The Unity of Black and Brown: Cesar Chavez' Muhammad Speaks Interview

The passing of Arizona’s sb1070 has made it clear to many, both Black and Brown, that the issue of racial profiling and immigrant rights are inextricably connected. The outrage and shift in sympathy among many Blacks towards the issue of immigrant rights gives new hope to the cause of unity between the two peoples. Often, the strained relationship between Blacks and Latinos is made worse by the perception of very little credit given to the struggle of Blacks in the United States as the springboard by which other ethnicities could advance.

In light of this, I thought I would share an article that appeared in the August 4th, 1972 issue of Muhammad Speaks that featured an in-depth interview with Cesar Chavez, conducted by the legendary Askia Muhammad (then Charles 20X), in which Chavez expressed his admiration for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

It was a Mexican follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Benjamin X Perez (later known as Imam Benjamin Perez Mahoma) whose ties to the migrant farm worker leader introduced him to the program and teachings of the Nation of Islam.

David J. Muhammad

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Movement Maturity

Farm Workers’ Chavez speaks of future goals

August 4 1972,

By Charles 20 X

Keene Cal.---The headquarters of internationally famous farmworkers leader, Cesar Chavez, cradles in the fertile rocky hills east of Bakersfield is like a mountain fortress Emiliano Zapata, the great Mexican peasant – farm leader of the early twentieth century, might have occupied with his guerilla army.

And like the great hero of the common man, Zapata, Chavez is calling on his great following of common men to join in the struggle to aid the helpless farm laborers by once again boycotting non-union lettuce.

Chaves is still recovering from a near fatal 24 day fast which left him sick, weak, exhausted, but full of desire to uplift his downtrodden people.

The Muhammad Speaks Newspapers party was guided and directed to an exclusive interview by Muslim Brother Benjamin X Perez, a long time friend of Chavez and his family, and a brother who has stood as one of the few Mexican-Indian descendants in the Brotherhood of Islam who follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Chavez, organizer and leader of the AFL-CIO affiliated United Workers Union, is normally a healthy looking brown-faced short man with a quick smile and a friendly handshake. His modest security and even his large black dog seemed to relax when he entered the room for the historic MS interview, prior to his fast.

Chavez is a humble man. And while he is proud of all the Farmworkers’ Union has done, he is quick to give credit and praise to others, where it is due.

“We’re doing our paper now,” he said, beaming over the first two issues of the Farm Workers’ newspaper, El Malcriado. The first issue is in English and the second issue is a complete Spanish translation of the first.

DO IT LIKE THE MUSLIMS

We told our people, ‘It’s got to be done like the Muslims do it.’ It’s got to be done person to person,” he stressed, his admiration for the courteous Muhammad Speaks salesman was apparent from his broad and eager smile.

“Of all the movements we know of, we have a lot of respect for you because you have a lot of people doing things.” he said, referring to the constructive Program of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and its effect on his energetic followers.
“I tell my organizers to get prejudice off your mind. Organizing is hard, it’s like mowing a lawn. It’s not easy like digging a whole where you see how much you’ve dug.”

Blocked by official rulings, edicts and court orders which continually hold monopoly “agri-business” blameless against the just demands of the meager farm laborers, Chavez, however has amassed an “army” of sympathizers and followers who would rather pass up their customary salad, than continue to support the greed and exploitation of large growers.

Farmworker’s officials estimate that more than 100,000 people have united with lettuce boycott, signing pledges not to eat or buy iceberg lettuce or “head” lettuce until the Farm workers and growers settle their long standing feud. In Chicago, according to Illinois boycott chairman Chester Ruiz, from 8-9,000 pledges have been received. In New York City, Ruiz said lettuce has been removed from public hospital and school menus.

Farm Worker’s organizers estimate that the average person consumes nearly $15 worth of lettuce per year, “Our goal is millions of pledges,” Ruiz said, A few million pledges not to eat lettuce would mean tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue to monopolistic growers. The iceberg lettuce industry is estimated to gross more than $270 million per year.

