Content Warning: Racist Images
During the 2019 Saviour’s Day Address titled A Saviour Is Born For The Whole Of Humanity: No One Need Perish, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan stated, “I represent a Saviour, a Universal Saviour.” According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, universal means including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception. The Saviour, Master Fard Muhammad, was born of a White Mother and a Black Father in order to give Justice to both people. As His Chosen people (Black people of America), we tend to look at things as if they’re just black and white and forget or ignore the nuances of race, especially when white supremacy comes into play.
The Teachings are Universal:
The Teachings that our Saviour gave to The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad are not limited to one people, though it was given to the Black Nation first due to the 400+ years of torment that we went through in our sojourn in America. It is taught that we must help ourselves before we help others. Under the Teachings, we were taught the Knowledge of Self, The History of our Nation, and the Knowledge of our Open Enemy. In Message To The Blackman by The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we learned how the Brown, Yellow and White races were grafted from the Original Black Nation, and we also learned that the Brown, Red, and Yellow people are our brethren. Never has it been insinuated that The Teachings of the Nation of Islam could not benefit the whole of humanity. It should be taken into consideration that Islam is a fast-growing religion with 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. Let’s look at our relationship with our brethren and how the white supremacist ideology has divided us.
Satan deceived the whole world:
In the Bible (Revelations 12:9), it is said that Satan deceived the whole world. The jarring image of Eugene Majied’s drawing of the serpent whose body is encompassing the globe with the head of Uncle Sam comes to mind. One way Satan has deceived the whole world is how non-white people are precieved.
Throughout American history, there is deceit, murder, and the dehumanization of non-white people by white supremacists. Soon after Christopher Columbus came to the shores of what is now called America, the Indigenous people of the land were considered savages due to their non-eurocentric culture and connection to the Earth, which was an excuse for the Europeans to commit rape and genocide. Slave ships landed and the word “nigger” was coined, which was a “… term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on Blacks” [cited Gowers, 1965, probably Harold R. Isaacs]. About 300 years later, Asians immigrated to America and were described as a “yellow peril” and were perceived as a threat.
Racist propaganda, slurs, and laws were all used to keep white people superior and in positions of power, not only in America but all throughout the world, which is why in almost every country where there are people, there are bleaching creams because white skin is seen as more appealing. The deceit lies in the “superiority” of the white race.
AntiBlackness in other communities:
As the white race continued to perpetuate the false ideology of Black = inferior, they simultaneously produced anti-blackness in other cultures due to their widespread influence from “missionary work” and colonization.
“…The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that Christianity was a white man’s organized religion. Not the teachings of Jesus Christ, but what they call Christianity was what they organized to put dark people all over the world under white supremacy in the name of Jesus Christ…their brutal subjugation of the Indigenous People of the world, Black, Brown, Red and Yellow, in the name of Jesus…” – The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
The Curse of Ham, the anti-black ideology that originated from the Talmud that Black people were cursed with Black skin, is something that has followed Black people all over the world. This racist ideology was used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and while Black people were still suffering from abuse of the white race, other countries adopted their own prejudiced beliefs of Black people because the more “white” you were perceived, the more ahead you would get in life.
“Abeed” means slave in Arabic, and it is a slur used against Black people by Non-Black Arabs. In Korean, 깜둥이 (pronounced kkam dong i) is used to describe a black dog but is a derogatory term used against Black people. In Brazil, a colonized country with a myriad of different cultures and skin tones, there are various terms related to skin color which are used to distance oneself from Blackness.
Due to the global portrayal of Black people in historical eurocentric propaganda and in modern media, there is racism and colorism everywhere. These issues must be acknowledged and atoned for within our own communities and with our brethren. In order to do that, we must first point out the origin of the wrongdoings.
White Terrorism Against People of Color (POC):
There were only ever two choices for dealing with white Americans as a POC: Assimilate or die. POC who were considered to act or look more white were non-threatening to white people, as we’ve witnessed with Indigenous American boarding schools and the “model minority” myth, which was used as a tool to divide Black people and POC from those of Asian descent. Black people and POC had to do what they needed to in order to survive the white supremacist foundation that America set for itself.
Although the laws of America seemingly gave POC an “out” from the abuse America imposed on Black people, it didn’t stop white supremacists from terrorizing them. In 1555, John Hawkins brought Black people to North America to enslave them, which lasted for 400+ years. Under slavery, Black people had to endure brandings, beatings, burnings, mutilation, rape, and torture. Today, Black people suffer from sexual violence, being targeted and killed by police almost daily, and are subjected to various types of racism. The Indigenous Americans’ culture was almost completely wiped out by the mindset that white = superior. As well as enduring rape and genocide, they were removed from their homes by force of what is now known as the Trail of Tears, which lasted between 1831 to 1877. Today, they suffer mockery, neglect from the American government, kidnappings, and environmental racism.
