Millions More Movement Message Contrasts With Messengers
The messages of African-American unity, criticism of the war in Iraq and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina that were delivered at the October 15 Millions More Movement rally were not filled with anti-Semitic and racist invective as in past events led by Louis Farrakhan and Malik Zulu Shabazz.
The night before the rally, however, several speakers made divisive comments at a Million More Movement event at Scripture Cathedral Church in Washington, D.C. New Black Panther Party leader, Malik Zulu Shabazz, promoted a new book on Jewish conspiracies, The Synagogue of Satan, for which he wrote the foreword. He also said that instead of seeing black mothers crying and carrying their own caskets, “I want to see some police mammas crying.”
Michael Muhammad, National Youth Minister to Farrakhan, claimed that “The white man is the devil.” Another speaker, Warrior Woman, of the Red Indian Dakota Nation, said foreign countries don’t hate the United States, but rather “they hate imperialism, they hate Zionism.”
The explicit message of the march, even if positive, cannot be separated from the implicit message that the march sends because of the views of its organizers. During the rally, Farrakhan announced several nation-wide initiatives that he, the Nation of Islam and Shabazz will control, and it is troubling that members of the New Black Panther Party, an openly racist and anti-Semitic hate group, will figure prominently in future Millions More Movement ventures.
As long as racists like Farrakhan and Shabazz remain key organizers, the Millions More Movement will be less a foundation for progress than a source of hatred and division. |
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