“I think I know enough of hate”
Robert Frost
Four years ago, Republicans were embarrassed when a Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan won a seat in Louisiana’s state legislature on their ticket. Despite an attempt to soften his campaign rhetoric during a subsequent run for governor and his party’s all-out effort to distance itself from the former Klanner, the incident focused unwanted attention on the more virulent views of the GOP’s extreme right.
While gloating over Republican misfortunes, Democrats continued to embrace every soul whose body heat exceeded room temperature, no matter how radical or outlandish their beliefs. In the process, the party’s liberal wing adopted a canon, only whites can be guilty of discrimination and racial prejudice.
Instead of challenging such claptrap, the nation’s mainstream media dutifully reported such allegations as if divinely inspired.
Last September the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and Jesse Jackson forged a “sacred covenant” with Minister Louis Farrakhan, the self-anointed leader of the Nation of Islam. The goal was to build black unity, address black-on-black crime, merchandise the alleged nonviolent nature of the Nation of Islam and concurrently move Farrakhan closer to the political center.
In the process the color of an individual’s skin became more important than “the content of their character“.
The leadership of the African-American community and their white supporters conveniently ignored Farrakhan’s legacy of intolerance, demonstrated by his support of such intellectual utterances as, “Hitler was a great man.”; “the white man … is so wicked and so filthy … God calls him the skunk of the planet earth.”; and “The AIDS epidemic is a result of doctors, especially Jewish ones, who inject AIDS into blacks.”
An equal opportunity hater, Minister Farrakhan has also unleashed venomous diatribes against blacks who have disagreed with him, labeling them Uncle Toms or Quislings and has advocated “Death” to the black reporter who revealed Jesse Jackson’s use of the word, “Hymietown”.
Less than two months after the pact was sealed, this unity alliance began to crumple. It began when a close Farrakhan aid delivered a speech at New Jersey’s Kean College in which Khalid Abdul Muhammad labeled Jews as “blood suckers of the black nation”, called the pope an assortment of uncomplimentary names, and urged South African blacks to “kill everything white” in their nation.
Rather than immediately and publicly denouncing Khalid’s incendiary comments, African-American leaders embarked on a campaign to convince Farrakhan to repudiate his associate’s remarks. Not only did Farrakhan refuse, he counterattacked, defending Khalid’s speech and criticizing blacks who had the audacity to question its veracity.
On January 16th the New York Times printed the story, after which Jesse Jackson finally denounced Khalid’s inflammatory oratory as “racist, anti-Semitic, divisive, untrue and chilling”. Why his delay? Why his surprise? Surely he was aware of the Farrakhan’s long-espoused views.
Kweisi Mfume, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus was slow to react. Even as other African-American members of Congress moved to disassociate themselves from the hate-filled speech, Rep. Mfume failed to rail against Khalid’s racism or Farrakhan’s defense of it.
Non-African-American Democrats, jubilant when the unity “covenant” was announced, remain deafeningly silent. It’s as if they lack the courage to publicly confront black-sponsored bigotry, perhaps actually believing only whites can be racists.
Louis Farrakhan is a fringe player on the political scene. His popularity depends on delivering emotional and extremist messages which strike responsive chords with African-Americans who feel insecure, frustrated and disenfranchised in an era when the civil rights movement is, unfortunately, becoming a distant memory.
Still, Farrakhan and his ilk have a Constitutional prerogative to believe as they wish. Their right to preach religious and racial intolerance is protected by the First Amendment. Those sacred liberties must never be abridged, for them or their counterparts on the extreme right.
Yet, if America is to avoid further Balkanization, people of courage must constantly challenge demagogues who would lure their followers down paths where race, creed, religion and national origin become the primary criteria for judging one another.
Those Americans who aspire to become true leaders, as well as those who simply wish to leave a legacy of human equality to their children must loudly condemn and clearly renounce the types of bigotry and hatred which serve to divide rather than unite our great nation.
As Martin Luther King observed, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
