Let Us Make Man' How To Overcome The Pain of Being a Black Man in White America
BY THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN | LAST UPDATED: NOV 26, 2013 - 12:43:28 AM
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‘The time and what must be done’—2013 Lecture Series, part 46
[Editor’s note: The following article contains a distillation of the April 11, 1994 “Let Us Make Man (Part 4)” message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, as part of a nationwide tour of “Men-Only meetings” leading up to the Historic Million Man March in 1995. This portion of that address serves as Part 46 of his 52-week Lecture Series on “The Time and What Must Be Done,” which aired on Saturday, November 23, 2013. Click here to order this message it in its entirety on MP3, DVD and CD or call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200.
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
The One God to Whom all praise is due, The Lord of The Worlds: Allah, The Creator of all things;Allah, The Revealer of all Truth; Allah, The Sender of all prophets—to Him, alone, do I submit and seek refuge.
We thank Almighty God Allah for all of His prophets, and for all of the scriptures that they brought to human beings. We thank Him for Moses and “The Torah,” we thank Him for Jesus and “The Gospel,” we thank Him for Muhammad and “The Qur’an”—peace be upon all of these worthy servants of God.
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If I lived to be a “1,000,” I don’t think I could thank Almighty God Allah enough for His Intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi, Who came and searched among us for one who would deliver to us a weighty word. And that one is His messenger to us, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: A man who has made The Torah, The Gospel and The Qur’an relevant books to us and to all oppressed peoples of the world.
I greet all of you, my dear and wonderful brothers, with the greeting words of peace; we say it in the Arabic language,As-Salaam Alaikum. This means “Peace Be Unto You.”
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We have had these Let Us Make Man meetings, now, in four cities: New York (“Part 1,” The 369th Armory, January 24, 1994), Boston (“Part 2,” Strand Theatre, March 10, 1994), Washington, D.C. (“Part 3,” The D.C. Armory, March 21, 1994), and now Houston. And I am very proud to say that I am humbled and grateful to Almighty God for what I see in Houston: 12,000-14,000 men on the inside of this auditorium—there’s not a nook or a corner in this auditorium where there are not men like you! And there are thousands on the outside; I was informed that the police said there were at least30,000 people on the outside at one point.
Brothers God called you (here) tonight, because you have a very special purpose and a very special calling that each and every one of us needs to understand. You have been made to look at yourselves as “nothing,” but by the end of this message, by The Grace of God, I want to tell you:
1. “Who you are,” and
2. “What is expected of each one of us” to stem the tide of crime and violence that is afflicting our communities throughout America—
Not by your “design,” but it was by the design of The Wicked who are manipulating our ignorance to make us enemies of one another.
And we have become so depraved, as a community, that it makes it difficult for somebody like myself, or Reverend C.L. Jackson (pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church), or others, to teach us to “love one another”; because wickedness is “the mother” of hate. When people do you evil, it’s difficult to love them. And if we have become the “No. 1 evildoers” to one another, we are “preaching a hatred,” now, in our community, that must breed “self-destruction.”
‘God’ = Love = Life = POWER
If we say that “God is love,” and the scriptures of the Bible teach this, then the “love” that “God is” is not some tender, emotional feeling. When you say “God” is “Love”: The word “is” is representative of an equal sign (=)—whatever is on “one side” of the equation is equal to what is on the “other side” of the equation. (e.g. “x = y”)
God is more than an “emotion”; He is more than a “tender feeling.” God is absolutely The Essence of all things that you see, and don’t see. When you say that “God is love,” then love must be the very essence of life itself. Look at the word “l-o-v-e,” and the word “l-i-f-e”: It is the sameword—just change the “f” to a “v,” because through the study of language we learn the “f” is interchangeable with the “v”; as is the vowel “o” interchangeable with any other vowel. So when you say you have “love” and you have “life,” you have God. And when you have God, you have love; you have life.
