by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

There is this commercial for deodorant whose theme is “never let them see you sweat.”
We are now 10 years out from the Million Man March and headed back to DC as the Millions More
Movement. I have heard the question asked as to why should we go back to DC? This is a valid
question if the first march had no effect or the issues that it addressed have been solved. Looking
at the condition of the black community and the number of black men unemployed and or in jail, it is
fair to say that problems of our people have not been resolved.

The other issue is whether the first MMM had a positive effect on the black community and caused
our enemies to react. Minister Farrakhan has pointed out many positive effects of the march
including more black men registering to vote, black men joining churches and organizations, black
men taking better care of their families and more black orphans being adopted by black families. The
crime rate has gone down in a lot of our major cities even though the number of black people being
incarcerated has increased.

“Come let us deal wisely with them” is what the Pharaoh of the Bible said to his
advisors in terms of their fear of the growth and power of the Children of Israel. Part of that
dealing wisely is to not let black people know that the MMM made the modern Pharaoh
“sweat”. White people teach that life is series of co incidents. This is to keep you from
analyzing the cause and effect relationships that you experience but are made num to. The very last
thing they want you to believe is that a black leader can make them react to his moves instead of
him asking permission to move.

The MMM began to have an effect on the government of America the very night that Minister
Farrakhan announced it at the first Men’s Only meeting held in New York City at the 149^th
Street Armory. That very night, January 24, 1994, the US Senate went into special session and
declared that when 5 or more young black men were hanging together they could be labeled as a
“street gang”. So as Minister Farrakhan was going around the country getting black men to
unite, the government labeled this unifying effort as recruiting “gang members”. So as it
was during slavery in both the “slave states” down South and the so-called “free
states” in the North, it is still unlawful for more than five black people to get together
unless a white person is there to monitor their activities.

President Clinton in his State of the Union Address on January 25, 1994, the day after the
announcement of the MMM, outlined his strategy to be “tough and smart” (deal wisely)
against “crime” by announcing the “three strikes you’re out” and “put
away for good” crime bill. The next year on February 10, 1995 the Clinton administration
introduced legislation whose language was moving towards asserting that certain crimes, such as
robbing tourists, committed by street gangs in the ghettoes of America may be classified as
terrorism. This bill also gave the FBI authority to investigate political groups and causes at will
similar to the now infamous “Cointelpro”. Thanks to the fear generated by “911”,
the government has put into play the new “Patriot Act” and has developed the new language
of “terroristic threat”, that gives the police the authority to put a black man in jail
for just looking at a policeman in a “threatening” manner.

On the economic end the government laid in wait for us like a “snake in the reparations
grass.” As 2 million black men descended on the DC Mall, the government foresaw the demand for
reparations by black people for past wrongs. Therefore the government reacted by making Alexander
Pires, a former Justice Department lawyer, the lead attorney in the black farmers’ fight against
the USDA in 1998. The government’s plan was to take over black people’s demand for reparations
by planting a “white savior” at the head of the movement and divert it towards a
meaningless quest for a few crumbs for individuals and not repair the damage to the
“class” or group. The first step taken by Mr. Pires was to move the fight of the farmers
from stopping foreclosures and getting their land back that was taken by the USDA to getting $50,000
each.

The consent decree was devised so that most of the farmers who owed the USDA were denied in the
lawsuit and thereby still under the gun of foreclosure. However, the media did not cover the black
farmers’ cry against the lawsuit, but instead touted the success of Mr. Pires in getting the
largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history, thereby shooting him to the front of the pack of
lawyers that might present the U.S. government with a general reparations lawsuit. However, through
the efforts of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) and www.MuhammadFarms.com,
Mr. Pires was exposed as the “Snake in the Reparations Grass” and summarily booted off of
the reparations “dream team”.

Minister Farrakhan is now deeply involved in the Reparations movement. He is emphasizing that
land be a part of any reparations package and that black leadership develop a 10 year plan for the
“total liberation” of black people in America. This 10 year plan is to be implemented by
black people with or without government support.

Minister Louis Farrakhan made me the manager of Muhammad Farms in 1995. This is a 1556 acre farm
in Georgia that was bought at the end of 1994 using funds raised through the Three Year Economic
Savings Program. This program and even the land that was bought was a reenactment of the strategy
used by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the 1960’s to jump start a people towards nation
building. Now Minister Farrakhan was doing the same. On top of this Min. Farrakhan was calling the
million man “army” to march with him on Washington to make demands of the government.

The enemy could see the handwriting on the wall. Allah (God) fixed circumstances such that the
government could not stop the “army” from marching. However, the government got busy to
ensure that the Nation of Islam would not be able to feed that army when they got home. In
particular, the government removed almost all of the subsidy programs that kept the prices of the
major agricultural commodities above the cost of production. In the past these subsidies were given
to white farmers like “welfare cheese”, but denied to Black farmers.

However, since the Nation of Islam was now farming and had expertise that could access the
government programs, the government decided to wipe out all the programs even though it would
destroy most of the white family farmers as well.

The prices of corn, wheat, cotton and soybeans plummeted after the “Freedom to Farm”
bill was passed in 1996. The graph shown below describes how prices for these commodities fell from
their high marks in 1995 and 1996 to almost half these amounts by the year 2001. We could just
accept this as a “co incidence”, but I am going with Minister Farrakhan again in 2005 to
push up on the beast and watch him “sweat” again. I wonder how high will gas and diesel
prices get by October 15th? Hmmmm…

Even though I suffer as a farmer under this cost/price squeeze put on by the government, I am
comforted by understanding the cause and effect relationship by our push towards and at the MMM in
1995 and the government’s response since that time. The Holy Qur’an admonishes the believer to
persevere because when the believer suffers, know that the enemy is also suffering even though he
may never let you see him sweat.