Transcription
For our Black press, our great warrior, our Hannibal, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad. Uh.
[Applause] [Applause]
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the world. I bear witness that not a spook, not a spirit, but God in the person of Black man, and God in the person of Black woman, in His clearest manifestation came in the person of Master Fard Muhammad, to whom praise is due forever. And raised up in our midst a divine leader, a divine teacher, and a divine guide in the person of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And we thank him, and we thank him for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
I greet you, my beloved and beautiful Black brothers and sisters, with the greeting words of peace. Assalamu alaikum. Shalom. Shalom.
[Applause]
Alahia. Praise the Lord. What's up?
[Applause]
It is indeed my honor to greet you with the greeting words of peace and to be here with the family again at the Slave Theater in Brooklyn. Junior, to be here at the Slave, and to be on the same days with that great warrior, lawyer, and freedom fighter and revolutionary, our brother and friend and comrade in the liberation struggle of our people, Doctor and Attorney Alton Maddox. The devil made a big mistake to suspend Attorney Alton Maddox. Now he has free time to give the devil hell all over you, the state of New York, with reverberations all over America.
Before we get started, I'd like to call up Brother Morris Powell. Come on up, Brother Morris Powell. Sister Yah-Assantewa, where's Sister Yah? And the key leaders of the vendors on 125th Street, stand to your feet. For Brother Morris Powell and Sister Yah-Assantewa, stand up for them, brothers and sisters. Where's Sister Yah? The Chief of Staff. And Brother Morris Powell, the President. Greeting Brother Colin Moore, Freedom Party's candidate for Governor of the State of New York. Greeting our warrior lawyer.
Here before I get started, we want you to know, Brother Morris and Sister Yah, that we are with you. This is the conscious part of the family. Neither one of us should be seen shopping from no cracker, no Korean, nowhere on 125th Street. Tell your mother, tell your father, tell your brother, tell your sister, tell your cousin, tell your girlfriend, tell your boyfriend, tell your husband, tell your wife, don't buy a goddamn thing from 125th Street. Shut them down! Shut them down! Run these blood-sucking crackers out of town! Shut them down! Shut them down! Run these bloodsuckers out of town! Goddamn it, if we don't eat, they don't eat! If we know these, if we don't eat, shut them down! Shut them down! Run these blood-sucking bastards out of town! We are with you. We love you. We support you. Everybody you know, you should make it unbearable for them to walk on 125th Street and shop with any cracker on 125th Street, any Korean, any so-called Jew, any Italian, any of them, except our brothers and sisters who are on 125th Street. And some of them, we need to take a second look at.
[Applause]
All over this city, white folks are vending on the streets. You can't move for the goddamn hot dog stands, mustard, every damn wet.
[Applause]
And I don't know what it is about crackers and pretzels. I mean, they go wild over a pretzel. I don't give a damn about a pretzel, but if you like pretzels, that's all right. Pretzel stands everywhere. Stinky, nasty-smelling peckerwoods in the middle of the street selling hot dogs, selling pretzels, stopping the normal flow of traffic in the street, which is supposed to be against white law. We go down to the landscape. We go down in so-called Jew Town. The whole goddamn town is Jew Town. That's what I told you. I say, that's what I told you. As my sister would say, crackers vending on the sidewalks. Abraham and Strzok started on the sidewalk. Macy's, Jews selling apples, vending carts, shoes, t-shirts, underwear, vending throughout the city. Go to Chinatown. You talk about the garbage on the street. You talk about the filth on the curbside. You talk about the fact that it's congested on the streets, while you can't move for the Chinese vending on the streets in Chinatown. But here's a cracker named Giuliani. And I'm happy that there's a mayor in New York City named Giuliani who will slap Black people in the face and wake us up today. I'm happy for Giuliani. And I'm gonna tell you now, leave my boy Bob Grant alone. I'm happy for a cracker like Bob Grant because when Bob Grant is on the air, he draws out all of the crackers who would call in. As the warrior lawyer said, "We're backing you. Backing you. We're doubling our efforts and we'll buy every product that is on the boycott list." That lets you know where the cracker really is. When you got a Bob Grant on the radio, happy for a cracker from Boston. New sheriff in town. Came up in an environment of racism, which is a main indicator of the way America is its length and breadth. This devilish disparity, devilish disparity, is what it is. Why do you choose 125th Street? Say, "We're starting with 125th Street." If it violates white law, then the law should come down all over town. And then for our brothers and sisters to act as collaborators on 116th Street, on the very corner where Marcus Mosiah Garvey talked, on the very corner where Minister Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz's brother, Omar Wally, talked, on the very corner where the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan taught. For these collaborators to conspire with our enemy and set up a damn parking lot. To hell with a parking lot! Put Macy's on a parking lot! Put Bloomingdale's on a parking lot! Put Lazarus on a parking lot! Put the Broken Stone in a parking lot! Put Duane Reade in a damn parking lot! We don't want no damn parking lot! We want 125th Street! Every Black under the sound of my voice, 125th Street might not be Wall Street, but it's damn sure your street.
All praise is due to Allah. Praise is due to Allah. It might not be Wall Street, but it sure is y'all street. Main business artery of Harlem. The jugular vein of the Black business district in Harlem. If you choke the life out of 125th Street, if you cut us at the jugular vein, then we start hemorrhaging all over Harlem. Harlem Hospital goes, huh? Black businesses throughout Harlem go, because 125th Street sets up the bases and the foundation for the Black dollar to circulate in the Black community. Yes, it does. Black people who shop on 125th Street shop throughout Harlem, shop throughout Brooklyn, and shop throughout the Black areas where we are. And that Black dollar turns over and over and over again. Black vendors spend their money with other Black businesses in the Black community, and that dollar circulates. But the white man does not want us to build a Black economy. He does not want us to buy Black. So we should shut it down. And I'm going to tell you hard-headed ones, you listen to me, and you listen to me good. There's a rumor circulating in Harlem and in Brooklyn that there is going to be some serious, serious bloodshed on 125th Street. And the rumor is that these damn department stores are gonna be turned into barbecue pits, and it's gonna make what happened in Los Angeles look like a Sunday school, what crackers call a picnic.