If, as a people, we do not love each other, then as “a people” we are dead; and therefore, “the grave” that we sleep in cannot praise God. “The grave” cannot praise God, and those of us who are “dead” in the hatred of self are not “glorying God” in our existence. So somebody has to come to show Black people how to love themselves; how to love one another! And when somebody shows you how to love yourself, then in that act of love they will be giving life to “the dead”: By putting “God” in the hearts of the people!
This is why in the Bible, in 1 John, Chapter 3, verse 14, it states: “We can tell that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brotherhood. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”
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When you don’t have “life” and you don’t have “love,” and you don’t have God, then you arepowerless, because “God” represents force and power—and the thing that Black men don’t have in America, or in the world, is “force and power” to determine our destiny!
Our destiny is determined by others … We are like “sheep,” as the scripture teaches; and we have not had a “good shepherd” in front of us. How do you know that our shepherds have not been good? Because if our shepherds were good, then 1.) God would be in our life! 2.) Life would be in our life! 3.) Love would be in our life! and 4.) Power would be in our life; and therefore, David The Psalmist was moved to say: “The Lord is my shepherd…”
Well if “The Lord” is our “shepherd,” then we would never be in the condition that we are in! So, we have to replace “the old shepherd”: We have to get rid of the rider that’s riding “the donkey.” He is not a “good” rider; so we have to throw that rider off our back, and let The King ride you and me to glory!
“What do you mean, Farrakhan?” Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9).
“Why an ‘ass’ Jesus?” Study the Book of Matthew, Chapter 21: Jesus told his disciples, “Look, there’s an ass tied, and there’s a young colt tied with her”; he said, “Go, and untie them. And if anybody asks you what are you doing, just tell them, ‘The Master has come, and has need of them.’”
Who are you, Black man? I want to talk to you… And I can guarantee you, that after you are done reading my words, that not one of you will be “the same”; you will never be “worse,” you will bebetter! And based upon the degree of acceptance of The Word is the degree of Rise that will come (in Houston and throughout America) from Black men.
When the Black man’s true naturewarrants his need for a woman (‘help-meet’)
The Book of Matthew, Chapter 21, verses 1-3: “And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say,The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.”
What does Jesus want to ride an “ass” for? When they murdered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: During his funeral procession, his body was carried by what? Mules. They used a mule as “a symbol.” The ass is a symbol of “the unlearned masses of the people.”
Nobody could do anything with the unlearned masses of the people; but when Jesus came on the scene, the ass was “tied” meaning “somebody owns you, but is not making use of you”! And history teaches us that in the South, whenever someone would come in to talk to Black people,White folk would say, “I don’t want that person disturbing my Negras/my Colored peoples… He’s a trouble maker, coming in to disturb our Negras!”—they always used the possessive tense. This is why the Bible calls us “The Children of Israel”: “Of,” here, denotes “possession.”
We are “The Children” possessed of “Israel”: Owned by, tied to, but not being used. They have no more jobs for us… In church we used to say, “In heaven, every day will be like Sunday,” but it’s like that now, only we’re in “hell”! “Sunday” was the day that we got off, but now every day is an “off” day, for Black folk—especially for Black men; because, White folk make jobs, but they put your woman in the job, and put you off the job!
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When a man doesn’t have a job, and he has a sex drive—which is natural, because a “natural man” is going to like a woman! So if you’re a natural man, you are attracted to a female; and if you are attracted to a female, and you like her, soon the natural attraction in “male and female” will give rise to “sexual stimulation.” And sexual stimulation will give rise to the act that they call “making love.”
* They call it “making love” because it is the act that “creates life”.
* But with us, as men: It’s not really a desire to “create life,” or to procreate human species, it’s a desire to have pleasure.
We know that God has made the female to give “pleasure”; however: She is not to give pleasure to somebody who has not earned the right to “pleasure” by enduring the pain of “being a producer.” A man does not need pleasure if he’s doing nothing! One of the definitions of “pleasure” is “an amusement, recreation, or enjoyment.” “Recreation” (re-creation) comes after“work”—not “before” work; not “in place of” work, but “recreation” comes after work!
