The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

A couple of short videos taken from Dr. Jackson’s short talk at NYU. Hat tip to MR.

The videos has been removed per Dr. Jackson’s request. You can see his reasons why here.

Since the beginning of the nation, white Americans have suffered from a deep inner uncertainty as to who they really are. One of the ways that has been used to simplify the answer has been to seize upon the presence of black Americans and use them as a marker, a symbol of limits, a metaphor for the “outsider.” Many whites could look at the social position of blacks and feel that color formed an easy and reliable gauge for determining to what extent one was or was not American.

Perhaps that is why one of the first epithets that many European immigrants learned when they got off the boat was the term “nigger” - it made them feel instantly American. But this is tricky magic. Despite his racial difference and social status, something indisputably American about Negroes not only raised doubts about the white man’s value system but aroused the troubling suspicion that whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black.

ralph ellison [1970]

I keep wondering when Blackamerica is going to take stock. More and more, I see in my fellow young, black males, levels of aggression and intollerance that baffle my mind. Gun violence. Gang violence and even for those not associated with gang violence, the misplaced reverence that so much of pop-black-culture has on it. What, you may ask, is this reverence? In Philadelphia, one need not venture far to see the signs. Scarface T-shirts being sold on the corner or out of someone’s car in South Philadelphia. Grown men walking around in Biggie and Tupac T-shirts with fake bullet holes in them. And then of course, the glorifying of violence in the pop culture through acts of hyper-masculinity. How else could you explain Michael Vick’s behavior? In a discussion with a white associate, he expressed his dismay over Vick’s behavior [and rightly so] in his role in dog fighting. “He’s got it all, you know. Fame. Money. How could someone like that just f#ck that up?” I shook my head and replied, “manhood”. My associate looked quizzically back at me and said, “Manhood? What’s that got to do with it?” I chuckled, wryly, and continued, “it’s a black thing, man. You wouldn’t understand”.

At the risk of dabbling in pan-Islamic rhetoric, this, in my opinion, is one of the greatest things the Prophet brought with his Message. Beyond no god but God, the Prophet also brought about a new modality of manhood, one where you could fully be a proud, protective, strong character and yet it tamed the domineering, bombastic and even violent tendencies that were prevalent in the society he lived in during 7th Century Arabia. It is here that his Sunnah has so much potential for Blackamericans [though not exclusively] to address and resolve the pertinent issues of our time: Hyper Black Masculinity.

I cannot lay claim to the term, hyper masculinity, in reference to Blackamericans. As usual, it was a term I heard coined by Dr. Sherman Jackson. In a talk that Dr. Jackson gave last year at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Jackson urged Blackamerica to deal with three things: education, economics, and sex. And he tied all of these together in a talk that addressed the state of Islam in the Blackamerican community to the malfeasants on black males and their overt masculinity. Dr. Jackson drove home his points by illustrating that the Prophet, as our example, was a man who was never seen as a coward, though he was never full of bravado. He was never perceived to be a “punk” or a “chump”, even by his enemies. The Quraysh had many things to say about the son of Abdullah, but a coward or a chump was never one of them. I need not spend time here reiterating the blessed characteristics of the Messenger - he was kind, caring, compassionate, thoughtful and so on. Yes, we know them but we do not implement them. A recent case drove this home for me:

I was photographing a group of imams and when it came time for the group picture I placed the women in front, seated in chairs. This was done mainly out of photographic needs. But like clockwork, one of the imams boisterously raised his objections to have women siting in front of him.

“Akhiy, these are women and we are men! How can we be protectors and leaders of our community when we place our women in front of us? No, no! We have to have them get behind us.”

“If we have them ‘get behind us’ they won’t be in the picture. Can’t you be a man and stand in the back? No one here seems to be challenging your authority or place as a ‘man’. Need you be a tyrant to show it?”

Needless to say, I’ve had a few issues with this person before and I took this opportunity to stick it to him a bit but this is typical of the reaction of many Muslim men - and yes, the imam was Blackamerican. Instead of addressing real topics and real issues and standing up and dealing with those “like a man” we instead take our misplaced pride and break the proverbial stick over our leg so all can see how manly we are. So I make this plea, this cry to my fellow brothers [and sisters, as they will certainly be a part of this] regardless of religious affiliation, to look at, contemplate and rethink our approach to manhood and to be a man where it counts, to make the change.