[Applause]
Keep your babies off of 125th Street. We want our women off of 125th Street. We don't want you caught in that. Now, they pull the police back because they think you've gone back to sleep. But there are some groups still circulating, trying to figure how they gonna get the barbecue fire burning. They're still figuring how they can snipe and get away. I didn't say it. I'm just like Walter Cronkite. I'm just telling you, and that's the way it is. I'm telling you what I heard. I'm telling you what the rumor is. Stay off of 125th Street. Shopping with these crackers, it's getting dangerous on 125th Street. The Bible says blood is going to flow in the streets to the horses' bridle. I wonder, will 125th Street be one of those streets? Stay off of that street. If you're gonna shop, then shop in any of the Black places there. If you're gonna run in the Peacemaker, Finger Lickin', next door to the Apollo, one or two other shops there, you run in, you run right back out. If you're running into the March, you run in and run back out. But some of them in the March been running their mouth talking against the vendors. You got one or two other businesses on the strip. The white man used them against the vendors. The vendors are known all over the world. People come to Harlem to see the vendors. People come to Harlem to see the rhythm, to feel the spirit, to feel the soul, and to see the colorful shopping atmosphere of the marketplace, the African marketplace. And so they come from all over the world to shop in the African marketplace, the number one African marketplace in the Western Hemisphere.
All Black people throughout New York, whatever borough you're in, this is an attack against us. I want to say a few things with you here tonight, and I want you to bear with me. I want to ask of you your indulgence. I must say to you that indeed, I am, and this will be the first time that I would have said this, and I don't know why God put it on my heart to say it here, but He probably put it on my heart to say it here because this has been indeed the warmest place where love abounds since I have been going through this crisis in my life. That's the atmosphere that Brother Alton and his queen, Sister Leona, and others of the United African Movement have set for me here. So I feel like this is home, and it is. I feel like this is family, and it is. I feel like your brother and sister, and you are, I feel like we are kin, flesh of each other's flesh, blood of each other's blood, bone of each other's bone, and soul of each other's soul. I must share with you, and Malcolm never had an opportunity to make this speech that I'm going to make tonight. But I must say that I am really at the crossroads in my life. All I have known all of my adult life, and coming up out of high school, has been the Nation of Islam. All I have known that has made impact on my life has been the teaching and program of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And I came into the Nation by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan speaking on my university campus, touching my life and setting me in motion in a way that I never dreamed that I would be in motion. And so now, to be suspended from National Assistant, National Spokesman, National Representative, to be suspended from being Minister of Mosque Number Seven here in New York, where I was, and to be suspended from the ministry inside of the Nation of Islam indefinitely, but still accepted as a member of the Nation of Islam. All I know is working as a minister and a captain and a lieutenant, or the Supreme Minister, I mean, a Supreme Captain, excuse me, the Supreme Captain, or working to build up the South from the regional base in Atlanta, over that region, uh, build up the West where Black people are as the regional minister from Los Angeles, or from headquarters in Chicago, or finally from here in New York. That's all I know. And now I have to come to some decision in my life as to what I will continue to do with my life. God didn't make me to sit in a corner, and God did not make me to crawl in a closet somewhere. And so now I must, at this crossroads in my life, make a decision on how I will live the rest of my life working for the liberation and salvation of the Black nation. I intend to remain a member of the Nation of Islam as long as I am allowed to be a member. I will never leave the Nation of Islam. I will have to be sent from the Nation of Islam. I will not defect, and I will not turn hypocrite. I will have to be turned away from the door of the Nation of Islam. For all of my adult life, I have honored the men of the FOI. And I see some of the men of the FOI coming in from Brother Silas Muhammad's Nation of Islam. The Honorable Silas Muhammad, Dr. Kuba Bukase, Captain Asadi, and other members of the FOI. Mother Kuba Bukase, come right up. Crazy. I gotta get some Black now that I didn't expect. Oh, what I'm. Please bear with me. Will you bear with me? May I share what's on my heart with you?
