The Black community in the U.S. has been and continues to be in crisis under historically oppressive conditions in the United States of America, not unlike but to a greater degree than our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and South America, who also were victims of the Trans-atlantic Slave Trade.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, causes and teaches us to understand that the mental, moral and even physical deterioration of our health is a result of the miseducation and mistreatment of the Black man and woman by the slave master and his children.
Psychological sciences testify to the effect that historical traumas have on the attitudes and, therefore, actions of our people. A study of epigenetics rewards our research.
Hatred of self was instilled in our ancestors for centuries as they suffered horrible abuse. Babies were separated from their parents and raised by our enemies;
Fear of the slave master was seared into the core of our being as we watched the rebellious ones among us tortured and brutally killed before our eyes. This created negative inbred attitudes and behaviors that we exhibit today.
That is a reason the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan pronounced the National Center—Mosque Maryam and Muhammad University of Islam—a center for retraining and re-education for the Black man and woman.
Some of us have been able to reach heights of success unimaginable by our ancestors. Nevertheless, as the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches, no single individual can rise above the condition of his or her people.
If your people are viewed as not worthy of respect, then the individual’s success and status in life isn’t really what it appears to be. Given the right circumstances, that individual would be told where his or her place is.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad worked tirelessly for more than 40 years to liberate the Black man and woman physically and mentally from the chains of oppression of White society. He called for separation: “
Since we cannot get along with them [Whites] in peace and equality, after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced.
We believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced upon us by White America, justifies our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own.”
He tries to reach our minds through His publications “Message to the Blackman in America,” “Our Saviour Has Arrived,” “The Fall of America,” “How to Eat to Live,” Books 1 & 2, and other writings.
He labeled White people as “the devil” and “the enemy.” Many of us thought he was name-calling, when, in fact, He was and is describing the nature and actions of Whites, past and present, toward not only Black people in the U.S., but around the world.
Blacks in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia cry out for the foot of colonialism to be lifted from their necks. Search every continent and you will find that, generally, Whites are in power or the lighter skin is placed higher in society than the darker. It’s a sickness.
America and Europe salivate over the mineral riches of Africa; the same ones whose boot has been on the necks of African rulers under colonialism and the slave trade. Today, they take a kinder, gentler approach to gain access to mineral wealth unless they are forced to threaten those nations with military options—examples are Venezuela and Cuba.
Why are Black leaders who seek independence for their people castigated and even killed for their ideas for liberation? The list includes Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral … even the great Nelson Mandela of South Africa was once labeled a “terrorist.”
Today’s threat to the White power structures in Africa comes from leaders like Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso and others in the region who have kicked France out and are trying to empower the people based on terms of independence.
The enemy is very scientific. He knows he can’t assassinate or imprison a popular leader without first maligning their character and turning the people against the leader with lies.
The people backed the historical Jesus until his enemies branded him a threat despite the miracles he performed. He was crucified with criminals. The enemy’s pattern has not changed.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriett Tubman and others who fought for Black freedom have U.S. postage stamps with their faces on them. They are dead now and are no longer a threat to the power structure, except through their words.
But their images and ideas are controlled by a media that perpetuates the softer stance these leaders represented rather than their liberation messages.
Martin’s image today is as a “dreamer” rather than an opponent of the war in Vietnam and his fight for economic justice that he expressed toward the end of his life. He would be in opposition to the genocide in Palestine and the war with Iran if he were alive today.
Malcolm’s message from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad revolutionized the Black nationalist and later the Pan-African movements before his death. The U.S. government is at the root of their assassinations.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan continue to preach that our unity is more powerful than an atomic or hydrogen bomb. That’s the kind of power that keeps an enemy at bay.
One reason the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran is that they do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, even though they both have them, and the U.S. is the only nation that has used an atomic weapon on a population.
The enemy does not want to see Black people unified because our unity is just that powerful!
—James G. Muhammad, Contributing Editor