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Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has written to the leaders of several major U.S. Jewish institutions asking that they work to repair the damage he says they have done to black people for centuries.
The request is a return to Farrakhan's past public condemnations of Jewish people for what he has calls long-standing crimes against black people.
But by writing to leading Jewish groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, which released copies of the letter to the news media, Farrakhan has turned up the volume in his decades-long crusade to confront Jewish leaders.
My question is exactly is Farrakhan hoping to accomplish with this latest move? He can't expect to win reparations for what he believes are legitimate grievances against Jewish people.
Farrakhan also can't be looking to open any meaningful dialogue with Jewish leaders, who dismissed him as a raving anti-Semite a long time ago.
Perhaps Farrakhan, 77, who has been out of the mainstream media spotlight for years, simply felt the itch to galvanize his supporters and again confront a truth he believes has gone untold for too long.
Farrakhan has long ago cemented his place in our history as an intelligent, complex, fascinating and divisive leader of black people. His uncompromising messages of self-help and self-reliance are exactly the tonic for what ills black America. He is also right to point out that white racism has laid the groundwork for much of our suffering.
But every time he singles out and targets the Jewish community for his wrath, it leaves me screaming "WHY?"
Even if you accept every word of Farrakhan's version of how Jewish people have treated blacks, have no other people of the world treated blacks poorly? And don't we as black people bear some responsibility for our condition today?
Please excuse me if I choose to tune out. Anyone who has observed American race relations to any degree in the past years has seen this show before.
Farrakhan makes a statement attacking Jewish treatment of blacks; Jewish leaders angrily react and denounce Farrakhan as anti-Semitic. Then, after a brief stare-down, both sides return to their corners until the next outbreak of hostilities.
Nothing accomplished; nothing gained.
Comments: (116)
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By: rasfanta on 7/07/2010 4:10PM
Remember, AAs were here before all of those groups you mention and we did not mistreat you. We worked for your poor ass from these countries where you, yourselves were considered outcast. criminals, misfits, et.
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By: Focus on 7/01/2010 11:56PM
I just can not get into anything Farrakhan has to say. I remember seeing a volatile man on TV one day spewing hate. I had to call someone and ask who it was. I found out it was Farrakhan.
What kind of reconciliation or discussion does this man expect to have with anyone?
After reading Malcolm X's book I'm surprised Mr. Farrakan even got this far in his "career". There's no doubt in my mind he was either involved in Malcolm's demise or created the environment for it to happen. Who can follow after that?
Just like it took many years for the King family to even open their mouths to speak to Jesse Jackson, I feel the same way about Farrakhan. He needs to remain in his unorthodox Muslim community. From what I've read, Orthodox Muslims do not recognize the legitimacy of the NOI. Enough said.
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By: Ismail on 7/02/2010 1:36PM
The black man has suffered since the beginning of our time on this earth nothings new. His punishment for bringing death upon his brother was soften only by the promise to do seven times worse to those that would indicriminately harm him. His hair was changed from all others as his sign. That hair that would even cause him to suffer if he would even attempt to cut it. (See razor bump) The hair of the lamb. That same hair the the bible say's that Jesus, "hair of wool" (who we know was a Jew) wore upon his head. (why was that so important to be written about?
Disclaim it all you want, The sins of being the first murderer have followed the african man and woman throughout his walk on this earth. Only salvation brings this curse to an end. Not Farrakans crisscrossed belief. Even his well kept doo has some of his ancestor Cain in him. He's correct in speaking out against those that are Jews who abandon their true relation to his black brother. The time is near when the truth of the first born (man does not live by bread alone...) who took the life of the second born, out of jealousy over his gift...a sacrificial lamb is revealed.
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By: deyone on 7/02/2010 9:02AM
brother beside buying the theory of "mixed race" your entry has got to be the most confusing ever written. its no wonder why black boys are offing each other. older men like you have been teaching nonsense like this for decades. chris rock had once said that the most racist in america is older black men. its sad to say, i don't want to believe him but reading your entry makes me wonder.
look the jews did'nt even write the king james version of the bible. we should know that by now. yet, your head seem to be stuck in genesis which is primarily make believe. slavery was not a curse slavery was and is today real. our african features is no curse its real. what do you do everyday just wake up and hate yourself? and for that matter black people for being black.
the main problem for farrakhan and the jews is that hollywood so often let yessir boss negroes do most of the writing and portrayals for blacks. besides the freak stuff in grotesque images like shrek, and 3d cartoons in which jews outright copy stereo typical themes of everyday african american life, wealthy jews do directly impact our abilty to rise as a people. one histrical example is the nacp vs unia garveys movement. and fast foward to present times, their ability to divide the presidency of obama from black issues is savagely uncanny. this maybe another reason farrakhan is so fustrated by them, given their historical approach to black movements; sncc, sclc, core, bpp, rna,etc.
and brother please let that bilbe/koran/torah go!
