Weekly Newsletter • Volume 3, Number 42

Neil Steinberg: The New “Yellow Journalist”

By Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad Neil Steinberg recently wrote an article for the Chicago

Sun-Times asking: “So where has Farrakhan led his Nation?” Indeed, Steinberg wrote this article in the true tradition of “yellow journalism.” By definition “yellow journalism,” or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate or well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensa-tionalism. This type of distorted journalism began to flourish in the late 1890s and had its most devastating effect on the Black commu-nity during the height of Jim Crow, lynching, and race riots. These “journalists” purposely reported false stories about Blacks raping white women to heat up the anger of white males who were threatened by the upward movement of Blacks. Then these “journalists” would be the first to arrive at the lynching to take pictures of the brutal murder of Black men, to be placed on the front covers of their newspapers to increase their sales.

Mr. Steinberg’s article, though designed to make mockery of Minister Farrakhan, in fact inspires the defenders of Farrakhan to bring a historical perspective to Steinberg’s criticisms. In particular, Mr. Steinberg wrote of what he called “Farrakhan’s various fantasies, the most harmful being not his tired anti-Semitism but his notion that blacks must build a separate society to prosper, which is a vine that has failed to bear fruit for a century.” Then Mr. Steinberg goes back to the early 1900s to criticize one of Minister Farrakhan’s he-roes, Marcus Garvey, who attempted to lead Black people to set up their own nation. Mr. Steinberg then uses another of Min-ister Farrakhan’s heroes, W.E.B. Du Bois, to beat up on Garvey, quoting Du Bois’s stance as “Give up! Surrender! The struggle is useless; go back to Africa and fight the white world.” But Mr. Steinberg failed to point out that towards the end of his life

Du Bois expressed a more Garveyite philosophy, where he even suggested that a self-determined segregation may not be so bad after all, and he later even moved to and settled in Ghana.

Now let’s bring in some background history. After “The Compromise of 1877,” which proved to Blacks that their chances of real citizenship was a pipe dream, many Black preachers took their whole congregations and moved to the woods and set up Black towns all across the South. From 1865

to 1900 several hundred “freedmen’s settle-ments” were established in Texas alone. In the 1890s Blacks used a legal technique called “adverse possession” to acquire land in chunks of 160 to 640 acres at a time. By 1900, Blacks owned 14 million acres of land and increased it to 16 million by 1910.

The white response to this acquisition of economic wealth was yellow journalism and terrorism. From 1905 to 1919 Blacks were lynched at a rate of 62 per year, many of them advertised and reported on by the “yellow journalists” of that era. Major “race riots” occurred in Wilmington, N.C. (1898), Atlanta, Ga. (1906), Springfield, Ill. (1908), East St. Louis, Ill. (1917) and Chicago, Ill. (1919). In the “Red Summer” of 1919 alone, there were twenty-six race riots—wholesale violence by white mobs against Blacks—in such cities as Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; Elaine, Arkan-sas; Charleston, South Carolina; Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; and Omaha, Nebraska.

Although these yellow journalists wide-ly reported that these violent outbursts by white men were in response to Blacks raping white women, investigations showed that less than one-fifth of those Blacks who were lynched were even charged with rape, and even in those cases many were shown to be without foundation. Many times the charge was applied only after the lynching became publicized. Ida B. Wells-Barnett showed lynching to be a tool for terrorizing Blacks. Whites cried “rape” in areas where Blacks had gained a

Min. Farrakhan Speaks to Charlotte,

North Carolina. See Final Call coverage on

page 3.

measure of political power through voting, but they found no “rape” where the Black vote had been thoroughly suppressed.

This brings us to the Atlanta Riot of 1906, which is one of the most egregious examples of how yellow jour-nalism led to white violence with its resultant psychological damage to W.E.B. Du Bois, the very Black man that Steinberg brings for-ward to attack the separatist philosophies of Marcus Garvey and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. W.E.B. Du Bois had just published Souls of Black Folk and had par-ticipated in the establishment of the Niagara Movement. Nineteen Black men met secret-ly on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to set up an organization that had as one of its goals the independent economic develop-ment of Black people. In September of 1906, Du Bois had just participated in a great rally of the Niagara Movement in West Virginia and was planning to expand this movement throughout the South. That’s when a group of white businessmen in Atlanta, incensed at the success of Black business men in that city, decided to stage a military strike against the Black communities in Atlanta, Savanna, and Augusta, Georgia.

