The Final Call

'LOVE YOURSELF: The Original People of The Earth’' (A Message to Black Youth)

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Sep 8, 2015 - 7:41:53 AM

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I bear witness that there is but one God, The Originator of the heavens and the earth, and The Originator of all things.  We thank Him for His prophets and messengers and scriptures that they brought; we thank Him for Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.  We thank Him for the great sages and wise people among our Native family, and the great ancestors of ours who struggled that we might be here today to fulfill their dream of Freedom, Justice and Equality.

Nearly 500 were present to hear Min. Farrakhan’s words of guidance to the future generation of rulers. Photos: Jesse Muhammad

Dear youth:  Many, many, many of our ancestors have died looking for a better way, crying out to an enemy for mercy, but there was none.  The Indigenous people, whose land we are standing on and living in, have been almost completely decimated. ...  And during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, a crime against humanity was committed, and our ancestors were brought not to America as immigrants seeking a better life, we came in the holds of ships as slaves; and for 310 years we were considered chattel slaves.  “Chattel,” meaning that as you owned horses or dogs or pigs, and you branded them so that others may know that you own them, the slave master named us after our owners.  So, we don’t have African names, we have European names—“Johnson” and “Jones,” “Smith” and “Culpepper,” “Brown” and “Red,” “Yellow” and “White”)—whatever you want to call yourself.  But that’s not you!  And when you sign with a false name that doesn’t belong to you, you are telling the world “something has happened here.”  We don’t know who we are; we are not sure whose we are—and so it’s an honor for me to be able to look into your beautiful faces, and know that the future is safe if you become who you are.  ... 

Minister Farrakhan makes a point about the genetic power of the Black man and woman.

Now that time is not on my side, in that I’m in my 80s now, as I go down into “The Valley of Death”:  When I look over my shoulders, I want to know what I’m looking at.  Because you are in the prime of your life now, and this is the time for you to advance intellectually, and make choices for your life that will impact not only your generation, but generations to come.  And this is why the enemy does not want youth to connect to wisdom.

The hope, success and longevity that comes with connecting to ‘who’ you are

Brothers and sisters, when we lived in Africa, our culture was that the youth was always in the presence of the elders.  If we ask our Native Indigenous people:  The youth are always connected to the elders.  So grandpa and grandma are right close, with the children; and they ask questions of the elders, and the elders pass on the wisdom—and then pass from the Earth.  But they leave behind the spirit of the warriors, the spirit of the ancestors as we march toward the goal of true freedom, justice and equality.  The kind of education that you’ve received?  It’s really not worthy wasting your time with it. 

To those who are educators, I want you to pay attention to my words; because all you have been fed is White Supremacy all your life to make you a better servant of your former slave masters through a tricked-up education that does not serve us well.  “How do you know that, Farrakhan?”  You need to hold your teachers and your presidents of colleges accountable, and tell them that:  “We’ve paid for an education that we can’t use.”  Consider our great athletes coming out of college:  All they (those who own the sports leagues) want from them is the strength and the talent of their great gift to play ball; they don’t care that after his knees are gone, and he is not able to jump as high as he used to, what will he do with his life!  When sport is over, how many of our great athletes survive?  How many of our great athletes have money?  Five years after they leave the league, most of them are broke. 

And while you are young and strong, in a few years some of you will be at age 18 (ready for the service).  There’s no job for you in the city, but you can “be all that you can never be” by joining the army—and let them send you to Afghanistan or Iraq, or somewhere, fighting some elusive enemy when you are suffering in America from a real enemy right now! 

You will never be successful if you don’t know who you are.  Have you ever seen a person that has amnesia being as competent as they could be if they don’t know who they are?  “Amnesia” is a terrible condition to be in!  Some take a fall, or somebody hits you in the head, and you don’t remember your mother, you don’t remember your father, you don’t remember where you live?  That’s a bad condition.  That’s our condition.  You don’t speak your mother tongue; you don’t wear your Father’s Name.  You don’t know your God, your religion, your country, your culture—because the enemy never wanted you to know yourself, because if you knew yourself you would love yourself.  And once you love yourself, then you’ll know that the brother and sister sitting next to you is “family.” 

When you know who you are, you connect with everybody around you; so you’re no longer alone, because you know family.  When you love one another, you will never stab your brother, shoot your brother, or rape your sister; put her out on the block to be used by others!  When you know yourself, and love yourself, you’ll love your women. 

