by Hugh Forrest
Thank
you very much
and have a great day” said the young man dressed smartly in a black bow tie and
white shirt from whom I purchased a copy of The Final Call as he
returned my change. Maybe the fact that so many people were not buying this
newspaper made him especially grateful for the sale he had just completed. I’d
have liked to have chatted longer about how many copies he had sold except that
the transaction was taking place just off the I-35 frontage road at the 38th
Street exit and a long line of cars had already formed behind me. The heavy
traffic makes it a tough street corner on which to do business, but a good
place to meet the masses.
The Final Call is, of course, the 15-year-old, Washington D.C.-based,
bi-weekly newspaper of Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Dated
November 8, the issue I bought was almost solely devoted to the Million Man
March, providing page after page after page of insight and analysis on the
event’s overall significance. Reading these articles, one gains a greater
appreciation of the utter enormity of this gathering. As noted in an unsigned
editorial on page 16: “Although the white media and the naysayers want to
minimize what was accomplished on that magnificent day, Black people are
resolved that October 16 marked a turning point.”
But the follow-up coverage does not stop here. Another feature rehashes the
attendance debate (all parties agree that figures of 400,000 provided by the
U.S. Park Service are much too low, but the author’s estimate of between
800,000 and two million seems equally imprecise). Elsewhere, a two-page spread
discusses the ways in which several other U.S. cities celebrated the October 16
Day of Atonement. Among the cities profiled is Houston, a relative stronghold
for the Nation of Islam. According to a chart on page 15, the Bayou City is the
sixth largest market for The Final Call, behind Atlanta and just ahead
of Washington D.C. The paper sells best in Chicago.
That the paper moves best in these cities is hardly surprising. After all, the
publication looks a lot like the alternative tabloids that have found a niche
in most large metropolitan areas, except that there are fewer ads. And fewer
products to advertise. Final Call‘s advertising base is very, very
specialized. Save for a curiously placed item from “Liquid Gold Body Oil,”
almost all the ads plug products or services associated with the Nation of
Islam. The back cover, for instance, hawks Million Man March T-shirts; a
variety of other full-page ads announce the availability of audio and video
tapes, including a complete selection of recordings from Farrakhan’s more
popular lectures.
A notice for the Salaam Restaurant/Bakery Complex captures my attention as
well. Located on Chicago’s South Side, this new establishment is this group’s
$5 million dollar entry into the food business. According to a derisive review
in the September issue of Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Farrakhan claimed at
the opening ceremony that people would be drawn there for the same reason they
are attracted to eateries owned by Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. Replies
special correspondent Alan Richman skeptically, “Thinking of Salaam as a
celebrity-owned restaurant with himself as the celebrity seems a profound
reversal for a man who is usually intent on secluding himself and his followers
from the rest of the world.”
Also a reversal is that Salaam welcomes patrons of all colors and religions,
something the Nation of Islam doesn’t routinely do. Or is it? Reading this
November 8 edition of The Final Call, its hard to understand how Louis
Farrakhan has amassed so many critics. As with the cover’s banner headline
(“Spirit of love, unity prevail at Million Man March in D.C.”), the overriding
tone of this issue is harmony, not division. There is no mention of O.J.
Simpson. With the exception of a two-paragraph item detailing a proposed
Israeli law authorizing government torture of terrorists, there are no
anti-Semitic passages.
Actually, you have to flip all the way to the last page to catch the more
controversial aspects of the Nation of Islam message. Here the 22-point “Muslim
Program” serves like the fine print of a complicated contract, outlining the
unpleasant particulars of this negotiated agreement: “We want our people in
America whose parents or grandparents were descendants from slaves, to be
allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own — either on
this continent or elsewhere. We believe that our former slave masters are
obligated to provide such land and that this area must be fertile and minerally
rich.
“We believe that the offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by those
who are trying to deceive the Black peoples into believing that their
400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice and equality are, all of a
sudden, their friends. Furthermore, we believe that such deception is intended
to prevent Black people from realizing that the time in history has arrived for
the separation from the whites of this nation. If the white people are truthful
about their professed friendship toward the so-called Negro, they can prove it
by dividing up America with the slaves.”
Such hostile words are all the more shocking when held in contrast to the
conciliatory tone of the rest of the publication. Indeed, The Final
Call, or at least this issue of the publication, seems a lot like what
Farrakhan is trying to accomplish with his new Chicago restaurant. The product
has been stripped of most of its offensive edges. The message here is less
abrasive, even welcoming, and it ostensibly includes all creeds and
denominations. But just behind this charming veneer, lies considerable evidence
of anger, intolerance, and hate.
In light of this dissonance, the friendly demeanor of the young man from whom
I bought the paper is equally alarming. Thinking back on the exchange, it seems
inappropriate for him to have acted so gregarious when he belongs to a group
dedicated to radical societal upheaval. And I wonder if he thinks the same
thing about me — that my friendliness in purchasing his paper is just one more
act of deceit and condescension. I wonder if the opinions stated in the books
and newspapers I regularly read are shocking and unbelievable to him. I wonder
if he reads these publications with the same degree of doubt that I do The
Final Call. As a matter of fact, I’m sure he does. n
This article appears in November 10 • 1995 and November 10 • 1995 (Cover).