[Applause]
I have never, in my adult time with the Nation of Islam and as an official in the Nation of Islam, had to face, in any way, considering myself at the crossroads. Always certain, always sure. But as you will notice, the Nation of Islam, the FOI from Brooklyn, the FOI from Harlem, obviously not present here tonight. I have not spoken to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. I called the other day and I missed him, and I've called several times and missed him. I hope I'm just missing him. I hope some smart, crooked deceiver, some agent provocateur, has not worked his or her way in between me and my father, leader, and teacher, the way they did between Malcolm and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
My next step, call it being called, is to go beyond the pen and go beyond the phone. My next step is to go straight to Chicago. I must go to Chicago because I must admit to you, some of you have approached me and said many things to me, and some of you look at me as a fool. But I must say to you that the love that I have in my heart for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is not subject to change. When your father, no matter what your father does, whether you understand or not, your father is your father. And he is not my biological father, but he is the father of my faith. He is the father of my spiritual growth and development. And take it or let it alone, but he is the father of the fire and the spirit that set King College and the world on fire. Yes, he is. But I hear Brother Eric Muhammad, who visited with him in Chicago to clear up the matter that was discussed here, that Brother Alton Maddox went on the point, as he always goes on the point and on the front lines when any of us are threatened. That issue that you remember the father over this house, Brother Alton Maddox, bringing to you, as Brother Eric stood from this rostrum with tears running down his face. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan came into the city and cleared that matter up, and ultimately was invited by Brother Eric to Atlantic City, I believe it was, where he was speaking, and then ultimately to our national headquarters in Chicago. I have not confirmed it, but I have no reason to doubt Brother Eric. But Brother Eric brought me several messages back, and one of those messages is reflected here tonight. And one of those messages was that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, according to what I was told, said to him that he would no longer be able to permit the FOI to support me and offer security to me when I speak throughout the country. My speaking tour begins this week, and it seems to be picking up momentum quite fast. Looks like during the month of November and moving into December, moving on up through Kwanzaa, up off in there. I'm saying it seems to be picking up great momentum, and the calendar seems to be filling up. All Black people are not afraid all over America, and they are inviting me into their colleges and universities and into their cities, community organizations, professional Black organizations, and Black student associations across the country. Of course, it hurt me much to just hear this. I first must verify it and hear it directly from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. This is very painful to me, not that I feel that I need security. I'm capable, by God's grace, of raising up security all over America, by God's grace, and what I have learned from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and my military teacher, formerly known as Imam Ali Rasheed, or Captain Edward 2X. Some say, "Why don't you just be quiet?" Some say, stronger than that, "Why don't you just shut up, shut your big mouth, go sit down somewhere, just get quiet?" Some say, "Let's evaluate it," because at the close of this evening, with this family town meeting, I'm going to ask you what you feel. Some say, "Malcolm never had a chance to be quiet. Some say, "Malcolm never had a chance to reflect, to just go in within himself and pray and meditate." Some say, "If Malcolm would have had that opportunity, that he might be alive today." Many say much. Some say, "Go to an island somewhere, withdraw six months to a year. Let the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan know before you go that you're just going into prayer and fasting and meditation, and that you'll be making no public appearances. That since he did not silence you, that you've got enough sense to silence yourself. Can't you see you are interfering with his work? Can't you see that you are undermining Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam?" Some say, "Start your own organization. I'll be with you."
[Applause]
I say, "The hell you do."
[Applause]
You're a leader within your own right. But what you must understand is that Malcolm was ever, never able to really build a strong organizational base after he left the Nation of Islam. He started the Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, in the Theresa Hotel, but it never really got up off the ground. He moved from the Theresa Hotel, from the Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, to set up the OAAU, the Organization of African American Unity, but it never really got up off the ground because Malcolm was half here and half there. Malcolm was half into trying, as he had reached the crossroads in his life, he had now come to the conclusion that he must make a decision with the rest of his life. His head was taking him in that direction, but his heart was still with Elijah Muhammad. I can't just run off somewhere and start doing something crazy because my head tells me to do that, if my heart is still with Louis Farrakhan. And so I'm at the crossroads in my life, at the crossroads. And I must pray, I must fast, I must find some time to reflect, and I must draw from the elders among us and the wise among us who were here 30 years ago and who saw it, who witnessed it, who walked that walk and heard that talk, and who can give me hindsight, insight, and help me come to some form of foresight. Malcolm never had this meeting. After Sunday, February 21st, 1965, Malcolm was not just shot in the legs. They riddled Malcolm's body with bullets. When there's a void like this, there's a gap like that, the "they" that I'm referring to is the enemy. Will step in the void. The enemy will step in between father and son, student and teacher, leader and follower. The enemy steps in, and many times when the enemy steps in, the enemy intends to kill two birds with one stone. The enemy intends to kill Khalid Muhammad and lay, metaphorically, the body of Khalid Muhammad at the door of Louis Farrakhan, and to disrupt the progress of the Nation of Islam. Knowing that the Nation of Islam just reacquired the farmland in the South that we had lost, that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad had gotten for us. To know that under Louis Farrakhan's leadership, we have now regained the farmland that we will be setting up canneries and dairies, and that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, under the economic development plan of his, is now working on a shopping center, strip mall concept in Chicago, and is now setting up a four-million-dollar restaurant and bakery factory with two or three restaurants in one that will touch the economic level of our people, whatever level they are on, they will be able to come in and dine and enjoy themselves and not feel embarrassed, but still have good quality food. They know that Louis Farrakhan, Farrakhan, Farrakhan, has now done what no other Black leader has ever done in the history of our so-join in America. No other leader has ever come among us, no matter how great the work was of the great Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, no matter how great the work of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Minister Malcolm X, no matter how eloquent the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Louis Farrakhan, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, can go into any city, walk into Madison Square Garden, and Black people come up all out of the subways, from the Bronx, from Queens, from all the way out to the island, the most remote island, from Brooklyn, from Harlem, from Connecticut, from Pennsylvania, Black people from Jersey, Black people from all over. You can walk in in Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., in Atlanta, Georgia, in the new Superdome, in Los Angeles, in the Sports Arena, in the Coliseum, outdoors, in the Forum, wherever, and Black people consistently, thousands pack in. Some pay $10, some pay $50, some pay $100. They stand in the ice, they stand in the snow. Louis Farrakhan can call thousands of Black men together in the South, in Houston, Texas, 35,000 Black men. Black men come to respond to the voice and to the wisdom and guidance of one man. Black women in Atlanta, Black women in other cities, thousands of Black women come to hear the guidance, the wisdom of Louis Farrakhan. Thirty thousand, forty thousand, fifty thousand, sixty thousand, seventy thousand. No other leader in the history of America has been able to so impact on the masses of our people and could gather them in every city in the thousands upon thousands, even with the enemy doing everything he could to discredit him. No other leader. And so my head may say one thing as I listen to what you put in my ear, but my heart is with Farrakhan. So I'm at the crossroads in my life. A moment there were no speaking engagements. For a moment, Black people who pretended to be close to me started running from me. Ice Cube started melting on me.
