BEYONCE: LOUIS FARRAKHAN SAID STAND BACK, THE NATION OF ISLAM WILL PROTECT OUR SISTER

BEYONCE: LOUIS FARRAKHAN SAID STAND BACK, THE NATION OF ISLAM WILL PROTECT OUR SISTER

By Fahim A. Knight-El

The United States of America elected its first African American president in 2008, with the election of President Barack Obama and this was a monumental feat in the history of African Americans, in particular and entire United States in general. Moreover, some social and political pundits early on was suggesting that the election of President Obama represented a post-racial era (and it was being touted as the epitome of equality and social progress); and even some academicians had bought in the notion that America had transitioned into a new age relative to racial politics.

Yet, with the election of President Obama, it appeared to have acerbated internal racial tension (gun sells and ammunition sells had skyrocketed) also it appeared that hate crimes have been on the rise according to American Civil Liberties Union and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the United States Justice Department also verifies that racial motivated violence has been on the increase since 2008. I know there is a breakdown in communication between the old and new generation and this is not meant to omit nor negate the more deeper issues involving the social, political and economic problems, we have in the United States, in particular facing African Americans and other minorities in general. I believe it was President Bill Clinton in 1997 that made an attempt to establish a national race commission called One America Initiative on Race and almost two decades later, we are still dealing with the question of race and justice.

The Black Lives Matter Movement brought the issue of police brutality to national attention and I started to read and closely follow some of the recent events involving law enforcement and innocent unarmed black men being killed by law enforcement officers in various cities throughout America (of course these white racist police officers killing innocent black man had been going on for a very long time but it had been swept under the rug and it was police brutality that gave rise to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966), it led me to continue to believe that something was still wrong inside of America; racism once again was raising its ugly head in these various police brutality cases and if it were not for social media and citizens having the ability to capture these events in real time via Smartphone technology. Moreover, many of these police brutality cases would have never made it to the public attention and definitely would not have made it to a court of law. I am forever reminded by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who stated: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’.

I saw angry young African Americans in Ferguson marching and protesting the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Freddie Gray in Baltimore and I also saw on television and on social media how violent the protests had become between law enforcement and the African American community—we witnessed personal and real property being destroyed—raiding, looting, violence and appeared these two cities were headed for total anarchy. They believed that Brown and Gray murders were racially motivated and they took to the streets and angrily confronted the police in their quest for justice. I am so proud of the young brothers and sisters of the Black Lives Matter Movements for shunning (in defiance) those traditional Negro leadership models who have always just performed and functioned as establishment Negro leaders (it has always been about the economic and social mobility of themselves and their families and not the collective success of our people). Thus, with the right guidance and leadership, we might have a future with these up and coming brothers and sisters. 

The Black Panther Party is celebrating their 50th year anniversary in 2016. Perhaps our greatest female entertainer of recent years Beyoncé who as part of Super Bowl 50th (held in Santa Clara) half-time entertainment show had sisters dressed in sexy leather paramilitary outfits (with Afro style hairdos and in formation of how Blank Panther Party used line up as a paramilitary organization and she has been criticized by the white corporate media for being insensitive towards the police, in particular citing the Panthers antagonism towards the police. Thus, from their perspective Beyoncé was making an unfair political statement—I applaud this young entertainer and we should support her as an artist for having the right to creatively express herself even if was making a political statement.

Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani, a reactionary racist who was part of the internal conspiracy that led to the bombing of the World Trade Center and the restructuring of how the One World Government is being carried out today; he should have been charged with the mass murders of 3,000 human beings in the 9/11 hoax, a front man for Larry Silverstein and the Hidden Hand. Yet, this criminal walked away from this high level deception and crime unblemished. The former mayor of New York just about accused Beyoncé of inciting people against the police and pretty much said she needed to stay in her lane as an entertainer and this reactionary pawn has been leading this negative and critical charge against the entertainer Beyoncé.

