From The Final Call Newspaper

Fractured America: Distrust and an increasing racial divide

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- November 10, 2020

Zhanon Morales, 30, of Philadelphia, raises her fist as demonstrators call for all votes be counted during a rally outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, as vote counting in the general election continues. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)


The tight presidential election revealed that America is divided against herself, and it further exposed racial tensions that have been growing over the course of 2020. While Joe Biden won the popular vote and electorial college, a blue wave did not sweep the nation as predicted, and instead, states became battlegrounds.

“The outcome of the election and the predicted blue wave that was going to sweep the country did not come to pass. Mr. Biden has to deal with a Republican-controlled Congress, Senate, and a House of Representatives that gained Republican members,” said Abdul Haleem Muhammad, the Southwestern Regional representative of the Nation of Islam out of Houston. “So regardless of what his agenda is, he’s going to have to compromise and negotiate with a Republican-controlled Senate and an emboldened House of Representatives and the Supreme Court with a conservative majority.”

He said Black people should have learned that they can’t trust the corporate media or the political pundits.

“Their election didn’t turn out the way that they predicted,” he said. “And what we should learn is that we have to build our own independent Black political institutions.”

>>FULL STORY<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

Political promises, realistic expectations and Black self-determination

By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- November 3, 2020

Attorney Keith White, right, a director of social justice initiatives at Christian Cultural Center, passes out information on voting as he canvasses the neighborhood with volunteers in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. White has been petitioning New York City elections officials to allow his predominantly Black church in Brooklyn to serve as a polling location. Whether or not that happens, the church will use its van and a charter bus to shuttle early voters between now and Election Day, he said. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)


The decision about who will next occupy the White House is underway. The national election showed the United States is a highly polarized nation where Blacks are still left to figure out, where do we go from here? As America nears a quarter of the 21st century, the condition and requirements of Black life is relatively the same as previous election seasons. Social thinkers, analysts and observers agree Black self-determination is imperative moving forward. 

 

Dr. Ava Muhammad Photo: The Final Call

“I can only repeat that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and His student and National Representative Minister Louis Farrakhan have implored us for a combination of 90 years to go for self,” said Student Minister Ava Muhammad, national spokesperson for Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam .

In the lead-up to the elections, there were many articles, analysis, and polls predicting the high turn-out of Black voters as a demographic, particularly toward the Democratic Party.

However, political observers note there are no indicators Black people will be the recipients of promises and policies that reflect their objective needs. Black people have been the most solid and loyal constituency of the Democratic Party and there were efforts by GOP surrogates and Black conservatives to attract Blacks to the Republicans.
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Black people at the end of this particular election may be able to see more clearly both Donald Trump and Joe Biden were really a “distinction without a difference,” said Student Minister Muhammad who is also an attorney by profession.

>>FULL ARTICLE<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

Election 2020: What’s at stake for Black folks and what will we demand?
By The Final Call
- October 27, 2020

Geden Mulan, left, and Mary Jovan wait to cast their votes, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020, in North Miami, Fla. Florida begins in-person early voting in much of the state Monday as the Trump campaign tries to cut into an early advantage Democrats have posted in mail-in votes in the key swing state. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)


by Brian Muhammad and Nisa Islam Muhammad

The country is just days away from what some argue is the most divisive presidential election in history. With the U.S. national election underway on November 3 to choose who will lead America the next four years, no matter which way the pendulum swings, the question looms, if Black people will be in the same relative position, considering the unresolved fight for freedom, justice and equality after being under the foot of oppression for 465 years?

However, what is clear is when the election is over, whether incumbent President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joseph Biden emerge victorious, the Black community needs to be able to ensure their demands are met.

“We know that this next presidency is a one-term presidency. Right? Biden has already said that,” explained Ian Rowe, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption.

He spoke at a recent Brookings Institute event on how Black voters will influence the 2020 election. “In my old life, I was at MTV, running our Choose or Lose campaign back in 2008. I remember a quote that Barack Obama said on Super Tuesday,” said Mr. Rowe.

