalizing “Black business enterprise.” We couldn’t get justice in the court system because they came up with a law that said, “Negro testimony would not be accepted unless that testimony was verified by a White man.”
A White man could walk into your home, take whatever he wanted, including your cotton or corn harvest—or your daughter, or your wife—and we had no legal recourse. … All of this was done, and it was not even considered a “crime”! Also, if Blacks tried to save and invest their earnings, their money could be confiscated; so under Abraham Lincoln, Blacks established something like the “Freedmen’s Bureau.”
Notice the past participle of the verb “to free” (“Freed Man’s”): That’s not something that we did for ourselves, that’s something that somebody else did for us! We never “freed” ourselves! We were freed by them, and therefore we’re still singing, “We shall overcome.” You’re not “free” until you know The Truth that will set you free!
Under the “Freedmen’s Bureau,” we set up the Freedmen’s Bank. Of course, all of this came from Abe Lincoln, to encourage and guide the economic development of the newly-emancipated slaves. The Freedmen’s Bank operated just nine years, from 1865-1874; it had 37 branches in 17 states! Black Civil War veterans, farmers, churches and charities all opened a total of 480,000 accounts; with assets worth $4 million. In today’s currency, that would be $5.8 billion.
When Blacks had that kind of money, we could buy all the land that that money could buy, so then the Bloodsuckers descended, and drained the Bank of every last penny, leaving tens of thousands of its Black depositors in economic ruin. And because there was no “deposit insurance,” we were left with an almost total distrust of “the banking system.”
So between “government trickery” and the widespread cheating by retail merchants, and a “legal system” that prohibited Blacks from complaining, Blacks began their so-called American citizenship economically exploited and badly crippled. W.E.B. DuBois estimated that in the time from the so-called Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, to the end of the 1800s, three-quarters of the wages due to Blacks (that’s “75 cent of every dollar”) was simply stolen from us.
Blacks responded to this oppression in what appeared to be a very logical way—by becoming “fast spenders”! So, the moment we got our money: We knew that if we could quickly turn our wages into some “commodity,” we had “a better chance” of seeing value for our labor. Blacks couldn’t trust banks to hold it, so every Friday we spent all our wages with the overpriced merchants who left us with nothing. We wanted to use our money wisely, but the economic and legal system punished us when we did.
Although our response to this wickedness was “logical,” it set in motion a damaging “spend-as-you-get-it” mindset that continues to this very day. Our “adjustment” to this evil has created in us what has become a greater evil: We’ve become “a consumer nation” upon which now everybody else is benefiting. So instead of allowing that robbery to make us wiser in protecting “our money,” we allowed ourselves to become “consumers,” all the way from then to now. They took away our savings; and now, they made us give it back to them as a “consumer.”
So today: You don’t trust banks! You don’t trust courts! You don’t even trust yourselves. And so the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said in Message To The Blackman in America, in the Chapter titled “Program and Position,” under section “A Sound Economic Plan I” on page 195: “It’s ‘very hard’ for an economist to plan a wise program, and see his plans carried out, because the so-called American Negro’s economics are controlled by our former slave masters and their children.
“The American Dream” is built on a Black Nightmare. … So we ran away from economics, because of all the abuse and the barriers of the marketplace that forced us out of that realm. And every immigrant group finds a way to nestle into the Black community to take from us whatever they need to build their communities, and exalt themselves in ‘the fabric’ of America; so all of them will fight against anybody who comes to us with an ‘Economic Plan’ that would wrest control of ‘The Black Dollar’ back into Black Hands.
Did you know six cents of every dollar is all we spend with “Black Businesses”? And according to one study made by the Gazelle Index, a national quarterly survey of CEOs of high performing small businesses and businesses owned by diverse groups, if we double what we spend to 12 cents, that alone would create nearly 600,000 additional jobs for Black workers, and would reduce the “Black unemployment rate” by more than three points (from 13.8 percent to 10.6 percent). Don’t tell me “we don’t have the power”! We just have never used it wisely.
