Farrakhan: Where is the rage?
I’ve been a subscriber to Time Magazine since 1993. And this cover, from February 1994, is one that I will always remember. Ministry of Rage! The raging and racist leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI) Louis Farrakhan with his stylish eye wear on. There was a time when Minister Louis Farrakhan and/or prominent members of the NOI were on television fairly regularly. Black people were asked and sometimes told to ignore his words and messages (even the non-inflammatory ones) by punditry and “experty”. Heated arguments on talk shows were common with Minister Farrakhan breaking his proverbial foot off in “whitey’s” backside. Some members of the Jewish community said he was as bad as Hitler. Etc… Etc… So on and so forth.
But now it is 2007. 13 years after that infamous Time Magazine cover. Does the “Minister of Rage” still have figurative “teeth”? I say no. Ironically it is War on Terror that has pulled all of his “teeth”. Minister Farrakhan and the NOI didn’t attack and destroy the World Trade Center. The NOI isn’t part of the insurgency/terrorists/murderers in Iraq. The NOI is not part of the War on Terror. There have been investigations into the group regarding the killing of Malcolm X, the “Zebra Murders” between 1970 and 1974, and others. But I find it quite amusing that the “Minister of Rage” is now background noise. Basically saying what the anti-war crowd is saying about the War on Terror. Basically isolated to speeches in front of NOI members with no C-SPAN love. Basically trying to recover from prostate cancer. Basically toothless, old, and lacking rage. A Jewish friend of mine told me several months ago how he hates Osama Bin Laden 50 times more than Minister Louis Farrakhan. When I asked him why, this self-avowed crusader against the NOI said, “We have bigger, more dangerous fish to fry”. It seems that “kicking whitey’s butt” just doesn’t have the same punch as wrecking western civilization and destroying America.
All of America. All Americans. Even we black ones.
12 Responses to “Farrakhan: Where is the rage?”
Only someone who imagines a link between Iraq and 9/11 would think of 9/11 and Farrakhan as somehow related.
That’s so ultra-right wing of you, such a subliminable [sic] GOP talking point.
Stop insulting our intelligence, wingnut.
We’re not all retards ya know.
Sad. So sad. Yet predictable and a little surprising. I’m an ultra-right wingnut by saying Farrakhan doesn’t have the teeth to disrupt the War on Terror? Oh my fault. I said War on Terror and that is a “right-wing” phrase right. So sorry. How about the mission to limit terrorism around the world and in America.
Anyways, I’m not a big supporter of the Iraq War. Never have been. But that doesn’t stop me from recognizing murderers and terrorists. And my point in my post is that Farrakhan was once equated to the worst but has seemed to disappear when the “real worst” shows its head. To derive “ultra-right wingnut” from that shows obvious wingnut tendancies in yourself, boy. I suggest eating a bowl of real granola while looking in the mirror. The look on your face while eating real granola is enough to make you comprehend what I was really saying. It’s a thinking man’s kind of look, ain’t it?
By the way, Minister Farrakhan has said that the War on Terror will make the world hate America more. Doesn’t the anti-war crowd say that? Keep eating that granola.
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T-Steel: If I read your post correctly, your real point is that the bigger course of history has a rather dramatic way of rendering obsolete some of the hyperbole of the moment.
Ozymandias
“I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Correct Robert.
Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam were on a roll (news coverage-wise) before 9/11. Now it’s like the faucet’s been turned off and welded shut. I haven’t even seen much from Farrakhan haters associating Farrakhan with terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, and the like. The so-called “Black Hitler” (called by some, ultra-hyperbolic and unnecessary) has been rendered to another voice in the anti-war crowd. A voice that doesn’t get as much publicity as Cindy Sheehan.
First, you’re better off not responding to people who call you names because you’re legitimizing their statement and if they aren’t smart enough to make it without insults, it doesn’t deserve a response.
Second, I think that Farrakhan lost his luster well before 9/11. Most of black America abandoned all the ‘he represents us’ nonesense years ago and a lot more are doing it now. Farrakhan has been marginalized due to people waking up, not 9/11.
Angela, as a person that grew up in a household of snappy comebacks and sharp wit, it’s hard for me to resist sometimes. Point taken nevertheless.
I agree with your second point. But I also add that even though black America has been pulling away from him before 9/11, he was still getting sizable attention for credible news sources. That has dried up.
Back to Black America and the NOI. In urban areas like Detroit, the NOI presence is still fairly strong as a “help the community” force. Neighborhood Watch patrols, self-help workshops, etc. But the “get whitey” message just doesn’t resonate as powerfully. And “get whitey” would be disastrous for me. My grandmother is white (born and raised in France) and would cut my head off if I started that up.
Thats because Farrakhan is someone you love to hate. Plus the 90′s were just a better time. Better presidents, enemies we could get a handle on, terrorist bombings that killed far fewer people yada, yada….
Celebretities of all stripes are like an ongoing TV show for the rest of us. And all shows have to have the character you love to hate. Janice(replacing Olivia) on Sopranos, Boss Hogg, Farrakhan in real life. He was one of many, and never more than a bit player really. His celebrity at least with my generation was sparked after the movie about Malcolm X came out.
People say you can judge a man by his enemies. I think this applies to the ages as well, and if Farrakhan was the worst at the time, I’d say those were good times indeed.
wow, it’s hard to believe you’re “black.” it also sounds as though you’re a bit envious too with your comments about min. farrakhan’s designer eyewear – huh? LOL and then this: “Basically isolated to speeches in front of NOI members with no C-SPAN love. Basically trying to recover from prostate cancer. Basically toothless, old, and lacking rage.”
how petty sounding can you be and you’re trying to make some intelligent and mature point? it’s strange how some want to talk about the insignificance of min. farrakhan and yet for some reason, they just can’t stop bringing him up. how much sense does that make?
wow, it’s hard to believe you’re “black.â€
We’re not monolithic.
it also sounds as though you’re a bit envious too with your comments about min. farrakhan’s designer eyewear – huh?
I used to have glasses like that. I miss them. They’re out of style now.
how petty sounding can you be and you’re trying to make some intelligent and mature point?
Intelligent and mature enough to know my post was intelligent and mature enough to compel a response.
it’s strange how some want to talk about the insignificance of min. farrakhan and yet for some reason, they just can’t stop bringing him up.
First time I brought him up here at TMV.
well T-steel, don’t flatter yourself about your post and the fact that you were successful in getting a response from someone who sees a good deal of pettiness in what you think is a mature and intelligent post. of course, all blacks do not think alike but your post reads as though you’re some sheet wearing KKK member, not to mention that you are misinformed on some things but i guess that’s neither here nor there.
you may also be unaware that you’re yet another to be added to the number of other folks who criticize min. farrakhan for being insignificant but if he truly were that, you wouldn’t have created an entire post about him in the first place.
so in the same way you think that because someone responding to your post makes it intelligent and mature, you should be able to use the same logic to understand that you taking the time to write, think through and create what you find to be an intelligent and mature post, shows that whatever you invested that type of energy on must not be “insignificant.” agreed?
How did you read my post and come up with sheet wearing KKK, lgc55?