THE BRIDGE: The Million Man Farce?
By
Darryl James
Recently,
the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan announced plans to coordinate
another Million Man March next year on the tenth anniversary of the
original event.
When I first heard about the effort to get one million men to Washington,
DC nearly ten years ago last month, I was filled with joy, hope and
positive energy at the thought of such a huge effort to bring Black
men together.
I tried to get more information, but I was directed to five different
people, none of whom had any real information. What I was asking for
was pretty basic: I wanted to know the organizations involved and
what the premise for the march was to be.
If one million men were going to gather, I imagined that the agenda
had to be fairly intense. But no matter what I asked or to whom I
spoke, there was no agenda and no premise made available to me.
Finally, I began to place multiple calls to the Nation of Islam¹s
headquarters in Chicago, to see if in fact I could get a direct response
from someone, but alas, I still couldn¹t get a straight answer.
The only answer I got was in September, from someone in Chicago who
wouldn¹t give me his name, but admitted that there was no final
agenda "at the time." It¹s not like the march was still
months away‹we¹re talking mere weeks from the time that
I was asking for the elusive agenda.
The same anonymous person talked about the Black man¹s need to
apologize to the Black woman in front of the world and take back our
communities. That was something, but it was still not much. I still
couldn¹t get a plan for how we were supposed to take our communities
back.
I knew many brothers who were planning to go, including my own blood
brother. I even began to hear from sisters who wanted to be in attendance
when Black men in America came together to take back our communities
and stand up for them.
But on the actual day of the march, the lack of clarity given to me
was also given to the hundreds of thousands of Black men, women and
children who traveled from all over the nation.
There was no real agenda. Speakers were rushed in yelling beautiful
prose and rhetoric was delivered about the problems that Black men
faced. But something very crucial was missing.
There was no real plan given to the masses of Black people who came
to hear, see, touch, taste and be a part of history in the making.
No one gave a ten point, or even a two point plan for what the Black
men, women and children were supposed to do when they got back to
their communities.
No one talked about greeting each other or mentoring children. No
one talked about how to establish better relationships between Black
men and women. No one talked about how to live around each other with
less violence. And as an entrepreneur, I waited for someone to talk
about how to bring back or establish Black businesses in our communities.
Sadly, no one did.
Yet, all those people who felt like they were being part of something
strong, something big and something history-making, went back to their
communities feeling good. They felt good and they felt love in their
hearts for each other. But without a real plan, eventually many of
them went right back to their daily lives as they were before the
march.
Eventually, many of the people who showed up hopeful and prepared
to be filled with the new struggle¹s agenda, felt deflated and
in some ways, bamboozled.
Throngs of Black men, women and children were together in one place.
It would not have taken much to motivate them into action.
All the organizers had to do was tell the men and women who showed
up to go back to their communities and hug five Black strangers each
day. Black love would have been stimulated.
All the organizers had to do was tell the masses to each mentor a
child. A generation would have been uplifted.
All the organizers had to do was tell the people to each buy one book,
read it and pass it on. Knowledge, which we know is power, would have
been enhanced.
All the organizers had to do was pick five businesses in each of ten
cities and tell the masses who showed up to go back and patronize
those businesses. Black commerce would have been stimulated.
Sadly, the march did not contain a real plan to increase Black love,
Black power, to change the lives of Black youth, or to impact the
Black economy.
But someone did pass the hat.
Someone passed the hat and a great deal of cash was collected that
day. But days, weeks and even years after the march, no one can or
no one will say exactly how much cash was collected or what really
happened to that cash.
That made me sad.
To this day, arguments still fly over how many people showed up. But
I don¹t care if there were five hundred thousand or more than
one million. I do care that all those Black people came together,
open and ready to work for the love of us all and no one created a
real program for them to take part in.
I wasn¹t opposed to the Million Man March because of the Nation¹s
alleged "Anti-Semitic" message, which some see as divisive.
I think for myself, therefore, I take what I agree with and embrace
it while rejecting that which I do not believe in. It¹s what
I do with every human being¹s message.
Nor was I opposed to it because I am not a Muslim. One idiotic religious
zealot, Pastor Woodrow Walker, opposed the March because he opposed
those who "deny the virgin birth."
Pastor Walker, of the Abundant Life Church in Lithonia, Georgia, in
all of his inglorious ignorance, told his congregation, "Don't
let him draw a million of you Christians to a cause that denies the
virgin birth."
To be clear, I was opposed to the March because it took people soaring
too high, only to have them crash lower than they previously were,
because there was nothing tangible and/or lasting to embrace.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, of course, delivered a beautiful
message, which did not surprise me. He has never failed in speaking
directly and unflinchingly on the problem of race in this nation,
and he did not fail that day.
"The image of the black community is horrendous in the world,"
said the Minister. "The image of black men in particular is that
of a bestial, maniacal and savage group of persons. The image you
have of black men is not the image of who and what we really are."
He was so on point in those words. But there was no intrinsic plan
to do anything to move beyond that condition, which existed at the
time of the March and has, in many ways, worsened today, as many of
our own sisters and brothers have embraced that image as real.
Some people still feel good about seeing all those Black people come
together. Some people get angry when they hear the way I feel, but
I was so hopeful for so much more and even before the event took place,
I felt cheated.
I felt cheated, but I also felt inspired. I felt so inspired that
I became changed and raised the stakes in my own game of life.
It was called the Million Man March, but to me it was the Million
Man Farce.
In one million ways, I¹m still sad about it.