[Applause] [Music]
These negroes who play hard, pretend they're gangsters, but when the real gangster, the cracker, comes on the scene, they punk out. Scared to do an album with me now. Scared of what the white folks gonna say, what the Jews gonna say. On this video, some of you seen it on TV, the new one that just came up with with Scarface. You say, "Somebody put my gat in your mouth," or "my gun in your mouth and make you vomit." I'm down with Khalid Abdul Muhammad. But when it's time to be down with Khalid Muhammad, shot in both legs, assassination attempt against his life, ain't no goddamn Ice Cube nowhere to be found. He's melting somewhere on the sidelines.
[Applause]
Coward University, or Coward University, sometimes called Howard University, but it's Coward University. Banned me from the campus last minute. Banned me. Sabotaged the event. Sister Khadijah was there. She's sitting in the back. Blue Black from Senegal, or the twin, or any of the brothers and sisters other than Sister Khadijah and the leader here, Brother Morris Powell, who were arrested with the vendors. Are you present? Would you stand if you're here? Stand. Come on up front. Sister Khadijah, brothers, come on up front. If you were arrested with the vendors, come on up here. Come on, brothers and sisters. Give them a better hand than that. Come on up front. Come on up front. As they come up, let me stop and talk to you a minute. I need to talk to you, Black New York. Most of the protesters standing with Brother Morris Powell on 125th Street are the continental Africans, not the diaspora Africans. Ain't gonna get fancy on you. I don't get fancy. When I say the continental Africans, I mean the brothers and sisters who just came from somewhere in Africa a few days ago. Diaspora Africa, and I mean those of us who came here 400 years ago. We all Africans. We all Black. Huh? To our brothers and sisters, they are the same dog that [expletive] you bit us too. I don't see many of the brothers and sisters born in Brooklyn. I don't see many of the brothers and sisters born in Harlem, in Queens, in the Bronx, out on the lines with Brother Morris Powell. I see the brothers and sisters from Senegal, I see the brothers and sisters from Gambia, I see the brothers and sisters from Togo, I see the brothers and sisters from Cote d'Ivoire. I see the brothers and sisters, some of them from Jamaica. I see the brothers and sisters who are not born here in New York, out on the front lines. That's why many of us. This is a family meeting. I'm going to talk to you tonight. That's why some of you were angry with Sister Khadijah and others. You were angry with them because they got off of the damn airplane at JFK and they went to work the same day. They got off the plane, they got off the plane and they went to work doing for self, up and down 125th Street. And when you looked up, they were taking care of business. And some of you got angry with them, you got jealous, you got envious, and you went and pushed their tables to the side. So you ain't got no business coming here setting up no business. Well, you weren't doing anything until they came and started doing it. What in the hell is wrong with you? But there's a reason you weren't doing anything. You weren't doing anything because you, as the Masons and the Eastern Star say, you've been struck a blow to the head at the East Gate, which rendered you dead, and you've been carried on a westerly course and buried in the North Corner, where there is no light, in a shallow grave. And a sprig of acacia, evergreen, is placed on the grave to show that there is life still in the grave. But somebody must come with the lion's paw, or the eagle's claw, or the master grip that won't slip, and raise you from a dead level to a living perpendicular, and stand you upright on the square. Black man and Black woman, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad told the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, he said, "We must teach the Black man and Black woman the lost foundation of Islam here in the West." He called all of you Muslims, all of you righteous by nature. Ain't got nothing to do with no Holy Quran. Ain't got nothing to do with no city called Mecca. He called you Muslims, righteous by nature, because before there was a Koran, you were righteous by nature. Before there was a holy city, Mecca, you were a Muslim and righteous by nature. You weren't just making a holy pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. You were making holy pilgrimages to the sacred and the holy city of Abydos. You were making sacred pilgrimages to Elephai. You were making the sacred pilgrimage all over key points of Africa, and you understood the one God. You call the one God either in the feminine, feminine, or in the masculine, by different names. But you always believed in the one God long before there was a Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
I'm at the crossroads in my life, but there are things that I cannot forget and I cannot put down. I believe with all of my heart that the white man is the devil, and I must teach that he is the god. I cannot back down from that. I must teach that he is the devil. All praise is due to Allah. Whether you like me or not, whether you accept me or not, whether you condemn me or not, whether you suspend me or not, the goddamn white man is the devil, and I will teach it from the cradle to the grave. Always teach you because I know that you are a fickle people. I know that you are flip-flop, wishy-washy people. I know that you are different strokes for different folks. But it's different ways on different days. Oh yes, you are. Ah, damn it, if somebody don't continue to remind you, you'll try to walk in the Slave Theater with Susie Runwickle on your arm. Yes, you will.
[Applause]
Damn his sister, you'll try to come in here with Bob, Bill, Larry. Sister, you'll try to come in here with Merv, with Doug. Goddamn it, Doug can't come in. Cindy, Kathy, keep Heather the hell out of here. No Heather in here. Hell no! This is the Slave Theater. Well, why does Brother Alton Maddox leave the name "Slave" on it? Because, Goddamn it, we're still in the land of our bondage. We're still in the land of captivity. We're still a slave to the Democratic Party. Still a slave to the Republican Party. You can't even see a Freedom Party. You don't see it. You're a slave. I'm a slave. And unless we admit that we are slaves, then we can never get free. Never get free. The first thing a slave must do is admit, "I'm in bondage." Admit, "I'm in captivity." Admit that I'm a slave. And Giuliani is a slave master. Admit that I'm a slave, and Clinton is a slave master. Admit that I'm a slave, and Cuomo is a slave master. That's the only way you can get free. Stop walking around acting hip, slick, cute, and cool with Uchi and Coochie and Poochie and Gucci and all that stuff. You're a slave. You can't wait to get out of here and get a good night's sleep so you can go to your elevator plantation tomorrow.
