Estimated reading time: 9 minute(s)
Erykah Badu, a special artist and free thinker, was hit with the Farrakhan Litmus Test during a recent interview with Vulture.com.
First of all the publication has the proper name as vultures feast on dead things. Like the winged scavengers that feed on death, this interview attempted to pick the singer’s bones.
Perhaps we should begin with a question: What does a profile by Jewish writer David Marchese about Ms. Badu and her artistic work have to do with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam?
Nothing.
Photo: Final Call Newspaper
|
Except that Mr. Marchese, once again interjected the 34-year-old fake anti-Semitic canard against the Minister into the discussion.
The interview went like this:
(Writer Marchese): “Okay, thank you. I know this is maybe a weird pivot, but I think it’s relevant. When I was doing research for this interview I came across an article from after you’d gone to Israel, where the Israeli press was linking you to Louis Farrakhan and his alleged anti-Semitism and it seemed that you were being criticized for defending him rather than denouncing anti-Semitism. I don’t know if those reports were accurate, but isn’t it valid to criticize the hurtful idea in an instance like that? Even if you respect the person who holds that idea?”
(Erykah Badu): “Absolutely. But I never made a statement about Louis Farrakhan—ever. What you’re talking about happened in Palestine. At the time, the working title of my album was Saviours’ Day—which is a holiday for the Nation of Islam but also my birthday. So I’d gone to Palestine and journalists asked me, ‘Do you believe in Louis Farrakhan? Do you follow him?’ Sure I do. I’ll follow anyone who has positive aspects. He single-handedly changed half of the Nation of Islam to clean eating, clean living, caring for their families. He has flaws—like any man—but I’m not responsible for that. I said I’ve appreciated what he’s done for a lot of black Americans. I mean, I’m not Muslim, I’m not Christian, I’m not anything; I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things. If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously.”
|
That’s pretty clear. It was also consistent with Ms. Badu’s declaration that she is a humanist, her belief that everyone has some good in them and how she stayed away from speaking for or criticizing others in the interview.
She pointed to the art of Nazi Adolph Hitler in an attempt to prove a point and was sandbagged. The interview blew up and Erykah Badu was quickly trending on Twitter—and not in a good way.
“People are in real pain. So I understand why my ‘good’ intent was misconstrued as ‘bad’. In trying to express a point, I used 1 of the worst examples possible. Not to support the cruel actions of an unwell, psychopathic Adolf Hitler, but to only exaggerate a show of compassion,” said Ms. Badu via her @fatbellybella Twitter handle.
What she faced, in truth, were the problems at the root of this “controversy.” It came fully into the light in 1984 during the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign: Jewish paternalism and control over Black people and Zionist determination to annihilate anyone who dares criticize or even critique U.S. support of Israel or speak to the need for Palestinians to receive justice.
