The Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention in Chicago on Sunday, Feb. 24, was the platform Minister Louis Farrakhan used to present a detailed examination of government statistics that reveal a sobering and alarming picture of a fragile future facing Black America. His speech before 12,000 at Chicago’s UIC Pavilion, directed to both Muslim followers and to America’s Black masses, is the first by a national leader calling for collective action to solve the current economic plight of Black people.
According to Minister Farrakhan, President Obama has not been able to gain enough traction to solve the “damage of centuries” caused by America’s unfair practices against its Black population. “Obama’s presence in the White House has not, cannot, will not solve our problems,” he stated while quoting government statistics on Black unemployment, home foreclosures, incarceration, fratricide, high school dropouts, the wealth gap, the working poor and the safety nets of food stamps and social security that prevent millions more from being classified as poverty-stricken.
“Since President Obama’s election, Black unemployment and the wealth gap have worsened,” he stated. Then he referred to Mr. Elijah Muhammad’s forecasts, which are compiled in the 1965 book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” in which the founder of the Nation of Islam stated that America’s inability to provide enough jobs for whites, the decline of the dollar, severe droughts plaguing America’s farmland and 100 percent inflation would create a financial crisis “more damaging than the Great Depression” and so severe it would force Blacks to “do something for self.”
Minister Farrakhan pointed to the Federal Reserve’s ongoing policy of “quantitative easing,” where each month it buys $125 billion in treasuries and mortgage-backed securities but does not ensure the creation of jobs for the masses. He stated that the Fed is “printing money which has no backing and is worth nothing. It’s an economy on life support.” The solution he presented is the 48-year-old formula offered by Mr. Muhammad whose predictions, he noted, “are now coming true.”
Minister Farrakhan explained Mr. Muhammad’s plan as being patterned after the human body, “the perfect picture of economy,” where life begins as one cell and grows into billions of cells. The digestive process, he continued, feeds every cell, muscle and organ “in accordance with its needs.”
“The body is a socialist system. I’m advocating what God has set up so that none of your organs react because all are being fed equally. If the wealth of the world was distributed equally, we would not have rebellions,” he stated.
The tone and pace of his speech was emphatic and deliberate, reflecting the seriousness of current conditions worldwide. At one point, he noted that the audience was quiet and that, they were obviously missing “the fire and brimstone” trademark of his annual speech. However, he said, “Black people will be facing some real fire and brimstone” if they don’t heed his warning.
Although not connected with the Nation of Islam, an earlier February meeting of Black scholars and economists at the Fourth Annual African American Economic Summit at Howard University had conclusions somewhat similar to Minister Farrakhan’s. Their conclusions, reported only in the Washington Post, confirmed that the economy is “bleak” for many Black Americans, that the economic system is “shot through with discrimination,” that President Obama “seems reluctant to attack economic disparities between Blacks and whites head-on” because “there was not a single, blessed word on race” in the inaugural address and that “chances are remote” for the kind of aggressive, targeted action needed to combat and close economic disparities in America.
Minister Farrakhan emphasized the soundness and easy application of Mr. Muhammad’s economic blueprint that would allow Black America to save itself with dignity. Changing consumer -mindedness and consumption patterns, practicing thrift and teaching thrift to children and working for the common good in a collective manner would bring positive change within months, according to his calculations. He concluded his speech by stating his efforts would follow in the footsteps of Mr. Muhammad, who in 1966, reached out to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young and others to come together to solve America’s Black dilemma.
“I will be reaching out to Black leaders in the coming weeks to put aside envy and differences for the sake of saving Black people.”