[Oe List ...] Fw: An African American Perspective on Rev. Wright, with comments from Rabbi Lerner

[cdzoll at comcast.net]

I wanted everyone to see that Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun now feels like he should not have recommended that Eli Zaretsky article, and I too feel sorry that I forwarded it to this list serve. Maybe Harry intercepted it in time (or did not approve it's going forward) because of its length. Anyway, if you did see it, you have both Rabbi Lerner's and my apology. David Zollars
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tikkun 
To: cdzoll at comcast.net 
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 5:37 PM
Subject: An African American Perspective on Rev. Wright, with comments from Rabbi Lerner


{Editorial Preface:  One of the most widely esteemed pastors in the African American world, and a dearly loved member of the Network of Spiritual Progressives' National Advisory Board,  Rev. Graylan Hager presents below a very different interpretation of the Rev. Wright events than those given in mainstream media, or presented in Eli Zaretsky's article (which I now believe I should not have sent because of its demeaning language which could easily be heard as racist and sexist, and was certainly lacking in the compassion we speak about in the Network of Spiritual Progressives and seek in Tikkun magazine). Rev. Hagler, on the other hand, may be just a bit too compassionate for the following reasons:
1.    He does not recognize adequately that it was not just whites but a new generation of African Americans represented by Obama who no longer believe that the mau-mau-ing language and scare tactics used by African Americans to force America to acknowledge its racism that began in the 60s has any real usefulness left forty years later. Obama's central point cannot be reduced simply to self-interest of saying: "stop, you are frightening my potential white voters." Rather, Obama is saying that the way to challenge racism is to stop making it win/lose and start making the anti-racist struggle win/win. Obama has learned from Nelson Mandela rather than from H. Rap Brown, Eldridge Cleaver and Stokely Carmichael. Mandela recognized that though it wasn't fair to ask the oppressed South Africans to re-assure whites that if there was racial equality whites would not suffer violence and oppression, but it was smart to give that reassurance and the best way to help ease the path to end the suffering of South African blacks. 

This is what Obama implicitly, and Tikkun explicitly, is saying: liberation forces, liberals, progressives, etc. MUST recognize that being "right" is not always enough, and that sometimes one must ALSO be "smart," even if that means having to provide reassurances to the fearful when by rights the fearful should be providing those reassurances to the oppressed. Rev. Wright totally flubbed a unique moment for African Americans and for all of us who have committed our lives to challenging racism in this world, and acted self-indulgently when he could have used those moments to explain in a reasoned way what the actual suffereing of African Americans continues to be in America, and what the suffering of others around the world is that is caused by the global capitalist system that Western countries have imposed on the rest of the world. 

Imagine, for example, if in a reasoned and calm way Rev. Wright had explained what he meant by "chickens coming home to roost" on 9/11 by talking about the 20,000 children who died that same day of malnutrition-related diseases and inadequate health care, while the corporations functioning out of the World Trade Towers and protected by the Pentagon turn a deaf ear to the suffering that our system engenders, and then went on to say that he disagreed with the violence of the terrorists and opposed that way of protesting, supported instead the path of Martin Luther King, Jr. and non-violence, but understood without condoning and without justifying it, the rage of people who watch Americans in their smug self-satisfied materialist heaven ignoring the suffering of others around the world.  Such a response would have then given an opportunity for others to say: Well, what's wrong with what Wright is saying?   Instead, we were all forced to distance from what Sen. Obama called a performance precisely because it did NOT speak to the people to whom he was speaking. Who exactly did he imagine was his audience when accepting an invitation to The National Press Club and faced 3 rows worth of national television cameras? Are we to believe that somehow he was misled into thinking that this was another mega-church filled with his supporters?  Rev. Hagler is right to mention the huge gap in communication between white and African-American communities, but why wasn't it obvious to Rev. Wright that such a gap would only be widened by the kind of discourse he used at the National Press Club? If your intention is to communicate, then the minimum requirement is to know something about the language of those to whom you wish to talk. And if on principle you won't do that, then don't be surprised when others mis-understand what you are saying. And if you come in to the event with your body-guards, and they look they were supplied by the Black militants of days gone by, or worse, by the Farrakhan-style Nation of Islam, don't be surprised that others will hear you through their most defensive screens. Don't picture yourself a sacrifiial lamb if someone who does want to be heard, like Obama, distances himself from the performance you've done that was felt to be projecting contempt not only by whites but also by young African Americans who no longer resonate to the good-old-discourse of the blame-game. 