I will say this, I do not think Beyoncé understands the political dynamics nor does she understand how the world works (naïve would be an understatement), but her husband Jay-Z does knows a lot about his history and culture and he himself, perhaps is either a closet member and/or sympathizer of the Nation of Gods and Earths (the Five Percenters). Nevertheless, by me understanding the political and theoretical values of this group whom at times have aligned and embraced black nationalist politics and ideologies, it was easy for me interpret where and how Beyoncé’s NFL Halftime show came about. Jay-Z was publically seen wearing the NGE medallion (and there is little doubt in my mind the Black Panther skit probably was orchestrated and came from the mind of her husband Jay-Z who is a lot more politicized than his wife Beyoncé).

Giuliani's type rhetoric is not only reactionary, but it permeates with the mood and present day era of the United States Patriot Act, National Defense Authorization Act and the Enemy Combatant laws (embodied in the long arm of Homeland Security). His reckless commentary stood as an assault on the First Amendment Right and it is meant to further expand the United States assault on our basic civil liberties as American citizens.

I think we need to applaud Minister Louis Farrakhan (the flamethrower who for over 60 years has been speaking truth to power) and the Nation of Islam for vowing to protect and support Beyoncé as she performs throughout America. However, the Nation of Islam patriarch has always been willing to come to the defense of black people when many of us would run and hide, because of fear of the status quo. We should support Minister Louis Farrakhan in this mission by sending him money to defray this expense of assuring that our sister Beyoncé is not harmed or her concerts are not disrupted, because of the lack of security—Farrakhan website is noi.org (they welcome bankcards donations) and send some money to aid the Fruit of Islam (the security team of the Nation of Islam).

How dare do they tell us as Black people what we can say and/or sing about (they want to stifle our creative genre and I have seen and heard spoken word artists who have said things that would make Beyoncé Formation Tour appear as being conservative). But they are fearful that the Queen-Bee would influence an entire new generation of young black people who might awake and become enlightened to the truth about America and its role as being viewed as the Great Satan around the world. Yet, these racist police officers continue to kill our young black men in the streets for nothing other than being black and constantly lie that they were fearful for their lives and these murders become classified as justifiable homicides.

Treyvon Martin was only going to the store to get a drink and some skillets and was murdered by the racist George Zimmerman (whom the courts acquitted for this murder); Eric Garner was selling cigarettes outside on the curb in New York City and was choked to death by white racist police officers--he yelled out I CANNOT BREATHE; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri Hands up shot to death by a racist police officer, Freddie Gray in Baltimore murdered while in police custody; Tamir Rice a young African American teen killed by racist police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, he only had a toy gun on the playground, Walter Scott in Charleston, South Carolina shot in the back by a racist police officer; Sandra Bland killed while in police custody in Waller County jail in Hempstead, Texas; The Chicago police fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.  So I challenge every Black Law Enforcement officers in Raleigh, Durham and across America to not go along with these white officers and take a stand on behalf of your own people (and stand by the oath you took to protect and serve all people).

I equally challenge the black men in the black churches across America to come out of those Sunday School classes, Bible Study classes, choir groups and take a stand and to our brother ministers and pastors to stop this foolishness in the pulpit and use your pulpit power to become a social activist by truly teaching the Gospel of Jesus the Christ and to preach a theology of liberation; Jesus was no punk and took on the Roman Government by himself--he truly had a government on his shoulders. I applaud our black women, they got more courage and fighting power than most of their scared to death husbands and boy friends (sisters help to give us black men some backbone), I thank God for the black woman.

No, we are not going to allow them to publicly lynch our sister Beyoncé, moreover during slavery black men could not defend our black women (this is our duty to defend and protect our black women and children by any means necessary), but in 2016, we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves, because her willingness to educate us with her Formation Tour about the Black Panther Party it is not sitting well with some (but who gives a damn), but her right to be a creative artist is worth our support as black men and black women. They allowed a white armed militia Group in Oregon to declare squatters rights on federal property in which many of the white citizens of that town backed the militia group. No one is entitled to claim their sovereign rights to any lands in North America other than our Native American family. But you have not heard the police say they are not going to defend and protect the citizens of that town, but in spite of their political alliances with anti-government militia they took an oath to serve and protect (this is the double standard and social dichotomy that I am addressing as it pertain to Beyonce).

