Are You A Disciple Like Rosa Parks?
Louis Farrakhan spoke at Syracuse University in 1989. At the time, all I knew of Farrakhan was his position as the leader of The Nation of Islam, his rumored role in the assassination of Malcolm X and the paragraph quotes, characterizing him as an anti-Semite. Upon deciding to listen to him speak, I ended up being one of about 10 white people within the auditorium (the others being pledges sent on a cruel stunt by one of the rich boy fraternities). I decided to attend because I don’t believe much until I experience it first hand, and, well, college is supposed to be the grounds for learning.
Quite frankly, over two hours, Farrakhan was nothing but eloquent, moving, empowering and righteous. There were no hints of Antisemitism, as he seemed 100% concerned with uplifting African-Americans in America. There wasn’t even a subtle push to join The Nation. And all the time my roommates and I listened to him speak, people protested outside, refusing to hear his words from his mouth.
Until today, I had shied away from posting about the passing of Rosa Parks… and then I watched her funeral service last night on C-Span. Do yourself a favor and listen to this speech. Louis Farrakhan captures the essence of the civil rights movement in his 10 minute speech and bridges time to reflect upon where we all need to go today… following the footprints of Rosa Parks.
Other poignant speeches:
Bill Clinton
John Conyers
Bishop T.D. Jakes
Barack Obama
Al Sharpton
(via freep)
UPDATE: Historically, Farrakhan has been very exclusionary regarding the inclusion of gay and lesbian struggles for equal rights. He talked the talk regarding inclusion leading up to the Millions More March, but there were still acts of exclusion on the day of the march.
No one claiming to be an activist in the spirit of Rosa Parks would separate any group of human beings, based on any factor, from the Civil Rights movement. Or, as John Conyers put it, “Civil Rights has morphed into the Human Rights movement.”
Tags: activism, Al Sharpton, America, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, change, Christianity, citizen, disciple, empowerment, hypocracy, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, John Conyers, Louis Farrakhan, righteous, Rosa Parks, video.
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Thanks for posting this. I rarely watch television, so I might not have seen this clip unless you or someone else posted it.
Farrahkhan is indeed a complex figure. He comes out of strong Black religious tradition and from an organization–the Nation of Islam-that is both ultra conservative but at the same time having the tradition of challenging White supremacy in this country.
There’s much to criticize Farrahkhan about. I’m no fan of any religious leader. I find them to exploit people’s emotions and are not always willing to people’s intellect. With that said, I can only say that fortunately and unfortunately, Farrahkhan remains one of the most outspoken leader of African descent in the African community. Only a younger, politically committed generation of activists can rise and replace him correct the mistakes he made.
Finally, I was wondering if there were any noted Black women who spoke at this event? Again, we have the tradition of the women doing all the real work and the men pontificating about it.
Farrakhan is *very* complex, and so are the controversies that surround him. It’s very hard for people to take his good speeches, his good words, at face value. There’s always a lot of reading between the lines with him.
I didn’t mean to segregate my speech postings along gender lines, but I guess I did. Regarding Black women… well, 94 year-old Johnnie Carr, Rosa Parks’ childhood friend and fellow activist, spoke. As did the Rev. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Her speech was quite strong, though too religious at times for me and mixed with her mother’s testimony.
Another woman who gave an extremely profound, powerful and sincere speech, was Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Very eloquent, very moving. Hillary Clinton also spoke, and was a bit terse, but delivered a very strong message of inclusion and progress.
Bakari:
What I cannot figure is “why attack Min. Farrakhan anyway”?
You claimed that he “made mistakes”, but failed to name said mistakes and how one would go about correcting these “supposed” mistakes.
You stated that “….there’s much to criticize Farrakhan about”. Oh really? Well, I suppose that you could give your critique AND you could have done and could do better in representing the hurt and needs of Black, India, Latino/Hispanic, American Indians (the ONLY TRUE Americans) or poor Caucasians of this country. Well…..CAN YOU? Oh….btw…..who ARE you????
Spcoon:
You seemed to have bought into the media hype (READ: LIES) that lay claim to lies told about the Minister (i.e. that he’s “supposedly” anti-Semetic). What a bunch of nonsense and lies. To anyone with an open mind, it is easy to take his good words at face value and they even have a deeper, positively motivational meaning as well. In fact, if you listened to his eulogy of Rosa Parks, he even mentions the fact that he’s been falsely accused of things he said and/or did. Didn’t you hear him?
@DeucePrez: where exactly did i buy into anything regarding farrakhan being anti-semetic?
try reading my post again; the entire post, not just the first paragraph.
I MUST give the author of this blog much credit.
Most people, after hearing and being exposed to the rumors and lies about Min. Farrakhan, particularly those who are Caucasian, buy into the rumors and lies and REFUSE to hear what the man has to say for themselves.
Unfortunately, these misled/lied-to people allow others to formulate opinions for them, thus they give up the ability of decision-making to people who may not necessarily have their best interest at heart.
Again, I give you the credit for hearing the Minister for yourself and putting yourself in a position where you could use your own ears to formulate an opinion about him and his message.
Also, I noticed that the camera panned to one White/Caucasian lady in the audience (who appeared to be somewhat upset that the Minister was invited to eulogize Sis. Rosa Parks)….
well, i don’t consider myself one of the 85%, nor the 10%, so take that as you will…
I gave ONE example of a popular mischaracterization of the Minister. You never stated exactly what point(s) of critism you had against the Minister, so no one could refute the nothing that you stated.
what exactly are you pining for, deuce?
Let him be. He is merely searching for an argument.