2.    Rev. Hagler passes over the identification that Rev. Wright continued to assert with Rev. Farrakhan, arguably the most effective and dangerous homophobe and anti-Semite in the U.S. In case you think that I'm exaggerating the deep hatred of gays that this mis-leader of African Americans continues to assert, I've listed, after Rev. Hagler's talk, some of Farrakhan's statements made in the years after I and others from Tikkun picketed an NAACP "summit" at which Farrakhan was speaking and about which I debated my friend Cornel West (co author with me of Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin, Putnam, 1995). Read those quotes and then you will see why for friends of homosexuals and Jews, the association with Farrakhan is as objectionable to us as it would be if a national Jewish leader were defending the country's most prominent anti-Black racist segregationist.
 Yet, there is much to be learned from Rev. Hagler, and his piece is deep, balanced, and provocative. I believe anyone who reads it will get a very different way of thinking about the recent blowup around Rev. Wright.
--Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun]

Wright Does Obama A Favor: Wright, the Sacrificial Lamb
by Rev. Graylan Hagler

Senator Barrack Obama severed his ties with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, and quite possibly with the church, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois,  after viewing news coverage and the C-Span broadcast of Rev. Wright's presentation at the National Press Club, and with mounting media questions, opponent attacks, and topsy-turviness in the polls, Senator Obama presented his perspective, angst, and emotional vulnerability publicly which completely and without a doubt severed his ties with his former Pastor. 

This all culminated after weeks of video loops where Rev. Wright was seen 'damning America,' and proclaiming 'the chickens have come home to roost' to a church filled with joyous, 'amening' and predominantly Black people. This scene frightened much of White America, giving pause because they were shocked by the statements and wondering whether Obama was like his pastor and the church. 

Obama's opponents, seeing an excellent opportunity to whittle away at the Obama campaign did so effectively raising a subtle and modified race card inferring "Is he really one of us?" The sheer will of Obama's opponents kept the loops televised, as they dug to find new angles to a now old story every reporting day. These questions dogged the Obama campaign for weeks, nearly crippling it and diverting its attention from the campaign and the issues that the campaign needed to articulate.

The tapes of Wright broke just after he began his Sabbatical and had gone away prior to his formal retirement from Trinity United Church of Christ later in 2008. Therefore there was a natural excuse for silence on the part of Rev. Wright that allowed the story to continue on. The 'story' lacked a voice on the other side, and therefore reporters and pundits kept finding sensation with which they could easily feed the public and water the seeds of greater doubts and frame questions that had no satisfying answers.

As the story played, Senator Obama was forced to come out and make a statement. The pundits applauded his speech on 'Race.' They praised him for his poise, non-threatening tone, and in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding slavery, Jim Crow, and in general race in America. He assured White America that he understood their resentment because of Affirmative Action, reinforced his mixed heritage by citing his grandmother who sometimes said things that should not be repeated in racially mixed company, according to Obama. He said, "I cannot disown Rev. Wright as I cannot disown my own White grandmother" - which cemented into the public's consciousness that Wright was indeed a racist along with Obama's White grandmother. Whereupon one of my Black pastor friends who reside in Chicago asserted, "Wright and Obama's grandmother were thrown under the bus by Obama!"

The Obama explanation on Wright and race were largely satisfying to his supporters and non-supporters alike. The White community was mostly reassured in that speech. No matter how young, gifted and particularly Black he did not have the edge that many Whites perceive exists in Black people. They also felt that Obama with his refined tones would not come at them with civil rights, preference programs, calls for Reparations, and would not shout out the "R" word when in heated discussions between him and White people. Obama established that he was a new kind of Black person, not a relic from the past, as represented by Rev. Wright, or those other 'angry' Black men that we see on the streets everyday. He was safe and many Whites again felt that 'Maybe he is safe enough.'