When God made a man: He made the man to struggle! He made the man to overcome difficulty! He made the man to become a producer! He made the man to multiply; replenish the Earth, and subdue it! He gave man power and dominion to carry out what God had ordained in the verynature of a “man.” And if a man does his job, God says: “I’m going to give you a woman to help you do your job.”—so “solace” and “comfort” and “consolation” comes after struggle!
But a woman can’t “help a man” do nothing! A woman has to help a man do something. And if a man is a “do-nothing man,” he can never keep a woman, because a woman is made by nature to be your helper! A man doesn’t “need help” to sit around and do nothing… So! As a man: If you don’t have any “program,” if you don’t have any “aim,” if you don’t have any “purpose,” and if you don’t have any “project that you are working to develop,” then you don’t “need” a woman!
But, brothers, your nature will make you to feel: “I need a woman!” And a woman is made to feel she “needs a man.” So, we meet, and we are attracted to each other; and we fall in love with each other, and that’s wonderful. And then, sex follows—and then, without planning, an “accident” takes place; she says: “Whoops! There it is… Hey baby, I’m pregnant!”—and you say, “What are you telling me for?! You know ‘what to do’…”
Now brothers: When you don’t have any money in your pocket, and your children are at home crying: How do you feel? When you go home, and your wife is working, but you can’t find a job (and you just graduated from “Texas Southern,” “Texas Christian,” or some other college, and when you go for a job they tell you, “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re overqualified or don’t have enough qualifications for this one.”—but it seems that your wife is “qualified” to hold any position. For example, I have noticed Black anchor women on television sitting next to White anchormen; so, they have already fulfilled “the requirement,” they have hired a minority and a Black. But, it’s not you, brothers.
And since you and I, as a people, have not learned “how to create a job,” and you know it takes money in this world to live, then the only avenues open for you, as a man, is either: 1.) Join the army and “be all” that you can never be in the society, so that you can be sent all over the world to fight for a “democracy” that you don’t know anything about at home! Or, 2.) You can be in the neighborhood committing crimes.
And the one enticing you to a “life of crime” says: “You can make a lot of money if you ‘start small and grow big’; here’s what I want you to do, just go around and steal hub caps. And after you do that well, break into the car, get the radios. After you do that well, take the car—now you don’t have to wait till the people sleep; just go up to them and say, ‘Get out! I got this!’ And if they open their mouth wide enough, shoot ’em in it!” Just look at the degeneration, now.
The pain of being a non-productiveBlack man in White America
Come on, brothers, I know it’s painful to be a Black man in America … But “real pleasure” was never meant to come from a woman. I’m going to repeat that: “Real pleasure” was never meant to come from a woman!
Women give men “pleasure,” but real pleasure comes from creative thinking; and then seeing “what you think” come into reality by the work of your hands. That’s real “pleasure.” Reverend C.L. Jackson has experienced “real pleasure,” because this House was an “idea” in his mind. An architect took it from his mind and put it on paper; then Rev. Jackson gathered his flock, and they went to work. And what was an “idea” became “reality”; in other words, “the word became flesh.” So on the day that this House was opened, there was joy; but the type of “joy” that no female could give! Because now this House, this reality from the mind, can house thousands, now, that can be inspired to go out and make a difference in the world!
As a Black man in White America, we are in pain, brothers! We live with constant pain. Nobody knows our pain but God, and us. Brothers, as long as you, as a man, lay down at night and “dream about” your greatness—but you are never able to manifest how great you are—thenthe pain of being “non-productive” makes you seek “pleasure” that keeps you non-productive! Study our condition: Each one of you is in pain. When you wake up in the morning, and you look in the mirror, and you know deep down inside you are as great as any man of greatness that you’ve heard about, read about, or seen in real life: You know you are as great as any one of them. Possibly greater!