Now, what should our relationship be to Africa? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said this of “Africa,” that our Black people of Africa and Asia are our “true friends.” But, is it a place we in America should now look to return to? He said to me one day, “Brother, I’ve flown all over Africa … I looked out the plane, and saw that the land is tired; it’s been used over billions of years. But this part, America: It was a wilderness. The land here is virgin.”
Right now we are witnessing a “scramble” for Africa just as it happened almost 130 years ago. In 1884, when Europe organized “The Berlin Conference,” 14 nations of Europe got together and planned how they would divide up the African continent to extract its wealth for themselves. But just like true buzzards, true predators: They began arguing with one another, and fighting each other, which led to World War I where all of the European nations were involved.
And so, once again, there is a new scramble for Africa by Europe and America; they are after the huge quantity of natural resources that they want—and need—to have under their control. Almost every known natural resources needed to run the Western Industrial Economy, such as uranium, gold, copper, cobalt, coltan (for your cell phones, video games, laptops); platinum, diamonds, bauxite, and especially oil, is under the feet of African people!
China already beat America to it! Russia already beat America to it! China invited all the African heads of state to come to China; and they set up an arrangement with Africa. What is that arrangement? “We will help you build your infrastructure. We will help you with roads and railroad tracks. We will help you with farming.” But what price?
“We’ve got 1.25 billion people. We need access to food! We need certain things; all we want is” So they want to cooperate with Africa, America and Europe want to co-opt Africa! Through “AFRICOM,” the military division of the Pentagon, the United States is now forcing her way into Africa. But let me tell you, America: You’re barking up the wrong tree today!
Now, from our position as “Blacks in America”: Our potential strength will enable us to help Africa. But you can’t help Africa in your condition; and Africa does not need anymore “bums.”
We have to start right where we are, in America first, and 1.) Transform the Black Man and Woman in America into a potential economic power; 2.) Then, transform that economic power into political power; and 3.) Then we can leverage that power to bring about real change in the policies of America toward Africa, The Caribbean and Central America. It’s all in our hands!
So we say to America: There’s no mineral resource that Africa has that you will not be able to have access to, if you want to deal fairly with Africa. If you give Africans a decent price for what you would like to extract from Africa, then that would enable Africa to increase her service to her own people! And instead of these covert operations, where you find some leader to “prop up” over a nation so that you can suck the life out of that nation, and enrich “one family,” or “a clan” or “a tribe”: You should be helpful, and support good leadership in Africa—leaders that love the people; want the wealth of Africa for Africans! Then, if you negotiate fairly with them, then all can benefit rather than “just a few.”
And that is the kind of man that Muammar Gadhafi was and is! This is why America and Europe felt that they had to get rid of Gadhafi, because in their minds he was an impediment to what they wanted to suck from Africa—and he stood in their way!
Now America, let me tell you how stupid you are: If you allowed Muammar Gadhafi to stay in power, and if you wanted to treat Africa fairly, Muammar Gadhafi was your “door to Africa” if you wanted to treat Africa right! But, you killed him; and now you’re in a hell of a thing in Africa! You killed my brother, and now you’ve got the same thing in your mind for me. You want to put your hands on me; in fact, you’re plotting it as I’m speaking! You killed my brother, but you won’t kill me.
You killed my brother Jesus (notice how I said that) 2,000 years ago: He was the last prophet to you, and you killed him! You didn’t like his color—he didn’t look like you! He was a Black Man. …
So in this scramble for Africa: It’s not just going to produce a general warfare in Europe, but it will produce The Cataclysmic War that will destroy Europe completely. It’s all about the resources under African soil, and who will possess them. So right now, moving to Africa is not the “wise” thing.
Now a lot of Americans: You’re doing business with China. Wal-Mart alone is responsible for about $30 billion of imported Chinese goods. Right now, if we want shirts, and you want to make them, the Chinese will tell you: “Don’t bother; send them to us, we work cheap. We’ll give you good quality shirts,” and they’re not lying! So a lot of our businessmen are doing business with China.