However the Wright tapes were still playing in the background. After all Rev. Wright was still out of "sound-bite" and therefore the 'story' was unable to be tilted one way or another. The tapes played as conservative talk show hosts and commentators continued to ask whether Obama was sincere or not with his understanding of race and of implied assurances to Whites.

Onto the stage steps Rev. Wright. In his appearance on Bill Moyers, a fellow member of the United Church of Christ, Wright was able to offer a reasoned and mellowed response to the questions that the White nation had about his statements. On the Bill Moyers show Rev. Wright appeared calm, intellectual, and relatively reasonable. 

Two days later Rev. Wright brought the keynote address to the NAACP. His presentation and dramatics were stellar. He preached an old sermon teaching that "Different Does Not Mean Deficiency." The next morning he was to appear at the National Press Club. 

The event at the Press Club was sponsored by The Samuel D. Proctor Conference, a preaching and ministry seminar. Rev. Wright had been instrumental in the founding of the Proctor Conference. Indeed, many of the ministers that Rev. Wright had teaching influence over, and those who had come to know Rev. Wright through him preaching in their churches were present. It was a quite a crowd with intellectuals like Dr. Cornell West, and renowned pulpiteers like the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, former Pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City.

Rev. Wright came onto the stage with his family, security and Dr. Barbara Reynolds, commentator, Hillary Clinton supporter and teacher at Howard University School of Divinity. After the consumption of breakfast Rev. Wright rose to speak. It was Rev. Wright's audience. Predominantly Black preachers and theologians gathered under the conference theme, "The Prophetic Witness in the African American Religious Experience," and there was no better example in the historical context than Wright. He was welcomed with a standing ovation, and he regaled in the welcome. But who was also in the room were three rows of television cameras, and the balcony ringed with print reporters. They were mostly White, but the seated audience was predominantly Black.

 Rev. Wright again spoke about "Difference does not mean deficiency," critiqued the nation's foreign policy suggesting that terrorists attacks and estranged relationships is because we have not acted in the world justly and he cited the teaching of Jesus who calls that we "do unto others." He said that Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam is like "E.F. Hutton, when he speaks every Black person listens, even if they disagree." This was far more than the White reporters could deal with; particularly while a Black church audience cheered and "amen-ed" Rev. Wright on. 

The media wanted an apology for his perceived attacks on America, a lessening of the prophetic tone in Wright's speaking, and the expected political fare where Minister Farrakhan is denounced. If this was not frightening enough for a largely White media and television audience, the question and answer engagement was a complete public relations disaster for Wright. Wright irritated with questions became combative with the moderator. The moderator was a White woman reporter from USA Today.

 Obama stated that Wright had crossed the line in his "performance." Wright was seen as being hostile and combative with a White woman thereby causing press and commentators to come to the defense of her honor. The nation saw what they perceived as an angry Black man, unbowed, unrepentant, interacting with the church audience in the traditional "call and response" of the Black church. Many who attended the event and I spoke with after the news had played and the newspapers appeared reporting the Press Club event commented, "I was obviously at a different gathering."

The images from the Press Club illustrated just how far the Black and White communities are separated. It demonstrated the chasm that exists between Black and White perceptions. It showed just how critical and unresolved are the issues of race within the culture and the nation. Whites are afraid of "angry" Black men, and the Black man is mandated to become emasculated in order to be heard and accepted by the White nation.

Later that same day, the Proctor Conference resumed at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Theological students, preachers, and denominational leaders from the historical Black churches came forth to lift up "affirmations" for the long and extensive ministry of Wright. In worship that evening, after a powerful sermon by the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., Father of the current pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Wright was called forward and the preachers formed a prayer circle for Wright that both celebrated his ministry, called upon God to gird him through this storm, and for protection. Though the participants called Wright forward for one purpose, it is now apparent to me that an invisible divine spirit overrode the claims of those prayers, and unbeknown to the participants Wright was being prepared as sacrificial lamb on the altar of race politics.

Wright's presentation had started a media firestorm, and the talk shows were calling for Obama to do something and to do it firmly and unequivocally. Obama had no choice if he was to remain a viable and considered candidate in the eyes of White America. Obama stood before the cameras and again addressed the Wright controversy, but this time with greater firmness, hurt in his voice, and pain in his eyes declared that the relationship has been seriously changed.

