In the Spirit of the Gracious and Compassionate
Creator of the Heavens and the Earth
I joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1974, when it was under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. For over a year, I worked at the Shabazz Restaurant (in Washington, DC), 60 or 70 or more hours a week. I also sold the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, as well as bakery products and frozen whiting fish.
This work exemplified Elijah Muhammad’s motto, “Do for self”. I witnessed and participated in the success of the NOI.
Years later – just a few weeks ago – someone posted a question on Facebook: “What did the NOI do for us (the African American people)?” My response was that when Elijah Muhammad said “Do for self” he did not mean that we (the NOI) do for you (those African Americans who never joined).
Under Elijah Muhammad’s leadership, we did not participate in the political process. We acted on the belief that our actions, coupled with divine intervention, would bring about the much-needed changes in the condition of the African American people.
Since the death of Elijah Muhammad, in 1975, and the restructuring and ultimate dismantling of the NOI and all of its business operations, and of the successor organization, the American Muslim Mission, I have participated little in any organized effort to change this society. Nor have I participated to any significant extent in party politics.
I have voted in almost every local and national election, and in the primaries, since 1975. I consider it a minimal civic duty. But, I do not consider it a significant participation in party politics.
As a former member of the NOI, and one who believed in much that Elijah Muhammad taught – including his essential disbelief in the virtue of American political institutions – I do not regard the Democratic Party as a hope for the African American people. As a registered Democrat in my various residences – Chicago, Washington DC, North Carolina, and New York City – I have registered and voted as a matter of strategy. In New York City, for example, the winner of the Democratic Party primary was, most often, the next mayor of that city.
In the presidential election of 2000, I voted for Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket. I was living in New York State and assumed (correctly) that the Democratic Party would carry that state without my vote. I wanted to vote for Al Gore; I knew him personally from Harvard and found him to be a decent, down-to-earth guy. But, for whatever reasons, I preferred to cast my vote for Nader. Four years later, and ever since, I have voted consistently for Democratic candidates – because I now live in North Carolina, where Democrats need all the votes they can get.
In the interest of clarity, let me make this plain. In 1980, when Ronald Reagan, former governor of California, announced his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi – a small town famous only for the murder of three Civil Rights workers – I vowed never to vote for the Republican Party ever.
In 2008, and again in 2012, I knocked on doors for the local Democratic organization, in the effort to get Barack Obama elected. In 2008, Obama carried North Carolina, but in 2012, he did not. But I had done at least a little – and wore out my arthritic knees in the effort.
I did not expect nearly as much from Obama as did other African Americans. For one thing, as I pointed out, he was only the president. For another, the Democratic Party is a party of corporate America, and Obama had not changed that. And, most offensively, he switched his position on Israel – from opposition to support – and, therefore, either he was lying or he was supporting a terrorist state (to put it mildly) in Palestine. (Of course, I knew he would never have become president otherwise.)
I thought the euphoria that broke out among African Americans when Obama was elected was a manifestation of insanity.
The disappointment that many African Americans feel with regard to the Democratic Party is childish. Few African Americans have done more than vote every now and then. Am I mistaken in thinking that many more have stood in long lines and paid exorbitant prices for an hour or two of entertainment? Few African Americans have actually worked with their local Democratic organizations. Few have gone out and knocked on doors or engaged in other efforts to get out the vote or organize people.
When I worked 70 hours a week, I expected and saw the benefits of “Do for self”. I did not expect the NOI to “do for me”. I helped the NOI “do for us”.
Children who live in their parents’ house can reasonably expect their parents to take care of their needs. But, as adults, we participate in the work that keeps the society functioning – if only to pay our bills and our taxes, for those things we cannot do ourselves. It is childish to expect a political party to “do for us” when all we do is show up to vote every now and then, and often not even that.
The Democratic Party is a corporate party because the corporations pay the bills and make it possible for the party to function. If we want the party to work for us, then we must pay the bills and do whatever work is necessary to make the party work for us.
Otherwise, we are just selling ourselves to the highest bidder – or, in the case of the Republican Party, no bidder at all.
Question and answer from Elijah Muhammad: “Why do the African American people love the devil so much?” Answer: “Because he gives them nothing.”
Question and answer as modified by W.D. Mohammed (Elijah Muhammad’s son and successor): “Why do the African American people love the devil so much?” Answer: “Because he treats them so bad.”
The Democrats give us nothing. The Republicans treat us so bad.
Some choice, huh?
Lester A. Knibbs
24 Muharram 1442
September 12, 2020
Which Way Is Up? 