“He said, ‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.’ I’ve always found that empowering because no group of people can be totally free if you place your destiny in the hands of others, especially if you think it was the others who are holding you down in the first place,” he added.

>>FULL STORY<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

‘Living the Pledge’ and looking ahead

By Nisa Islam, Staff Writer
- October 20, 2020

The National African American Leadership Summit celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Million Man March with three days of events that highlighted “Why We Marched,” “Organizing the March” and “Living the Pledge.”

“We did this March ourselves and what happened has never been documented properly,” said Rev. Mark Thompson who moderated each evening. The sessions were live-streamed on millionmanmarch25.com.

For viewers, each night was a stroll down memory lane and an intimate look at what happened behind the scenes of the largest gathering of Black men in history. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam called for a million men to come to Washington, D.C. with a theme of atonement, reconciliation, and responsibility. Nearly two million heard the call and responded on October 16, 1995. The three days of reflections aired October 14, 15, and 16 and included March organizers, supporters, and those impacted by the historic gathering.

Min. Farrakhan was a surprise guest, October 16, on the program “Living the Pledge.”


“It was one of the finest examples of community help, leadership help and I don’t know who to single out except to say as the Qur’an always uses the soft pronoun we,” the Minister explained, speaking about the book of scripture of Muslims, the Holy Qur’an. “Who can say ‘I’ with such a magnificent example of the power of us. So, we say ‘we’ by God’s grace we gave the world a glimpse of what heaven looks like,” said Min. Farrakhan.

>>FULL ARTICLE<<

The Final Call Newspaper

Twenty-Five Years Later: REFLECTIONS ON THE MILLION MAN MARCH

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
- October 13, 2020





In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
As-Salaam Alaikum. (Peace Be Unto You)

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Million Man March and I recently re-read the words that Allah (God) gave me on October 16, 1995. As a student of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I marveled at what God gave me to give to the nearly 2 million Black men present on the National Mall and to the world watching via television.

This was unlike any event ever before in the United States of America or in the nations of the earth, especially those countries that have been under the victimization of the Satanic mind that rules this present world.

No nation has assembled this number of men to make Atonement to God, to others we may have offended, to reconcile differences in our families, differences in our communities and to accept responsibility for our actions that have sown division, hurt and pain among us.

>>READ FULL ARTICLE<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

PRESIDENTIAL CRISIS, AMERICAN CHAOS?
By Askia Muhammad, Senior Editor
- October 6, 2020





President’s COVID-19 Diagnosis Raises Questions, Sparks Skepticism, Anger

WASHINGTON—Donald J. Trump never fails to excite the world of politics.

Mr. Trump, still likely carrying the deadly Covid-19 virus, triumphantly returned to the White House, discarded his mask and declared over Twitter he was doing well and possibly immune to the deadly virus.

After three days at Walter Reed military hospital, the president landed on the South Lawn of the White House via helicopter Oct. 5. He was admitted after he and first lady Melania Trump were struck by the virus. It’s suspected that a mass infection resulted from a mostly mask-less, crowded “super spreader” event during an announcement of the president’s pick for the Supreme Court. The White House became a coronavirus hot spot with high level staffers, lower level workers, senators, a university president and other high profile guests, presidential debate coaches, journalists working at the White House and others who have been in close proximity to the president or aides testing positive for Covid-19.

>>FULL STORY<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

 Bold, Defiant Words From Mr. Trump

By The Final Call
- September 29, 2020

Doctors looking after infected patients in hospital, coronavirus concept.

The president’s vow to make final decision on more stringent safety requirements for Covid-19 vaccine increases fears a harmful product could be rushed to market

by Naba’a Muhammad and Charlene Muhammad Final Call Staffers

The president dropped a powerful, but perhaps unsurprising bombshell when he declared he could veto a Food and Drug Administration decision to employ more stringent safety standards for approval of a controversial Covid-19 vaccine.

He deepened fears that politics and his almost obsessive drive for reelection, helped by a “cure” for the coronavirus as voters take to the polls Nov. 3, would compromise the safety of the American people.

