The Final Call

Leave Erykah Badu alone!

By Richard B. Muhammad - Editor | Last updated: Jan 30, 2018 - 11:29:38 AM

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Erykah Badu, a special artist and free thinker, was hit with the Farrakhan Litmus Test during a recent interview with Vulture.com.

First of all the publication has the proper name as vultures feast on dead things. Like the winged scavengers that feed on death, this interview attempted to pick the singer’s bones.

Perhaps we should begin with a question: What does a profile by Jewish writer David Marchese about Ms. Badu and her artistic work have to do with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam?

Nothing.

Photo: Final Call Newspaper

Except that Mr. Marchese, once again interjected the 34-year-old fake anti-Semitic canard against the Minister into the discussion.

The interview went like this:

(Writer Marchese): “Okay, thank you. I know this is maybe a weird pivot, but I think it’s relevant. When I was doing research for this interview I came across an article from after you’d gone to Israel, where the Israeli press was linking you to Louis Farrakhan and his alleged anti-Semitism and it seemed that you were being criticized for defending him rather than denouncing anti-Semitism. I don’t know if those reports were accurate, but isn’t it valid to criticize the hurtful idea in an instance like that? Even if you respect the person who holds that idea?”

(Erykah Badu): “Absolutely. But I never made a statement about Louis Farrakhan—ever. What you’re talking about happened in Palestine. At the time, the working title of my album was Saviours’ Day—which is a holiday for the Nation of Islam but also my birthday. So I’d gone to Palestine  and journalists asked me, ‘Do you believe in Louis Farrakhan? Do you follow him?’ Sure I do. I’ll follow anyone who has positive aspects. He single-handedly changed half of the Nation of Islam to clean eating, clean living, caring for their families. He has flaws—like any man—but I’m not responsible for that. I said I’ve appreciated what he’s done for a lot of black Americans. I mean, I’m not Muslim, I’m not Christian, I’m not anything; I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things. If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously.”

That’s pretty clear. It was also consistent with Ms. Badu’s declaration that she is a humanist, her belief that everyone has some good in them and how she stayed away from speaking for or criticizing others in the interview.

She pointed to the art of Nazi Adolph Hitler in an attempt to prove a point and was sandbagged. The interview blew up and Erykah Badu was quickly trending on Twitter—and not in a good way.

“People are in real pain. So I understand why my ‘good’ intent was misconstrued as ‘bad’. In trying to express a point, I used 1 of the worst examples possible. Not to support the cruel actions of an unwell, psychopathic Adolf Hitler, but to only exaggerate a show of compassion,” said Ms. Badu via her @fatbellybella Twitter handle.

What she faced, in truth, were the problems at the root of this “controversy.” It came fully into the light  in 1984 during the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign: Jewish paternalism and control over Black people and Zionist determination to annihilate anyone who dares criticize or even critique U.S. support of Israel or speak to the need for Palestinians to receive justice.

It was those two things that resulted in Jewish groups attacking Rev. Jackson, who was calling for a balanced foreign policy in the region and justice for the Palestinians. He made the mistake of using the slang term “Hymietown” to represent Jewish power in New York. Not the best term to use, but Rev. Jackson was no hater.

It was his challenge to Zionist power and U.S. policy toward Israel that was the real problem. In fact, a 1983 meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, then a pariah in the West and among Zionists, drew attacks and condemnation from these wicked ones.

So with Jews chanting “Ruin, Jesse, Ruin,” as Blacks chanted, “Run, Jesse, Run” the conflict exploded into the media. But negative ads and media castigation wasn’t enough: radical Jewish groups began threatening to harm Rev. Jackson. And, the Minister spoke boldly and clearly to powerful Zionists, calling for a dialogue with Rev. Jackson but warning no harm to Rev. Jackson would be tolerated. “I’m saying to the Jewish people who may not like our brother, it is not Jesse Jackson that you are attacking. Remember this now. You’re not attacking an individual. Jesse’s gone past that now. When you attack him, you attack the millions that are lining up with him,” said the Minister speaking Feb. 25, 1985. “We know that Blacks and Jews have had a good relationship in the past. We’ve gotten along well, because you’re a suffering people and so are we. But my dear Jewish friends, you must understand that everything comes of age. We cannot define our self interest in terms of your self interest. And because our self interests differ because we’ve come of age, why dislike us? Why attack our champion? Why hurl stones at him? Why feed the press so that they can create a climate into which hatred and bitterness and strife can be poured, creating the same kind of climate that led to the assassination of John Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Bobby Kennedy?”

Nathan Perlmutter, then head of the Anti-Defamation League, responded by calling Min. Farrakhan a “Black Hitler.” Nat Hentoff, a Jewish leader and columnist for the tabloid Village Voice participated in a New York radio call-in show and also characterized the Muslim leader as a “Black Hitler.”

The false narrative was launched and has been spread for over 30 years.

We should expect more of this as the Minister continues to speak bold truth and as satanic Jews ignore the law of Moses and easily, quickly bear false witness and covet Palestinian land.

These same Zionists are forcing African refugees out of the country, and threatening them with jail. These same Zionists have a long history of abusing Ethiopian Jews in Israel.

There is a growing BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) against Israel and people like rapper Vick Mensa and commentator and author Mark Lamont Hill are questioning the destruction of the Palestinian people.

But these Zionists are so powerful that Americans suffering after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 could be denied help, if they were too critical of Israel. “The city of Dickinson, in Galveston County, was among the hardest-hit places when Hurricane Harvey’s torrential rains slammed Texas. Residents now seeking Harvey relief face a strange ultimatum: agree not to boycott Israel, or your application for aid will be denied,” Texas Monthly reported. Dickinson officials said they were only following a state law. “Dickinson Mayor Julie Masters told local TV news channel KHOU that the city was required to include that condition on the release of the funding by a recently-passed Texas state law—House Bill 89, which Governor Greg Abbott signed in May, and which came into effect on 1 September 2017,” the website Snopes confirmed.

“The law states: A governmental entity may not enter into a contract with a company for goods or services unless the contract contains a written verification from the company that it: Does not boycott Israel; and will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract.” 

This is American money that should be going to help American citizens.

The U.S. Congress annually gives more money to Israel than all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Israel is also the number one recipient of U.S. military aid, getting over $3 billion a year as of 2014. Then there is the $38 billion, ten-year military-assistance deal signed in 2016, the largest in American history.

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $127.4 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance,” reported the Congressional Research Service in 2016.

And while some expressed shock at Ms. Badu’s attempt to “exaggerate a show of compassion,” Black America has its own history with murderers and enslavers who we are expected to honor and see the good in. The list starts with the slave owning fathers of this nation, which wrote into law that Blacks were subhuman and only mattered to the degree that our numbers could benefit our slavemasters and not ourselves.

Sheer hypocrisy.

Not to mention those who almost worship Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, despite their mass incarceration of Black men, their dubious deals in Haiti and Mrs. Clinton’s clear hand in the destruction of Libya, under Commander in Chief Barack Obama. That destruction of Libya ruined millions of lives, unleashed a wave of terror and death in North Africa that has spread to West Africa. Death and misery has washed over our African brothers, sisters and children, who perish trying to cross into Europe through Libya and end up drowning or in slavery.

It is clear the Jewish people always assert and define their own interests. They speak for themselves, offer no apology for their positions and show no mercy to their enemies. We would be fools not to do the same.

Richard B. Muhammad is editor-in-chief of The Final Call newspaper. He can be reached through www.finalcall.com and at [email protected]. Find him on Facebook at Richard B. Muhammad and on Twitter:@RMfinalcall. His website is www.richardmuhammad.com.