It was about the time that Obama was to make his live televised declaration about the deep schism between him and Wright that Wright, his family, and publicist withdrew into a guarded room at Howard University School of Divinity, where the Proctor Conference had now moved, and in crisis mode huddled, but never returned to the conference after that. The sacrifice had been made and Rev. Wright was now flayed on the altar of race and politics.

The separation of Obama and Wright signaled to White America that Obama was willing to sever relationships with aged concerns and suspicions harbored in the Black community. He therefore was able to declare in clear terms that he was not beholding to the Black community in his Presidency. This allayed fears that Obama would be a "Black" President and demonstrated to White America his trustworthiness to represent their issues. Wright in his response to the controversy surrounding him, by accident and because of unintended reaction to his responses, delivered to Obama a tremendous favor by allowing the candidate to separate himself and truly overcome race in the eyes of White America. Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright was unintentionally but certainly sacrificed on the altar of racial politics making space for Obama to state clearly and fervently 'I am safe, and I am really one of you.'

After the separation between Obama and Wright there was a new energy to the Obama campaign, sympathy from mainline media was apparent because of his response to the Wright controversy, and there is now a new freshness that surrounds the campaign where White America is willing to hear Obama again. In the aftermath of Rev. Wright it is now apparent, at least me, that Obama's chances of securing the nomination are greater than ever before, and his election as President is quite likely in the Fall. But this comes at the expense of another authentic leader being sacrificed on the altar of America's racial deniability. It is a pained process for the Black community to say the least, where hopes and dreams of generations of men and women ride, but also where the price for success is so high that one has to wonder what has really been achieved when the victory is said and done.

Reverend Graylan Scott Hagler,
National President, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of the United Church of Christ and Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington , DC, Member of the National Advisory Board, the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) and columnist for Tikkun Magazine

[ If you value this kind of discussion, help make it possible by joining the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org. Also, you are invited to sign our appeal for a Global Marshall Plan as a way to change American foreign policy from a Strategy of Domination to a Strategy of Generosity. Check it out at www.Tikkun.org). And be sure to read the May/June issue of Tikkun with a wide variety of provocative articles from almost every imaginable position on "Israel at 60."] 

Rabbi Lerner welcomes your feedback on this and other issues: RabbiLerner at Tikkun.org. 

Farrakhan on gays and Jews:
"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel.can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. HOW CAN THAT BE THE ISRAEL, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with BLOOD!"
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/06
 
"I call them the so-called Jews because to be a Jew you have to adhere to the statutes and laws that create the special relationship. How can you be a Jew and promote homosexual marriage?"  
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04
 
"But all of a sudden in the night clubs, they started having transvestite shows, drag queens. Scripture say no liar, no adulterer, no effeminate will get in the Kingdom."
 
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03
 
"I don't hate Jews. I honor and respect those who try to live according to the teachings of the Torah, but you can't criticize Jewish people. If you criticize them you are anti-Semitic. If you don't agree with what they are doing, you are anti-Semitic. The Bible says, Revelations, those who say they are Jews and are not, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan. I don't hear you preaching that full Gospel. You are afraid of consequences. But no man can say he's a Jew and promote homosexuality. No man can say he's a Jew and promote that which is against the commandments of God. No man can say he's a Jew and run the despicable, degenerate movies. The filth and degenerate language."
 
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03
 
"...I think that when you warehouse Black men in prisons and they have a sexual drive that is being titillated by the lyrics and by the cultural degeneracy that pervades America today, this sexual need is sometimes filled with activity that God disapproves of."
 
Meet The Press interview, 10/12/97
 
"It seems like being gay or whatever sin you wish to be a part of is okay...but I have the duty to lift that gay person up to the standard to ask if they want to live the life that God wants them to or live the lifestyle that they want to live."
 
