By
William P. Muhammad
As
the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March draws nigh, from the
halls of power and policy to the streets of major American cities, a
cacophony of media voices, political pundits, and frontline protesters continue
their boisterous clamor over the application of justice in the United States.
In
nearly every state of the union, amidst the mass incarceration of Blacks and
darker skinned people, paramilitary policing procedures, and the tyranny of
suppression, Black Americans, and others sharing similar experiences, have now
entered the valley of decision between which stands the final choices of either
a promised land, leading to meaningful change, or a wilderness of an unsustainable
business as usual.
Within
this context, and for over 40 years, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has
worked tirelessly for the liberation of our people, all the while sharing the tried
and tested methods of his teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, giving us an
example of success, empowerment and independence. However, while holding the
old adage true: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink
it,” the individual choices and decisions Black America has embraced since 1975,
have proven not only Minister Farrakhan’s words truthful, but also prophetic as
worsening conditions continue to undermine Black communities at a faster pace.
Consistently
warning that a war on Black youth is being waged from the highest levels of
society and government, the minister, and those with him, have been
crisscrossing the country since the 1980s, alerting Black communities not only
to the dangers facing them, but also to tangible self-help programs that will
lift them from their overall conditions. As the masses of Black people continue
suffering from violence, uncertainty, and an increasingly overt and hostile
form of racism, it is laziness, jealousy and envy, particularly among critics
in the Black leadership class, who prevent or slow the successful
implementation of effective solutions.
A
Lesson from History
Like
today, a little over 100 years ago, Black activists pressed for justice through
protests, rallies, appeals to white philanthropy, and through the formation of
organizations, advocacy for justice and equal treatment within American
society. Spawned from the tyranny of the blatant injustices and humiliations
associated with the 1896 Plessy v.
Ferguson Supreme Court decision, the denial of voting rights, and widespread
lynching throughout both the North and the South, men such as William Monroe
Trotter, Charles Edwin Bentley, Fredrick L. McGhee and W.E.B. DuBois, founded
what would become known as the Niagara Movement to counter the work of Booker
T. Washington, who emphasized self-help, education and entrepreneurship more
than he vocalized opposition to southern segregation and Jim Crow racism.


Looking
at our collective condition 106 years later, it is clear that any activity
short of a do-for-self model will not adequately challenge the social, economic
and political conditions of Black people. As internal and external factors fostered
division and changed the trajectory of Black progress in the early 20th
century, will Black leadership once again allow hidden hands to determine our
next 100 years while our communities are devastated by the consequences of unemployment,
the breakup of the family, and the dismantling of public education?
On
both the national and international stage, the upcoming Justice or Else march
on Washington D.C. represents the last stand of those embracing the dignity of self-determination;
and for those who understand the big picture, our response to 10-10-15 will
determine the destiny of Black America as the United States undergoes the
greatest demographic shift in the history of its existence. Having the
potential to become a watershed event regarding real change, and with an annual
spending economy of $1.3 trillion, Blacks can no longer dismiss the clear
pattern of snares, traps and pitfalls obstructing our way to true social,
political and economic liberation on the global level.
