The Final Call | National News

Setting the record straight

By Richard B. Muhammad - Editor | Last updated: Sep 15, 2015 - 6:27:00 PM

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Nation of Islam Minister does first national TV interview with veteran Black journalist Roland Martin

Roland S. Muhammad of News One Now conducts the first national television interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan about the Justice Or Else! gathering planned for Oct. 10. Photo: Richard B. Muhammad

WASHINGTON - The first national television interview on Justice Or Else! a major gathering convened by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan wasn’t with the mainstream media but with veteran journalist Roland S. Martin of News One Now.

The hour-long dialogue between the 82-year-old leader and the onetime Black journalist of the year was so explosive News One ran it live on a Thursday and a taped program the next day.

“It is tragic what brought us to the Mall 20 years ago has intensified now even with the president of America being a Black man,” said Min. Farrakhan in response to a question by host Martin on Sept. 10.

Twenty years ago nearly two million men crowded the National Mall following a call to Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility from Minister Farrakhan. Another call has been issued for Oct. 10, 2015, the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, not as a commemoration but as a major rallying point to highlight the continued injustices Blacks face, the failures of the federal government to protect Black lives and Black rights and to awaken Black America to the reality that it must turn inward to solve its problems.

The Minister is making a demand for justice now with no illusion that America will respond. But the case must be made, America must be confronted with her wrongdoing and the consequences of her misdeeds, he said.

“America has to pay for what she has done not only to us and the Native Americans and the Hispanics but America has to pay for the evil she has done not only here, but throughout the world with the wickedness of her foreign policy,” said Min. Farrakhan.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam, warned that justice would be a weapon in the day of judgement, he explained. That day is today.

America’s political leaders are spiritually blind, which doesn’t bode well for the greatest nation in the past 6,000 years, but a nation whose history is drenched with the blood of slavery, genocide against the Native Americans and continued evil, said Min. Farrakhan.

But this is the day when America will see her evil returned and she will continue to suffer loss, unless she changes course, he added.

The broadcast was interspersed with clips from the Million Man March as the award-winning Black journalist walked the Minister through a range of important subjects.

What does Justice Or Else! actually mean? Mr. Martin asked.

All of the prophets of God came with warnings and in those warnings was a divine threat from God that an errant nation must change its course and America fits the pattern of past nations judged and punished by God, Min. Farrakhan has repeatedly warned.

The forces of nature are lashing America and her misdeeds have created enemies across the globe, the Minister has noted.

Another part of the Or Else! reflects a critical message by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered the night before his death in 1968 in Memphis as the civil rights leader supported a garbage workers strike.

Dr. King called for “economic withdrawal” as a way to spread the pain Blacks suffer because of unjust treatment, said Min. Farrakhan.

Today Blacks have $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in spending power and are like a carcass that vultures circle and suck the life out of, he said.

“You’re either going to treat us right or we are going to withdraw from you our economic support,” vowed Min. Farrakhan.

“We intend to boycott Christmas but not Jesus,” he said.

Corporations and merchants have taken advantage of the love for Jesus by “materializing” the day that is supposed to honor the birth of the Messiah, Min. Farrakhan continued.

The campaign calls for not spending money from Black Friday through the end of the year and focusing on building strong family relations by having a nutritious meal and dialogue instead of furiously shopping, he said.

More money is spent on drugs, alcohol and “fantastic foolishness” around the holidays than any time of year, Min. Farrakhan observed.

“When they feel the pain of our withdrawal of our economic power from them, then we can talk about real change in America that has not happened,” he said.

“Emmett Till was murdered 60 years ago and 60 years later we are still suffering the same thing. Something has got to give and so we intend to organize our people as never before to resist extrajudicial killing by police, but the worst thing, Brother Roland, is our killing of each other inside every neighborhood where we live.”

“We do have to confront the reality of the number of smart brothers, potential breadwinners, brilliant minds that are getting buried and never getting to live life to the fullest. How do we stop it?” asked host Martin.

The Black community has become a cesspool of filth, drugs, guns, unemployment, indecency and evil and those from outside of the Black community seem to be taking advantage of socially engineered conditions, the Minister responded.

Black youth have been engineered into a savage condition through inadequate education, joblessness, mass incarceration, drugs, violence and official corruption, he said.

We are now raping, robbing and killing one another, the Minister noted. Our communities are not safe, elderly can’t walk the streets and children can’t play outside, he said.

“I called for 10,000 fearless Black men to who death is sweeter than continued living under tyranny,” said Min. Farrakhan.

“White folks jumped all over that and said ‘Farrakhan is calling for 10,000 fearless Black men to go out and kill White people.’ Now I am passionate but I’m not stupid.

“To call for 10,000 Black men to go out and kill White people what would that bring on us? Can we stand that kind of heat? Where are the weapons, who has the weapons? This is a well-armed country, 315 million guns among the American people. How many Black people are allowed to have guns legally? And most of the guns in the inner city are illegal. No. I am not calling for that. They rushed to say I am going to kill White people. But here is what I really meant: You know and I know and Black people know that White policemen kill us. The prosecutors are liars, the judges are liars, the forensics specialists—all are conspiratorial in getting a White person off. They have killed us but they’ve never had to pay the price. The law of retaliation that’s in the Bible and in the Qur’an says it is a prescription.”