Young brothers:  You honor your women!  You protect your women!  And you die protecting her honor, her dignity, her chastity!  That’s right:  When you understand that a woman is “the earth” through which we plant “a seed,” and that seed grows in her, through her we are projected into the future.  Without a woman you don’t have a future.  But through the woman, we have a future.  Because none of us can live forever in this body; it’s made from the Earth, so over time it deteriorates, and soon returns to the Earth.  And that is why God created everything “in pairs.”  Allah (God) created the man and He created the woman:  We are a pair; so that when we relate to each other properly, she accepts a seed from us like the Earth accepts a seed, then with the right environment (the sunshine, the rain, the atmosphere), the seed swells and bursts, and comes forth that we can see what’s in the seed!  You are like “seeds”—and many of us never blossom.  We die as “seeds” because America has not, and we have not, created an environment that allows us to grow into who we are. 

***

Did you know you are a direct descendent of God Himself?  I just want you to think with me:  How could the Bible say you are made “in the image and the likeness of God,” and you don’t know your connection, and have no connection, to The Source of your life?  Not only are you directly from The Creator, but the nature of you is The Nature of God Himself. 

The enemy knows who you are—that’s why he’s working night and day to destroy the Black male; because he is afraid that The Black Male, awakened, will challenge White Supremacy.  The Black Male:  Just with your sperm you reduce his population.  And when you get involved with his woman (as some might want to do), whatever comes from that relationship is no longer “White”; just a drop of your blood has ended the White man forever.  I want you to pay attention to what I am saying!  That’s why White people fear you!  Because through you it’s “genetic annihilation” for them.  So they hate what you represent. 

And as you see, more and more Black women are being killed while they’re in custody in police stations:  Since Sandra Bland (Houston, Texas, July 2015) there have been five more Black women who have died in police custody.  Why are they now killing our women?  Because you produce this man—so they want to kill that that produces what they fear.

Now what is it about you, a direct descendant of God, that has The Nature of God?  And there is nothing that God has created that doesn’t reflect his intelligence, and you are directly from him?  But you are not reflecting His Intelligence!  That’s because you have been mis-educated, mistreated, and are now in a “savage state.” 

“What is a savage?”  My Teacher said it’s “a person that has lost the knowledge of themselves and is living the life of a beast.”  You see the way animals tear each other for food?  Why are we tearing each other up?  We can’t eat each other...  Why are we killing each other?  “Because I’m from this neighborhood, and you’re from another”/“I am called ‘Vice Lord’ and you are called something else’/“You have a sign that you use, and I have another sign”/“You have a special handshake; I have one”—and we can’t see that we are the same people?  Flesh of each other’s flesh? 

The enemy has so thoroughly divided us, that there is a scripture in the Bible that depicts us:  Open up the Bible to the 37th Chapter of Ezekiel:  It’s talking about some “dry bones in The Valley”—and the bones were talking to each other! 

‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’: A lesson on regaining hope and the ability to envision

Now you know if you see some bones out in the cemetery, they’re not talking (smile); because once you die, this body decomposes and returns to the earth.  The bones are intact for a while, but then the bones separate from each other because there is nothing to hold the bones together (no sinews), so the bones fall apart.  So when you read “dry bones in The Valley,” that’s referring to something that has been dead a long time. 

How are you “dead”?  You and I are “dead” because:  You’ve got eyes, but you can’t see.  You’ve got ears, but you can’t hear.  You’ve got a tongue, but you can’t speak.  You’ve got hands that are made by The Creator to fashion whatever vision is in your mind, so the scripture says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”—but where is the vision in the hearts and minds of our young, that they can see a future that they can bring out of their brain and make it into reality?  Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, we’ve been destroyed...  So the bones were talking; check out what they were saying:  “Our bones are dried.  Our hope is lost.  We are cut off from our parts.” 

What does that mean?  Go into our communities and just check out your conversation:  When the cry is heard “We have to unite!’ there are those of us who say, “Aww man, them niggas ain’t never gonna get together!”—that’s the way we talk—“There ain’t nothing gonna happen, I’m telling you!”  Hopeless:  You don’t believe that you can overcome your condition, and overcome the enemy that put you in the condition.  You don’t believe; you are hopeless.  So how do you compensate for a life that there is no pleasure in living? 

My God.  Do you know, son and daughter of mine (own heart):  When you have vision, and you accomplish what you set out to do, there is joy in your soul, because you’ve realized what you can do, and you did it!  Some of you that are rappers:  I’m not talking about the quality of your rap; I’m talking about wanting to be a rap star and put your name in lights, and get a record contract.  And some of you achieved it!  And when you achieved it, you were real happy, weren’t you?  But how many of you who have dreams when you lay down of how great you are—but you can’t realize it when you wake up?  Have you had them kind of dreams of yourself doing great things? 

If you’re a runner, have you ever thought that you would run the 100-yard dash and break the record; or “jump out the gym” (with your basketball skills)?  You dreamed that before you did it:  You saw it in your mind before you did it!  And when you did it, it was joy.  ...  But that’s “dunking”—what about building?  What about envisioning yourself as a builder? 