They used the services of yellow journal-ists at the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Georgian to encourage the riot in order to create a wider cir-culation of their respective papers. In fact, according to the owner-editor of the Atlanta Journal, John S. Cohen, “whipped whites into a frenzy”: A headline from the Atlanta Journal went so far as to openly suggest lawlessness and promote the forma-tion of mobs. (This same editor, by the way, was the son of a

rabbi and “high in the councils of the Ku Klux Klan.”) These Atlanta newspapers did not stop there—they even went so far as to print extra “riot editions,” which reported more assaults

on white women to the public. None of the information in these “extra” editions was ever proven to be true, but the damage was done. Starting at 10:30 P.M. a frenzied white mob, numbering ten thousand men, women, and children of all classes, killed or beat ev-ery Black in sight. Before the five-hour mas-sacre ended, the mob had attacked Blacks indiscriminately. They beat to death inno-cent Blacks and crucified several bodies on utility poles. That same night of September 22, 1906, whites took to the streets in Savan-nah and Augusta, Ga., to put Blacks back in their place and teach Black businessmen and preachers to stay out of politics and refrain from encouraging Blacks to vote in their own self-interest.

More than any other dimension of rac-ism, this type of white violence upended Du Bois’s most thoughtful plans and dogged his every ideological turn. Now that any hopes of Black empowerment had been crushed, he was now ready to flee back to the North and write articles about the suffering of Black people far away from the bloody battlefields

in the South. He wrote now for the Crisis Magazine under the controlling hand of Jewish NAACP chairman Joel Spingarn and millionaire Jewish banker Jacob Schiff, embracing a new and safer philosophy of “non-economic liberalism.”

And now “non-economic liberals” like Neil Steinberg want to criticize Minister Farrakhan for fostering a program that

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Before the five-hour massacre ended, the mob had attacked Blacks indiscrimi-

nately. They beat to death innocent Blacks and crucified several

bodies on utility poles.

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor- Final Call Newspaper

Minister Farrakhan warns radical change and candor are needed if the United States wants chance to avoid falling into an abyss as internal division, global conflict , God’s

judgment are plaguing country

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan told a near capacity crowd at the Bo-jangles Coliseum here that radical solutions and sacrifice are needed to save the country, during his important and timely keynote address marking the 17th Anniversary of the Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement.

His remarks were delivered at a critical time, just three weeks before a closely con-tested election for President of the United States.

“It’s important to the extreme right, that President Obama is not reelected for four more years. They may say that its econom-ics, it’s about jobs, but we sense that there is a deep racial undercurrent that is found in the Republican Party respecting Brother Obama and this election. Ever since he has been elected, the Republican right—with Rush Limbaugh, (Andrew) Breitbart, FOX News—members of the Senate and the Con-gress, many in state legislatures, their whole idea has been to get this man out of the White House and nullify any policy or position that he might come up with that might bring success to his Presidency, and might possibly give him a second term,” said Minister Farra-khan.

“It started like an undercurrent, but now it is so overtly hateful and racist in nature that it is polarizing America on the

basis of race.”The Minister also warned the President to fight for his vi-

sion for the country and reject advisors who fear any percep-tion that Mr. Obama is an angry Black man who will doom efforts to attract White voters. The President’s performance at his first debate with Republican opponent Mitt Romney was lackluster and low energy. It was as if the champion didn’t come out to fight, said the Minister. Mr. Romney lied through-out his presentation, reneging on positions held for a year and a half, Min. Farrakhan noted. Some have said that the “Myth” Romney who showed up threw the President off.

But, the Minister said, “If you lose the first round or two, you go to your corner. It’s called adjustment time. Every good fighter knows how to make an adjustment, you don’t get lost.”

It appears as if the President was trying not to offend White sensibilities by chal-lenging Mr. Romney and was trying to be non-threatening based on strategy given by advisors like David Axelrod, said Min. Farrakhan. The strategy didn’t work, won’t work, and the President needs to come out strong in the Oct. 16 debate against Mr. Romney, he said.

“Mr. President, you’ve got to realize you’re fighting for your presidential life,” the Min-ister said.

If the Democrats offer a clear difference and vision for America, articulate that program and vision, he advised. “You aren’t going to win anymore White votes by being

kind and gracious,” said Min. Farrakhan, pointing out relent-less attacks from the right wing and Republicans and racial animus inside America.