But there’s no avenue of opportunity to allow you to demonstrate your individual greatness; then this breeds “frustration,” it breeds “bitterness,” it breeds “envy and jealousy.”
As a Black man: You know we have always loved “our champions” (in sports, such as boxing), because it’s something to watch a man, in a ring, “deal”—and win! Boxers, like Evander Holyfield: He works hard to be “who” and “what” he is! He doesn’t climb into the ring without having made a great sacrifice of time; and, he is in pain! He puts his body through pain tocondition himself for what he is about to face. Every man has that same ability to be a champion! Maybe not in “the ring,” but each one of you is a champion in your own right! However, if you have no way to show it, no opportunity to prove it, then we end up worshipping “the champ” rather than worshiping God. Or we end up being envious of “the champ”…
And so our community is filled with envy, jealousy, strife, contention, bitterness, frustration, hatred,murder, because we are unfulfilled as men. This is because racist White America cannot stand to see a Black man really “free,” full of The Power of God; with a creative mind at work, with a help-meet by his side working to develop creative ideas for the advancement of his family and his people! So, since “two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time”: If “the White male” is going to rule, then he must crush “the Black male.”
“White male”: You are wrong! In reality, if because of “White Supremacy” you believe that in order for you to survive as a “White man” you have to crush a Black man’s existence: Then in “crushing our existence” you are doing something to your own existence! Because ultimately, no power on Earth, for any long period of time, can keep any man from attaining what God Himself has willed for that man!
Preachers: The Black man must know how to find power in The Word of God
I say all of this to say that as Black men, in America, you are “powerless”; because they don’t want you to have power! And as a man, you can’t function without power. This is why, “reverend,” men don’t come to church as they should. Women are suffering for the lack of a “man,” and they are in the church—but why aren’t the men there?
Jesus was, and is, a “man”; so the only “comfort” for a woman, who does not have a real man, is to imagine her connection to The Master Himself! So she comes to church… And she is so frustrated, because she has three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 children—sometimes, from four or five, or six or seven or eight or nine different men. Nobody to love her! Nobody to care for her, and her offspring! So she just eats herself to death; she gets fat, and out of shape. She is demoralized, dispirited, disenchanted; and she comes to church, and the reverend tells her,“Jesus is my rock. Jesus is a comforter. Jesus will ‘do this’.” Well, the woman needs a man to “do something” for her! So, she gets “the holy ghost,” and runs up and down the aisle; she gets “the spirit.” But what she’s really looking for is a real “man of God” in her life.
Well, why aren’t you there, brothers? Dear “reverend,” “pastor,” “preacher”: It is because the “power side” of Jesus is not represented. “The side” of comfort and consolation and mercy andforgiveness is what is mentioned—and the woman is more attracted to that side, because of the feminine side of her nature! But, a man is made to have “power and dominion.” The church must become as God intended it to be, and give power to the man.
How do you give “power” to a man? You give a man “power” by giving him knowledge. You don’tentertain “men”—you teach “men”! But when church becomes “a big show,” and there’s more “singin’ and shoutin’” and entertaining than real teaching, then the man can’t “get a grip” on The Word of God; to empower the man to go out from the church into life, and “deal” with what is out there!
The gun, alcohol and dope merchant: Programming for your total destruction
Jesus saw an ass “tied”… Brothers: You’re “tied up,” and White America has no more “use” for you. And in a society like this: When they don’t have any more use for you, they program you for destruction.
Look at yourself, brothers, because 30 years ago, White folk did not ever want to see a Black man with a gun. Right in the South, if you had a shotgun on your farm, White folk would be a “little careful” on how they came around you—especially if you would use it; because they know that thing hurts, and kills. So, you couldn’t get guns. However, there was always a liquor storeavailable to you.