[Applause]
You're a slave. You're a slave to your car note. You're a slave to your rent. You're a slave to your lease. You're a slave to your telephone bill. You're a slave to your light bill, your gas bill. You're a slave. And Goddamn it, this is the Slave Theater. And all the radical slaves come here. The national slaves come here. The Harriet Tubman slaves come here. The Denmark Vesey slaves come here. This is the Slave Theater. All praise is due to Allah. This is the Slave Theater. I'm a slave. As I told Devil Hugh Field, devil here.
[Applause]
I say, I'm one of the rebellious slaves. I'm not a peaceful slave. I'm not a compromising slave. I'm not a skinny, grinning, shuffling, scratching, boot-licking, butt-licking slave. I'm a slave that don't give a damn about your cracker. They'll care nothing about you. Don't give a damn whether I see another cracker or not. I want to be free. I'm a slave who wants to organize the rest of the slaves. I looked at the crackers on 125th Street. Some of you trembled when you saw them. I was inspired. I couldn't sleep. I was dreaming of confrontation with the enemy. Every slave must dream of confrontation with the enemy.
[Applause]
I want to organize some Black men. What would have happened if 500 Black men would have showed up on 125th Street? I ain't come up with no damn picket sign. Huh?
[Applause]
I'm not talking about with no attaché. Huh? I'm talking about 500 to a thousand Black men, hard, cold, stoned to the goddamn bones, determined.
[Applause]
That's the way I was trained by Rasheed Edward 2X, formerly the Imam. He changed in the latter years of his life, formerly the Imam on 116th. That's the way he trained us in Los Angeles. We parked more police than you can imagine. 200 [expletive] cops. Little Peter Bad white girls standing there peeing with little uniforms on. Little Peter Bad, uh, what you, what you call them? Uh, what kind of rangers they got on TV? Little Peter Bad Watch Power Rangers. Peckerwood boys, Pac-Man boys, standing there video game white boys with blue uniforms, trim the knees, shaking in their pants. Some of the brothers say, "Put down your guns. Let's fight."
[Applause]
"Put down your guns. Let's fight. We ain't scared." Some of the brothers, and they say, "No." But what would have happened? Listen to me. What would have happened if 500 to a thousand fearless Black men showed up on 125th Street? You got a cracker standing here. You got one standing there. Hypothetically, this one is right-handed, so he draws with his right hand. His gun is on his right hand. My captain taught me when he would post us up on crackers when they rolled on us. That's the way he stepped out of his car. He stepped out of his car and charged. Black man ain't scared. Under the LAPD is wild and crazy, but that's the, we were trained on the LAPD. He stepped out of his car and charged, and he was calling out who their leader was. "Who's in charge here?" Cracker would step forth, and before you could get it out of your mouth, he was posting us up. "You got that one there. You got that one over there. You got him over there." The two of you on him. Post up on him. If he's right-handed, he posted us up on his gun side. Can you imagine a cracker just left his mama's house month before last and read a goddamn sign in the subway that told him he was New York's best? Standing there, and a cold Black man step up to his gun side, and another one step here.
[Applause]
And just stand there. If he moved for his gun, you're on his gun side.
[Applause]
And all up and down 125th Street, we post up one on one, sometimes two on two. What Michael Jordan would call a full-court press. Full-court press.
[Applause]
I don't send you. I'm on the front lines. I go. I was in and out of the jails day and night when he was in, when they were in down dealing with them crackers down at 100 Center Street. The next morning, early, goddamn it, before they could get the doors open, I was there. That's the way I was trained in the FOI. That's the way I was trained.
[Applause]
And that's the way I trained others as the Supreme Captain. Can you imagine us posting up on them all up and down? Not just there, but posting up. We would have won some, we would have lost some. That's the nature of war. But I bet you one thing, it would have changed the face of New York and the world. And 500 to a thousand Black men were whipping white behinds all up and down 125th Street. There must be 500 Black men like that somewhere.
[Applause]
You fight each other. What's this project here to where the [expletive] just killed our brother tonight? Red Hook. [Expletive] just killed the brother. China, when they run the cleaners there in Red Hook, shot him dead. Brother laying in a puddle of blood. Bad project brothers.
[Applause] [Music]
Ain't nobody did a damn thing. Unless something has changed since I've been up here. That [expletive] wasn't supposed to be able to leave that damn cleaner. That [expletive] was supposed to be chop suey buddy. That's the way you do each other. Could no Black man have come? No Black men. 200 Black men come from another city, from from Philly, and come across the bridge and come down the Turnpike and say, "We taking 125th Street from you chumps." They could have come with semi-automatics, automatics. They could have come with all kind of pipes and chains. Huh? They could have come with everything you can imagine. But because they're Black, you would have come all out of your co-ops. You would have come all out of the projects. You would have left all of the liquor store parking lots and alleys, and it would have been blood from one end of 125th Street to the other end. Black people killing Black people. You [expletive], ain't gonna come in here and take over 125th Street. We'll drive your behinds all the way back to Philly. [Expletive], who do you think you are? But a goddamn white man can come on 125th Street and park us. He poked us, brothers. He poked us. And you walk around every day and you don't feel a goddamn thing. We should have been kicking crackers' behinds right now. Pumped us. You Black women better wake up. It's going to get worse. Help the brothers. Help us to be better men. We've been destroyed since we've been here in America. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Honorable Silas Muhammad. They teach that this is a better Black man. Yes, he is. But 400 years of slavery, suffering, and death has tampered with the nature of the Black man. Help us, sister. You shouldn't let a brother talk to you unless he's a soldier. Unless he's a cold soldier. Until he's, unless he's Black to the bone. Left some jellyfish up in your face, some weak, chicken-hearted brother. If it's me, some wicked, chicken-hearted brother, go come up in your face, okay? If the [expletive] got on a little funny-looking GQ coat like this one, get him out of your face. You for run and accidentally have a baby, and the baby be as sorry as the [expletive] in your face. She wears the right name. In the absence of the leader of the vendors, she was on the front line. I guess named after Yaa Asantewaa. Why? I don't know. Are you Yaa Asantewaa? Took the point when the Ashanti warriors wouldn't stand up. She told the Ashanti men that they would go into battle, women and do battle with the white man and be victorious. But she also told the Ashanti warrior men that when we, when we return home victoriously from battle, there will be no place for you in our bedrooms. That's a revolutionary act. Sisters, you can get this revolution on quick, in fact, overnight.
