Being Offended Does Not Constitute an Act of Terror: The Nation of Islam and The Southern Poverty Law Center Terror List
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Nation of Islam is as big a terrorist threat as any white nationalist group in America. Though the Nation does spew rhetoric that many Americans disagree with (and rightfully so), does being offended constitute an act of terror? While we may not always agree with Honorable Min. Farrakhan (the current leader of the NOI), do his actions, not his language, equate him with a grand wizard? Should the Nation of Islam really be compared to the Ku Klux Klan? Really? Does hurting feelings legally equate to taking lives?
On March 7, 1965, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a wife, mother of five, and member of the Detroit NAACP watched in horror as John Lewis and others were horrifically beaten as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge on Highway 80 connecting Selma to Montgomery, Alabama as they demonstrated for voting rights acts for African Americans in Alabama. This day would become known as “Bloody Sunday.” Having spent part of her childhood in Tennessee and Georgia, Mrs. Liuzzo witnessed firsthand not only the insults of racism, but also the barriers to success that came with segregation. When Dr. King decided to redo “Bloody Sunday,” she decided to be of assistance. She drove down to Alabama and gave marchers rides. When she was giving a ride to a teenager, four members of the Ku Klux Klan pulled alongside her car, pointed a gun at the car, and shot this white wife and mother at point blank range in the face, taking her life.
To add insult to the most grievous injury that this family had already suffered, the FBI went on a smear campaign against Mrs. Liuzzo. The Ku Klux Klan had extensive, uber-organized arms in America’s supposedly “civilized,” urbanized industrialized North. It is said (but not confirmed in most circles) that the Michigan arm of the KKK burned a cross in front of the Liuzzo home after the funeral. They burned a cross in front of this woman’s grieving parents, children, and widow.
Let me take an aside here to explain something: With the smear campaign and the cross, it would seem that the FBI were supporting the KKK, but in thinking about this turbulent time in America’s history, we fail to properly internationalize these moments. There was the Cold War landscape to navigate. The KKK was supposedly limited only to the “savage” barbarity of the U.S. South and the FBI director did not want the international community learning the NATIONAL extent of organized racism and domestic terror inside the United States. So, a campaign was run against Mrs. Liuzzo. She had questionable morals, it said. She may have been sleeping with the teenager she was helping, Leroy Moton. Mrs. Liuzzo’s children sued the federal government, but the law suit was quietly dismissed. I wish that I could tell you that somebody paid for her murder or why the lawsuit was dismissed, reader, but I simply cannot. The trail goes cold.
I bring to you, reader, the case of Viola Liuzzo, because she and her family were the victims of domestic terror and she is the only white woman (that we know of) who was martyred during the Civil Rights Movement. I presented her to you with a second purpose in mind. Sometimes, I fear that we have grown accustomed to violence against Black bodies. It has reached a level of “everydayness” that is gruesomely uncomfortable. And since violence against Black bodies has become gruesomely normal in America, I feel that we do not know what terror is in America, especially domestic terror. A newsletter from that I received from the Southern Poverty Law Center (to be totally transparent, I have and do support them) confirms this for me.
I want to be perfectly clear here in my definitions. Most of us are familiar with international terrorism. As defined by fbi.gov, international terrorism is: “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups who are inspired by, or associated with, designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).” As defined by fbi.gov, domestic terrorism is: “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism
Both of the definitions listed above were taken from the FBI’s terrorism page. You may click on the link if you are interested in the FBI’s responses to current terrorism threats to international and domestic terrorism threats. But here’s what I need for us to understand for the purposes of my humble little blog. Go back and reread each of those definitions. Read them carefully. Included in each of these definitions is the phrase: “violent, criminal acts….”
Now, in the act of transparency, I would be remiss if I did not share this with you, reader. I am from South Mississippi where there is a large NOI community. I am as familiar with Final Call, the NOI weekly news publication, as I am the New York Times. I have been listening to the Honorable Minister for at least 25 years that I can remember, and the rhetoric of the Nation seems to pop up in many of the RAP groups that I gravitated towards as a teenager, such as the Brand Nubians. Even when I was in elementary school, Malcolm X was a hero of mine, I had read and reread his autobiography at least three times by the time I was 15, I have published an encyclopedia article on Malcolm X and his influence on the Black Arts Movement, and I REFUSE to totally dismiss the advances of the Islamic West Coast of Africa such as the university centers of Timbuktu. In addition, my braiders are Muslims (not NOI) from the West Coast of Africa. And while I am a Christian and may not agree with everything the NOI teaches or every word that comes out of Farrakhan’s mouth (Trust me, I have been in my share of theological battles with my Muslim brothers chiding them about their misogyny, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity. First of all, they do not expect a woman to be so bold. Second of all, they are shocked that a Christian would read the Qu’ran and Hadith. You know I can’t back down from that.), I DO NOT believe that this group should be compared to the Ku Klux Klan.
Yet, the Nation has a rather large file on their list.
In all fairness, Honorable Minister can use some very inflammatory rhetoric. I cannot say that I agree with everything that he says, either. But the SPLC was hard-pressed to find violent acts carried out or encouraged by Honorable Minister Farrakhan or his teachings. For the three stories that they did post at the end of the story, these individuals were not consistently linked with the Nation of Islam or directly linked with Minister Farrakhan.
And while the NOI is organized, while the rhetoric makes us uncomfortable, while the Fruit of Islam looks like it would kick most of our behinds on any given day, can we really say that this group shot anyone at point blank range in the face in the name of hate during the Million Man March? Did it burn any crosses? Has it covered it faces and ridden in the night? Has it suppressed the white vote? Has it used Final Call to run a false story about a Black woman getting raped which resulted in the white side of town having a bomb dropped on innocent women and children? That’s what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Nation of Islam is now 90 years old. Has it burned down Christian churches? Has it burned down schools? Has it whipped women in the streets for being under-dressed? Has it physically attacked Christian ministers for political agitation? Has it gone to any Jewish temples and shut down Jewish worship?
I ask these difficult questions, because I am of the Hip Hop generation. Every day, I get in my car and some song comes on my radio that is so very offensive. Sometimes, I feel that RAP music has degenerated to the point that we need to shoot it and put it out of its misery. As a woman, I am so tired of being insulted by my brothers that I could just cry. I want to walk up to some of them and ask, “Why? Why do you hate us so much?” When I hear some of the songs, I feel that my ears have been raped just for having heard them. But, should I call the Southern Poverty Law Center and have some of these RAPpers put in their hate files as domestic terrorists for the rhetoric that they repeatedly use against women? I mean, after listening to several of their songs, I do honestly feel that they HATE women. I’m offended as a woman and mother and nonstripper and lifelong non-gold-digger. These brothers terrorize me with their harsh rhetoric and insults in songs where all the Black women in the world are gold digging skanks sliding down a stripper pole looking to take money that they hustled all night for. With lyrics like that, who is looking out for my safety? Furthermore, who is allowing them to push garbage against Black women like that on the airwaves? I mean, they wouldn’t be allowed to say this about non-melanin women. Would they?
For the two or three readers who faithfully follow this blog, thank you. I want you to know that Min. Farrakhan gave a July 4th address this year, but it was not carried by youtube.com. You have to find it at the NOI website. Also, though today’s current RAP does terrorize me, I will be teaching a Hip Hop class in the fall. Isn’t life funny?
