Messages to Black Men - Building men, brotherhood to rebuild Black communities

By Richard B. Muhammad - Editor | Last updated: Dec 22, 2015 - 8:41:37 AM

Minister Farrakhan and his wife Mother Khadijah with Dorian Boyland and the men of Boyz4Lyfe. Photo: Nancy Jo Brown

CHICAGO—In two separate, intimate but powerful meetings, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan sat down with small groups, encouraging Black men to use their gifts, their talents and their intellect to uplift their fallen people and the world.

The events, a gathering at the official residence of the president of Chicago State University and a different gathering at the Four Seasons Hotel were not major public speeches but they were important and touching.

“Everybody doesn’t get this,” entrepreneur Dorian Byland, a highly successful owner of car dealerships and leader of Boyz4Lyfe, told the group of about 50 men at the Four Seasons hotel downtown. Boyz4Lyfe is something of a men’s group and non-profit that helps others through charitable giving.

The talk with successful Black professionals, pastors and men from different walks of life was touching and funny at times.

We need you to come back to the Black community and help those left behind, the Minister told the men assembled before him. Your brotherhood is important and allows you to do business with one another and good for others, Min. Farrakhan noted.

From left Ronald ‘Kweisi’ Harris, Min. Farrakhan and Dr. Wayne Watson of Chicago State University with the men of TEMBO.

Such unity makes you important and a threat, despite success, because true brotherhood will allow Blacks to unite and solve their own problems, he said.

God wants to bring in a new world and understanding, and acting as Jesus acted brings the power and understanding to make things new, the Minister said.

We may talk God, but, we are victimized by Satan and as Jesus has followers committed to good works, Satan has people and forces committed to doing evil, Min. Farrakhan explained.

The sons of God, in the Bible, were not able to recognize Satan though Satan was walking with them, seeking to devour people who think they know Jesus, he said.

“Satan has eaten up nine-tenths of our planet. He has disciples in every religion because all religions have failed. … God is not in religion that religion is just rituals that we carry out,” he said.

The best religion is doing unto others as you would have done unto you, the Minister said. “What you put out only the mercy of God can keep us from receiving what we dish out.”

Blacks were captured, kidnapped and brought to America by an enemy that did not recognize their humanity, Min. Farrakhan said. There was extreme suffering and death on slave ships but the strongest, who are our fathers, survived, he said.

The enemy wanted to rip Blacks away from their native land, people, culture, God and religion, the Minister continued.

We wear names that tie us to our former slave masters but not our history and culture, leaving us spiritually dead, dumb and blind, he said. “God made man, the White man made niggers. That’s why Paul said be ye not conformed to this world,” said Min. Farrakhan.

It requires a mind beyond what Whites created and fighting against something deep within that keeps us from seeing each other as brothers, the Minister said.

“What we listen to, what we hear, what we feed our minds with is Satan’s world. His system of education that’s what we came out from,” he said. This group is fortunate because Mr. Boyland, an entrepreneur and successful businessman, is different and leads a brotherhood, he goes against what does not reflect the teachings of the White man, added Min. Farrakhan.

“Brotherhood gives you that spirit of love for one another that makes you able to go in your pocket, pool resources and do big things, not just for each other but for others,” he said.

While many live in the pleasure of their bodies and sexual appetites, real pleasure comes from having an idea and bringing that idea into fruition, said Min. Farrakhan. God made us to be producers, he said.

“Everything we need to make a heaven for ourselves is under our feet,” the Minister said.

“Our duty today is to make our own community a decent place to live. Our community today is not a decent place to live. It’s filled with crime, violence and bloodshed and all the bloodsuckers of the poor are concentrated in the ’hood,” said Min. Farrakhan. Rogue police officers patrol and victimize Black residents for fun, he said.

But, Min. Farrakhan continued, with $1.1 trillion in spending power Blacks can act strategically to invest, buy and rebuild where they live.

The Minister called on the men in the room to help by bringing their skills and resources back to Black neighborhoods. We can buy up property and train young people to rebuild the wasted cities, he said.

Mr. Boyland thanked the Minister as did the men in the meeting room. He talked about being a friend of the Minister’s daughter, Donna Farrakhan Muhammad, and the family in the 1970s.

Visiting with the family allowed for learning valuable lessons, said Mr. Boyland, a former professional baseball player. Min. Farrakhan is like a father figure to me, he said, noting that he never met his father.

Marv Wade, a 58-year-old businessman, felt the Minister was “as always right on point.” He is based in Milwaukee and works with Nation of Islam officials in the city.

He was somewhat astonished at the Minister’s vitality, spirit and intellect. Min. Farrakhan offers messages that you can use to enhance yourself, your family and your community, Mr. Wade said Dec. 12.