[Applause]
You play a key role. You tell me, "We don't have 500 Black men who would stand up and face this cracker." Some of you could drag those crackers down the streets.
[Applause]
And the cats with the white shirts on, big pot-belly crackers, just barely could move. Their bellies are they quick with their guns? If they can get to their guns. I'm talking about war. I'm talking about being willing to defend your women and your children and your babies. I'm talking about being willing to defend your interests. White man defends his interests. His woman respects him. His children respect him. His babies respect him. As soon as an argument breaks out in the house, your wife or your woman tells you quick, "You better shut up, [expletive]. I'll call the man on you. I'll call the man on you." The is the definite article. And anytime you put the "the" with something, it epitomizes it, it standardizes it. If she says, "I'll call the man on you," she means that I, you, we are not men, but she's calling the real man who is a man in her eyesight, who really has real power. "I'll call the man on you." I'm looking for 500 fearless, a thousand fearless that we can begin to organize. We got to get the head straight. We got to get the heart straight. We got to get our culture straight. We got to get our God straight. Huh? We ain't going nowhere without God in the person at the center of our being, and at the center of whatever we are being and becoming at the same time.
I'm about to wrap this up. I'm at the crossroads in my life. If my suspension is indefinite, I don't know anything to do. I can't do what Malcolm did. I don't have that kind of character. I can't attack my father in the public. I just can't do that. I can't go against my father in the public. Louis Farrakhan made me what I am. I can't do that. I was not set down for speaking against him. I spoke against the enemy. I blew the enemy away. And so the most powerful men of the world talked of me in their boardrooms, in their decision rooms, in their showers, in their dining rooms. Clinton condemned me. Vice President Gore condemned me. After President Clinton, the whole United States Senate voted unanimously, condemned to condemn me, 97-0. The full Congress, in House Resolution 343, condemned me. The ADL, the JDL, the NAACP, and a whole lot of other alphabet organizations.
[Applause]
Condemned me. Ben Chavis bragged that he was the first to call Minister Farrakhan "Uncle Tom," "messy," "buck dance," and "keep hope alive." Jesse, Jesse Jackson, we're told, had the full-page New York ADL ad a week or two before it even came out. He had it and didn't even tell his family members. He called them and offered his condemnation of me, as he did my father and teacher, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Yes, he did. Charlie Rangel, no good [expletive]. You should be sick of these knickers. These [expletive] should have to jump out of their cars and run in the office and lock the door behind them and peep through the blinds because their angry constituents are about to tear the building down brick by brick. Negroes run for office over and over again. They shouldn't be running for nothing but running for the border or run out of town. Major Owens, even Basil Patterson, can't see a damn thing. Didn't know what was going on. White folks called the [expletive] up and told him. He ain't seen. He spoke any damn. We should have kept your damn mouth shut. I don't have no mercy on none of these [expletive]. Oh, no good Calvin Butts. Any negro named Butts, you should know what's going on. But don't nobody call these negroes out no more. Ain't nobody making these negroes accountable no more. And so these negroes run buckwild in the community, doing whatever the hell they want to do. And you, in the name of politics and business as usual, vote them in over and over and over again. I don't give two cents for the politics of the white man. I still not only believe that the white man is the devil, but I believe in separation and independence. I believe in separation and independence. I'm not embarrassed. I'm not ashamed to say that I am a separatist. I have a right to be a separatist. I have a right to want freedom and independence. I have a right to want a not a party of my own, but a nation of my own. I'm a separatist. I want a flag of our own. I want some land of our own. I want our own rules, our own regulations. Got all these no-good bastards from these white independent political parties on the ballot. All of them made it. But the only Black independent political party, they pull a tech on us. But the Libertarian Party made it with eleven thousand signatures. They claimed, they claimed we had over thirteen thousand. We had more than the Libertarian Party had. But the Libertarian Party, they were liberal with them, and so they ruled in their favor. But all of this, if it doesn't happen through us, I prayed it will happen through our babies, or our babies' babies, that we will stop going around and round on this damn Ferris wheel, Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, up and down, round and round. I'm a separatist. I will be one of the separatists who will be proud to say it and will not hide and say it. I will say it from the mountaintop that I want to be separate from this no-good white man. I want to be separate from his lies, from his evil, from his wickedness, from his devilishment, from his technology. I want to be separate from him.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us of the fall of America, the fall of America, in his great and illuminating book, "Message to the Black Man." Where he talked to the Black man and the Black woman, and in his works, and in his speeches, and in his writings, and in his articles, and his columns, he said that it is better to teach the Black man and woman separation than to teach them prayer. That's right. Let me run that by you again. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "It is better to teach the Black man and woman separation than to teach them prayer." Why did he say that? He said it because God taught him about the nature of the Black man and woman. He said it because the Black man is righteous by nature. The Black woman is righteous by nature. We are other than that by circumstance and consequences, formed and fashioned after 400 years of slavery, suffering, and death under the wicked foster parent of ours, the devil, the white man himself. And so he knew our nature was righteousness and good. And he said, "It is better to teach us separation than prayer because," he said, "if we could just separate from the white man, our true nature would come out anyway." If we could just get away from the white man, now every heartbeat would be a prayer. A pulse beat would be a prayer. The rhythm of our being is in honor and in glory and prayer to the Creator. Better to teach separation than to teach prayer. But you arguing all up and down the streets of New York, arguing over this verse from the Bible, arguing over this ayat, a verse from the Holy Quran, and we all catching hell. Are you arguing, potah?
