Barack Obama vs. Malcolm X
“Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” Dr. King
Martin Luther King’s comments on serving, has fitted black leadership like Malcolm X, Marcus Gravey, Paul Roberson and others for years. Now we have elected the first African-American to become the President of the United States. He was chosen to serve all of America, not just blue states or red states, but the United States. Several days after this historical feat, came the announcement that the President-Elect has asked Rahm Emanuel to serve as White House Chief of Staff. I wondered if President-Elect Obama’s position on America’s oneness and serving all the people of America was taking a detour. Would the President-Elect abandon the hopes and desires of the American Moslem community? Would he allow America’s struggle with Islam to continue downhill unabated? Since I was sure that Mr. Emanuel and his father’s pro-Zionist stand on Israel wasn’t going to sit well with the Moslem community. Furthermore, I must admit I was concerned after Obama’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in June. The morning after winning the Democratic nomination, President-Elect Obama spoke to the pro-Israel lobby and made a pledge that surprised many of his skeptics in the audience. With the statement that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” I asked myself, why he would want to infuriate the Moslem community before he even gets into office. I wondered who were his advisors and possible speech writers who would even touch the subject of Jerusalem. Their leadership further came into question at a rally and speech in Detroit when campaign volunteers prevented two Moslem women wearing traditional Moslem headgear from sitting behind the podium or appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.
Let me state with conviction that I am not anti-Semitic nor am I a Moslem. I support the state of Israel and deeply believe that all people have a right to live in peace and dignity. The holocaust, like the middle passage, were the two most inhuman acts in the history of humanity. Consequently, I understood the desire to resettle Jews, so that they could start to put their lives back together and begin to heal their families.
I questioned the conception and foundation of the state of Israel by colonial powers. These colonial powers annexed Palestinian lands with little or no compensation for the massive disruption to their lives. Thus I believe that Moslems throughout the world have the right to articulate their concerns, and emphasize their perceptions of the President-Elect Obama’s intentions, that is, any Moslem other then Ayman al-Zawahri, Deputy Chief of Al Qaeda. It is interesting that the Al Qaeda chief’s first comment on the election of Barack Obama would be an attack on his racial identity. Ayman al-Zawahri’s use of Malcolm X to compare Obama’s blackness is mind blowing. Calling Obama a “house Negro” and Malcolm X a “field Negro” is like using those terms as if they have some kind of universality, or even more sinister, the hopes that he could someway divide the support that the Moslem community has shown President-Elect Obama. This support came even from America’s so-called enemy. A Washington Post article, said that, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated President-Elect Barack Obama on his victory. This was the first time since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution that an Iranian leader had offered such wishes to an American counterpart. Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to Obama saying Iran would welcome “major, fair and real changes, in policies and actions, especially in this region.” Analysts here say the letter indicates that Iran is ready to improve relations with the United States.
A house Negro and field Negro were terms from a different time in America history, when black people had no choice and no ability to change the direction of this country. At that time in history, black people didn’t enjoy being called or being in a position to be a “house or field Negro. They were both slaves and suffered equally the oppression of racist America. Today 96% of black American voters, voted for the so called “house Negro;” we make our own choices. I find al-Zawahri’s comments very disingenuous and disrespectful to black people. Furthermore, al-Zawahri should know that while black Americans have displayed kinship with Africans and Arabs, we have not forgotten the role Arabs played in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Malcolm X was a beloved leader from the neighborhood, who had been educated on the streets, by the school of hard knocks. No Harvard or Columbia University degree, he was a master linguist, who could handle himself with scholars anywhere in the world. Malcolm X learned about Islam under the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. Malcolm X and the other followers of the Nation of Islam were taught a brand of Black Nationalism coupled with the teachings of Islam. It wasn’t until Malcolm X made the pilgrimage to Mecca that he became a Sunni and a Moslem for all people. Malcolm loved black people and said different things at different times in his protection of them. But at no time in his history of leadership did Malcolm X advocate or carry out violence against anyone or religion.
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is Malcolm X’s real name, and as a Moslem, al-Zawahri should know to address Malcolm as a Moslem first. Furthermore using a die person to give a comparative analysis of today’s black man is quite disingenuous. Why doesn’t he call on the words of Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan? Mr. Farrakhan is the most highly respected Moslem in the black community who referred to Barack Obama as the Messiah. And this from a Moslem that President-Elect Obama has denounced several times for his statements and beliefs. Minister Farrakhan, like Rev. Wright, are radical clergymen in the black community who have defied the US government, and confronted white racist control over America. But neither of these leaders has called for suicide bombings or violence to redress the treatment of black people in America. Minister Farrakhan has stated clearly that you are not a Moslem if you go around killing other Moslems or call for Moslems to commit suicide.
