Minister Louis Farrakhan

The Troubled World: What Should We Be Doing? (continued)

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Sep 10, 2014 - 5:40:46 PM

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[Editor’s note: During his message “The Troubled World: What Should We Be Doing?” delivered at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, August 17, 2014, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan spoke directly to those leaders in Chicago’s cultural community and street organizations who were present in the audience that day concerning the need to recognize how they are being used by the enemy to aid in the conspiracy to exterminate The Black Male, and what we must do to change our reality for the better. The following article contains only excerpts from the more than two-hour address—The Final Call urges its readers to obtain a copy of this timely message, to study it, and then spread the guidance contained therein to a people who are suffering. Olick here to order this message in its entirety on Digital Download, DVD and CD or call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200, or visit store.finalcall.com.]

Chicago…  Why has Chicago become the murder capital?  You have gangs in all the cities, but not like “Chi-Town.”  There’s so much death in Chicago that they call it now not “Chicago,” but Chiraq:  Our children live under gunfire; they are traumatized.  Our young people do not feel that they’ll live to 20. 

In this audience today are members of the cultural community, and what I want to say to us is:  It’s the cultural community—producing the right ideas in their song, in their dance, in their poetry, in their plays, and in their movies—that take an idea, and plant it in the hearts of the people.

A lesson from history:  How our courageous poets, musicians, sports figures produced a culture through the power of their words, actions

In the 1960s, I made a song that became an “underground movement song” called “A White Man’s Heaven is a Black Man’s Hell,” and the first part of it I was rapping.  Not quite like you today (you’re the master of this today), but, I was rapping sense, wisdom; I was singing intelligence—with a beat to it; and it was an underground hit.  True, true, true!  In the 1960s it was The Last Poets; it was Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti!  Then you had James Brown“I’m Black and I’m proud!”  And everywhere you went, The Youth were moving to the rhythm of J.B.’s “I’m Black and I’m proud.”  Nina Simone…  I love Nina Simone, boy. 

All of the songs had meaning, so when they played it on the radio we were listening.  We loved to dance, we loved the beat, but the words produced a culture in Black America.  So when they assassinated Dr. King:  A hundred cities went up in smoke; and they wondered “who the leader was”—but the people were acculturated by looking at television, seeing fire hoses and dogs and cattle prods, and the suffering of Black unarmed boys and girls, men and women who only wanted to eat at a restaurant or sleep in a hotel, or some of these degrading things.

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The other day I was visited by John Carlos, the brother who, in 1968 with Tommie Smith:  After winning gold and bronze in the Olympics, when The Star Spangled Banner was played they put their fist up in the air.  And those brothers have suffered ever since because they embarrassed America. 

Basketball player Dwight Howard, a great brother:  He saw the slaughter, and just put a “tweet” up:  “#FreePalestine.”  And when he re-tweeted the message “#FreePalestine” to his 5.3 million Twitter followers, he was attacked by Morton A. Klein of the Zionist Organization of America (“ZOA,” the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States).  Then within a few minutes, he tweeted again: “I apologize if I offended anyone with my previous tweet, it was a mistake!  I have never commented on international politics and never will.”  Here is a man that, when he was in the dunk contest, he had on the Superman cape—“faster than a speeding bullet…”—and within seconds, “Superman” was made to look like “super mouse.” 

But I want to say to Brother Dwight, my dear beloved brother:  You are more than a “great basketball player,” you are a human being, and you were expressing your natural human empathy for a suffering peopleand Morton Klein wants to deny you your humanity, and you throw it away for a damn basketball?!

R&B singer Rihanna tweeted #FreePalestine…  Because all of our people that are made rich and famous have connections with the Jewish community—your money is from them, your money comes because they sign you; they are your agents, they are the owners of the clubs that you play in and play for!  So they put pressure on you, and you don’t stand up, because “making the money” is more than being an upright human being that has the courage to say to them: “You cannot deny my humanity. Your hatred of the Palestinians is your problem, but my love for humanity is in my character.”  See?  And when you stand up, they’ll sit down.

***

Remember Muhammad Ali?   Have you heard of that man?  He was fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world, and Brother Malcolm X was in his camp.  They came to Ali, and told him:  “You get that Malcolm out of your camp!  And get away from these Muslims, or the fight is off!”  Muhammad Ali looked at them, and said, “Well hell, then, the fight is off.  Everybody, pack up and let’s get the hell out of here!”  And since their “god’ is money, they came back later and said, “Oh, all right Ali…  Malcolm can stay.  But don’t go too hard on that Muslim stuff.”

Ali was one of the greatest men of our time!  And Ali stood for a principle!  When he went to the draft, and they said, “Step forward,” he said, “No, I ain’t coming into that!”  He said, “Them Viet Cong ain’t never called me ‘nigger’…  You say you’re gonna send me to jail?  Well clean out my cell, because I’m on my way!”  See, when you don’t give a damn about what they want to do against you, you start feeling life coming into you, strength coming into you—GOD COMING INTO YOU!