All of it is us. All of it is important. But we are not one of any of that. We are all of all of that. And then, son, but you found one, and you hold on that one. And then, brother, say, "You got stuck right there. You the father of it all. You're the mother of it all. I got to determine what I'm gonna do. I gotta fight. If I die, so goddamn what? If I get killed, so goddamn what? I'm a soldier." You say, "But you got shot." Soldiers get shot, fool. But they could kill you. Soldiers die. In every war, there are casualties and fatalities. Praise be to God, I'm a casualty though it wasn't too damn casual. [Applause] But I'm not a fatality.
Jesus, the Black Revolutionary Messiah, says, "He or she that seeks to save his or her life shall lose their life. The one who does not place so much concern, is not living in fear of their lives, shall save their lives." God has already proven He's with me. I walk in the fiery furnace. I've tap-danced on the lion's tongue. I've been in the dungeon of his federal penitentiary where it was so black until I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I've been stripped buck naked and chained, shackled, bent over, and the crackling, freakish cracker look all up in your backside as though I would have a semi hidden away somewhere. Semi-hitting somewhere. I faced bullets now. And some war stories that I couldn't tell because I'd have to go and stand before the bar of white law. There's nothing left for me to do. I'm willing to live my life for the rise, the resurrection of our people. And when I can no longer live my life, then I'm willing to take life and give my love. I'm not just willing to die, I'm willing to kill. It's one thing to be willing to die, but are you willing to kill to be free? Well, anybody can die, but can you kill? Oh, my God, talking about killing. He really is at the crossroads. [Applause] They come to kill us. They don't have no respect for us.
Attorney Alton Maddox says he approaches every case from one major premise. That's Dred Scott. Dred Scott decision said that no black man or woman has any rights that a white man is bound to respect. No black man, no black woman has any rights that a white man is bound to respect. So Chinatown, yes. Vending, Jew town, yes. Italian town, Polish town, Korea town, [ __ ] town, whatever, yes. But 125th Street, no. No black man or woman has any rights that a white man is bound to respect. Grab Reverend Al Sharpton. Arrested him in front of his own place that he has established as a business selling Bibles and Bible games. Damn. [Applause] [Music] And the cracker came and arrested him. I guess and took the Bibles as evidence. I wonder if the Reverend goes on to stand, will they use one of them same Bibles and swear men? [Applause] What is Reverend Sharpton's crime? He stood up for his people. What's his crime? He was putting the Bible in the hands of another black man or woman. What's his crime? He had enough money to lease a business on 125th Street and then put a table out in front of the business that he was already leasing. White folks do it every day. [Music] But black people have no rights that white folks are bound to respect. Now, how you gonna fight this one in your courts, Mr. White Man? Where will your First Amendment come in? Where will your white law dealing with freedom of religion come in? How will you deal with the Bible that you have now tampered with, that you claim you honor and respect? Our one of your preachers who is really our preacher, but you respect him in your religion that you call Christianity after you've given us a white Jesus. I'm sure Reverend Sharpton believes in a black Jesus. That's why he went out and faced the white devil. How will you handle the Sharpton case? And then left the other preacher who was out there with Reverend Sharpton, didn't even arrest him. Brother Maurice Powell committed no crime. But according to white folks, he committed a crime. You must remember this, brothers and sisters. Anytime you do anything, you do two things at the same time. My brother, Brother Bear, is here. Where's Brother Bear? From one of the members of the Black Law Society. One of the commands from the Topographical Research Center. And we are taught in the com, in the Black Research and Topographical Center, in the Black Law Society, that anytime you do anything, you do two things at one time. There he is. Give him a black hand. Come on up, Brother Bear. Anytime you do anything, you defend a law. Listen to me. Just give me just a few more minutes. Just a few. I'm almost done. Anytime you do anything, you defend a law and break a law at the same time. Here's Brother Bear. Stay up here with us, Brother Bear. Anytime you do anything, you defend a law and break a law at the same time. If you stand up, you defend the law of standing up, but at the same time, you break the law of sitting down. If you stay inside, you defend the law of staying inside, but at the same time, you break the law of going outside. So now you got to make a decision. Anytime you do anything, you got to ask yourself, whose benefit? Whose interest? Whose profit? Whose loss? Since white folks say there is no law that protects black people that they are bound to respect, you have to determine your own black law, your own God law, your own divine law. There is no difference in black law and divine law because the most honored Elijah Muhammad says, when you look at the black man, you looking at God. So in his true nature, it is God's law. In her true nature, it is God's law. So you've got to determine whether you're going to defend black law, God law, and break white law, devil law, or are you going to defend devil law, white law, and break black law, God law? You got to make that decision. [Applause]
What would happen if thousands of black people on both sides of the street lined up on 125th Street from 2nd Avenue all the way to the West Side Highway? What you gonna do with them? What you gonna do with him? What's his crime? He broke white law. What's Brother Maurice Powell's crime? He defended black law. He's working to feed, clothe, and shelter black self and kind. That's a crime to white people. He's breaking white law. He's breaking devil law, but he's defending God law, defending black law at the same time. How many now, as I wrap it up, how many will help us shut down 125th Street? How many are serious? How many will call? You know how we can work that telephone? How many will call everybody we know and tell them, "Stay off of 125th Street unless you're buying black. But don't be caught coming out of the white man's store." It's a shame. It's a disgrace. We're going to be looking. [Applause] And I'm telling you, there is going to be violence on 125th Street. It's going to be violence. Stay off of 125th Street. Somebody's gonna get killed. We don't wanna. I don't wanna be out there. Do you? Let the white folks shoot each other. They do it all the time. They call it friendly fire. [Applause] I don't want to have nothing to do with it. You don't want anything to do with it. Keep our babies off of 125th Street. Keep our children off of that street. Don't be a fool. Keep them off of that street. And you stay off of that street. Let it dry up. Wouldn't it be wonderful to turn on the news and see big trucks backed up to the doors of the stores and the crackers going home crying? I looked at the blood-sucking crackers in Los Angeles, the Koreans and others. They were snotting and crying. "I lost everything. Everything I had was in here." And I just hollered and whooped and wallowed on the floor and said, "All praise is due to Allah." Stay off of 125th Street unless you're buying black. Don't be in those shops and stores. And again, keep our babies off of the streets. And we don't want our women trampled in those stampedes and running crowds and flying bullets to be caught in a hail of gunfire. Stay off. Stay away. Let 125th Street go to hell. Let it go to hell. I have all kinds of plans if I can get with the vendors and work some of them. They don't want us on 125th Street. We some other plans we got right there, strategically dealing with 121st. Somebody say they want to now negotiate for giving back a few blocks on the opposite side of the street. We don't want no damn few blocks on the other side. 125th Street. We want all of 125th Street. All of it. No compromise. No compromise with the devil.
