Out of Darkness
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

In mid-September in Springfield, Virginia, a large gathering of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) celebrated the 50 th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a first major legislative step to empower the black community with fundamental rights. There was no reference to the sacrifices of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who firmly stamped their class in the American arena. Perhaps there remains an apparent fear of incurring the displeasure of the mainstream white establishment.

Defeatism, too, is a factor. Advocated was the legalization of marijuana on the grounds that a disproportionate number of blacks have been arrested or incarcerated because of marijuana possession or use.

Race remains a cloud hovering over the American landscape. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders mentioned that no other US President faced the obstructionism encountered by Obama.

Visiting Charleston, South Carolina was instructive. South Carolina was the first state in the US to secede from the Union in 1860. Six more states in the American South quickly followed, forming the rebel Confederacy in 1861, and igniting the US Civil War, which lasted through 1865, culminating in the surrender of the seceding South and assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Charleston was one of the wealthiest cities, and South Carolina was one of the wealthiest states. Its economic opulence was built and ensured by slave labor and a particularly brutal plantation culture, wherein on large farms rice, tobacco, cotton, and sugar cane were grown. Underlying its mutiny from the Federation was the trauma of relinquishing privileged continuity. Without slave labor, the plantations were unsustainable and could not operate.

Though checked by law, the legacy of racism lingers. An article in the Charleston City Paper of September 9 pointed to the Southern white community’s “insistence that the black community as a whole is responsible for the criminal behavior of a select few young black men. More specifically, they are flabbergasted that the NAACP refused to address this problem.”

A critic of the NAACP states: “Look at yourself. You are literally standing on the sidelines blaming everyone else while the black community kills itself … The organization is TOTALLY SILENT on the high amount of blacks killed by other blacks.” Interestingly, it is similar to the criticism heaped on the entire Muslim community for the misdeeds of the few.

When Malcolm X went to Mecca, he witnessed first-hand the inclusive equality of Muslims paying homage to the ultimate and sole Superpower – the Almighty Allah. There, he had the eye-opening discovery of the corrupt futility of racist hate. Self-esteem comes through self-scrutiny.

Many US blacks are uncomfortable with acknowledging the impact of Islam as a redemptive force showing a pathway out of darkness.

Noteworthy to see is “12 Years A Slave,” which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Picture. Based on true events, the movie suggests that the massive cruelty of 19 th century US slavery was partly enabled by black passivity. Appeasement of tyranny incites more tyranny. When the hero is advised by a fellow slave on what he must do to survive, he retorts: “I don’t want to survive; I want to live.”