So now they want to ban Dwight Howard from playing basketball, because he said “Free Palestine.”  What this is, brothers and sisters, is to put fear into you to put you back into a place that they have designed for you.

Chicago’s ‘drill rap’ culture:  How record execs further the pipeline to prison

Did you know, my young rappers, that a meeting took place in Los Angeles some years ago where all the record executives were called together by people in power, because the jails in America are being privatized, and they are on the stock exchange?  And you don’t build a “hotel” unless you expect occupancy…  So when they are building prisons, they want to build them—but they’re building them for you; but now, they have to create a culture in the community that lends to violence, crime, drugs, guns, and prostitution.  And then it’s a steady pipeline to prison.

Chief Keef is a great hip hop artist from Chicago (he’s in Los Angeles now), but in this audience are some of the real movers and shakers in the streets of Chicago.  But they are offering you rap deals; companies like Atlantic Records:  These are real “Satans”—and they have to be exposed, brothers! 

Consider what happens:  You rap, and in your rap there’s a “beef” with another rapper, and you get real fiery about it, and you’re talking about “drilling down” (in other words, you want to kill your brother).  So, that is the kind of rap you’re doing.  And then the radio stations are complicit, because if you make something clean, they don’t want to play it; when you come to the record executives with something clean, but it has a good beat, they say: “Hey, that’s nice, but see, if you ain’t keeping it real…,” and “keeping it real” means “keeping it as it is” so that it will never change.  So if I’m rapping, and I’ve got a beef with you:  You come back with your record, and beef with me—but underneath we’re all talking about “shooting”; we’re all talking about [the ecstasy drug known in the streets as] “Molly.” 

And because many of the rap artists are street organization leaders:  So now “my rap is being played,” and because of the beefs from the rap, so then “I’ve got a gun.”  Where did you get it?  You know it’s not legal!  And then it’s, “I’ve gotta make some money/I’m slinging drugs”; and young Black girls are being turned into prostitutes to satisfy a “pimping” craze…  And what you don’t realize is that Chicago has been set up now to be the center of what you are just witnessing in Missouri.  So every day there is some killing. 

America’s military-armed police force: What are they expecting?  Who are they after?

Two congressmen from the state of Illinois, Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Richard “Dick” Durbin (D-Ill.), said:  “We’re going to raise millions of dollars from Congress because we have to go to Chicago, and we’re gonna arrest 18,000 Gangster Disciples.”  They already have the prisons and the concentration camps ready—listen, listen to me…  [Please study the messages delivered as Part 23 and Part 24 of “The Time and What Must Be Done” Lecture Series of 2013, wherein the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan mentions the aims of those whose desire is to create within the inner cities of America, particularly Chicago and Los Angeles, a “military force.”]

The former police chief in Chicago that was a F.B.I. officer, Jody Weis:  He and the Black officers came to have lunch with me at The National House; and the Black officers were talking to me about “good community-police relations.”  It sounded real good.  And certainly, as a man that wants to see our people safe, I said, “That sounds good”—but then I said:  “This train is running on two tracks—but the other track you didn’t say anything about.  Now, I want to talk about that track.”  I said, “Mr. Weis, I read that you ordered 17,000 automatic rifles with hollow-point bullets, armor-piercing bullets, for your police.  Did I make a mistake—did I…  Did I read something incorrectly?”  Jody Weis said, “No.”  I said, “Well tell me:  What are you expecting, that you would arm your police like that?”  And I said, “You know, Chief Weis, I also read that most of the police departments in the major cities are being trained by Blackwater”—which is a mercenary group that they use in Iraq, and they are training police.

Now all the police forces are being given weapons that are only used in military theaters of war.  So when you see the police armed like they are:  That’s not to “serve and protect,” that is to kill.  Look at the military force that came against the people in Missouri:  When I looked in the faces of those police, you could see the hate in their eyes!  And in one video captured by CNN, a police officer was standing there, saying: “Bring it, all you f-ing animals! Bring it!”  They have a desire to kill us wholesale

[Ref.:  The front page of the Saturday, August 16, 2014 late edition of The New York Times features the image “Tools of War in Counties across the U.S.” (www.nytimes.com/images/2014/08/16/nytfrontpage/scan.pdf) which sources Department of Defense statistics on state and local police departments, like the one in Ferguson, Mo., receiving some of their military-style equipment through a free military-transfer program created in the early 1990s (“The Department of Defense Excess Property Program - 1033 Program”).  Also, refer to the June 8, 2014 NYT article by Matt Apuzzo titled “War Gear Flows to Police Departments” (www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html); and, the August 14, 2014 NYT article by Julie Bosman and Matt Apuzzo titled “In Wake of Clashes, Calls to Demilitarize Police” (www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/ferguson-missouri-in-wake-of-clashes-calls-to-demilitarize-police.html) which links to an interactive map “Mapping the Spread of the Military’s Surplus Gear.”]