WORKERS-RENEW BOYCOTT

Last January the Farm workers decided to renew their lettuce boycott, although some growers had valid contracts in force, with the union. The workers who stayed in the fields and did not strike because of valid contracts, agreed, however, to support the boycott so that all their brother farm workers might have the same betterment in their working conditions that they had received.

In addition the growers with valid contracts for laborers joined forces with the non-union growers to finance and help sponsor repressive legislation and to seek repressive court injunctions and labor rulings.

The National Labor Relation Board, (NLRB) refuses to consider farm laborers eligible for protection of national labor laws. The NLRB reversed itself however and mad an important ruling on farm labor against the farm workers.

Since 1947, when the original Taft-Hartley labor relations act was made law, farm workers have been exempt from protection granted other laborers.
Farm workers are ineligible for minimum wage guidelines, working condition restrictions, rights to negotiate and arbitrate, and most health laws and child labor restrictions seem unforced when it comes to the fields.

As a result, farm workers average $1,300 per year. The average income for a migrant farm family is only $2,700 per year, and the maternal and infant mortality rates are 125 per cent higher than the American average.

LIFE MISERABLE ‘DOWN ON FARM’

The bleak picture of life “down on the farm” seems to grow dimmer by the day for the “stoop” laborers, most of whom are Mexican-American, many of whom are Black and Filipino. The farm worker’s life expectancy is a brief 49 years, and he is further humiliated in the fields by the presence of more than 800,000 children under 16 years, of whom 80 per cent never reach high school.

If protection was ever available under the law for any group of non-whites, the farm laborers certainly received none of it. If there were a law of justice in the fields it would seem that it would have to outlaw the sub-human treatment inflicted upon the farm workers.

The law of justice would have to declare a criminal of any man who housed more that 90 per cent of his workers in dwellings without a sink, flush toilet, tub or shower.

That same law of justice would have to condemn a man who employed workers at a wage even below the pitiful minimum wage and then subjected them to a chance of contracting deadly tuberculosis 260 per cent higher than the average man who at least receives that minimum wage. Where that same employee’s chance of accidental death are 300 per cent higher than the nation average, the employer would certainly have to be a tyrant.

And Chavez, has struggled with the farm labor movement since 1952. He escaped from the hopeless Chicano “barrio” (ghetto) of San Jose, California which even wore the nickname “sal si puedes,” (meaning “escape if you can.”).

Chavez is primarily responsible for much of the progress of the farm workers in their efforts to organize and unite for power and justice.

MANY NATIONALITIES

Chavez is pleased that the United Farm Workers Union is comprised of many nationalities and ethnic “minorities.” The large majority of the members and the migrant farm workers are of Mexican descent, but many like UFW Vice-president Vera-Cruz are Filipino, and many more, especially in the southern states, are black.

And while the UFW picks up much support from liberal and concerned whites, man o f whom endorse the philosophy of non-violence at every cost, for non-whites; the union is gain strength daily, in the minds and hearts of the young as well as the old Chicanos as the consciousness of all non-white peoples in North America seems to rise with the times.

Among the Chicano people who see their success very concretely associated with the land they have toiled over for centuries, the talk now can even be heard calling for a nation, a Brown nation.

Amor Para Nosotros Mismos, Es Amor Para Dios

Como descendientes de los pueblos conquistados de latinoamérica, hemos sido dominados por la Corona Española y dentro de los últimos 163 años por el poder económico y militar del gobierno Estadounidense. Esta dominación ha producido un complejo de inferioridad en nuestros pueblos y una dependencia hacia nuestros antiguos poderes coloniales que aún las victorias de independencia en muchos paises latinoamericanos no ha podido romper.