Now, brothers and sisters, I must take a vote. I told you where my head is. You've heard where my mouth is. And I've told you where my heart is. If my suspension not from the Nation. Now, I'm still in the Nation. Still a member of the Nation. That's the only thing that hasn't been done yet. That haven't been done yet. I haven't been put out yet. I get no salary from the Nation. I have no title for the Nation. In the Nation, no position, no post. And now no security and support, nor support from the Nation. So I'm already with you. So should I just go and be quiet? Some damn what? Find an island and a favorite coconut tree. [Applause] Some damn albino monkey will drop a coconut on my head. A white monkey. How many say to just go and to myself somewhere and just be quiet for a while? Let me see your hands. Those who say that, "No, this is my life we're dealing with here. And for some reason, God has made me important to our people. I'm not on the level with my father and teacher, but I want to organize the radicals. I want to organize the hardcore. I want a summit meeting with the hardcore." Yeah, that's who I want to have a summit meeting with. Not the NAACP. I want a summit meeting with the BLA, the Black Liberation Army. I want a summit meeting with NAPO, the National African People's Party Organization. I want a summit meeting with the New York 8. I want to fight to free all of our political prisoners. We fought to get Mandela out, and he's a no-good bastard, boot-licking sellout. That's all Mandela is. I hear today that the judge refused the death penalty for the, I think it was three of us who killed a white girl from America over there. The judge said it is just 18 years in prison. But what a shame it was that the only crime was that she was white and they were black. Somebody else said, "Two wrongs don't make a right." But sister soldiers said, "Two wrongs may not make a right, but they sure make it even." And I agree with sisters. The first act of murdering our people was wrong. When we retaliate in self-defense, that's right. That's not two wrongs. If the white man does not agree with that, why does he always send his troops all over the world to retaliate? Huh? Get a mandate from Congress, Supreme Court, everybody backs it up. If you asked him, they're in harmony with it. Most of them. Now, how many say I should just go somewhere and be quiet and pray and meditate and reflect? Now, I'm going to be doing that all along anyway. I just came back from Kemet, from Egypt. Spent a week over there. Had a good time. Rode all out in the desert on the camels and stuff. Went all in the pyramids and chilled inside. Yeah, rolled down the Nile. Kick back on the Nile River late at night, about 10, 11 o'clock at night, chilling on the Nile. I went to, I went to chill and to heal. Just chilling. I went by myself. This doesn't say it all. [Applause] I went by myself. I went by myself. So what should I do? How many say I should do that? Let's take a quick vote. Go and just be quiet for a while. How many? Let me see your hands. Let's count hands down. How many say split with the Nation and go and start your own Nation? On one hand, two hands, three hands, four hands, five hands, six hands, seven hands, eight hands, nine hands, ten hands. Ten hands. Okay, ten hands. How many say [Music] [Applause] Y'all make it sound like door number one, door number two, or door number three. Um, how many say stay with the Nation as long as they will allow me to stay? Stay with the Nation and work in the community and work among our people at the same time? I think that's it. [Applause]
This was the first place I came where you held court after the world had condemned me and got the overwhelming response that I did. I got a good response in Dallas, Texas, with the Black Think Tank down that way, with Brother Steve Washington and Dr. Sims and some of the others, and Brother Guthrie Adams and others. But I came here and you held court and exonerated me. I felt good that the family said, "Not guilty." That no matter what the world says, you're all right with us. I love you for that. I thank you for your support and your inspiration. And I thank Doctor and Attorney Alton Maddox for always receiving me so warmly. And all of you here at the slave. And thank you with helping me with my decision. I will go home and pray over what you have told me. Thank you for listening. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Shalom. Shalom. [Music] I turn you back all your positions. Ho ho ho ho. Stop right there. Hold it. Stop. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Stop. I turn you back over to the hands of Doctor and Attorney Alton Maddox. And let us in respect, close out our meeting as we should. Thank you, brothers and sisters. Assalamu alaikum. Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad. Let's give it up. Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad. Sure. Brothers and sisters, I will be at the Victoria Five Theater tomorrow night, right next to the Apollo Theater on our 125th Street. Anything is subject to happen. But come on out. Seven o'clock. Victoria Five, next to the Apollo Theater. Come on out and bring somebody with you, as long as they look like us. Thank you very much. Let us hold hands and let me simply say to Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, that in order to get the right answer, you have to ask the right question. And the question is not what you should do, is what we should do for you. And then that will guide you as to what your divine destination is. Really, people have to support leadership and direct leadership in the direction that they should go. And as I said earlier, I don't think there's anybody who does not recognize the great asset you are to our people. And I think that it is us who must go home and meditate and fast and reflect and then demonstrate our support for you so that you can have the guidance to make the right decision and come to the right answer. And so I hope that we would do that. And now.