The day after the Minister’s message Jason Thompson, the son and spokesperson for Senate candidate Tommy Thomp-son of Wisconsin, was criticized and the campaign issued an

Sacrifice and truth key to America’s survival

3Black people have been scared out of their wits to try again—ECONOMIC SELF-DETERMINATION. Instead, Mr. Stein-berg would offer that Blacks continue down the road of integra-tion and non-economic liberalism, a dead-end that his Jewish ancestors steered Black people toward. Mr. Steinberg asserts that the vast majority of Blacks chose “integration” over “sepa-ration.” Now that we have had over 40 years to transpire since the Civil Rights Bill of 1965, what can Mr. Steinberg show Black people as the fruit of that “vine”? Let’s see. Data shows that

• InmajorcitieslikeMilwaukee,Detroit,ClevelandandChicago, Black male employment dropped from over 70% em-ployed in 1970 to less than 50% employed in 2010.

• In 1984, the typical Black family had a median networth of $6,679, but by 2009 this same typical Black family had a median net worth of $4,900.

• In 1984, Black families owned 1/12th of what whitefamilies owned, but by 2009 they owned just 1/19th ofwhat

their white counterparts owned. • Black land ownership has dropped from 16 million

acres to less than 3 million today.

In other words, Black people are not catching up with whites in terms of wealth, but are falling further behind. So, Mr. Stein-berg, would you suggest that Blacks continue on the path of in-tegrationism to go downhill in terms of decent jobs and wealth or that we change direction and pursue strategies that could lead to economic self-determination? With a little more atten-tion to the facts, perhaps Mr. Steinberg could remove the “yel-low” from his “journalism.”

(Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad, Agricultural Economist, National Student Minister of Agriculture, Manager of Muham-mad Farms. He can be reached at drridge@bellsouth.net)

apology after the younger Thompson urged voters to reject Mr. Obama and send him back to Chicago or Nairobi, Kenya. The President’s father was Kenyan and questions about his birth and citizenship have spawned a movement dedicated to his removal—and has many Whites declaring him an illegitimate president.

Problems will vex whoever leads U.S.The Minister noted a coalition of

the President’s supporters who believe that a second term would give him the freedom and leverage to enact policies that would be for the long-term good of the country.

“There’s a problem with both views,” the Minister said: no matter what President Obama does for America’s benefit, those on the racist right will oppose him and will always play down his accomplishments, and even from the Democrats, nothing has been proposed that would “radically alter the condition of the masses of the Blacks and the poor.”

The focus, from both sides of the political spectrum, has been mainly on the middle class, said the Minister.

“What happened to the poor of this nation? Who will speak for the poor? Don’t the poor need to be recognized and repre-sented and thought about?” he asked Oct. 14. “The scripture says that the poor heard the message of Jesus gladly. Is that the reason why the scribes, the Pharisees and some of the Jews of that day hated him? Could it be that when you speak for the poor, the rich feel left out, the rich feel that you’re troubling with that from which they get their riches? The rich people get their riches from sucking the lifeblood of the poor!”

Future generations have al-ready been saddled with Ameri-ca’s debt. America is losing many of its friends across the globe, its own citizens are challenging its foreign policies, and dissatisfac-tion is growing. The old ways of governance are no longer work-ing, said the Minister.

“Will the impatience of Americans, and unforeseen chal-lenges of the future, cause there to have to be a new govern-ment rising out of the ashes of this one? For this nation is now being sent to the depths of hell by the inordinate greed and lust for power, and the wealth and resources of the peoples of the world in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many,” said the Minister. “In this election, it really doesn’t matter who wins, the problems that person, and those around that per-son, have to solve are so great that if radical thought is not put before the American electorate, this nation will fail. America is at a point where radical solutions must be applied and a key word that has been missing from the standard bearers of both parties is a word called sacrifice,” he said.

He defined sacrifice as: “The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something con-sidered as having a higher or more pressing claim.”

If the problems of America are to be solved, sacrifices are going to have to be made throughout all levels of society, Min. Farrakhan continued. The American people, government, corporate America, labor unions, bankers will all have to sacrifice, and so will Black America, he added.

“What are you, Black America, willing to sacrifice?” he asked.

Economists found $1.1 trillion flowed through Black America last year, yet Black communities nation-wide are underserved and outsiders often own businesses and take the money back to their communities. With such great wealth, Black people

could unify and accomplish much in America, if they would only heed the divine guidance being given at this time, said Min. Farrakhan. The Minister said Black people should see America as their country also, for their ancestors built all that is seen.

“This is our country! The possessive pronoun our! This is our country!” said Minister Farrakhan emphatically. “In fact, because of the contributions we have made to America, we have more right to a say-so about the future of the country, since it is we who built America! Even though we were slaves at the time, what we have given to America, in terms of wealth and service, gives us the right to offer guidance to our nation!”