After the Mexican-American War came a deep hatred for Latinos. In 1911, a 14-year old boy named Antonio Gómez was lynched by a mob of over 100 white people. Throughout history and even now, they undergo forced deportation, which has led to children being put in cages under the Trump Administration.
October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, about 500 white people massacred the Chinese residents of Old Chinatown, and in 1882, there was the xenophobic Chinese Exclusion Act. During World War II, around 120,000 Japanese U.S. citizens were forced into internment camps. In these camps, many died from disease, and some were shot and killed for standing too close to the perimeter. In the early ‘80s, Vietnamese refugees were terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan in Texas. Today, Asians of different cultures and backgrounds are being attacked and killed in America due to the rise of anti-Asian hate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After WWII, the world saw the danger America posed with their “power” of nuclear weapons, and America decided to further meddle in other countries affairs. In 2003, President George W. Bush accused Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be a lie. That lie justified the Iraq War. Soon afterward, American troops were abusing Muslims. America’s interference and dismantling of governments left the Middle Eastern people to fight for power, which created a rise in what is now called jihadism as well as pitting Muslims against Muslims in the Middle East.
The Need for Unity:
Since Black people and POC who were perceived as more “white” were non-threatening to white supremacists, Black people and POC who acted with the knowledge of who they were and their culture was and is a threat to white supremacy, because white supremacy can only last if white people had the tools to keep everyone else inferior. Thankfully, there is a solution to dealing with white supremacy: Unity.
An oft-repeated quote by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad is, “Our Unity is more powerful than an atomic bomb.”
Our open Enemy, which is a white supremacist mindset, keeps us disunified, because division is how we are conquered.
With Unity, we can build each other up and put a stop to the oppression we face, not only in America but anywhere there is oppression. We must acknowledge our differences and atone for our shortcomings with our own people and with others in order to Unite to rid ourselves of the injustices that are caused by our division.
It’s been done before.
During the Civil Rights era, many were inspired by the works of Martin Luther King, Jr., The Black Panthers, and The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The demand for freedom from oppression resonated with everyone who has suffered abuse from a white supremacist mindset, ranging from Black people to poor white people. The Rainbow Coalition was birthed in Chicago, one of the most segregated cities in America. Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, was a co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition, which consisted of Black people, Puerto Ricans and urban southern white people. He saw the necessity of unity in order to make revolutionary change.
As Ericka Huggins stated, “The motto of The Black Panther Party was ‘All power to all the people’. Not all power to some of the people, all of the people.” The Brown Berets, a Chicano nationalist organization, stood in solidarity with the Black Panthers. They worked together to unite the Black and Chicano people and would help protest the imprisonment of Huey Newton. The Asian American Political Alliance, a movement that united Asian ethnicities, also participated in protests supporting the Black Panther Party. At San Francisco State University between 1968, a coalition called the Third World Liberation Front was formed when the Afro-American Student Union, the Asian American Political Alliance, the Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action, the Mexican American Student Committee, the Native American Indian Association and the Philipino American Collegiate Endeavor joined forces to hold protests to establish an ethnic studies department. They clashed with administrators and police, which led them to stand in solidarity with the Black Panther Party and Anti-Vietnam War movements.
The People’s Republic of China was the first non-African Nation to come out and show support for the Black Liberation struggle in America. The former chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, sent The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad an 11-page telegram showing China’s Allegiance to the Black Liberation struggle, making them the first non-African Nation to openly show solidarity at the time. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad gained friendship with various countries such as Peru, Morocco, Korea, and Taiwan. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan went on two World Friendship tours in the ‘90s, making connections with a multitude of countries, changing the perception of Black people across the world, and he was welcomed with open arms.
All of our People united because they felt it was “…natural that you would struggle with other people who have been marginalized, held down and oppressed,” as Aaron Dixon would put it. They saw the need for unity and the support of each other’s struggles in order to change society. People around the globe protested in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The cry for justice is universal. Our need for unity is detrimental. And the Enemy we have is a common one.
“When we fire the cannon of our unity, we will put our enemies to flight. Elijah Muhammad said there is no power of a hydrogen or atom bomb that is more deadly to the enemy than the unity of the oppressed.” – The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