I can remember the United States Secret Service back in 1984 when Reverend Jesse Jackson ran a strong campaign for becoming president of the United States of America and the secret service refused to protect Reverend Jackson and Minister Farrakhan came to his defense and mandated that the Fruit of Islam would serve as Jackson's security team. Reverend Jackson had thousands of death threats against his life and the Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan stood in solidarity with his Christian brother. Farrakhan said, "you are not going to kill this brother."

In Monroe, North Carolina there was a bad brother in the 1950s and 1960s named Robert Williams (they eventually ran this brother out of North Carolina and was exiled to Cuba) and he was part of a black Christian organization called Deacon for Defense and he was the president of Monroe's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)--he wrote a book titled, 'Black men with Guns". The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Black Stone Rangers, El-Rukhns, etc., all evolved as organizations who would become the vanguard of protecting and defending the black community, in particular against white supremacy attacks.

Thus, this precedent that America is attempting to set with the performer Beyoncé is a dangerous slippery slope in which she as an American citizen and artist should be protected by the United States Constitution under the First Amendment Right (freedom of speech and expression); every black college and black public school districts should be using this current event issue to teach and argue the rights of civil liberties and debate the constitutional rights of the First Amendment Right and get this young Hip Hop generation and culture excited about civics and pop culture (this should be an exciting time to be a student and teacher in the classroom); it becomes dangerous for the United States Government to attempt to censor and silence her for expressing her artistic creativity. The litmus test for free speech is not how we receive speech that we agree upon, but how do we act towards speech that we disagree on in which the United States Constitution and its Founder Fathers insured that all speech would be protected under the law regardless of the content? But what the powers-that-be is trying to do is covertly punish Beyoncé and simultaneously deter other social conscious black artist and entertainers from making political statements and force high profile black athletes and entertainers to be apolitical, because if they stand up for a political or social cause they might be publicly ostracized by the powers-that-be for standing up for justice and equality.

They desire to silence our artists who dare to stand with the Black Lives Matter Movement or for any other social cause in which our young progressive black people has taking up such as condemning police brutality and the reactionary goals of the prison industrial complex (and has raised a voice against militarization of the police departments). Police Departments and Police officers work at the pleasure of us taxpaying citizens (interpreted to mean we the people pay their salaries and benefits). If we allow these sworn officers to get involved in determining who they will defend and protect based on ones political views, it will come back to haunt the United States in a bad way. I would like to see us devise and organize a youth based race commission and work in partnerships with law enforcement and the courts and advocate for the victims of racism and police brutality and simanteously work with police departments to implement a plan of strategy that would allow input from the Hip-Hop community (interpreted to mean those that fit the social and racial demographics of victims of racist inspired police brutality) in assisting in writing the cultural sensitive training aspect of the manuals; allowing the youth to sit on community policing boards and give them recommendation power to foster change and allow them to attend community programs along side law enforcement to create a since of visible unity between the police and the community

For example, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson have both said some reactionary reprehensible things against Latinos (the largest non-white minority in the country), against Muslims (who are not involved in terrorism or militant radical Islam) and against African Americans but I have not heard the Fraternal Order of Police talk about removing their security teams from around supporting a racist and religious hate monger as Trump, but what about the oath they took to protect and serve, it did not mention anything about only serving those citizens whom we agree upon relative to their political viewpoints. Beyoncé is an artist and an entertainer and she was not the first artist or entertainer to take a controversial position for a cause that had political implications. I guess when I was listening to old school rap such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Niggas With an Attitude (NWA), Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubian, DJ Scott La Rock, etc., they perhaps would have been arrested because their lyrics and political genre was off the chain relative to militancy.

Fahim A. Knight-El Chief Researcher for KEEPING IT REAL THINK TANK located in Durham, NC; our mission is to inform African Americans and all people of goodwill, of the pending dangers that lie ahead; as well as decode the symbolism and reinterpreted the hidden meanings behind those who operate as invisible forces, but covertly rules the world. We are of the belief that an enlightened world will be better prepared to throw off the shackles of ignorance and not be willing participants for the slaughter. Our MOTTO is speaking truth to power. Fahim A. Knight-El can be reached at fahimknight@yahoo.com.
Stay Awake Until We Meet Again,
Fahim A. Knight-El