They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then instead of saying directly, “How does it feel to be a problem?” they say, “I know an excellent colored man in my town….” Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk

Recent personal events had me revisiting the Don Imus scandal [if it can be labeled such a thing] and how its apex came in the form of an Oprah town hall meeting. 9th Wonder, a hip hop musician, had some interesting remarks on this phenomenon, in that why did it take all this time, and more specifically, a white man to say something we’d consider derogatory [when the word’s used by us all the time as well as other morally suspect nomenclature], to have a hip hop town hall meeting. As 9th Wonder pointed out, “we should have been had one”. Black folks can run around and act irresponsible, fight, shoot, cuss and more, and it’s just “okay” for us. But a white man comes along and says something we think is racist rhetoric [yes, I do believe Imus is an ass but that’s a bit besides the point here] and the media goes into a whirl and we’re having a town hall meeting. My question is, why ain’t we havin’ a town hall meeting about gun violence in the black community? Why ain’t we havn’ a town hall meeting about AIDS? About teen pregnancy and single motherhood? If we’re waiting for the white man to find that controversial, well, let’s just say we should pre-order our coffins today because none of the aforementioned issues have ever been crucial to non-whites and yet we continue to suffer horribly in black urban centers. May God give us the insight, the courage and the means to make a permanent, lasting changer for the better.

You Tube interview with 9th Wonder.

In lieu of the previous post, I thought I’d add this link to some material by Olivier Roy, the author of The Political Failure of Islam, has written a new book, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, as a sort of sequel or follow up to the first book. Roy was invited to speak at CCEIA. I found his talk to be quite insightful. Here’s a link to the video, audio and transcript. Enjoy.

Like many, both Muslim and non-Muslim, I have paid attention to the events that have unfolded abroad – the UK incidents and the Lal Mosque standoff. My sentiments were inline with many readers I came across: bewilderment at the UK incident [doctors killing people?] and disappointment mixed with confusion of the Lal Mosque siege. But perhaps what caught my attention even more was the reaction of Muslims, predominantly from America, more specifically in the American-Muslim blogosphere, a reaction that seemed to revolve around apologizing for the attacks. The root of this apology seems to be rooted more in the embarrassment that these heinous acts have had upon the public lives of many American-Muslims. I found this embarrassment to be somewhat concerning. Were American-Muslims more concerned with how they were viewed at work than with the crimes themselves? If so, then why is there not an equal outcry of embarrassment over, say, the Dar Fur atrocities or, if we want to keep it simply humanistic and go beyond religion as a signifying factor, why has not inner-city gun violence [especially for the many Blackamericans who are also Muslims!] garnered the same rosy-cheeked blush? Perhaps this embarrassment has more to do with “who’s watching us” than it really has to do with any moral outcry. It is this latter part here that I shall address in a moment, but first things first. What gets our deserving attention and what sets us off? Read more this entry »

We may have to add an addendum to Al Franken’s book - Lying Muslim Haters et cetera. Tariq’s article is quite disturbing, though, in truth, not hard to believe. And while I wish to treat this incident in isolation, it is concerning that a group of people will go to any lengths to prosecute and demonize Muslims simply for being Muslim.

It appears that a group of men, affiliated with Mapping Shari’a.com [their bi-line reads: “Mapping Shari’a in America: Know the Enemy”, entered a mosque in the DC area, posing as potential shahadahs, claiming to be wearing thobes [what?! No one ever shows up with Middle Eastern clothes on!], and that they were giving Jihad Qatil literature and so forth. While this might initially seem to portray itself as a right-wing, pro-patriotic organization, it’s true colors bleed to the edge, as seen in their Mission Statement:

America is a unique people bound together through a commitment to America’s Judeo-Christian moral foundation and to an enduring faith and trust in G-d and in His Providence. America’s founding, and its greatness was neither accident nor staging ground for some better existence or world state. America was the handiwork of faithful Christians, mostly men, and almost entirely white, who ventured from Europe to create a nation in their image of a country existing as free men under G-d.

This type of extreme White Supremacy is the same old schtick that is from a page right out of the Klan. It has not taken very long in the scheme of things for Muslims to become targets for hate groups, and what better group than the poster child of hate in America than the Klan or its affiliate or off-shoot groups. I know imam Johari - I just was with him a few months ago at a talk for WHYY. He’s a good man. With the “veil” lifted from this idiots, Muslims will not have to go to great lengths to exonerate themselves in the eyes of their own community. But in the eyes of America? We shall have to wait and see if the seed of hate sprouts. Check out Tariq’s article. Perhaps they mistook the thobes for white hoods?