But let me tell you a little something businessman; while you’re making money, think about it: You better save and invest here. “Come on, Farrakhan! Why should we invest here, if God is angry with this?” You have to live “today”—and “tomorrow.” See, it delights God to give you the Kingdom where you once were sold as a “slave.”
It’s easy for Him! Now your arrangement with China is not going to stand. Why is that? Well what would happen as America increasingly sees China as an “enemy”? They are literally preparing war plans for China right now; so if your business, like “Wal-Mart,” is based on what you bring from China, what would “war with China” do to you and to Wal-Mart, and to every business in between?
So, you do business with China as long as you can make a profit and save for investment here, in America; because “America” is the place of The Future. We are a people of 46-50 million, a nation within a nation.
‘Separation’, a familiar concept to America that now must be applied to The Black Nation
We believe in “separation.” We believe that integration is a hypocritical trick to make us think that our 400-year-old enemy has all of a sudden become our “friend.” They’ll let you into the bedroom, and keep you right at the door of the boardroom.
America: “Separation” is not a foreign concept; it is what you’re doing at this very moment, everywhere you’ve gone! You’re in Iraq now. The British were there before you, and they made borders and put people together that were of different ethnicities and tribal backgrounds, knowing that in the future you would turn one against the other for your own purposes.
Now you’re in Iraq, and you are saying that you would like to see Iraq separated into “three areas.” It was one country, but you want the Kurds in the North; the Shia in the South, and the Sunnis in the center. America: You like “separation” when it suits your purpose.
Now you’re in Syria, and you want to separate the Syrians! You have the Alawi, you have the Druze, you have the Sunnis, and your intention is to create two or three “states” inside Syria! You’re not “upset” over dividing the country up with “various ethnicities that have grievances with each other.”
“Separatist movements” are active all over the world: In Spain you have “The Basque” country, “The Valencia” and others wanting to separate. There are such movements in France, Belgium, Scotland, England, Germany, Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Cypress and Poland, to name “a few.” The French-speaking people of Quebec in Canada want a state of their own. Yugoslavia was one great nation under Marshal Josip Broz Tito; but as you went into Kosovo, and you broke up and separated them, now you have several different nations that once were “one.”
So let’s look into “the mirror,” right here in America: Since the re-election of President Obama there are petitions in support of “secession” from all 50 states! Active ones in Texas, and a few more; all they have to do is raise 25,000 in signatures, and the White House is supposed to respond. President Obama has not responded yet—but you’re going to have to do something! Yes, the Native American was forced off his land into “reservations”; and once upon a time, Asians were separated into “concentration camps.”
And today, in every major city, various groups have separated themselves in what are “ethnic enclaves”: The Polish have their part of town: They own it, they rule it. The Germans have their part; the Jews have theirs. The Mexicans have theirs. And Black people: You have yours, but you don’t “own” it; you don’t control anything in your community! The schools are running amuck! The children are running amuck! But, we’ve got something for you “gang bangers” to do. …
There’s a natural inclination for people to form “clans” and “tribes” for their general security and well-being. We see in Africa a “tribal system” undergirding every nation. People are desiring to be on their “own” now! Well, we’re having a problem “getting along” with you. We don’t like the way we’re being treated. Brothers and sisters, how many of you are “happy”? If you’re getting scared now, well, we’ll “terrify you” into getting straight, because whether you like it or not you’re going to have to have your own. …
What did God say?
God says, in His backing of The Messiah’s Plan: God commands Moses to direct the Children of Israel to seek wealth in the form of gold and silver from the Egyptians. Not for the purpose of remaining in Egypt, but to make provisions to separate and leave Egypt! Now, Joseph advises Pharaoh to take a “fifth of the harvest of Egypt” during “7 Years of Abundance” to prepare for “7 Years of Famine.” Joseph, then, becomes “The Steward of those accumulated savings.”