President-Elect Obama, like El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, (Malcolm X) envisions himself as a citizen of the world. The goal of this new citizen is to uplift humanity, take humankind to the next level of development. They both understood that America is the centerpiece in this evolutionary journey for humanity. Furthermore they also understood that America would be catalysis for an abrupt change in humanity’s evolutionary path. Brother El-Hajj in a speech in Detroit 1964 stated the following:
“America today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody. Oh, yes, they are. They have never had a blood-less revolution, or a non-violent revolution. That don’t happen even in Hollywood. You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and you don’t have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems. A revolution is bloody, but America is in a unique position. She’s the only country in history in a position actually to become involved in a blood-less revolution. The Russian revolution was bloody; Chinese revolution was bloody; French revolution was bloody; Cuban revolution was bloody; and there was nothing more bloody then the American Revolution. But today this country can become involved in a revolution that won’t take bloodshed.”
As Don King the famous boxing prompter once said, “Only in America,” when referring to his success. Over the last five hundred years America has been the biggest beneficiary of economic and political development in the world. The results of that development have made us the leader in the evolution of humanity. The contradiction that we find ourselves today is that the ideologies and theologies that have led that development are antiquated for the movement forward. To change America we must step up to the responsibility for leading the new revolution for humanity. This new revolution must win hearts and minds of all Americans, to become the material force to inspire the world of the need for change. America must step forward as an example of human beings who practice a new vision of energy/climate-change, healthcare, wealth distribution, and political and religious tolerance. To accomplish this, America must break out of the old paradigms that control our thinking and practices. For example President-Elect Obama led his campaign with a popularist theme of governing from the bottom up. But how do you teach the masses in a constitutional republic that they should be moving toward a participatory democracy? One way would be to transform the millions of supporters who were the body of the change campaign, into a movement for participatory democracy. This can be done by forming the millions of supporters into study groups. These study groups would come together to participate in a study plan recommended by the Secretary of Education, which would give the Obama vision clarity. They could certainly start with Thomas Friedman’s book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America. Another way the Obama team can step out the box is to support a three-state solution for the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Even if Israel dismantles all of the settlements and returns all captured land, there still would be no peace. As long as Jerusalem remains in control by hand or the other, there will be conflict. To Jews, Christians and Moslems, Jerusalem is the holiest land on earth. The solution, what if the United Nations made Jerusalem a sovereign state, like Vatican City in Italy, an independent country governed by a proportional representative body made up of the three significant religious groups? Billed as a land of peace and worship, like Mecca and the Vatican it would quickly start generating income, from tourism.
This three state solution would be a major step in defusing the Moslem belief that America supports a one-sided answer to this Middle East conflict. American’s relationship with Islam could improve overnight with a settlement in Israel. It will not completely improve our image with the Moslem community, but it would be a start. President-Elect Obama could build on that improvement by appointing an at-large Ambassador for Moslem affairs. That Ambassador would travel to Moslem countries to listen to their perception of American policies with the goal of reconciliation. The perfect person for that job would be Minister Farrakhan, one of the most respected Moslems in the world. The appointment of Minister Farrakhan would show the world that President-Elect Obama believes in reconciliation at home and abroad. John McCain said and supported some pretty nasty things about Obama and the President-Elect found reconciliation in his heart for McCain. In 1988 Libya and its leader Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was accused of supporting the bombing of Pan Am 103, but in May of 2006, the United States supported reconciliation with Libya. Why should a black man in America be chastised and punished more than terrorists who killed Americans. Malcolm X broke away from the Honorable Elijah Mohammed after his trip to Mecca when he realized the truth, that humankind was stronger when you nurture the rainbow coalition rather than dividing it. President-Elect Barack Obama will have his own paradigms to break out of and I hope he seeks help in more places than the Washington Beltway.
By Robert J Butts 2008
Blaming Black Americans for the Illegal Immigration Problem
Vincente Fox, President of Mexico, said that "the illegal immigrants do the jobs that black people don’t want to do." Our politically correct President, George Bush, put the blame on Americans.
