[Editor’s note: The following article is part two of edited excerpts from the message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on the occasion of the 16th Anniversary of the Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement commemoration held at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 9, 2011. Order this message in its entirety on MP3, DVD and/or CD by calling 866-602-1230 or visit www.store.finalcall.com.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
It is fortuitous that on the actual day of the 16th Anniversary of the Million Man March on the National Mall there will be the dedication of the monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And I said, “Wow! Look at how God arranges things!” In August, the unveiling of the statue of our brother, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was to take place.
However, a “woman” came blowing through the East Coast by the name of [Hurricane] Irene—and it was “Good night Irene!” The event’s organizers said, “We better cancel this!” And just before Irene, the Earth shook in Washington, D.C., at the White House and at the Capitol Building, from a 5.8 magnitude earthquake!
Some people were saying, “We can’t! We shouldn’t do it on that day! That’s the day Farrakhan had that Million Man March!” The Message that the Million Man March revolved around included three words. The first one, and the main one, was “Atonement.” And that name was given to our work by the late Reverend James Luther Bevel, a great disciple of Martin Luther King, Jr. The next word was “Reconciliation,” and the last word was “Responsibility.”
Well, who better than Dr. King to be honored on that day, October 16th? Thousands are to gather again to honor a man who was in his person a symbol of Atonement, a symbol of Reconciliation; and a man who loved America and his people so much that he accepted the Responsibility of Freedom and Justice to make America better, so that America would be a good place for us all.
So I’m honored that God so fixed it through Irene and an earthquake for this to occur.
The Symbols of America’s Cracked Leadership
Now, that earthquake also shook the Washington Monument, damaging it. So here we are in Philadelphia, with a cracked Liberty Bell, and the top of the Washington Monument is now cracked. What is that telling you? It’s representative of the leadership of America, and the leadership of the people. It’s not “the people,” it’s the rottenness of the leadership of the people that has cracked liberty for the people!
President Barack Obama is supposed to be there that day for the unveiling. But I’d like to ask him a question, always with respect, because he is our brother and I truly love him. And we’re wrong to expect from him what he can’t deliver! I want to ask him:
“How, Mr. President, can you come to The Mall and honor that man and the unveiling of his statue without addressing the pressing needs of The Poor for which he gave his life?”
Good question, isn’t it? If the government of the United States forgets about The Poor—the Black poor, the White poor, the Brown poor, the poor of this nation—and concentrates only on benefits for The Rich, and is trying to make it better for the Middle Class who are fast becoming the new Poor, then the heart of the American Congress is as cold as the granite that bears the image of a man whose heart was warm for the principles of Justice, Freedom, Equity and Peace.
So don’t forget, my dear Brother President, you were there at the Million Man March 16 years ago on The Mall with nearly two million of your brothers. And now you go to The Mall to unveil the statue of a man who paid a price with his life to lay down a foundation for you to step up on! But Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. laid his foundation fighting for The Poor, and fighting against war and the shedding of innocent blood for the material progress of this nation.
Unite Behind Elijah Muhammad’s Program and Position
In Message To The Blackman In America, in the chapter “Program and Position,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “We do not believe that America will ever be able to furnish enough jobs for her own millions of unemployed in addition to jobs for the 20,000,000 Black people.” We’re going to have to think about this man again! Look at him again! Because everything he taught us would happen is happening.
America has 14 million to 20 million people out of work. We have one out of six in poverty; and 50 million or more that have tasted poverty, and lack sufficient food and nourishment. There’s another 46 million that are without health insurance. And 49 million who are considered “functional illiterates,” people that can read, but at a fifth grade level.
I want to talk to you now about our future: America is in this so-called global economy, with a service-oriented economy where people, now, have to be re-educated to be technically savvy to fit in to even find a job in today’s world. You send your children to college and you expect that their college education is going to get them a job. But since you didn’t have the money, they’re in debt. Coming out of four years of college in debt and they’re constantly being reminded of what “they owe.” So not only is America in debt, the American people are in debt! And debt is another form of slavery.
