The October 10 anniversary of the Million Man March, retitled “Justice … or Else,” once again proved that blacks in America are still being led blindly like domestic animals.
Let’s begin with the fact that this was marked as a “20 Year Anniversary.” If the self-proclaimed leaders waited until 25 years, the usual anniversary celebratory year, it may have been too late to fully profit on the resale of victimhood. Their “time is now” if they want to strike while the iron is hot. Racial tensions are soaring as high as they did in the 1950s and send a horrible message that should not call for celebration. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. worked too hard to have us come right back to where he began his admirable journey.
As usual, the Nation of Islam ran the show, selling as many T-shirts and bean pies as possible. I honestly wonder how many blacks in the crowd follow the beliefs and customs of the Islamic religious movement. It is a movement that claims to improve the economic condition of African-Americans and was founded in Detroit. Yep, Detroit. Louis Farrakhan and friends convened the “Justice or Else” rally and had a great showing of sheep (aka “people”) in our nation’s capitol. Another disturbing element was that Mr. Farrakhan, a man who has publicly condemned both women and gays, was leading the crowd. Black Lives Matter leaders were there cheering on Mr. Farrakhan. Every other day we get an earful from feminists and gays about feeling like outcasts in this cruel cold world — yet those groups were strangely silent on October 10. Maybe the women in the crowd had no idea that in the past Mr. Farrakhan didn’t even allow women in his almighty presence? Maybe the gay community in attendance had no idea Mr. Farrakhan believes they are all going straight to hell?
C-span, varying from their usual programming, had amazing ratings that day due to the fact that they were the only ones covering the rally live. CNN and other mainstream media outlets silently stated they had “more important news” to cover. Outrage spewed on social media by black activists, upset that the media wasn’t covering their big event. These are the same social media activists that ridicule mainstream media daily for their work, claiming the media only covers white privilege news. Could it be possible that the media caters to those watching and raising their ratings? The U.S. media trends by demographic prove there are more whites watching primetime news than any other ethnicity, by percentages in population. I assume that is why BET knew airing the Hip Hop Awards concurrently with the Democratic Debate wouldn’t affect ratings.
According to many, I am a traitor in the black community for pointing out the obvious and disagreeing with a narrative unsupported by facts. In actuality, I am just a minority within the minority. When will the protests, uprisings and marching turn into positive results? The murder rates in black neighborhoods are still sky-high, there are still just a handful of blacks in leadership positions, black-owned businesses are still at the bottom, black communities continue to suffer with poverty and the war on drugs, and I must mention blacks still hold the record for having the most high school dropouts. Talk is just talk — when will the talk translate into action within the black community? When will blacks’ value education, say no to drugs or even stop the senseless crimes on their very own streets caused by their very own race? Why not unite to stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle? Blacks hold the lead in obesity-related deaths. Why not gather to expose the decades of democratic policies failing blacks for generations just to get their votes? Why not come together to devise a plan for success? These “empowering” rallies blaming the police and white people for failure to take accountability can continue until blacks are blue in the face, and by that, I mean dead.
• Kimberly Klacik is the founder and executive director of, Potential Me, a nonprofit supporting women going into either the workforce, college, trade school or the military.
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