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad did not ask for a “fifth” of Black peoples’ earning—he just asked for a fifth of America; “8-10 States.” Do you have a problem with that? Don’t you think you’ve earned it? If you’re scared, and think that White people won’t do that for us: See, I think we know them a little better than you, for the Bible teaches in the Book of Job, Chapter 2, verse 4: “… all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Your “life” (America) is in The Balance today.
The disproportionate amount of Jewish, Israeli influence on American politics
It is said that the Jewish population in America, according to The Jewish Forward newspaper, is only 5.4 million-6.7 million Jewish people. These figures may be questionable; but let us take their figures as a “point of reference”—their highest estimate being “6.7 million people.” Well, there are 34 members of Congress who are “Jewish”: 12 in the Senate (that’s 12 percent), and 22 in the House of Representatives (that’s 5.1 percent).
The Black population in America is nearly 50 million. … Yet, 13 percent of the population has no elected Black members of the Senate. We were given one; but, no “elected.” And, of the nine of Supreme Court Justices, three of them are Jewish; so that means 33 percent of the highest court in the land is from a people who are, according to their figures, only “1.7-2 percent” of the population.
Guess what? The result of their political over-representation was demonstrated during the February 15, 2013 airing of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, when the Catholic political commentator Bill Maher, who has a Jewish mother, was talking about how they are holding up Obama’s nominee for “Secretary of Defense,” the former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel; and Maher said on his show: “Based on every statement I’ve heard out of any Republican in the last two years, the Israelis are controlling our government.”
Now, how many of you heard, after he said that, that Bill Maher was called an “anti-Semite”? You didn’t even hear that! But if I say it Well, I’m going to say it! Senator Hagel is hated by the Jews, because Aaron David Miller wrote in his book The Much Too Promised Land (2008) what Sen. Hagel stated; that “The United States Senate”: “‘is an institution that does not inherently bring out a great deal of courage,’” Hagel continues. “Most of the time members play it safe and adopt an ‘I’ll support Israel’ attitude.
AIPAC comes knocking with a pro-Israel letter, and ‘then you’ll get eighty or ninety senators on it. I don’t think I’ve ever signed one of those letters.’” When Mr. Hagel said if he’s ever asked “why,” he would respond: “I didn’t sign the letter because it was a stupid letter. The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here, [but] I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.”
I said the same thing 30 years ago at the National Press Club in Washington, and they have not left me alone since! Special interests, along with Zionist AIPAC, are robbing America of the “principle of democracy” and “representative government,”; the record is there! Now 30 years later, after beating the heck out of me for all those years, they’re finally getting up enough courage to tell it like it is.
I just want the American people, and particularly Black people, to see that “influence” is not gained by “sitting in,” “wading in,” “prying in” or “praying in”—it’s buying in with the power of your dollars and your unity. This will increase your “influence,” not only in America but throughout the world.
And that’s why this Program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is so important, and that’s why so many may fight against it! Because it “brushes the leaches off one-by-one”—and the vultures and bloodsuckers cannot stay around an Active Body of Living People.
America is a ‘preserved area’: Blacks are the means by which she incurs doom or salvation
So, I would like to close by looking at the positive side of what appears to be a “negative situation.” In the Holy Qur’an, Surah 3: Al-’Imran (“The Family of Amran”), verse 80, Allah said: “And when Allah made a covenant through the prophets: ‘Certainly what I have given you of Book and Wisdom—then a Messenger comes to you verifying that which is with you, you shall believe in him, and you shall aid him.’
[And Allah said]: ‘Do you affirm and accept My compact in this (matter)?’ They said: ‘We do affirm.’ [And Allah said]: ‘Then bear witness, for I (too) am of the bearers of witness with you.” God made a Promise and an Agreement with all those who received a prophet; and particularly, He made an Agreement with the Jewish people.
Jewish people: You accepted that “Agreement,” according to The Qur’an. And what is that “Agreement”? That when One comes that is found written of in the Torah and the Gospel, that you would help him; and in helping him, you would be helping yourself. I represent that One; I am in His Place. He is Alive, and Well—and now in Power.