Nos burlamos del color de nuestra piel, nuestras características raciales, y de nuestras costumbres indígenas. Es el odio de nuestro propio ser que los conquistadores nos impuso para que nos sintieramos inferior a ellos. Decimos que España es la Madre Patria, aunque fueron las culturas indígenas y africanas que produjeron las civilizaciones y ciencias mas avanazadas cuando Europa ya estaba en la Alta Edad Media. El verdadero conocimiento de nosotros, dado por el Honorable Elías Muhammad y el Honorable Ministro Louis Farrakhan nos está despertando a estos hechos.

Este complejo de inferioridad es cultural y económico. Somos un pueblo mestizo, de varios colores ,de prieto a moreno oscuro, trigueño hasta tez clara. No obstante, con toda esta diversidad sufrimos discriminación de clase social y raza en nuestros paises de orígen y aquí en los EEUU.

Levantamos nuestras banderas nacionales como símbolos de orgullo, y así debe de ser, pero mejor será levantar los principios o ideales que representan en vez de lo superficial dentro de una sociedad que nos hace sentir menos de lo que somos. Decimos, “Soy mexicano”, “Soy puertorriqueño”, dominicano, hondureño, colombiano, venezolano, etc. etc. Esos son nombres de pedazos de tierra. La tierra no define el pueblo, la gente trabajando en unidad en la tierra define lo que es ser una nación. Nuestro Señor, quien nos creó, nos define, y nos da nuestra identidad y propósito en la vida.

¿Cual fue el propósito de Dios en hacernos el producto del mestizaje de sangre indígena, africana, y europea? ¿Por qué, aun hoy día, estamos en una posicion economica mas baja que la posición economica de los EEUU cuando Latino America tiene todo lo que necesita para sostenerse? ¿Como es que toda esta gente; mestizo; moreno africano; y indígena todavía son siervos a un puñado de gente rica y poderosa? ¿Estamos condenados por Dios para ser más oscuros y pobres? Al contrario, Somos el pueblo de Dios, elegido por él como siervos humildes para construir su Reino con Cristo aquí en la tierra.

Jesús dijo, “muchos primeros serán últimos, y los últimos, primeros” (Mateo 19:30). Esto significa que aquellos que han ganado por la exploitación de los pobres y oprimidos serán sentados durante el juicio final de este mundo. Esto no es algo para esperar en el cielo, esto es algo que esta pasando ante nosotros ahora mismo, aquí en la tierra. Igual que cayó el imperio español, el imperio estadounidense esta cayendo por la mano de Dios. ¿Pensabamos que el Todopoderoso Dios ha cambiado su forma y los EEUU escapará su castigo?

Roma, un imperio construido por esclavos que también controlaba las economías de otras naciones, engaño a esos pueblos colonizados con promesas de ciudadanía si peleabán en el ejército romano. Hoy día, el ejército estadounidense está aumentando sus numeros con los llamados “Green Card Soldiers”, a la misma vez que inmigrantes indocumentados de latinoamérica estan siendos atacados por la prensa del país y por fuerzas de vigilantismo racista.

¡Es la falta de amor para nosotros mismos que nos causa buscar fuera de nuestro propio ser para que seamos aceptados cuando realmente es nuestra relación al Creador, como su pueblo, que nos justifica—con papeles o sin papeles (documentos de inmigración)! Muchos de nosotros vivimos bajo las sombras del temor, cuando nuestros “líderes” (nombrados por ellos mismos) proclaman que nos representan a una sociedad que no nos quiere aquí; una tierra construida por y quitado de nosotros. El Honorable Ministro Louis Farrakhan nos eseña que Allah (Dios) deshara lo que fue hecho a nuestra gente y que devolvera esta tierra a nuestra posesión donde podemos todos vivir juntos en paz. Esto es la promesa de Allah (Dios) como el dice en los Salmos de David que “los mansos heredarán la tierra” (Salmo 37:11). La promesa de Dios sigue y no falla.