Some of you don’t even know why you’re in pain, because your nature has never been explained to you. So, you don’t know “where the pain is coming from,” and you don’t know “why you’re in pain.” You’re in pain because you’re not productive, because no man can be a “man” unless he is productive! And in your pain of not being productive as a man, the seller of alcohol says: “Hey, Brother? Come on here, and take this for your pain.” Take for instance “the college professor”: You’re in pain, because you know that “somethin’ ain’t right” with what you’re professing. You’re teaching young people; and you know when they leave college that most of them will not be able to use what they spent four years in college trying to learn! So in the basement of most of the professors’ houses you’ll find a bar; and you have parties in your house, and you friends come over, and you get drunk… And get drunk, and laugh, and talk, and tell jokes, and get drunk some more; and then go back to class on “Monday,” acting like you are “professing.”
It is the same with preachers: “Preachers” are sad men, too, because most of them read the Bible about a “God”—but He isn’t real in their lives when White folk come. You say you believe in God, “God is your rock,” but don’t let White folk come to your house in the midnight hour; otherwise, you’ll start saying like “Jesus said on the cross,” “My God, why have You forsaken me?”; because deep down inside, some of the most cowardly people are the people who claim to believe in God. You allow “the flock” to be eaten by “the wolf”… And “the shepherd” runs and hides, and becomes an “apologist” for the wickedness of the slave master and his children! So “preachers” are unfulfilled too! And this is why “sex” is a major part of a preacher’s life.
Please understand what I am saying: I am not “putting anybody down.” I know there are some good preachers, some very good pastors; but for the most part: There is too much talk, amongpastors, about “women,” and too little talk about serving the needs of the people that we are shepherding. Brothers, we are all in pain. The “man of God”: He has his Bible, but he’s in pain! The “Muslim”: He’s got his Qur’an, but he’s in pain! And the “agnostic”: They don’t have a Bible, aQur’an, and they don’t believe in any “God”—but they are in pain! The “gang bangers,” are in pain. All of us are in pain!
And do you know, brothers, when you’re in pain, your brain releases hormones that actually can deaden pain; this is why you could lose an arm and sometimes don’t even feel it, because the trauma has released something from the brain. And when you look, and see that your arm is gone, then the “pain” comes; but before that, you didn’t even know it was gone. That’s how powerful the brain is!
But when your pain is so great, that you deplete what the brain can give to comfort you, and your knowledge is so weak that it can’t “fire up” the brain to produce more of what you need in a traumatic time, then here comes the dope merchant: “Hey baby! Hey, try this…” We’re in so much pain brothers, that after a while “reefer” gets to be “punk stuff”; and you graduate from reefer. You have never been able to afford “cocaine” (like White folks use it, in the powdered form), so some of them when into a laboratory and developed a very inexpensive chemically-producedcoke that immediately goes to the “pleasure center” of the brain. And one hit of it hooks you! Now that’s really something… And so now, crack (cocaine) is flooding our community.
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Each of you, as men, know that “the more pain you’re in,” the more drugs you use—and your personality begins to get distorted: You’re no longer the same person that you were when you were in a natural state. You become an incessant liar, and after a while, your mother and your father become “objects” to you; they’re no longer your real parents, that you should have love and care and tenderness for; but, you see your mother’s fur coat and you take it, you see something of value and you take it! And if they try to stop you, you, in the sad state of your mind, would kill your own mother, your own father; your sister or your brother.
Now, the Black community is filled with pain, and filled with drugs! Filled with pain, and no power; but now filled with guns! Communist leader of China, Mao Tse-tung said that “power” “grows out of the barrel of a gun”: So when you put a gun in a powerless young Black man’s hands, he now has his hand on something that gives him “power”!
And, he is hungry for power: The nature that the Bible said God created him in! God gave him, in the beginning, “power.” But the White man took away from you “power”; and now you’re trying to get it back. But you “don’t know how,” so they sell you a gun! You didn’t go to the “gun store” and get it, because they wouldn’t sell it to you at the gun store. But, you got it on “the market”: TheWhite market. And they knew you were not going to be involved in a “drive-by” shooting in the White neighborhood; that you were not going to do “carjacking” in the White neighborhood! They know that the more guns they put in your hand, you would begin to terrorize your own neighborhood! So our condition in America today is:
“Guns” and “drugs” and “jobless men”!
