As Million Man March anniversary nears, Farrakhan calls for economic boycott
Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, is crisscrossing the country, including a recent stop in Philadelphia, to drum up support for the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Oct. 10 -- with the theme of #JusticeOrElse.
With violence, including the attack on a historic black church that left nine dead and the torching of black Southern churches, domestic terrorism against African Americans seems to be on the increase. In fact, the NAACP state conferences and units are alerting black churches to take necessary precautions, and some Nation of Islam members have suggested the possibility of providing security training, similar to the training they receive to protect their religious edifices.
Do black lives matter? Farrakhan, now 82, predicted back in 2012 that "by 2015 the deterioration [in the black community] is going to be tremendous." He asked this group of researchers, "Do you think that it might be good if we organized our people … to go back to Washington and make the demands that must be made before the government of America?"
Obviously, his question was answered in the affirmative. On a recent visit to Philadelphia, during a local leadership meeting, he asked "those who came to the Million Man March to return to D.C. and this time let's go back and bring your women and children and your grandchildren. But this time we go for justice because we cannot live too much longer under tyranny." (The original march was for men only.)
Speaking recently at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C., weighing into the national discussion about the removal of the Confederate flag, Farrakhan said, "I don't know what the hell the fight is about over the Confederate flag. We need to put the American flag down because we've caught as much hell under that as we did the Confederate flag!"
For some reason Farrakhan's comment, which many of his supporters say has been misrepresented, has changed from highlighting the atrocities that blacks have historically suffered from those who have waved both the Confederate and the American flag, to calling for "the American flag... [to] be taken down."
During the official announcement regarding the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on June 24 at Metropolitan AME, Farrakhan said that "we'd be returning to the National Mall, but this time instead of reconciling our differences with each other, we'll be demanding from the powers that be: Justice or Else."
He later said over dinner that the 20th anniversary march would provide "leverage." Sounding much like Martin Luther King Jr. the day before he was assassinated, Farrakhan said, "Our agenda involves withdrawing [our] economic support."
On April 3, 1968, King, in Memphis, called for a boycott of several national products. He said, "We don't have to argue... . We don't need any Molotov cocktails… . We just need to go to these massive industries in our country and say, 'God sent us … to ask … you … for fair treatment. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.' "
Farrakhan, during his speech in D.C., called for an economic boycott of the Christmas holiday. "We don't have guns to go up against [injustice and tyranny]." He called for "our unity and taking back the $1.3 trillion of black spending power" and focusing on this year's Christmas holiday, starting with Black Friday and ending on Dec. 25th.
Farrakhan said during dinner that it's not about our individual success. He said it's about what we can do collectively to "effect change" for our poor, suffering people.