an uneasy love

i listened to the entire saviour's day address on sunday...

i've seen minister farrakhan speak in person, and i have long respected his views and insights on social issues, not to mention his unwavering wisdom in presenting a united front in the face of all the things black folks face in this country.  he is gifted orator, respected leader and elder.

where we disagree: the undercurrent of percieved "jewish world rule", religious dogma, views on women, the perpetuation of compulsory heterosexuality and gender "norms"--honestly, possibly more than we agree on.  i also recognize that he is a manifesation of several ways in which black male hegemony can force sistas into several corners at once.

and, of course, there's all that business with brother malcolm.  

on sunday--more than ever--i found myself having to separate the wheat from the chaff; the message was unclear, and that disturbed me a bit.

full disclosure: i completely acknowledge that part of the reason for the lack of clarity could be my never having been affiliated with the nation.  some of it wasn't for me--i get that.

even so, i wondered how damaging and dangerous certain implications can be when many who are hanging on your every word don't have the tools to make those subtle distinctions, no matter how much critical thinking you teach at the mosque.

in my humble opinion, min. farrakhan--like the rest of us--holds a piece of the truth. i certainly do not deny the existence of spiritual vision, clairvoyance and the like.  all that still didn't stop me from feeling, at a gut level, that his deep allegiance to the problematic lineage of the NOI and its leaders skews the ways that truth is expressed.

in other words, it's possible that some of the leaps he has to take to make things fit within the islamic--such as it is--framework wind up feeling like half-truths.

i see the same thing with christians squeezing in holistic attitudes about, say, sex or liberal social policies. yes, it's there if you dig long and hard enough, or if you prioritize the words and deeds of yeshua above all else. but outside of that is a whole tome based on spiritual superiority and other oppressive power structures/hierarchies, the absolute authority of men/masculinity, the evil inherent in human beings, etc and so on.

the foundation matters.  if you're going to use the master's tools, you can only shift the paradigm so far. 

that said, i will always keep my eyes and ears open for an opportunity to hear the minister speak, and i'm sure i will still tend to agree with him when he says things like (and i paraphrase), "we like you, obama, but if you keep beating their drums of war, we won't follow."

but i have to trust my intuition, and lots of bells and whistles were going off sunday afternoon.  

by the time he closed--"right on!" moments aside--i couldn't shake the feeling that the line between respected leader and cult of personality-leader was being danced upon.  or crossed. 

only time will tell.

the tiger has lost his teeth
finally effectively caged
silenced
entombed in a vessel that has rejected its abuse
or maybe, simply
has stopped trying to speak to a world that won't listen

revered now that he is silent
many forget the brash youth
butterfly light
full of hornet poison
aligning with uncompromising blackness instead of
feeding into white supremacist fantasies
of who he should be

and now
you can almost hear the awwwwws
as they film him blowing out
birthday candles

fk their short memories
and their false smiles

we remember who you were
who you still are
we will teach our children
to remember the beauty of your prime
make sure they know
we respect your peace
but also know that it was forced upon you.

(c) l.a.m. 2007


although i don't deal with boxing on any real level, i've always had a soft spot for muhammad ali...mainly 'cause young pictures of him remind me of young pictures of my father...

i truly think it's possible that today, when he's smiling at the crowds of people who adore him now, that sometimes--just sometimes--he's laughing his ass off and blessin' ALL of 'em out. or at least half of 'em.

age mellows, certainly. but there's gotta still be a little of that raised-fist arrogance left in him.

so, in that spirit i say: happy birthday.