Jewish people: You have to choose between the “Talmud” (developed by your own rabbis) and the Torah (Divine Revelation). If you choose the Torah, you live. If you choose “The Talmud,” then unfortunately this is The End of your civilization. So if you help me, rather than fight me, to do this for our people, you will benefit! America will benefit! The world will benefit! And America will be safe from The Chastisement of God.
Brothers and sisters, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said: “America is a preserved area. No foreign power will drop bombs on this.” That is why I’m asking you to make your stake here! Grow your power here! Then leverage that power for the good of Africa and The Caribbean, and all other parts of the world! Now, there are many Black professionals who could, if they would, unite with us, and the whole picture of America would change at once. We, The Blacks, are the means of the doom of this, and we are the means of salvation for this.
So, America: When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me that America is a “preserved” area, which means “to keep it safe from harm or injury, protected,” it means that you have a chance to afford yourself the Divine Protection that assures your future. But you have to do right by us in order to access that Preservation and Protection.
The Hon. Elijah Muhammad’s letter to Black Leadership: 50 years later, what we must do
My brothers and sisters, in 1966, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sent a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he “CC’d” that letter to Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP; Whitney Young, Executive Director of the National Urban League; Floyd B. McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Stokely Carmichael, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He said to Dr. King: “Dear Sir: We have reached a crucial crossroad in the life of our people here in America.
Since all of us who love our people are walking toward one goal: freedom, justice and equality from the common enemy—let us realize that in unity there is strength. Let us come together in a meeting to discuss the future plans and programs needed to achieve these goals for our people. If we have any love and respect for each other, let us be intelligent about the matter and present to America and all the world a united black front.
The destiny of 22 million”—(at that time; nearly 50 million Black people today)—“is too important to allow disunity among us to prevent our achievement of a united front of Black Americans. The meeting nor the place need not be public. Please let me have your answer within ten days. Cordially your Brother, Elijah Muhammad, Messenger of Allah.”
Well, 50 years later: I’m going to send a letter to all Black leaders and organizations, the military leaders, and “gang bangers.”
All you “gang bangers”: We know you love to shoot. But you’re killing yourself! We want to make you a defender of the territories that your nickels, dimes and dollars, and ours, will buy. You are the natural warriors to “defend”—and The Science of War must be taught to us, so that we will protect whatever God allows us to buy or to build!
The 2nd Amendment has no relevance to the Black community in this sense: You don’t have “legal” weapons; all your weapons are illegal, and you’re using them like a savage people would use them.
We respect the 2nd Amendment; we know that it had value to keep a “new government” from slipping back into tyranny—and that is why Mr. Alex Jones of Infowars.com, in a January 7, 2013 interview conducted by CNN host Piers Morgan on the subject of “Guns in America,” said “if you really want to see some problems, we’ll take you back to 1776 if you try to take away our guns:”
“and I’m here to tell you: ‘1776’ will commence again if you try to take our firearms! It doesn’t matter how many ‘lemmings’ [conformists] you get out there on the street, begging for them to have their guns taken! We will not relinquish them—do you understand?
That’s why you’re going to fail! And the establishment knows: No matter how much ‘propaganda’, the Republic will rise again when you attempt to take our guns!” Now the militias have their guns trained on the government, because they don’t like the way their government is functioning.
We don’t believe we need to part in a “negative frame of mind.” We have benefited much from being here; even though we were slaves, we are the best-educated Black people anywhere to be found on the Earth. But now we have to use that education!
Do you know why Chief Malik (“Jeff Fort”) of the “El Rukns” is in jail? Not because he’s a “dope slinger,” it’s because he knew the art of “organizing young Black people.” Do you know why David Barksdale (“King David” of the “Gangster Disciples”) is dead? It is because he knew the art of organizing young Black people.
Do you know why Geronimo Pratt (of “The Black Panther Party”) had to leave America, and died in Africa? It’s because Geronimo had “Military Science”—and he wanted to share that with young Black people, and they put him in prison. What The Enemy does not want is an organized Black community. And they do not want leaders that organize young Black men.
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