Look at a White counterpart of yours, the young man that started Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg:  A young Jewish boy.  See, Jews do not think less of themselves; no matter what they have gone through in life, they stay together, because their culture makes them see themselves as “rulers”—and everywhere they go, they rule!  So if they see it, they do it.  Right now, you see all the sports leagues that we get hired as a ball player are owned by Jewish people; all the football players, the leagues owned by Jewish people.  All of Hollywood?  Owned by Jewish people.  All the record companies?  Owned by Jewish people.  All the publishing companies, most of them, owned by Jewish people.  Yes, it’s because they are brilliant, and they know who they are; and they try their best to rule wherever they go.  They are considered mimetic.  (“Mimetic” means they imitate the culture, the language, wherever they are.)  Go to Mexico, and you’ll see White Mexicans running things; but under it, they’re Jewish.  Most of the countries are ruled by White people, and if you trace their roots, they are members of the Jewish community.  They own [so much] land.... 

Now, don’t sell them short!  You can’t; because, if you want to move in this world you have to either move through them—because you very rarely can go around them.  They set the limit of your rise. 

***

Well, Jews told you they were “The Chosen of God”—and it seems that way—but they stole your identity.  “The Children of Israel,” according to the Bible, were those that suffered in bondage 400 years in Egypt.  How long you’ve been in America?  Four hundred and sixty (460) years!  And every year that we’ve been in America,  we’ve been subjected to tyranny; fear. 

Some of us are so frightened...  It’s not the White man—it’s our fear of him that blocks us from even attempting greatness.  Somebody has to help you, and remove the fear out of you, so you can rise and be what God intended for you to be.  That’s why Jesus told his disciples, particularly Peter:  “Lovest thou me, Peter? Feed my sheep.”  Peter said, “Jesus, you know I love you.”  Jesus asked him again:  “Do you love me, Peter?”—Peter said, “Yes, of course!”  And a second time, Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  Then Jesus asked Peter a third time:  “Peter, you really love me?  Feed my lambs.”  What did he mean?  “Let’s have a government program, and feed the people cheese and crackers, and SPAM and canned goods”—is that what Jesus was talking about?  I don’t think so!  See, you are great, but you have to recognize your greatness.  And you can’t recognize it until The Nature of God in you is properly fed.

To the preacher reading this:  You can’t teach these children some milquetoast doctrine of a feminized Jesus, and bring out of them what God has put within them!  Jesus was a Revolutionary—not a punk!  At least The Jesus that I know...  And the one you have hanging:  If the Jesus on that wall is White, take it down.  Take it down!  That’s Michelangelo’s vision of “Jesus.”  He painted Jesus to look like him.  ...

My family:  You are The Original People of the Earth.  And when you know yourself, it’s not for you to be arrogant, but it’s for you to say, “I am a direct descendant of The Creator!”  Everything started in darkness and came out into the light; and everything started with “Black,” and the ultimate is “White.”  You are the father and the mother of it all.  You are original.  ... 

The Essential Principles of Life worthy of our lives (Truth, Freedom, Justice and Equality)

My beautiful sister, (14-year-old Erica Lofton of the Milwaukee-based youth organization “Girls in Action, Inc.”):  She said that she saw so much death in our communities, so much bloodshed in our community, that she felt that pain; and the phrase on the bracelet she passes out states:  “I don’t commit violence, I speak out against it.”  Those words are the right words for our community right now.  I talked to Martin Luther King, III recently in Atlanta, and he said, “Farrakhan, how do we stop the killing in our community?”  I said:  “You have to take the non-violent teaching of your father, and let’s go to the churches and tell them, ‘Why teach ‘non-violence’ to a people who have been violent all the days of their life?  Stop it!’” 

You can’t say to them “don’t be violent” when right now, every day you turn on your TV you see a drone strike killing people, innocent people, trying to “find the guilty.”  See, they want us to be non-violent, but everything that America has achieved, she achieved it through violence—and we helped her!  A Black man was the first to die in The Revolutionary War; his name was Crispus Attucks:  He died in Boston, Massachusetts, fighting for a freedom that he didn’t have then, and we don’t have it now.  We fought in The War of 1812; we fought in The Civil War on both sides, North and South.  We fought in World War I!  We fought in World War II!  We fought in The Vietnam War (only to come home to die in Mississippi with our uniform on)! 

How long can we live under tyranny and keep a smile on our face, and respond with an improper reaction to tyranny?  You go to school and you learn about Patrick Henry who said:  “Give me liberty or give me death,” but you don’t want to die for the freedom that you seek, and the justice that you seek!  You want to “go to heaven,” you say—but you’re not ready to die?  You want things laid out for you on a silver platter, but it’s not that kind of party....

Truth is worth living for!  Truth is worth dying for!  “Justice” and “Freedom” and “Equity” is worthy living for—and those essential principles of life are worthy of dying for.