Boston speech, 8/7/97
 
"God don't like men coming to men with lust in their hearts like you should go to a female. If you think that the kingdom of God is going to be filled up with that kind of degenerate crap, you're out of your damn mind."
Kansas City speech, 1996
 
 
Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET?... Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television. And they make us look like we're the murders; we look like we're the gangsters, but we're punk stuff."
"Justifiable Homicide: Black Youth in Peril (Part 3)" speech at Mosque Maryam, 11/11/07
 
"The real anti-Semites are those who came out of Europe and settled in Palestine, and now they call themselves the true Jews, when in fact, they converted to Judaism."
Al Jazeera TV interview, 3/18/07
 
"These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength.It's the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting Lesbianism, homosexuality. It's wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/06
 
"I'm not an anti-Semite, I never have been one. I do not hate the Jewish people; put that down! What I hate is the degree of control that they exercise over Black intellectual, cultural expression. I do not think that no human being should determine how high we can go, that can only be determined by God and by us; not by no white man, no black man, no human being [crowd cheers]."
Millions More Movement rally, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 8/31/05
 

"Dewey, Kant and Hegel, and the rabbis that wrote the Talmud, make blacks inferior."  
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04
 
"I call them the so-called Jews because to be a Jew you have to adhere to the statutes and laws that create the special relationship. How can you be a Jew and promote homosexual marriage?"  
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04
 
"See, you so called Jews - I'm not gonna give you the credit for being one of those that obey God. You portrayed us, you know what images do, that's why you jumped on Mel Gibson. But you painted us, big lips, red eyes, kinky hair, you put in the movies like that. You mocked our characteristics and made us to hate God's creation of us. You did that. Hollywood did that..You take our strongest, more courageous black minds, you think we don't see you? And you put us in Hollywood. You give us television shows, and then we gotta bug our eyes."  
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/29/04
 
"You don't mention the horror of our suffering. Here's why.it's because of something called the Hamitic curse. Now I know that this is kinda rough. But according to the Babylonian scholars, writers of the Talmud, not the Torah, but Talmud. Now I want you to listen..Look at this now, the Hamitic curse was written off in the Talmud 400 years after the birth of Jesus. And the way they wrote it was, I got to find the exact words, 'cause it's really powerful..Oh, Lord, let me find it. I'm gonna take my time. Oh boy, well I'm gonna say it, in the Talmud they talk abut because he looked at Noah in that condition and marked the redness of his eyes, the turning of his head made these kinks in his hair, the thickness of his lips - that's our features. We were black and cursed.
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/29/04
 
"But what you have in the Bible has been added to and taken away from by the Jews. Oh here goes this anti-Semite.' This Koran says that the Jews have altered the word of God out of its place. They did not want the masters of the people to know what Jesus really said, what Moses really said, because then you wouldn't have a yardstick to measure their deviations."
 
--"What is Islam?," speech at Mosque Maryam,
Chicago, 11/23/03
 
"What had they done to deserve such a harsh judgment from God? Those who are Jews and those who are Christians, those who believe in Allah on the last day, they have their reward from their Lord. There are beautiful members of the Jewish community who are trying their utmost to follow the law and the teachings of Moses and the prophets that God sent to Israel. But there's another Jew who is not really a Jew. He is an imposter posing as Jew. In the Bible, in the book of Revelations [it] says. 'Those who say they are Jews and are not, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan.' Who are the masters of Hollywood, how could you be a righteous Jew and promote that which is forbidden by the God of Israel? Come on now. How could you be a righteous Jew and publish the filth that is published daily feeding the minds of the American people and the people of the world filth and indecency, and making it fair seeming in their eye?"
 
"What is Islam?," speech at Mosque Maryam,
Chicago, 11/23/03
 
"
 
"When Jesus was preaching, his enemies were the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, He was preaching in the Roman Empire, and the people wanted to trap him for the Roman authorities. But under the Roman authorities were the Jewish religious authorities. They were wrapped in the law. But they were wrapped in the letter, but not in the spirit. Jesus was more than a man of the letter, Jesus was a man of the spirit. But he said, 'I didn't come to change the law. I came to fulfill that which was written in the law.' There's a whole lot difference between a man that gives the law and a man who fulfills what is written in the law. He did something that they thought was contrary to the law. And sometimes when you're a religious hypocrite, you use your knowledge of the law to hide a self-righteous hypocrisy."
 