Some of the people who are working are engineers, nurses and doctors; however, the people that are being laid off are teachers, policemen and firemen. At a time like this, you lay off teachers, policemen and firemen? In a talk that we had with Brother Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornel West and a host of Black leaders in Chicago, I asked the question, “When the first March on Washington was planned in the ‘40s, what were they after? ‘Jobs and Justice.’ When we marched again in ‘63, what were we after? ‘Jobs and Justice.’ And when we had the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington, what was the cry? ‘JOBS AND JUSTICE!’ ”
So if Elijah Muhammad said how can you expect the White people to prepare jobs for their millions of unemployed, and ours too, then don’t you think you’re being silly? America was in better shape in those days, and you still didn’t get “Jobs” and “Justice”? And you’re still stupid enough in 2011 to keep asking somebody else for “Jobs” and “Justice”?
What in the hell is wrong with your hands, your head, your bank accounts, your pocketbook, your labor, that you’re going to beg another man to do for you what you could get up off your backside and do for yourself?
Our young people don’t even want to go to school and are dropping out at alarming rates, right? What kind of job is America preparing for “functional illiterates”? Talk to me! So the president put out a “jobs bill”—that may not even pass! But if it does pass, how many of those jobs do you think you’re going to get?
Our members of Congress are having “jobs fairs” in their cities, where they bring big corporations in, and Black people are lined up for as far as you can see. They filled out applications, but how many of them got a job? See, you’re playing with the people. You knew damn well before you called the jobs fairs that there were not enough jobs for your people. So we are going to have to create these jobs ourselves.
See, I’m clear that they’re not preparing a future for us, but I’m also clear that we’re going to have to provide a future for ourselves! That is not their responsibility. In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 8, the scripture teaches: “Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. …” Something is wrong with that Son of Man! Hell, if a bird can “build a nest,” and a fox can “scratch out a hole,” what has happened to the Sons of Men, that we’re sitting around here poor, ragged, hungry; houses foreclosed on, naked, out-of-doors? What’s wrong with us?
The government doesn’t have enough money to even take care of us in the Armed Forces because they’ve got “push-button” war now, where it’s “send a drone,” or, “get on the computer and map it out.” Well, where do you fit? Where do we fit?
They say “No Child Left Behind”—but a huge part of the country is being left behind. And if America does not want White people, and the Black, Brown and common poor to be left behind, what plan does America have to create the jobs that you are seeking? She doesn’t have a plan! The question is: “Do we have one?”
That’s why I want you to revisit Elijah Muhammad. He gave us a Plan way back in the 1960s.
‘Take back your country’ from Zionist control
There are some who feel, “Well, the Tea Party hates Black people.” I listen to you all and I laugh to myself, and I say, “Thank God for the Tea Party!” because every foot that’s in your behind is helping you to understand that: “There is no hope in this!”
Let’s look at what The Tea Party people are saying: “We’ve got to take the country back!”—I’m with you Tea Party! Well Tea Party, who are you going to take it back from? You’re not going to “take it back” from us because we don’t have a job, we don’t own a bank, we don’t own where we live. Yet, you’re going to “take it back” from us because a Black man is in the White House?
But the one thing I like about the Tea Party: They’re not controlled by the Zionists. See, these new ones that came into Congress from the Tea Party are upsetting other members of Congress because those other folk get controlled. In August 2011, a Congressman from Maryland by the name of Steny Hoyer took a delegation to Israel.
And guess what Congressman Steny Hoyer told the people in Israel? While America is suffering, Mr. Hoyer said: “We’re going to give you all that we have given you in the past. No matter what the condition financially of America is, you can depend on us to give you $3 billion out of the taxpayers’ money.” And then he even said, “And then some …”
Now, Tea Party: You want to take the country back? Well, let me tell you who you’ve got to take it back from! You have to break the control of the corporate media. You have to break the control of the big multi-national corporations and the international robber baron bankers. You have to break the control of the Zionists who use America; and the sweat and blood of American children, sending $3 billion every year to Israel.
So my dear brother president: I know you spoke recently to the Black Caucus, and you were very fiery. I dig it! But how did you talk to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Did you scold him? Did you tell him “take off his bedroom slippers”? Hmm … How did you address the Gay [rights] group? Did you scold them? Oh, it’s just us?
You’ve got strength, brother—I know you do! And that’s what the people are pushing for, to find it in you!
The Integration That Produces Separation
“Farrakhan, do you think we should integrate, or do you think we should separate? Or do you think we should have some of both?” How is that possible? You know, The Enemy is so smart, because he uses a trick called “integration.” This “integration” that we now have: This is not what Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement was about! They didn’t want “nice relationships with White folk” as opposed to equal justice under the law and fair treatment, which was what Dr. King was about.