Les exhorto que dejemos el miedo de no ser aceptados por una sociedad que ha exploitado al pobre y la gente de tez oscura del mundo entero. Es hora de amar nuestra gente y a nosotros mismos, no temiendole más al poder corrupto de esta sistema. Como dice en 1 Juan, 4:18-20, “En el amor no hay temor, sino que el perfecto amor echa fuera el temor, porque el temor lleva en sí castigo. De donde el que teme, no ha sido perfeccionado en el amor. Nosotros lo amamos a él^[ porque él nos amó primero. Si alguno dice: ‘Yo amo a Dios’, pero odia a su hermano, es mentiroso, pues el que no ama a su hermano a quien ha visto, ¿cómo puede amar a Dios a quien no ha visto?”

Nuestra unidad y el amor para nosotros mismos puede transformar nuestro sufrimiento. Dios y su Mesías Prometido hoy estan presente en el mundo.

Love For Ourselves Is Love For God

Love for Ourselves is Love for God

(FinalCall.com) - As descendants of conquered peoples of Latin America, we've been dominated by the Spanish Crown and the last 163 years by the economic and military might of the United States government. This domination has produced an inferiority complex among our people and a dependence on our former colonial masters that has not been completely broken by the victories of independence in many Latin American nations.

We mock the color of our skin, our mixed racial features, and our indigenous ways. This is the self-hatred that our conqueror put in so that we would feel inferior to them. We call Spain the “Mother Continent,” when it was the Indigenous cultures of the Americas and the Black peoples of Africa that produced the greatest civilizations and sciences while Europe was still in the Dark Ages. The true knowledge of ourselves given to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is now waking us up to this fact.

This inferiority complex is both cultural and economic. We are a mixed blood people, with our colors and shades ranging from Black and Dark Brown to Tan and Pale White, and yet with all this diversity we suffer class and racial discrimination, in our countries of origin and the United States.

We hold up our national flags as symbols of pride, and we should, but it should be a sign of upholding a principle or an ideal and not just a means of making ourselves feel better in a society that has put us down. So we say “I'm proud to be Mexican,” or “I'm proud to be Puerto Rican, Dominican, Honduran, Colombian, Venezuelan, etc.,” and those are titles of pieces of land. The land doesn't define us, the people working together in unity on the land defines what it means to be a nation. The God who created us defines us and gives us our sense and purpose of being.

What was God's purpose for making us a people mixed with the blood of the Indigenous, Black Africans, and Europeans? Why, today are we in the economic position under the control of the United States when Latin America already has all that it needs to survive? How is it that all of these people, mixed, Black, and Indian still serve just a small handful of rich and powerful individuals? Is it that God has cursed us for being darker or for being poor? To the contrary, we are the people of God, chosen by Him because of our suffering as humble servants to build His kingdom with Christ on Earth.

Jesus said “many that are the first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30). That means those who have profited from the exploitation of the poor and the oppressed will be sat down in the judgment of this world. This is not something to expect in the sky, this is something we are seeing right now on Earth. Just as the empire of Spain fell, the United States of America is now falling at the hands of God's anger. Did we think that God's ways have changed and America would escape His punishment?

Rome, an empire that was built by slaves, controlled the economies of other nations,it lured its colonized subjects to fight in their army for the promise of citizenship. Even today, the United States military is boosting its numbers with so-called “Green Card Soldiers,” even as undocumented immigrants from Latin America are under attack by the media and racist vigilantism.

It is our lack of love for self that causes us to look outward for acceptance when it is our relationship to our Creator, as His people, that justifies us with or without papers (immigration documents). Many of us live in the shadows of fear, while self-styled “leaders” claim to represent us to a society that does not want us here, the very land built by and taken from us. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has said that God will reverse what was done to us as a people, and that the land would be given back to us wherein we could live together in peace. This is Allah's (God's) promise to us as it says Psalms of David that “the meek shall inherit the Earth” (Psalms 37:11). God's promise remains true.

We must throw off the fear of not being accepted by this society that has exploited the poor and the darker peoples of the Earth. It is now time to fall back into love with our people and ourselves, no longer fearing the corrupt powers of this wicked system. For as it says in the Bible, 1 John, 4:18-20:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

Our unity and the love for self can transform our suffering. God and His promised Messiah are present in the world today.