“Guns” and “drugs” and “pain-filled men”!
“Guns” and “drugs” and “bitter, frustrated men”!
“Guns” and “drugs” and “men with no creative mind”!
“Guns” and “drugs”—and a man that is not really “a man of his own destiny”!
So brothers, when you’re like this, you don’t see the brother sitting next to you as “your flesh”.
You can’t have a ‘Menace II’ without there being a ‘No. 1 Menace’ to society
Brothers, when you observe other Black men as yourself: Do you see yourself as their “family”? No… Out in the ’hood, it’s “every man for himself”; and so, when you have a gun, you feel that you have “power.”
When you’re at home, and you call the dog: The dog may come; or, you call your children—theymay come. But when you pull out the gun, people respond quickly to that; and this, you feel, is “real” power. But “the kicker” is when you squeeze the trigger: You watch the body of your brother gyrate under the heat of a bullet, and you see him cry out, “Oh God…”—and he gasps; and you watch his life ooze out… And you don’t have any feeling for him; you’ll go back home, with your boys; you eat a beef burger, a hamburger, a pizza, and you’ll go to bed like you did “nothing.”
But our women (who support our rise to be what God intended us, as men to be)? They have to carry their sons to their final resting place… So know this, brothers: For every Black person that you kill, you have wounded whole families. And the result is you then set up vengeance in those that are remaining behind; so they are plotting, now, to get you.
And you know, I watch White folks send a contraption up that circles the Earth; I watched them send a telescope up—and it didn’t work; but, they then sent something else up to correct the telescope, tens of thousands of miles away… And you mean to tell me they can’t correct a condition that is going on in every major city of America? Something is wrong.
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Brothers: You are programmed, right now, for total destruction. When the enemies of our rise can put out a movie called Boyz ’n The Hood, and show us to the world at our worst behavior… When they put a movie out called Menace II Society, and you see your brothers pistol-whip a Korean woman, reach over the counter, shoot her; and then go home and take a video tape of it, and sit down and laugh at it—and you’re in the movie theatre, laughing at it too: White folk have sent that movie all over the world. And do you know what’s being done? White people all over the world, and your own Black brothers, are looking at you through the lens of a movie camera, and they are saying: “My God! Black people are terrible.”
The biggest industry in America today is “prison.” They are going to build more, and more, and more. Who are they building them for, brothers?
It costs nearly $40,000 a year to keep you in jail! They’re not interested in giving you “education”; they like you, just like you are, so that with “3 Strikes” on your record, you’re “in” for life! And, with “3 Strikes” they have a free worker: In other words, “another “planation,” where you’re a slave, brothers, for the rest of your life!
As a brother said (from the audience), “If you don’t want to ‘go with the program’, they’re gonna program you!”—and that’s right! If you don’t want to “go with The Program,” they will program you. And so here you are: Programmed for annihilation.
Brothers: The guns that you have in the community right now? They serve as a justification for big tanks to come in the neighborhood. And guess what? Our women are so distraught at the level of violence; and our Black mayors and White mayors, and police chiefs, are saying, “Look, we can’t handle this”—so they’re calling for The National Guard! They’re calling for reinforcement from The Army! And pretty soon if this doesn’t get turned around, you’re going to see your blood running in the gutters; because you’re going to run out with your “pop gun,” and they’re going to come in with helicopter gunships, and tanks rolling in the community, and you don’t have anything to match that! This little sense of “power” that you have is driving you crazy to “kill your own”…
You are a “Menace II.” Who is “Menace I”? Well, if I’m “John II,” there has to be a “John I” that I come from! If you are “Menace No. 2,” then who is “Menace No. 1”? White males have menaced the Earth! And now, they produce you as a “menace to” who? To yourself and your own community! So what must be done?
To be continued.