“Mr. President, the FDA is reportedly considering stricter guidelines for the emergency authorization of a Covid vaccine. Are you okay with that?” asked a reporter during a Sept. 23 press briefing at the White House.

>>FULL STORY<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

We Can’t Trust You: Experimentation, Exploitation and the Hidden History of American Medical Abuses
By The Final Call
- September 22, 2020

In this 1950's photo released by the National Archives, a black man included in a syphilis study has blood drawn by a doctor in Tuskegee, Ala. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for unsuspecting men infected with a sexually transmitted disease simply so doctors could track the ravages of the horrid illness and dissect their bodies afterward. Finally exposed in 1972, the study ended and the men sued, resulting in a $9 million settlement. (National Archives via AP)


by Naba’a Muhammad and Michael Z. Muhammad | The Final Call | @TheFinalCall

Emphatically no, Walt Boarderly, an entrepreneur and Philadelphia business owner, replied when asked if he would take the Covid-19 vaccine. Mr. Boaderly isn’t anti-vaccine, saying he will take the flu shot. “There is just too much uncertainty when it comes to this new vaccine,” he said.

A man at the V.D. clinic in Union Point, Green County, Georgia, 1941.
Photo: Library of Congress

Blacks do not trust President Trump’s Covid-19 vaccine push, and there is plenty of reason to be distrustful. Black people have been the victims of medical experiment, exploitation and abuses by their White enslavers and White doctors from the time the good ship Jesus hit America’s shores. These medical researchers have been like a pack of crazed dogs chasing their helpless prey.

In her comprehensive book “Medical Apartheid,” Harriett Washington details abuses committed against Blacks and how throughout the 19th century medical schools used Blacks in live surgical demonstrations.

>>FULL STORY<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

‘Why would we send our people to the slaughterhouse?’

By Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent
- September 8, 2020

Scientist holds a coronavirus vaccine, conceptual image

Amid tens of thousands of new Covid-19 cases reported daily in the United States, the fever pitch to get a vaccine on the market in a fraction of the time it normally takes is pressing forward.

This, despite a lack of participation in clinical trials from Blacks, who second only to health workers, have been targeted for a vaccine by national health agencies. There is also an effort underway to get Black groups to co-sign the drive for the vaccine with top officials speaking to Black groups and organizations.

[FCN] Min Farrakhan 4th Of July Photos By Haroon Rajaee (255)

U.S. voters are skeptical when it comes to a potential Covid-19 vaccine and say that one made available this year would be rushed, at least according to a recent CBS poll on the matter. “Just 21% of voters nationwide now say they would get a vaccine as soon as possible if one became available at no cost, down from 32% in late July. Most would consider it but would wait to see what happens to others before getting one,” noted cbsnews.com. When asked what their first thought would be if a vaccine was made available this year 35 percent of those surveyed said it would be a scientific achievement but 65 percent said their first thought would be that it was “rushed through.”

>>READ FULL ARTICLE<<

From The Final Call Newspaper

‘Why would we send our people to the slaughterhouse?’

By Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent
- September 8, 2020

Baby getting a first injection


Amid tens of thousands of new Covid-19 cases reported daily in the United States, the fever pitch to get a vaccine on the market in a fraction of the time it normally takes is pressing forward.

This, despite a lack of participation in clinical trials from Blacks, who second only to health workers, have been targeted for a vaccine by national health agencies. There is also an effort underway to get Black groups to co-sign the drive for the vaccine with top officials speaking to Black groups and organizations.

FCN] Min Farrakhan 4th Of July Photos By Haroon Rajaee (255)

U.S. voters are skeptical when it comes to a potential Covid-19 vaccine and say that one made available this year would be rushed, at least according to a recent CBS poll on the matter. “Just 21% of voters nationwide now say they would get a vaccine as soon as possible if one became available at no cost, down from 32% in late July. Most would consider it but would wait to see what happens to others before getting one,” noted cbsnews.com. When asked what their first thought would be if a vaccine was made available this year 35 percent of those surveyed said it would be a scientific achievement but 65 percent said their first thought would be that it was “rushed through.”

>>READ FULL STORY<<