Within the word “integration” you’ll find the prefix integer. What is an “integer”? In Mathematics, the meaning of an integer states: “The whole is equal to the sum of its parts,” meaning you have to “belong to” in order to be “a part of.” So if I’ve got eight slices of bean pie, then I’ve got a whole pie! But if I’ve got six slices of bean pie, and two slices of apple, I don’t have a “whole” pie, because the two parts that are apple don’t belong with the six parts that are bean. So if the whole is equal to the sum of its parts, you’ve got to belong to in order to be a part of.
Question: Do you really belong? Well, what kind of integration do you have? Is it that you now can sleep with White women and men, and they don’t kill you as quick as they used to? Now we have a lot of mixed marriages, or mixed “sleep-ins,” and mixed babies, right? But that’s not the integration that Dr. King was talking about.
Now let me tell you what real integration is: Here’s a man and woman, two different beings; maybe of the same race even, same ethnicity. When that sperm is emitted, and it finds the egg; and the first cell of life is created, the body wants to reject it, because it’s a foreign entity in your body. But the sperm that has now met the egg, and has become the first cell of life, the Qur’an said it has to find a “firm resting place.”
So now, the cell of life clings to the walls of the uterus, and holds on against rejection. After a while, rejection stops, acceptance comes, and the new life is growing within the womb of a life that’s already been here, drawing from that life to build up its own life.
It has become a part of, but it is growing into something independent; that one day after development, it is going to breathe on its own, it’s going to demand to come forth out of the womb, and the umbilical cord has to be cut!
And then the baby has to be washed and swaddled and salted; and then grows into a new creature independent from, separated from, the mother out of which it came! That’s integration that produces separation!
‘Land’ and ‘Farming’: Two Industries necessary for our Genesis
I asked Mr. Bob Johnson, the founder and former CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET) to come today, and unfortunately something came up and he wasn’t able to make it. There’s not too many in America who have been as successful as Mr. Johnson, would you agree? Mr. Johnson had a vision for BET, where he and others put it together and it was the Voice of Black America. And without Mr. Johnson and BET we would not have been as successful with the Million Man March.
Now suppose if Mr. Johnson were here, I would say to Mr. Johnson: “Mr. Johnson, why shouldn’t we have a meeting with Black billionaires and multi-millionaires to talk about what to do to create jobs for our people?” One billion dollars over here, another billion over there, is nothing! “Pooling resources” is what Jews do, this is what Irish do, this is what Italians do, and this is what Mexicans are doing! Come on, Mr. Johnson: Let’s get our Black millionaires and billionaires together in a room. We would like to show you how by being a billionaire you can be a double-billionaire, triple-billionaire, if you invest your money in industry that puts your people to work!
Watch how this works: Isn’t America a “corporation”? Well, if all the billionaires and multi-millionaires got together and set up a corporate entity that they own major stock in, and offer it to us, then to hell with the American banks! Set up your own National Black Bank, and we put our money in our own bank and start building!
You have to start with land. … The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said we need 100 million acres of land as a start! The government owes it to us, but maybe they’re not going to give it. So we have to have another plan, because you’re not militarily strong enough to take anything.
So come on billionaires, come on millionaires: Set up the corporate entity, and let’s start buying land! See, it’s all for sale!
Study the Book of Genesis of your Bible: God is telling us how to go about this thing! In the Genesis you have Adam, and he has two children, Cain and Abel. The Bible teaches that there was no man to “till the ground,” so God made Adam and Eve produce a son, Cain, who was a tiller of the ground, and Abel who was engaged in animal husbandry with sheep. Now look at these Two Industries coming off the land. … Brother and Sister: You have to understand what we have to do! It’s our Genesis, now, and it’s going to start with land and farming. Land and Farming!
You are hungry in Philadelphia … But after the people bring non-perishable goods into the First Congressional District to give out, then what? Look how many vacant lots are in that district, where nothing is going on. Suppose we asked the mayor and the city council: “Let us have the land.” We know how to set up “hoop houses,” and grow food on the land that is better than what you’re getting in the supermarket!
“Freedom” means you have to go to work! Sitting around begging somebody else is not the answer.