No matter how badly Black people have been treated, they have never responded or retaliated against those who enslaved them; nor have they ever been enemies of America, he noted.

“We claim the unfettered right to give guidance. We claim the authority of God to give guidance. We have no other country to go to. We live here, we’ve suffered here, we’ve died on every foreign battlefield to pre-serve this for you, not nec-essarily for ourselves!” said Minister Farrakhan. “But now we are maturing, we’re rising up from the shackles of slavery by the permission

of God to offer guidance to the only country we have known, from the best of motivations. Allah, God, has visited America to raise us up, not to be your worst enemy, but in spite of how badly we have been treated, in the time of your greatest trouble, in the time of your greatest suffering, in the time of your greatest dilemma, we’re here to offer you divine solutions to your plethora of problems. You sing it in your song: you say, ‘This land is your land, this land is my land.’ But this land is definitely our land and we have every right to guide this President and anybody else who wants to lead America!”

The Minister said Black political leaders are plotted against by “a racist system that wants to keep America White” but despite their devious schemes, their plans are failing.

“You’re dying in your Whiteness,” warned Minister Far-rakhan. “If you want to stay White, it’s okay, but you’ll just die White. But the future of America is that we are here now! It’s not a place of just White people. The whole human family

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Min. Farrakhan Speaks to Charlotte, North Carolina

lives in the borders of America. So if America really cannot open the heart and the mind and get a new attitude to receive what God has sent into these shores, then you will die—but you won’t take us down with you, you will die alone!”

God’s choice of Black people todayThe scriptures say that God

would choose the despised and the rejected to be His people and the stone the builders rejected would eventually become the headstone of the corner. It also says God would vex you with a foolish people, and that He would search the earth for His lost sheep, Min. Farrakhan said.

“He would raise one to open the eyes of the blind, make the deaf hear, make the dumb to speak, raise the dead to life!” the Minister continued. “This would prove the powerful wisdom and guidance of the God Who found us, and the God Who has now chosen us to be a guide for you.”

The Minister said God’s pattern has not changed. God has never selected His guides from among those whom the society had educated, he noted. God selects His guides from the mean-est of the people—not mean-spirited—but from the abject, from those thought to be nothing, he said.

Farrakhan’s divine guidance to America’s political leadersMaster Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi and founder of

the Nation of Islam, was a guide and a warner. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, without the physical presence of his teach-er, Master Fard Muhammad, acted as a guide and warner for 40 years, and the Minister continues that divine work, teaching that Blacks are the chosen people of God and the real children of Israel referred to in scripture. The Minister has been consis-tent and has never backed down from telling the truth.

“After 40 years Elijah Muhammad made me his khalifah, to sit in his seat, by his and God’s authority, to continue to teach, guide and warn a nation, a world and a sleeping people,” Min. Farrakhan said.

There have been numerous times throughout history that Minister Farrakhan has delivered guidance to the world’s rulers that has been prophetic, and events have borne witness to his divine insight and vision.

“The clearest warnings that were sent down were given to me by God to give to George Herbert Walker Bush as well as his son George W. Bush. I warned them of what God had shown me of what was in their minds,” said the Minister. “And I know you are wise people, but I don’t think God showed you what was in the mind of (Ronald) Reagan, but He showed it to me and I didn’t hold it to myself! He showed me what was in the mind of Bush, He showed me what is in the mind of Barack—you can take it or let it alone! I’m opening up everybody’s mind today!”

In 1984, the Minister was invited to the National Press Club while withstanding a relentless assault from the Jewish com-munity. During his talk, the Minister said America was losing its democracy to special interest groups.

“The more I fought, the more you (Black people) rose. See a punktified leader cannot raise up a scared-to-death people. I am born from a fearless leader, Elijah Muhammad! No Black man has ever said what Elijah said, and did among us what Elijah did and never backed down. How could I say I am from that man and then not represent the fearless, courageous man

and leader that he is?”“I pointed out that the people

that we have elected to public office are no longer our representatives, but they are the representatives of the corporatocracy, the oligarchy, the rich and the powerful, and because they can be bought by the lobbyists that are exercising sway in Washington D.C., they are gradu-ally eroding democracy for the American people.”

Then in 2010 the Supreme Court approved the formation of Super PACs, political action committees, which allowed corporations to sink

unlimited funds into political campaigns and create views of politicians and others who corporations see as enemies. There is no substance, only slick media campaigns and sloganeering. The Minister gave examples of financiers like the conservative billionaire Koch brothers and casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who have given millions of dollars to influence elections.

“The wicked manipulate your ignorance,” said Min. Far-rakhan.