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By: DJStahl on 7/02/2010 4:44PM
Two reasons come to mind. Long before Mr. Farrakhan, people knew that a sure way to get your name in the paper was to attack the Jews. Think about it, if he'd attacked the French or the Dutch, who certainly oppressed blacks more, would he have gotten any headlines at all? But the Jews for sensible reasons get more anxious when they get badmouthed.
Also, I've heard Mr. Farrakhan gets money from the Libyans and the Saudis, who have their own reasons to smear the Jews. That may be why he's making this speech just now.
Harold Brackman wrote a book rebutting most of Mr. Farrakhan's accusations some years back. But anyone who knows the basic facts of Jewish history in the US knows these anyway. Most Jews came to the US after the 1890s. Most who were here before the Civil War were in the North, and of those who were in the South, most were merchants in the cities. Did they participate in slavery? Yes, and it's shameful. Were they central or peripheral? Obviously peripheral. Jewish participation in the Atlantic slave trade was similarly peripheral.
When Jews got here from the Russian empire starting in the 1890s, they identified strongly with blacks; the lynchings in the South resembled the pogroms they'd left behind. Which is why they were so active in civil rights.
Myself, as a palish Jew, not an Ethiopian or Moroccan, I've been the passive beneficiary of institutionalized racism in the US. Not apparent what else Mr. Farrakhan would blame me or most Jews for. My grandparents all left Germany in the 1930s. They certainly were not white there.
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By: Focus on 7/03/2010 9:41AM
That's all I've heard from older blacks, that Jews were kind to them in the 40s, 50s &60s, the only ones who would even rent to them. However, people of the Civil Rights era and the Holocaust had something in common. The blacks & Jews of today have no common oppression to hold them together. At least the ones who don't keep history alive.
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By: DJStahl on 7/04/2010 9:06PM
Hey Smittyt, I'd say report them. State, feds, and some big cities have offices for discrimination, abuse and harassment on the job. Maybe they'll send a tester. Maybe also try wiesenthal.com or adl.org, and they'll talk some sense into them. There are plenty of jerks around from all backgrounds, seems more than there used to be.
I used to work for an Irish-American foreman who insulted everybody. Equal-opportunity insulter. He liked the rise he got out of people. And we figured out what he wanted was us to give it right back to him. Sort of his version of the "dozens." I don't think it's right for an employer, especially, to play that game, because of the power imbalance.
You certain this wasn't their crude idea of being funny? You know whatever it was, that's what they're going to claim. Let 'em tell it to a state investigator. Sometimes Jews get this kind of crap on the job, and have to make a protest. And sometimes it's other Jews doing it.
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By: Effrainguan on 7/02/2010 5:17AM
To Mr. Shepard have you 1. read the book or the letter he sent? The book contains information from Jewish historians about there peoples involvement in the old south and there involvement with groups such as the KKK 2.Why are Black people not justified in pointing out everyone who had a hand in our holocaust when Jewish people single out everyone who had a hand in there holocaust? You don't criticize the Jews for singling out the Germans. You dont scream "Why" when they do such. Why do it with Min.Farrakhan? Silence never leads to dialogue. But closing ones mouth and hiding ones head in the sand as to not offended is not honorable but cowardly and is indicative of a fearful person. No decent human being, who truly cares for the plight of suffering people would dare be silent, unless they are afraid of something or someone. As more people read the undeniable truth containned in these books it will force a dialogue. If the Israelis can dialogue with the Palestians despite bloodshed being spill between them why is so unrealistic for a segment of Jewish people to sit down with Farrakhan. Some people thought that the Germans would never pay reparation to the Jews but they were forced to. When Blacks find out the truth about how Jewish people in the South were heavily involved and benefited greatly from slavery,your assumptions may be prove wrong.
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By: Joan on 7/02/2010 7:10AM
Farrahkan is a....Jew...himself.
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By: Preston Muhammad on 7/02/2010 7:35AM
Mr. Shepperd,
Read the Book. "The Secret Relationships Between Blacks and Jews Vol. 2." You should not have written your piece, if you had not read the Book. If you read the Book and come to the same conclusion set forth in your article, then your credibility as an objective news reporter must be seriously questioned. How can we believe in you as a competent journalist if your journalistic integrity is compromised by not fully investigating the facts; or even worse, fully investigating the facts and failing to report the truth in the face of facts?
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