The rise of the Black Muslims looks at the roots of the
organization that produced Malcolm X. WHENEVER THE Nation of
Islam or its leader Louis Farrakhan is covered in the mainstream
media, they are dismissed as "reverse racists." By
sensationalizing the Nation's anti-white stance and highlighting
examples of Farrakhan's anti-Semitic statements, the media has
tried to discredit the Nation's overall argument that the U.S.
is racist to the core. Socialists have criticisms of Farrakhan
and the Nation, not only against anti-Semitism, but the
organization's program of Black economic self-sufficiency, which
would only benefit a minority of African Americans. But we
understand that the appeal of the Muslims' ideas of Black
superiority has nothing in common with white racism. Nationalism
is a defensive reaction to the blatant segregation forced upon
Blacks. The left failed to grasp this when the Black Muslims, as
the Nation is commonly called, first gained national attention
in the late 1950s. The Nation's theory of B