Hey, Joe: What's to 'Respect' on Farrakhan?

Michael Meyers - NY Post - October 3, 2000

Disclaimer:

LET the first question to Al Gore in tonight's debate be: "Will you condemn your running mate Joe Lieberman's plans to meet with Black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan?"

Why is Lieberman reaching out to the likes of Louis Farrakhan, and why is he getting a pass on it from his fellow Democrats? Does he really believe that being "inclusive" means he must legitimatize an unvarnished, unrepentant black bigot simply because the polls say that bigot is America's No. 1 black leader? Could it be that Lieberman doesn't know of Farrakhan's record, of his penchant for racial demagoguery and defamation?

What is there about Farrakhan's organization and "religion" for Lieberman to "respect?" The tenets of Farrakhan's Nation of Islam - as decreed by its Perfect Messenger Elijah Muhammad - are crystal clear: The White Man is the devil; the "black race" is superior. The Nation of Islam is as much a religion as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens' Councils, whose faith avowed belief in white supremacy and the idea that white culture needed to be preserved through separation of "the races."

So, the second question to Gore must be: "What is it about Minister Farrakhan's work' and philosophy that you and your running mate respect?"

Farra-con preaches the gospel of race, and in so doing he stereotypes, scapegoats and castigates whites in general, and minorities like Catholics and gays. But, as Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman explains, "Anti-Semitism is a special hatred" of Farrakhan's - as Farrakhan professes to know and speak "the truth" about Jews.

In speaking "the truth" about "Jews," he has a message for the black underclass who feel oppressed: Jews are their oppressors. Hence, the trick of Farrakhan's "self-help" message is to also stereotype and castigate blacks, as a stimulus to lift them up in anger against their oppressors. He has often and loudly lambasted black males, wondering aloud whether "you" have become a "nation of sissies."

Atonement? Since his 1995 "Million" Man March of Atonement for black men, Farrakhan has not himself shown repentance, says the ADL's Foxman, "nor even a willingness to stop his hatreds."

Not only has Farrakhan never apologized for or taken back his anti-Semitism, he's also not forsaken his gospel of saving the "black race," just like his Nation of Islam and newspaper still hawk anti-Semitic tracts and trash. As recently as his appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," two years ago, Farrakhan told Tim Russert that Jews are "the greatest controllers of black minds, black intelligence."

Hey, Joe, this translates to Jews being the modern-day oppressors of black America! Will you exact an apology from Farrakhan in your sitdown with him or will he use you like he's done every occasion for "outreach" - as just another opportunity for self-promoting publicity?

Not even when he was allegedly near death did Farrakhan apologize. Now that he's fully recovered, he is yet stoking racial divisiveness, sticking it to the white media and obsessing over "race" as something it's not.

Why are you so naive, Joe Lieberman?

And why the silence from mainstream black Democrats to Joe's "Take me to your leader" paternalism? Why, when we are at a crossroads in American race relations, do the Democrats allow Joe Lieberman to carry us into the backwaters of discredited racial doctrines and into the muddy currents of black prejudice and nationalism?

To all this, Jews, Christians and all Americans must respond, in the same fashion that Abe Foxman and ADL have, with lament and a good refutation of the Farrakhan dogma: "We should not present [Farrakhan] the gift of legitimacy that he has done nothing to earn."

Amen, brother. Amen.