Should President Barack Obama defeat Republican contender Mitt Romney in the Nov. 6 election, Whites who opposes a second term with a Black president may resort to violence, Minister Louis Farrakhan, spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam, told an audience last week.
Speaking to students and adult guests at Bowie State University on Oct. 26, Farrakhan, 79, warned the audience to stay inside if results show Obama has won on Election Day, instead of taking to the streets to celebrate as many Blacks did in 2008.
“If wins, don’t make it like a Joe Louis fight, where we used to go out in the street,” he said. “If the brother wins, go in the house. If you’re out late walking in the street, you might become a statistic because these people are angry and hateful and they might kill you.”
Farrakhan spoke as part of the “I Am” lecture series sponsored by the BSU Student Government Association. More than 1,000 people crammed into the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts Center to hear his two-hour long presentation, which varied from humorous to serious.
Farrakhan said that Republicans targeted Obama shortly after his inauguration. He named Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Romney’s running mate, as one of Obama’s detractors.
“They are unfit to rule because they see your color before they see your ability to solve the problem,” he said of Republicans who won’t work with President Obama.
He called the nation’s foreign policy under the current administration “horrific” and referred to the president as “the CEO of a white-owned corporation called the United States.”
The outspoken Muslim leader included religion in his presentation, citing the Bible and the Qur’an. At one point, he asked the Christians in the room if they loved the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Only a couple of hands went up. He then asked the Muslims if they loved Jesus Christ. Hundreds of hands raised.
“How come we love your man and you don’t love our man?” Farrakhan asked. “It’s simply because you don’t know the Prophet Muhammad.”
Farrakhan also tried to motivate the students by telling them they possess problem-solving skills that they use in everyday tasks, like playing sports.
“How can you say ‘I don’t like mathematics!’ You are mathematics,” he told the students. He walked away from the podium and pretended to dribble a basketball.
“The no-look pass. You already measured where you man is going to be,” he said. “You’ve already mathematically figured it out. That’s mathematics. You can master someone faking you out or turning the other way. That’s mathematics.”
The audience cheered.
He urged the students to be respectful to women, touched on promiscuity and the spread of HIV/AIDS and criticized tattoos.
“Now you have tattoos on your face and the sister puts a tattoo on her backside,” Farrakhan said. “Talk about what you were in Africa, you’re a bigger savage now than you have ever been.”
Many in the audience shouted their agreement.
Some attendees said they were seeing Farrakhan for the first time, like Leonard Wigglesworth, a student at Virginia Union University and son of a Bowie State faculty member. He said seeing Farrakhan changed his life.
“I like that he said African-American females and males are much more powerful than what we say we are,” he said.
Others said they have followed him for 30 years.
“I appreciate his message, what it stands for,” said Doris Gillard of Mitchellville, Md. “I knew it could only be positive and uplifting and I didn’t want to be left out. The major theme of ‘I Am’ definitely stands out.”