“That’s ‘an old man’ but you don’t see a old man. Where is the old man at? I can’t see him,” said Mr. Wade. He recounted seeing Min. Farrakhan 25-years-ago. “To see him 25 years later and he’s still the same Minister Farrakhan, ain’t lost no fire, not no step.”

An historic night, embrace

from Chicago State

“So often we say, ‘God I wish I had met Paul Robeson. What would I have said to him? What would I have heard him say? Would it not have been just a remarkable experience to be in the presence of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, of Frederick Douglass, of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall? Guess what we are there, we are in the presence of a man who has that impact, not just us personally, not just our community but on our world and most importantly on the future,” said longtime educator Dr. Wayne Watson, president of Chicago State University Dec. 10 in presenting the Minister to his students.

He presented Min. Farrakhan with a “challenge coin,” a specially made coin exchanged among highly placed individuals, such as President Obama and the director of the CIA. The challenge is for you to continue to engage, embrace, educate, enlighten and most importantly to empower our people with your education message, said Dr. Watson. I accept the challenge, said Min. Farrakhan. The coin was a special one minted for Chicago St. and has only been presented to seven people, said Dr. Watson.

Ronald “Kweisi” Harris, director of the Chicago State African American Male Resource Center and the group TEMBO, saluted the Minister and thanked him on behalf of the 30-35 young men present. TEMBO means elephant in Kiswahili and stands for Teaching Educating Men of Black Origin. It is a male development and mentoring organization. He presented the Minister with a coffee table filled with mementos, letters and photos dedicated to “a man who ceased to be silent in a world perpetuating anti-Blackness.”

Min. Farrakhan thanked the group and the college president for hosting and honoring him. Then in an inspired message, he took the five cardinal virtues of the university—engage, embrace. educate, enlighten and empower—to encourage the young men to go forward and oppose the evils of oppression, White supremacy and the mindset of Black inferiority.

“We have been chosen by God, after 460 years of being in the furnace of affliction to do a marvelous service for God and for humanity,” he said. Blacks have a heart that is not rooted in evil and a willingness to forgive the children of our former slave masters, he said. “Natural people do to others what is done to them but supernatural people rise above their nature to do good to those who do evil and bless those who deliver curses.”

God desires to set up a government of peace worldwide which is possible now because the time given to wickedness and injustice is over, he said.

God has chosen us to purify us through oppression and make us a nation of gods to bring in a new civilization, said Min. Farrakhan. “How could you be made in the image and likeness of God and not have the potential to be like your creator?” he asked.

We have to accept this challenge, said Min. Farrakhan. Your first embrace should be of God because the Creator gave you all that you have, then embrace knowledge to make you into God and embrace your destiny which is to bring in a world of justice, he said. You must come out of school with a mindset to create jobs and change reality, he said.

To engage is to commit to something and you must engage in the never ending road to access knowledge, said Minister Farrakhan. Education comes from a Latin word that means to lead out from, so an educated one is led out of darkness into light and powerlessness into power, he said. “Real education gives you the tool to master any circumstance that will come up in your life to hinder your advancement,” he said. Education is not to earn money but to discover and develop your gifts—and you must reject Western education’s propensity to make you arrogant, the Minister added. You have to understand the “I” of you and the brother next to you become “we” and only “we” can accomplish the great will of God, he said.

Enlighten means filling every dark corner of your mind with the light of knowledge as there is a dark side to every human being, he said. The White man seeks to control you through immorality, vice, corruption that will take away your enlightenment, disengage you and cause your embrace to be weakened, the Minister explained.

“God means force and power, when one is empowered that person is ready to be tried, tested, because power does corrupt,” he said. The lust for power is a desire to use what you know to make someone bow to you, said Min. Farrakhan.

When God gives you authority over what you did not create, humbling yourself will help you to use power to better yourself, others and empower others, he said.

“The real test is what you can do with what you’ve learned to change that world that you were birthed in that is rotten as hell,” said Min. Farrakhan.

There are keys that unlock wisdom and the current institutions don’t give you those tools, and when you have these keys you can become a healer of social, economic and other conditions plaguing Black people and the world, he said.

The Minister said he could not ask for a greater gift then to speak to young men, offering words to inspire greater growth and discipline and awareness of the problems that exist today.

“Tonight was really uplifting. As a Black man in today’s society you need someone who can enlighten you. So to have someone like Minister Louis Farrakhan give that kind of expression, that kind of statement, give that kind of message to me and my brothers makes me feel there is hope. It gives me that kind of inspiration to know I can do things like anyone can. It’s humbling. Everyone doesn’t get a chance to meet their idol or someone who literally has the status to change the world,” said Tyler Wheeler, 19, who is a junior design and business major at Chicago State University.

The young men of TEMBO also presented the Minister with one of their signature green sweaters in a show of appreciation.

The Final Call