Farrakhan, Gangsters And A New Black State
February 26, 2013 by Ben Bullard
Louis Farrakhan may be nearly 80, but age isn’t softening his politics.
In a bizarre address in Chicago Sunday, the Nation of Islam leader laid out a vision for the future of black Americans that, if realized, would elevate urban thuggery to a sort of secessionist, collectivist, isolationist, militant statecraft.
Telling gangsters they already possess the martial character necessary to defend turf (discipline? judgment? self-sacrifice?), Farrakhan urged leaders of gangs to become protectors of lands the Nation of Islam aims to acquire through incremental buying.
Calling gang leaders in Chicago “natural warriors,” minister Farrakhan posited a future scenario in which gangsters and recruited gang members could physically protect domestic lands the Nation of Islam is amassing — evidently with the buying power of poor black people’s pocket change — in rural Georgia and, perhaps soon, the Midwest.
“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 build,” he said, speaking at his organization’s annual Savior’s Day event.
In a remarkable generalization, he encouraged black Americans to stop spending their discretionary income on cigarettes, liquor and cellphones and urged them instead to contribute “pennies, nickels and dimes” — presumably to some fund tended by the Nation of Islam — to help achieve common goals he said have been systematically denied them by the U.S. political and economic spheres.
Farrakhan did manage to nail one truth concerning gun violence among black Americans, asserting that 2nd Amendment rights will continue to have little meaning for those blacks who carry — and use — guns off the legal grid.
“The Second Amendment has no relevance to the black community in this sense,” he said. “All your weapons are illegal and you’re using them like a savage people.”
In keeping with the notion that recruited gangsters could one day need to hold a firearm while they patrol the borders of Nation of Islam-owned lands, he defended the self-protective spirit of the 2nd Amendment, saying that only by maintaining arms can citizens ensure their rights against a tyrannical government.
It would be interesting to learn how the National Rifle Association feels about Farrakhan’s 2nd Amendment remarks.
Historically, when racial politics and gun rights issues collide, strange things happen. When the Black Panthers staged a gun-toting march on the California Capitol building in 1967, the NRA helped shape gun control legislation that went on to be passed and signed by that State’s Governor, Ronald Reagan.
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