The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, warned Black people that separation from White Americans is the best and only solution.
“There is no such thing as living in peace with White Americans. You and I have tried without success,” He wrote in his book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” in a chapter titled, “Separation! Independence!” on page 204.
“Night and day they are seeking a chance to beat and kill you, while at the same time you are out seeking to show them how much you love them,” he added. “A very foolish people you are. How can anyone, other than you (so-called Negroes) love an open enemy?”
Black people’s 471-year sojourn in America has been marked by slavery, suffering, death, and mistreatment at the hands of White people and the U.S. government. And, as the country prepares to celebrate and commemorate the 250th anniversary of its founding, it is becoming more evident and clearer that Black and White still cannot coexist in peace.
Anti-Black incidents
During the first half of 2026, White people have shouted racial slurs at and have attacked Black people who were simply living their lives.
Below is a timeline compilation of just some of those incidents.
Feb. 13: Kenneth K. Smith, a 40-year-old White man in Branson, Missouri, allegedly approached a Black man who was standing outside his own apartment complex, struck him in the face, kicked him multiple times and referred to him as “gorilla.”
“In security footage a male, identified as Kenneth, is seen walking up to Victim 1 and punching him in the face. Victim 1 is seen falling to the ground and remains laying on the ground as Kenneth begins to kick him several times,” the probable cause statement says.
“Victim 1’s arms are seen rigid and sticking straight up as if they are locked into place and he is unable to move them. After kicking him, Kenneth walks away.”
Police believed Mr. Smith had recently moved to the apartment complex and called the attack “unprovoked.” Still, despite a criminal history going back to 2005, Mr. Smith was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, sparking anger that the incident was not charged as a “hate crime.”
Feb. 19: Two White men livestreamed an encounter with a Black woman on a Manhattan, New York, neighborhood street corner. During the encounter, one of the men demanded a kiss. The woman refused him.
He then used racial slurs and burned her boots with a lighter. The men were charged with harassment, criminal tampering, arson and hate crimes in the form of criminal mischief and menacing and attempted assault, according to The New York Times.
Feb. 27: A Black student at the University of California, Irvine was walking on campus when a group of teenagers allegedly spat at him, shouted racial slurs and hit him with an electric bike, causing injuries to the student’s ankle. The incident was investigated as a hate crime.
“They were close enough that they were spitting on me, trying to grab at me, trying to do all sorts of heinous things,” the student, who remained anonymous, said to NBC Los Angeles. “I’m being called ‘monkey,’ ‘blackie,’ completely out of my name. Obviously, this is stuff I never expected to hear.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles (CAIR-LA) issued a statement condemning the “anti-Black hate crime.”
“This disturbing attack is a reminder that racism and hate continue to endanger African American students and undermine the safety of our campuses. No student should have to fear being chased, assaulted, and subjected to racial slurs simply for existing in their own community,” Amr Shabaik, CAIR-LA’s legal director, said in the statement.
March 2: As Jama Abdi Said, a Black man from Africa, entered his apartment in Grand Island, Nebraska, Johnathon A. Dimmitt, a 35-year-old White man, allegedly approached him and said, “You f***ing Black guy, you’re dead,” according to local media outlets.
Mr. Dimmitt allegedly pointed an unknown object believed to be a gun at Mr. Said. Mr. Said then ran to a neighbor’s apartment, where Mr. Dimmitt kicked the door in. Mr. Dimmitt was charged with terroristic threats/hate crime, criminal trespass and criminal mischief.
March 10: A Black woman pulled into an Aldi parking lot in Cascade Charter Township in Kent County, Michigan, when a jeep driven by 55-year-old White man Randall Lee Miller cut her off. The man allegedly hurled racial slurs. He was arraigned on hate crime charges. CAIR-MI welcomed the charges.
“Acts of racism targeting Black Americans are part of a broader pattern of hate that must be addressed with seriousness and accountability,” Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-MI, said in a statement.
“Standing against anti-Black racism is essential to building a just society. We encourage community leaders and residents alike to speak out against hate in all its forms and support those who are targeted,” he added.
April 3: Danville, Illinois, Alderman Jaleel Jones and two of his cousins were fishing in Paris, Ill., when three White men pulled up in a white pickup truck. The men allegedly hurled racial slurs.
One pulled out a shotgun, threatened to “blow” Alderman Jones’ head off and discharged multiple rounds. One of the Black men allegedly pulled out a gun he owned legally and shot the armed man three times.
“After the dude tells his brother to come down there and blow our heads off, the dude with the shotgun comes down there and puts it towards me and my other cousin,” Alderman Jones said in an interview with Illinois Public Media. “Me and my other cousin, we just ran because [we thought] we’re gonna get shot. And that’s when my cousin had returned fire towards them.”
He recounted that after he and his cousin ran, gunshots went off. The two ran behind some houses and heard the pickup truck rev up. Shortly after, they heard the shotgun go off.