8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, 10/16/03
 
"See how you can see Jesus in ancient Rome. See how you can use or see the rabbinical scholars, the Levites, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and their attack on the master? . See how Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the matter? See how they [the Jews] brought him into court on false charges? See how they plotted to crucify him? And it's easy to sing about what was. It's difficult to believe that what was, is. The Rome of yesterday is nothing to the America of today."
 
8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, 10/16/03
 
"You say I hate Jews. I don't hate the Jewish people, I never have. But there [are] some things I don't like. 'What is it you don't like, Farrakhan?' I don't like the way you leech on us. See a leech is somebody that sucks your blood, takes from you and don't give you a damn thing. See, I don't like that kind of arrangement. You become our manager, you become our agent. Every one of us that got talent, we can't make it because you opened the door, and when you opened the door you get and we end up dead with nothing, owing the IRS."
 
8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, 10/16/03

"I'm not into integration. I ain't for that. God told the Jews, he didn't want you intermarrying with others. But you disobeyed him. He don't want us uniting into this that he's come to judge. You can't integrate with wickedness if you want righteousness."
 
8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, 10/16/03
 
"You can go to Palestine, called Israel today, you can see Sodom, you can see Gomorrah, ain't nothing built there. God hadn't let anything be built there to show you his displeasure against homosexual behavior. Now the church says it's all right. I was an Episcopalian before I was a Muslim, and I liked my church. I can't remember anybody in the church, if they were gay they were hiding that. They were sure acting like men, you know what I mean."
 
8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, 10/16/03
 
"I don't hate Jews. I honor and respect those who try to live according to the teachings of the Torah, but you can't criticize Jewish people. If you criticize them you are anti-Semitic. If you don't agree with what they are doing, you are anti-Semitic. The Bible says, Revelations, those who say they are Jews and are not, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan. I don't hear you preaching that full Gospel. You are afraid of consequences. But no man can say he's a Jew and promote homosexuality. No man can say he's a Jew and promote that which is against the commandments of God. No man can say he's a Jew and run the despicable, degenerate movies. The filth and degenerate language."
 
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03
 
 
Farrakhan: "Is the Federal Reserve owned by the government?"
Audience: "No."
Farrakhan: "Who owns the federal reserve?"
Audience: "Jews."
Farrakhan: "The same year they set up the IRS, they set up the FBI. And the same year they set up the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. It could be a coincidence. [I want] to see black intellectuals free. I want to see them not controlled by members of the Jewish community."
 
Dallas Observer on-line, 8/10/00
 
 
Farrakhan on Jewish control:
 
Farrakhan said that he is fighting the "inordinate control" some Jews have over Blacks, particularly in entertainment and business.
 
Associated Press, 7/31/00
 
"They [the Jews] are the greatest controllers of Black minds, Black intelligence. They write the scripts -- the foolish scripts on television that our people portray. They are the movie moguls that feature us in these silly, degrading, degenerate roles. The great recording companies that portray our people in such a filthy and low-rating way, yet they would not allow such a man as Michael Jackson to say one word that they thought would besmirch their reputation, but they put us before the world as clowns and as purveyors of filth. No, I will fight that."
 
Meet The Press interview, 10/18/98
 
"Of course, they [the Jews] have a very small number of people but they are the most powerful in the world, they have the power to do good and they have the power to do evil...Now what do the Jews do best? Well, they have been the best in finance that the world has ever known...They finance a lot of stuff in the world, and there's nothing wrong with that, but they are not good politicians, they are the worst politicians because they don't recognize really their friends and as well their enemies..."
 
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/22/98

"To continue to point out the truth of that control and how that control never will allow us to be full and completely men, free, justified, and equal. Why should we be controlled by the power, influence, and money of others? We should not be under that kind of control...going to Jewish philanthropists, begging them for money to support our causes, and through that money, there is control, and that kind of control limits the freedom of our people to speak freely, write freely, think freely, and act as free men..."
 
Meet The Press interview, 4/14/97
 
"And you do with me as is written, but remember that I have warned you that Allah will punish you. You are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell. But I warn you in the name of Allah, you would be wise to leave me alone. But if you choose to crucify me, know that Allah will crucify you."
 
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/25/96

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