To understand the problem it is important to look at the jobs that "Americans don’t want." All of the jobs are from the labor intensive service sector, e.g. restaurant workers, construction workers, farm hands, etc. The owners of these businesses (employers) have a history of exploiting and undercutting the price of labor. Their goals are profit driven: the cheaper the labor the higher the profits. Subsequently, many other employers have outsourced their jobs to foreign countries with cheaper labor and no unions. Slave wages and unsafe conditions is the watermark of outsourcing and these are the conditions which gave rise to the U.S. Labor movement. Illegal Immigration is part of a systematic plan on the part of the owners of businesses to break legal representation.
At the time in American history when the union movement (which represents legal service workers) had a voice, these illegal immigrants would have been called "scabs". Prior to the union movement blacks labored in these jobs, for nearly one hundred years, without pay. Following slavery the owners developed a sharecropper scheme, further denying blacks proper compensation for their labor. It wasn’t until the Second World War and the demands of industrialization that blacks were able to place a value on their labor. The pre-McCarthy labor movement taught blacks that they were entitled to a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Blacks never refused any jobs, they only refused being exploited.
Asian Americans, Native Americans and poor whites have also been exploited in the name of American industrialization. It is interesting to note that no one from the post-McCarthy labor movement or America’s black leaders has anything to say about the present immigration problem. The current immigration crisis affects the black community and the labor movement far more than packing up the entire population of 11 million illegal immigrants and sending them home today. There is no shortage of workers in America. There are more then 11 million legal unemployed workers in America today.
America's unemployed should have the right to first refusal on all jobs. Workers should be able to use capitalist principles where the price of labor is a concern. All workers should be paid a living wage, period. Furthermore employers who try to break fair labor laws and the union movement by hiring undocumented workers should be held accountable.
I am a home owner in a black middle class community with a personal interest in solving the illegal immigration problem. The demographics of illegal immigration run parallel to the African American community. The black middle class communities like East Elmhurst, Queens where I live, has paid for illegal immigration. All over the United States, illegals have hidden beneath the cover of the black community to set up home. Fortunately, for the most part, these illegals have been law abiding residents and good neighbors. Despite this, the communities of Jackson Heights, NY and East Los Angeles have paid a very high price for the crime and drug traffic run by gangs who recruit members from the illegal immigrant community.
When you grow up in a black middle class community, you spend a considerable amount of time establishing your identity with the larger society. East Elmhurst was known in New York history as the “black gold coast". After World War II, East Elmhurst became a magnet for a myriad of Black celebrities and professionals. There have been several articles written in the New York Times and other papers about the history of the community. East Elmhurst is a community of basically one and two family homes. In the 1950’s whites ran out of East Elmhurst because they believed that the presence of Blacks would cause the value of their properties to go down. It's obvious that such racist thinking was completely wrong. Currently, houses in East Elmhurst are selling for as much as those Long Island communities they (whites) ran to. In the community of East Elmhurst only a very small percentage of Black families ever received welfare assistance. It was and remains a working community of Black folks who get up everyday and go to work. Despite an increased use of drugs in the 1970’s, the rates for both crime and drugs were below the national averages.
Things have changed thou, Jackson Heights, Corona and East Elmhurst today, has been over run by illegal aliens. Three years ago the house next to me was a one family home and now it houses three families. The lady who owns the house, is a South American, she lives in the white community of Bayside, Queens. In those white communities, she wouldn't be allowed to get away with an illegal three family conversion. South Americans have no interest in the history or plight of the black community. Consequently the under value properties in the Black Community, (victims of institutional racism), have become prime targets for speculators who know they can make great profits from packing illegal immigrants into the sub-standard housing of illegal conversions. The borough of Queens has been the greatest victim in the city of illegal conversions to satisfy the demands of the growing illegal population. One family homes are converted into threes and the two family homes are being converted into fours. The schools are over crowded and under funded because the census data is inaccurate. Sanitation and policing is also affected by the incorrect census count.
The bottom line to Illegal immigration is that it's illegal, period. You don’t reward anyone for illegal behavior, welfare cheats or border jumpers. Using taxpayer money for the schooling or health care of people, who are in this country illegally, is enabling crime.
We all must bear blame for the illegal immigrants’ until, all Americans’ stand up for what is right. Illegal immigrants should be repatriated and shore up in the process. They should go through a progression of repatriation which would include a strong program of business and educational development. These returning expatriates have experienced American business and democracy first hand. They should be given the tools and financial incentives i.e. micro-banking, to develop their own countries.
Robert Butts
9/24/06
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