God, The Chosen People, and Illegal Immigration: What is God's opinion of the Immigration Debate?

In any group photo, the natural response is to look for one’s self. Unfortunately, the world has been fooled by the lie that the Bible is God’s testament of his love for our conqueror and open enemy. This is in direct contradiction to God’s purpose for the revealed word and his raising of prophets, messengers, and sages. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teach us that the Bible and Holy Qur’an are prophetic scriptures that show the history of European domination of the Aboriginal peoples and tell us of God’s favor on the oppressed in the final judgment of the world. If we see the scriptures properly, we see Allah (God’s) hand at work, where we may have thought we were forsaken.

If God saw deeper into the future did he see the suffering and taking of indigenous lands, and the domination of those cultures? Did he see the enslavement of Blacks in the western hemisphere? What about the present crisis of abuse of so-called “Illegal Immigrants”, the arriving masses escaping America’s economic stranglehold on Latin America? According to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Bible not only reveals the motivations of the wicked opponents of immigration, but the natural unity that exists between Blacks and Latinos.

Naysayers classify this as a “presumed alliance” only effective for political expediency, but any unity based on temporal political motivations is doomed to fail. If our ancestors indeed did exchange cultures, and the historical shared experience of European domination joined our blood, then unity should be formed on the basis of kinship---not for the crumbs of a system that hates both people. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that we must first be brothers (and sisters too!) for the process of unity to begin.

We have let the labor movement, community organizations, and insincere political parties prevent the formation of real unity between both communities, and as a result, stood in the way of our own freedom. How important is the unity of the oppressed to the foundation of the Kingdom of God? Did God foresee a need for a coalition of the oppressed? Allah (God) has placed signs in the revealed word that make this type of unity essential for the very construction of a new world to take place.

An appeal must be made and the basis for unity cannot be a common enemy. How can Satan, who has been the common denominator of our division, be the basis for our uniting? The opposite is true. It must be God, our father, who unites us. God’s pattern does not change; he always finds the oppressed and enslaved people, raising messengers from among them. Such was the case among the Children of Israel, who were under a death plot for fear that they would increase in population and join onto an enemy of Pharaoh and Egypt. Towards the end of Pharaoh’s power, there was a weakening of Egypt’s borders and large numbers of undocumented “aliens” strained their divinely afflicted resources.

There was confusion among the population of ex-slaves regarding the acceptance and treatment of these “alien” immigrants. God admonished them through his servant Moses with these words, “'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. ³⁴ The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34, New International Version)

It is worthy to note that this acceptance of immigrants extended to the priesthood of the Children of Israel. Even David and his son Solomon, both considered prototypes of the Messiah, fully embraced immigrant labor, conducting a census and even employing them as foremen in the construction of Israel’s holiest Temple. Apparently, these were undocumented immigrants among God’s chosen people. This is described in the Bible, in the book of 2 Chronicles, “Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600. He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working.” (2 Chronicles 2:17-18)

So despite religious tradition and historical genealogy, God ordered that cast aside in favor embracing an oppressed group with a “shared experience”. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that the scriptures were history written in advance and that 75% of what was written referred to a future time, and should not be looked at as yesterday’s historical record. It is no accident that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s work has exposed the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad beyond the scope of Black America. His work prior to 1975 gave tremendous signs of this. How critical is this aspect of God’s work among the indigenous and original peoples of this hemisphere? With gang conflict and episodes of violence erupting daily between the two communities, those who would be the peace makers are forced to look into the root of this bloodshed.

The Holy Qur’an reminds us, “And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together and be not disunited. And remember Allah’s favour to you when you were enemies, then He united your hearts so by His favour you became brethren. And you were on the brink of a pit of fire, then He saved you from it. Thus, Allah makes clear to you His messages that you may be guided.” (Holy Qur’an 3:103)

Now is the time to begin the process of unity between Black and Latino, with God---The Originator, and our origin in Him as the common denominator.