New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: A leader only by default

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: A leader only by defaultA leader only by default

Louis Farrakhan proved again Saturday in Washington that there is nothing particularly original or insightful about him. He is a highly refined demagogue who has learned much since the Million Man March 10 years ago, when he bored perhaps 2 million in attendance and millions more who nodded off as though they had taken heroin as he gave a profound lesson in how to bungle a recruitment opportunity. Even knuckleheads were disappointed by Farrakhan's ludicrous reading of the numerlogical meanings hidden on dollar bills.

This time he was in command of something closer to logic. Farrakhan spoke to the gathering at the National Mall for a shorter time, and devoted the bulk of his speech to a cleaned-up version of what Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, had always called for as a solution to the race problem. Beyond teaching followers that the white man was a devil invented 6,000 years ago by a mad black scientist, Muhammad wanted a separate group of states in which black people would grow their own food and build their own cities, schools and businesses. We could perhaps call it a high-class reservation for "so-called Negroes," a term popularized by the Nation of Islam.

Since Muhammad's death, Farrakhan has taken on the mantle of the leader destined to awaken the sleeping giant of black consciousness. Along the way, he has come off as an anti-Semite, maintained the basic racism taught to him by Muhammad and has threatened reporters with death.

Farrakhan has been able to gain acceptance among people who should know better but who don't feel that knowing better has done them any good when it comes to facing the plight of the black underclass. Such people are joined by all of those struggling at the bottom who feel that little has been achieved through conventional politics or Christianity or the civil rights establishment. Then we have the erroneously labeled "authentic" knuckleheads and lightweights of the "hip-hop generation," who have embraced a man they see as uncompromising in "speaking truth to power." The question of whether Farrakhan has sold out is easily raised by his alliance with rappers, the vast majority of whom create material that is diametrically opposed to the Nation of Islam's morality. But many suspect that entrepreneur Russell Simmons, the "godfather of hip hop," is a strong financial supporter of the Nation of Islam. Perhaps that explains why Simmons can support and promote cultural monstrosities such as 50 Cent and be sure he will hear nothing derisive from Farrakhan.

I did not find Saturday's gathering depressing, however much I deplored all of the old rhetorical soup warmed over by poseurs or naifs. At some point, people will begin to notice those who are managing to educate kids despite the worst circumstances and who are bringing order to their neighborhoods by successfully discouraging gang activity, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. They are out there and they will be noticed sooner or later.

Then the black middle class and those at the bottom will find something other than a demagogue to listen to, if only for what amount to gigantic rhetorical picnics where the assembled are served hot air instead of potato salad.

Originally published on October 17, 2005