All three White men were arrested and received hate crime charges. CAIR-Chicago welcomed the charges.
“This incident is a stark reminder that racially motivated violence remains a serious threat in our communities. The explicit anti-Black hatred reportedly expressed before and during the attack underscores the urgent need for accountability and for continued efforts to combat racism in all its forms,” the organization said in a statement.
April 14: A Black woman was delivering mail in a Miami neighborhood when Lourdes Portugues, a 34-year-old White Latina woman, allegedly used a racial slur and sprayed the woman with a water hose.
Ms. Portugues then reportedly entered her SUV and intentionally sped the vehicle towards the Black woman and repeatedly attempted to hit her. She was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with prejudice.
May 9: Kyle Parrish, a White man, allegedly knocked on the door of a Black veteran, Dr. Otis Lane, in Sumter County, Florida. When Dr. Lane, who is 80 years old, went outside, Mr. Parrish made a remark on how people of his kind were “not wanted here” and punched him in the face. Mr. Parrish was arrested and charged with battery on a person 65 or older.
Dr. Lane shared reflections of the incident, according to the Fox TV station in Orlando, Fla. “Listen, I was born in the South under Jim Crow laws, and I’ve had to deal with racism all my life. I didn’t get to be Dr. Otis C. Lane by accident.
It was through sweat and tears, and in some cases, I was made to feel degraded as a second-class citizen,” Dr. Lane said. “And I reached this level in my life. The last thing I would think would be a young White man that would come into my development and target me and assault me.”
June 7: Jeffrey Kinzer, a White man, allegedly started yelling the N-word at a Black family during their gathering in Leesburg, Georgia. He left the scene only to return wearing body armor and carrying an AR-15. He opened fire on the Black family.
One of the Black individuals, a Marine veteran, grabbed his gun and returned fire, wounding Mr. Kinzer. Mr. Kinzer was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. He was placed on administrative leave as a lead firefighter at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting the investigation. The Black family and their attorney expressed the desire for additional charges.
“We do not understand or agree with the initial decisions made by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to only charge Jeffrey Tyler Kinzer with one count of aggravated assault,” the Law Office of J.B. Collins, P.C. said in a statement. “In addition, we do not understand why Jeffrey Tyler Kinzer received a bond in the amount of $5,000 prior to any of the victims being notified prior to the granting of this bond.”
June 13: A nine-year-old Black boy in Naperville, Illinois, was building a fort when a girl damaged the fort. The boy went to the girl’s residence and knocked on the door. Jeffrey Feigenbaum, a 29-year-old White man, allegedly yelled a racial slur at the boy, pushed him and threw his bike. He received hate crime charges, along with misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct.
The divine solution
These incidents spanning across the first half of 2026 demonstrate that anti-Black hatred and hostility remain present in American society, despite promises of so-called racial progress.
More than half of all hate crimes are committed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or ancestry, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer for hate crime incidents reported between June 2021 and June 2026. Of race-based hate crimes, about 50% are anti-Black.
So, while cookouts, parades, barbeques, and the pomp and circumstance surround the upcoming July 4 “holiday,” and the Semiquincentennial anniversary of America commences, peaceful co-existence between Black and White people is looking more unlikely and improbable.
When talking about race relations in the country, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, used the metaphor of the “natural seed” versus the “transgenic” seed.
“Coexistence between transgenic seed and organic seed is impossible because transgenic seed contaminates and eventually overcomes organic seed. … In other words: The ‘grafted thing’ is disagreeable to live with in peace. There must be separation, for one will absolutely destroy the other,” he said in Part 38 of his 2013 weekly broadcast series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”
“If there is no coexistence between the natural seed and the transgenic (altered) seed, and the altered seed will destroy the natural seed, then the same is also true in our race relations,” he further stated.
“Because race relations will continue to get worse, because the government cannot provide food, clothing, shelter and jobs for us anymore! As we sit around, waiting for somebody else to do this for us.
We are making our former slave masters and their children angrier with us; and they are becoming completely disagreeable to live with in peace! And that is why we must be separated if we don’t want to continue to suffer great loss!”
Separation is a divine solution from Allah (God) Himself. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad accused the former White slave master of continuing to hold Black people as hostages and prey.
“If White America wanted to free her slaves, she could easily do so,” He wrote in His book, “The Fall of America,” in a chapter titled, “The Fall of America Foretold, Separation is the Answer,” on page 165.
America’s actions show two things, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote: one, “she wishes to cause fear among the so-called Negroes, with a display of many deadly weapons, but Allah is removing the fear”; and two, “she fears to approach her unarmed slave unless she is armed.”
He then advised Black people on what they should be doing at this time, which is “seeking some of this earth on which to live and build an independent nation out of self.”
“The White master only offers us a job. Allah, God, has come in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are due forever, to free us,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote. “The Negro slave must be freed! This is the meaning of the resurrection.”