Evening Exchange; #2603; Louis Farrakhan

Howard University students have their say with Minister Louis Farrakhan. Next evening Xchange. Tonight on the evening Xchange. We continue our show with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan. But on this occasion Howard University students address their concerns and questions to the minister. Peace Minister Farrakhan and peace to you my brother. My name is Messiah Ramkissoon. I'm a senior public relations major originally from Trinidad West Indies. And my question is what major focus is being placed on youth involvement as well as the

enhancement and upliftment of youth culture at the Millions More Movement and also what is the process for youth artistes to be able to voice themselves. Demarche thank you so much. I will be on my way to Trinidad. God willing I hope to speak at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Do a lot of radio and television. I will be in Barbados. Hopefully I'll be in Venezuela and in Brazil and in St. Martin as well as Haiti and Jamaica and the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands. Brother from the Caribbean let me say to you and to my brother that introduced himself to me earlier from Jamaica. The West Indies is being marginalized and when you come and get a fine education when you go back if you go

back to Jamaica or Trinidad what you want to know is is there an opportunity for you to use what you have learned to lift that island nation and make it successful in serving the needs of the people and what you will find is that the sugar cane industry is gone. The banana industry is gone. And really what most of the islands are depending on is tourism. So if you want to continue to be waiters cooks cleaners for those that got money to spend it on a little liming of vacation in the West Indies. Then the West Indies is going to be marginalized and that's why I'm going to plead with the leaders as there is an African

Union. There must be a union of the islands of the Caribbean because none of those nations can stand independently on their own. They can only stand collectively with Cuba in the mix and Venezuela and Guyana and those on the northern part of South America that go into the Caribbean. Enough said on that. Your question is you've had to put religion in there for Trinidad and give me a command I want or you know you've got work to do don't they. No. You know I'm from my parents are from there and I was a calypso singer long before I became a Muslim. And I had a big hit on the Calypso but they call it Hit Parade. But it Calypso Jean. No not a charm the day the charm or the charm. Yes. But anyway if you are not

involved in this we need to quit you are the thrust of what we're doing. Youth involvement is there. Youth have to be at every table every time we sit down to plan the voice of youth will be there now at them at the march there has to be youth expression. Somebody from the hip hop genre is going to express to us to the world where we are the hip hop brothers and sisters are really world leaders. They don't know it but the whole world is vibrating and pulsating to hip hop. And even in countries where the culture of America is not wanted in Iran when I was in Iran those young people were vibrating to Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube

and whatnot. So you are natural leaders what you must do now. Young brothers and sisters accept the responsibility. Don't say I don't want to be a role model. Nobody asking you to be a role model. People are asking you to step up to the plate and accept the baton of leadership and those of us who are your elders. Some of the young people say amen. Nobody you know 35 all who tell me nothing I'm old people you know. Well nobody older than God talked to me about that. And he's fresh in every generation. So let's not confuse stupidity with age and irrelevance. The Bible says all men for counsel. Young men for war. Closing that question Harry Belafonte this past week

called for a council of elders on the first of September. In Atlanta Georgia or some of the greatest civil rights activists academicians women and men were there. The elders they brought young people along with them. The bottom line they realize or we realize we've made mistakes and even errors. But in a scientific experiment failure is not fair because every failure in experimentation leads you closer to the truth. These elders now are looking at what they've done and what they have not done what they've tried to do and where we failed and where we've had successes. And what I saw and heard in that room was that the elders said we

are ready to lay our life on the line for you all that you will have a foundation from what we have learned. So now that meeting is going to be seconded with a second meeting that's coming up right after the millions more movement in. I think it's Eppes Alabama and we're bringing all of the young people to that meeting where we're going to sit and listen to our youth. And then the elders are going away with what their youth share with them and come back with the youth to plan the future development of our people. That's why we call it a millions more movement not a march because there must be plans in place that you can act on when we are dead and gone. As we all are