Chicago is going to be the epicenter of what they’re about to do.  You know why?  Because I’m here; Reverend Jackson is here, “Black Consciousness” is here!  They really want to kill Farrakhan…  But, I say to the United States government:  I am not running from you.  I am here to die—but what will happen to youSee, I’m not no “rooty-poot” fella that’s just out here running his mouth!  I am backed by a Power that can destroy you in the twinkling of an eye!

I read that the F.B.I. is planning to come into Chicago, or they’re already here, but they’re increasing their numbers, working with the police tactical forces; and they want to work in the hood with gangs.  Well, what is it all about? 

Brothers and sisters, look at the money that is being given to rappers to continue the “drill” kind of rap:  This is the hardest core rap that there is; it’s:  1.) “killing, killing, killing,” 2.) “drugs,” 3.) “guns” and 4.) “‘hoes’/disrespect of our women.”  And because they give you money, and contracts, that will allow you to put gold in your teeth, and bling-bling around your neck; and then you can come back in the hood, riding expensive cars—but your brothers and sisters are dying on your words!  And you are aiding in the conspiracy to exterminate The Black Male.

***

I will tell you what I want you to do:  1.) You must know that at the highest levels of government, they have plotted our demise; and, 2.) They are coming into Chicago with heavy armament, to make Chicago “the example of slaughter.”  And perhaps during that time, you know, maybe go after and arrest Farrakhan, and The Muslims, and shut this thing down—because we’re “the only man standing” now; they have compromised everybody else.

But I want to tell you:  We are not going to run from this!  Because if you plan the slaughter of Black people in America, starting with a slaughter in Chicago, let me tell you what you can expect! 

Now, I see that you know that I have been telling you about this weather (“watch the weather”)—and Allah answers real quick!  But it’s getting worse now, because you’re getting worse in your plans.   There’s a movie out called Into The Storm:  You ought to check it out, because one of the things they said was, “Well, one of these powerful tornadoes has not hit Chicago or L.A.”  Well let me tell you, baby:  It’s on the way. 

And if you, my brothers, don’t change, don’t stop the killing of each other, then The Wrath of God will descend, and blood will be seen in the gutters of Chicago—but it will be your blood, our blood.  But then, God will answer swiftly.  You are the “People of God,” but you are acting like Agents of The Devil, and that has to stop.

The target all over America is “Youth”:  The Reason you are under attack

In our audience are BDs and GDs, and Stones, and Four Corner Hustlers, and Vice Lords—all of that is here (and I thank you for coming!).  I said to our staff the day before this meeting:  “This is the greatest audience that I will have ever spoken to, because it is these young people that are the hope, but they are in the crosshairs of destruction.”

Have you noticed that “the target” all over America is youth?  But when you look at all the revolution that’s going on in the world, look at the faces of the people that are overthrowing governments—it is youth!  You’ve got social media, and you deal, man!  What is that thing that you can call—a “flash mob,” where they just “hit” (a button to send out a message), and 50 brothers and sisters will come out on the streets, stop the traffic, and just dance and party?  Now while that is happening, you are being filmed; and they take the films, and they show them to police and organizations, and you are being made to look like “animals.”  So as they ramp up with this heavy armor, they want to use it—and they don’t want to use it on White people, they want to try out all of that stuff on you, on us.

So brothers, with the “beefs” that are going on:  I would like, and we would like, to aid you in resolving this.  Because if you’re going to be under attack, the only way you can survive is by unity.  So all “beefs” must end.  And we will be to you your brothers, who will help us to work out our differences so that the guns can be sheathed. 

Father Michael Pfleger (who recently hosted a South Side gun buyback event at Saint Sabina Church) is doing an excellent job!  And he is one of those great ones who has the heart of a Christ-like human being.  We spoke the night before this speech, and he said, “I can’t come Farrakhan, because I’m doing the same thing at my church.”  I said, “Well, I’ll share with you what I say, you share with me what you say—but I want us to walk together in the front lines.” 

Before they kill any of our people, let us who love our people, and have committed our life to our people:  Let us be the first to lay down our lives for the justice and freedom and equity of our people. 

***

I need your help; we have to “fan out,” now…  Then, let’s set up how we can “bridge the gap” between the brothers and sisters that have “beefs,” so that we can feel each other’s pain; and let the numbness (that pervades our thinking), that if I’m a GD, and a BD dies, “I’m happy”; or, if I’m a Blood, and a Crip dies, “I’m happy.”  No!  When any Black life is lost it is an effect on all of us, because God didn’t make you a “BD” or a “GD,” God made you into Himself.  And when you recognize “who” you really are, and that your time has come—did you know why Moses wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and didn’t enter The Promised Land? 

It is because the “old heads” belonged to Pharaoh; so, it was the youth that Moses took, and they inhabited The Promised Land.  And that is why you are under attack:  Because The Future of Black People is really in the hands of these courageous, dynamic, powerful Black Youth; that all they need is Right Guidance.

So I pray that what I’ve said has entered your heart and your mind!  Thank you for reading these words, and may Allah bless you, as I greet you in peace:  As-Salaam Alaikum.