In 2007, the Minister was interviewed by CNN, and asked about Barack Obama. “He’s a young man with fresh ideas that could be good for the country, but I am under no illusions that he’s going to be able to accomplish what he has in his heart to do,” said Min. Farrakhan.

After Mr. Obama got elected, the Minister warned America that the new President reminded him of the parable of a she-camel in the Holy Qur’an, the Muslim book of scripture. The President had the potential to help America across a desert, but the wicked in ancient times hamstrung the camel, in dis-obedience to God’s order to leave the she-camel alone, he said. Likewise the President has been assaulted constantly from all sides, Min. Farrakhan added. Consider Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, who said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Then, citing New York Times writer Robert Draper, , Min. Farrakhan said that on the night of President Obama’s inau-guration, Republicans met and began plotting ways to take political power and to stymie his legislative platform. The meeting lasted four hours and involved about 15 “ruffians,” including Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and right-wing ideologue Newt Gingrich, he said.

“What is it that has blinded you Republicans?” asked the Minister as he struck the podium. “It is race. Your hatred of a Black man rising after you thought you had destroyed us totally, now, we are rising and no power in the heavens above or in the earth beneath can stop the rise of the Black man and woman of America, the Caribbean, Central and South

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Min. Farrakhan at the National Press Club in 1984.

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America, Africa and the isles of the Pacific, we are on the rise and there is no turning back!”Then,afterthetragiceventsof9/11,MinisterFarrakhan

was among the first to make statements at a press conference on September 16, 2001. While other Muslim leaders were afraid to speak, the Minister led the way delivering prophetic guidance.

The Minister has consistently stated that the so-called War on Terror is really a “War Against Islam.” Wars of aggression have now enveloped nearly all of the Muslim countries, he said. The Minister also wrote a letter to President George W. Bush on December 1, 2001, saying Afghanistan was only a preliminary to a much wider war already planned—and a war against Islam that also had a home front.

“Should you persist in this, you will do what no Islamic Leader is able to do. No leader of any Muslim nation can call for Jihad or Holy War and cause the Muslim world to obey that call … You will force the more moderate Islamic regimes either not to side with you, or to side with you at the risk of being overthrown by growing Islamist forces within their countries. The coalition that you are gathering will fall away from you and you will have to pursue this war alone,” the Minister warned in the letter.

This year France announced a pull-out of its forces ahead of U.S. and NATO. At the start of the invasion of Iraq, 38 nations provided troops. By 2009, 14 nations had withdrawn ahead of America. And the Muslim world now perceives America as using the war on terror as an excuse to attack Islam. According to the Pew Research Global Attitude Project, the favorability rating of the United States, while once high, has plummeted. Additionally, Islamists are growing in power throughout the Muslim world, including Egypt, Libya and Syria.

President Bush did not heed the Minister’s advice, and when President Obama came into office, he started out delivering a speech in Cairo, Egypt, about improving U.S. relations with the Muslim world, and, in the Minister’s view, did everything he could to try to

better relations. However, the “arrogant, racist, greedy ele-ment in America set out to destroy it, destroyed themselves, destroyed him, and made him now an agent of their wicked policies against the Muslim world,” said Min. Farrakhan.

He also reminded the audience of his warnings to watch the weather, and that a record number of disasters have oc-curred costing millions of dollars.

“God fights with the forces of nature,” said Minister Far-rakhan. “You can’t win in a war against God!”

“If we just look at the distress and affliction that America is under as we speak, the result of that distress is how you’ve handled the warnings from the Honorable Elijah Muham-mad and his faithful minister to you. You’ve done everything you could and you’re still plotting to destroy me and the Nation of Islam. All that I have said you would do you have done,” said the Minister. “You’ve killed (Muammar) Gadhafi, he’s no more. You’ve killed Saddam Hussein, he’s no more. You’ve killed Osama bin Laden, he’s no more, but your prob-lems are greater now than they were then,” he said.

“Don’t come here expecting me to be no watered-down Farrakhan. Don’t come here for that! Come here because you are interested in hearing truth from a man who is not afraid to tell the truth even if it’s at the cost of my own life!” said Minister Farrakhan as the crowd stood and cheered. “We’re not afraid of death. We love death like you love life because we know we will never die!”

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Why Do Our Best Friends Sell Us?

A public lynching of Henry Smith, on Feb-ruary 1, 1893 in Paris, Texas. Henry Smith was tortured and burned on a ten-foot- high platform surrounded by an audience of thousands. Smith’s body was burned all over with hot irons for over an hour.