dying whether we want to go or not we get up at 8 or so. So we might as well. This is hard you know what I mean you know. But when I look at these beautiful young people it ain't bad. We gotta go. Time don't allow none of us to stay. And time won't allow you to stay. But if a plan for spiritual development educational development political development economic development social and cultural development and health development is put on the table with your help then we can die as Willy Lynch is dead. But Willy Lynch is madness is still being carried on by us. So somebody is working the plan among their people. So we have to develop a plan and work that plan

until the movement takes us to where Martin Luther King said Free at last free at last. That's where we're going with the help of God. And with your help as well. Thank you for your question. And just before we get to the next question I am very happy to hear you talk about the intergenerational part which is so necessary to our future and that's one of the reasons that I along with Camille Cosby had started the National visionary leadership project which is about elders and young people coming together as a matter of fact a number of Howard students are part of that. And every opportunity that there is to bring elders together with young people and have the to have the different generations really strategizing about the future is an exciting thing a tremendously exciting thing that gives life to us. Absolutely. And when you get to my age which is 16 and.

72 going on 73 but when you get to my age you realize your mortality and you realize that you must leave something for the young. You can't say you love your people and don't leave something for them to stand on. That they can grow beyond you and you all are not supposed to be what we are you're supposed to stand on our shoulders and go beyond where we are. And you know what has happened. The disconnect between the young and the elders. You keep repeating the same mistakes that the elders have made because we are not counseling where we can guide you in a way that you don't make the same mistakes that we have made.

We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We've done a lot of things that can help spring you into your future with wings. And then when we lay down and take that big sleep we can do it with a smile because what's coming after us is better than we are. Next question. Good afternoon minister. Good afternoon sir. My name is Mark as you seem. I'm a senior legal communications major from Brooklyn New York the last million march outline several goals that it would like to achieve by addressing issues like economics politics and inequality. Over the past 10 years to what extent do you believe that these goals have been achieved. I'm going to answer your question with a a law in physics for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Every gain that we have made has been negated by that opposite force. Quick example. Brown versus the Board of Education Thurgood Marshall the great victory ending segregation in public schools. Separate but equal. Well 50 years later we still segregated. Why. Because there was a trick in what they proposed in the 13th Amendment which gave the slaves citizenship is another little clause that says you can have citizenship just don't get hooked in the criminal justice system because the moment you are charged with a crime you lose your citizenship status. And so blacks are being herded now starting from the little 5

year old girl that had a bad day in school and they shackled a baby and put her in handcuffs and then put her in leg irons and put that girl in the back of that police vehicle. And the mother came and they would not give that child to her mother. So they are being sued. But the point is they started arresting your grandparents then your parents then young adults now is gone all the way down to the babies at some point. We've got to stop this. And so your question about what happened. We had 25000 orphans that found homes 1.7 million black

males voted in the next election the crime rate and the murder rate went down in the inner cities prisons were adopted as many of those black men that lived there became entrepreneur. And if you listen to my speech I asked them to join a church a mosque a synagogue of their choice wherever spiritual values were being taught. And I asked them to join an organization that was working for the uplift of our people more black men went to church after that than before. More black men join organizations than before. But what was the equal and opposite reaction. In the last 10 years. Look how many factories have closed in the inner cities sending

job opportunities overseas into cheap labor markets. Look at the deterioration in the school system where today. Last year 44 percent of the young people black brown red yellow and white that graduated from high school graduated without being able to read at a high school level. Now if 44 percent of the children that graduated last year are considered functionally illiterate and there's no more manufacturing that's overseas and this is a service oriented economy. And even those kind of jobs are going to India and Malaysia and other places. What is the future for you all. Unless we come together to begin to produce some of the

things that we consume. So all the efforts that we did to stop the violence stop the killing. Now look at what is happening in every funeral parlor in a major or minor city. You go to where we live and you find those that are dead from 18 to 45. And the number one killer is AIDS the number two killer gunshot wounds the number three killer among us. Suicide what has happened in those last 10 years. No jobs. OK. You either join the army and be all that you can never be or you become a salesman and you're not selling for Amway you not sell him for no way. So here's a little rock for you to sell. Here is some reefer for you to sell. Here's