“A prescription for us is those who kill us and seem to get away with it, we cannot allow it to continue. We must rise up and kill those who kill us outside of the law of justice. And when they feel death like we feel death, when they feel pain at the burying of their dead, like we feel it, then maybe we can sit down to a table and act like civilized people. That’s why I said, ‘if the federal government,’ that’s the monster,” the Minister said, beating back lies spread in particular by right wing media outlets and conservative and right wing groups.

“The federal government has never interceded to see that Black men and women tried and killed get justice. So when we come to Washington we are not coming to play with the government. We’re not coming to play with the forces that take life out of us. And neither are we going to play with the life in the Black community that is killing us.

“So I said the 10,000 fearless we are going to be inside our community, standing between the guns of the gangs. We’re asking for 10,000, but you’ve got to accept to be trained by the Nation of Islam and the Fruit of Islam, so that we can teach you how to be with your people. We’re not killers of people. No Nation of Islam member carries a weapon. We don’t believe in the carnal weapons of this world. However, we have to be trained to go into our community with the love that we have for our own people and stand in the gap.”

But, Min. Farrakhan predicted, bringing peace to Black neighborhoods will bring out rogue cops sucking the life out of the Black community and benefitting from crime and chaos.

Police know where drugs are located, rob drug dealers, force Black youth to sell drugs and kill youth in the drug trade, said Min. Farrakhan. Police officials know this to be true or will know it soon, he declared.

“We have to protect our community. Our elderly need to be able to walk in peace. Our children need to be able to grow up and not be buried at a young age. Who is going to do that? The police are not stopping the violence in our community. Our leaders are not stopping the violence.

“We have to come together like men and women and love our people enough to go in, stand in between these guns and set up conflict resolution centers where we can bring the beefs into a place, end the beefs and make brotherhood live. Blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called the children of God. We are that and we intend to do that in our communities, not kill White people.”

The Minister expressed pride and support for young people engaged in what is widely called the Black Lives Matter movement. These are young people who represent the future leadership of Black people, he said.

Black Lives Matter activists and youth are welcome at the Justice Or Else! gathering, he stressed.

The truth of the destruction of Black life cannot be denied by pundits, politicians, police and so-called White allies, the Minister said. “Yes, all lives matter. But don’t change the narrative of that group; come among them and change the language. The language is Black Lives Matter. And let me say to the police who say police lives matter, all lives matter, White lives matter, but no life has mattered that is Black in America. And that is why we have to put a stop to it. Black lives do matter and all life does matter, but if Black lives don’t matter, then why should your life matter since all of your lives came from the Black man and woman? Black lives do matter.”

Keep pushing, we are with you and don’t let anyone change your narrative, Min. Farrakhan urged Black youth.

He also spoke to the distrust of elders in the Black community and established leaders who youth do not trust or respect.

“The elders are the products of pharaoh and they speak like that which would please the former slave master. Young people don’t want to hear that kind of leader, that kind of talk,” said Min. Farrakhan.

“So the pharaoh people, the people that want to integrate, the people that want to be close to their former slavemasters, the people that want a pat on the back from White people, you are finished with young Black people. We don’t want you because you are the enemy inside of a Black face.”

It’s like the biblical account of the children of Israel and the Promised Land the elders saw filled with giants, God let the elders die in the wilderness and took children into the Promised Land, a great future and nation, said Min. Farrakhan.

“The Promised Land is not for weaklings. The Promised Land is not for cowards. The Promised Land is not for elders who don’t see the value of our having a land of our own and having a self-independent life free of the dictates of our former slavemasters.”

Min. Farrakhan said post-Million Man March organizing could have been stronger in 1995 and there will be an intense focus on work to be done after 10-10-15.

He plans to bring back nine ministries proposed a decade ago, in areas such as health, education, trade and commerce, to be developed and staffed.

The effort requires more than a charismatic personality and must be tied to structures for Black self-government and land to produce things to trade with Black people throughout the earth, he said.

The Minister also had blunt words for those who are afraid to stand strongly for a suffering and endangered community:

“Our leaders, I hate to say it like this, but we’re bought and paid for. We’re hirelings now so we can’t always say the thing that needs to be said for fear of somebody yanking a paycheck away from us. We have to become so in love with our people and so desirous of liberation for our people that we don’t allow ourselves to become whores in the process that we can be bought and paid for to keep justice from our door.”

“Whores cannot lead this nation. Whores cannot make democracy work if you can be bought and paid for. So we are going to expose this … Somebody’s got to tell the truth on our leaders who are bought and paid for,” Min. Farrakhan said.

“You better come home and let’s go to work to free our people. Otherwise you will be exposed and our people will rise up against you. The masquerade is over baby. We’re going to have to clean it up.”

“I have to keep going, our people’s condition demands it,” said Min. Farrakhan, who dismissed any thought of his retirement. “I have work to do and God is with me and I have to do this work.”

Latinos, Native Americans, veterans, women are all invited to join Justice Or Else! he said.

Roland Martin called the interview incredible and another example of why Black-owned media is so important. Having Black-owned outlets allows for speaking directly to Black people and that need remains critical, he said.