The Million Man March atonement

By Chris Waldron <chriswa@microsoft.com>, 16 October 1995

Farrakhan is not David Duke nor is he anything close to the NAZIs or the KKK and that representation is insulting to African Americans. If you want to see fascism and racism take a look at the Democrats, the Republicans, and Corporate America.

The aforementioned organizations has or had power to carry out their devastation of the working classes and ethnic minorities. The NOI has never advocated violence or carried out violence toward any other ethnic group nor do they have the kind of power to impede the progress of any other American ethnic group.

Both the NAZI and the KKK has or have had the support of powerful organization and corporations. In fact both TIME magazine and the Hearst Syndicate supported the NAZIs and Adolph Hitler primarily because of their strong-arm attacks on labor and communists. (I also suggest listening to a great presentation on the topic of fascism by Michael Pirenti.)

I have posted my perspective here on PNEWS articulating the anti-progressive politics of the NOI and will gladly repost them. The NOI is a right wing reaction to racism. They are the result of racism and a void of anti-racist progressive solutions. The NOI is not the cause of racism as much of the racist right wing media would have us believing.

The Million Man March will not direct African Americans to contest for power via political organizing since real organizing means building bridges with whites and other (hopefully progressive) groups. This is counter to the NOI nationalist message. Thus the NOI in effect harms African American more than any kind of imagined harm to whites that the racist media presents. In fact the media does more (as we have seen with O.J) to fuel racist animosities.

As progressives IMO we need to form organizations that will permit us to affirms each other grievances as bridges are built and to define the meaning of progressivism. Until we do that there will always be mistrust and that mistrust favors the elites.

One place where progressives can start is to cease the doublespeak ascribing of the racist and fascist labels onto oppressed group. This is emotionalism bereft of thought, reason, and sensitivity and dilutes its meaning and impact.

ChrisWa.