some territory for you to sell it in. And here's some guns to protect your territory. Now your brother is over there selling to see. So now we've become gangs now and we're filled now with the lost for the material thing. And we've been deprived of our humanity and that's why it's so easy for us to put a cap that means shoot one of your brothers or sisters and and go home and eat not dinner but go to a Wendy's or go to Burger King or go to McDonald's and eat after you killed your own brother and sister the loss of our humanity has taken place. Brother and sister and the young sisters you beautiful young sisters today the black woman is the number one conveyor

of the AIDS virus. That's what they're telling us. How did you get it where did it come from. People been having sex for millions and millions of years in all kinds of ways and they never come up with this. How come now addresses them wrong. How come. Now we are filled with this virus. Well look at the young boys that are being herded into prison now when they go to prison. Sometimes they are gang raped. I'm sure you've heard of this and sometimes a strong brother in prison will take the young man and say you'll be my be in you. Good bye. And that

means he has to submit to somebody having sex with him. He has to submit to committing oral sex on men he don't want to be a homosexual but he's in a situation he can't even tell his mother Mommy the gang raped me. Mommy doing this to me. So when he comes out of prison he comes to you his girlfriend. He hadn't seen in 18 months or two years or three years. You know he wants to be close. Thank you and so that poor fella. They test him coming into prison to see if he got AIDS. But in some cases they never test them coming out and then they have intercourse with their girlfriends and they're spreading this germ all over so I'm saying we're in deep trouble brother because there's an equal and

opposite reaction. And if you don't think so watch what is done when all of us come into the room and say we are ready now to think and plan for the whole of our people. There are powers that don't want to see that happen. So Brother remember we have enemies. And so when we plan we have to secure what we do because the enemy is trying to take it away. The minute we have it we have time for one more questions. Good afternoon. My name is Victoria Kirby. I'm a freshman in broadcast journalism major. And my question actually the first way you just spoke about concerning the situation of our educational system in America in relation to our youth and what can we do in order to help our younger brothers and sisters succeed an institution that's set up to make us fail. Well you answered your question with your last word. The

institutions are set up to make us fail. That's the sad travesty not only to make us feel but it seems to me that is a purposeful dumbing down of the American people. When I graduated from high school in Boston Massachusetts I want you to hear what I had in terms of knowledge in mathematics I had algebra plane geometry solid geometry trigonometry and calculus. In science I had physics I had biology I had chemistry in language I had four years of Latin two years of German two years of Spanish one year of French in history I had ancient history medieval history modern history. When I graduated from

grammar school I knew every country on this earth and what those countries produced and their people. So when I graduated from high school and came south to go to a teacher's college I never bought a book in three years because everything that they were teaching I already knew. So now I look at children today that can't read children today that can write children today that are missing so much is because America is being gradually dumbed down. And if I may put it in a sort of a vile way and I don't mean to be vulgar but you our heads are being pulled into your crotch because everything is sex everything is shaken your backside Everything is this kind of behavior that makes humans act like the lower animals. And as long as your head is in your crotch you don't

see what's happening to the world around you. So this is purpose Lyd done. So what we and the millions more movement want to do do is create a new educational paradigm because this one is leaving all of America's children behind. And we believe we can do a better job a better philosophy than doing a better philosophy than Kant and Hegel a better methodology a better psychology than Freud and young. It's time now for black people to step up to the plate and do something new for the scriptures says Behold I make all things new. That's what we're going to do with your help. And on that challenge we thank you for a very fascinating interview and we thank our students for some truly informative and very very interesting questions. This

has been a very special one session with the remarkable Minister Farrakhan and we thank you for joining. Thank Yous. Renay I think this wonderful institution that John H. Johnson School of Journalism. I thank all of the students for what they asked in the beauty of what you presented from your faces from your eyes from your hearts. And I pray that something that I have said has touched your heart and will inspire you to be the best that you can be. Not just for yourself not just for mommy and daddy who sacrificed to bring you here but for you people who need your scholarship to take us to the next level of struggle.

God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With even exchange I would like to hear from you our viewers you can e-mail your comments to evening Xchange at Howard that VDU. I'm Codonanthe. Stay well. Goodnight