Faatimah Knight we Salute You

Prophet Musa (AS) led Bani Israel out of the teeth of firauns oppression. Studying this moment in history should bring about 2 conclusions in the mind of Black Muslims.

1) Bani Israel were nominally made free but they carried with them the self-eroding culture and behavior of Pharaoh and Bondage.

2) The modern day representation of Bani Israel is most likely the descendants of chattel Slavery in America.

It is with these two components that I urge the Muslims who have taken it upon themselves to verbally abuse our sister in Islam Fatimaah Knight to recant their insensitive statements. Sister Knight has heroically leveraged the Internet in generating cash donations for sanctuaries of worship that have been burned down consecutively over a span of 10 days. This is also within 14 days of another community that suffered from the horrific Charleston Terrorist Attack, an attack where 9 people waited in sequence to be gunned down one by one. An attack where a child was told to play dead to survive the massacre.

We have lost the fruit of our teachings as Muslims and become Hadith toting robots who lack the humanitarian cloth to know the difference between sincere interfaith “action oriented Dawah”, and ignoring the needs of our own communities. Sister Knight has followed the path of reformers in her comprehension that those who are dying of thirst will ultimately find comfort in the people who provide them water. As Prophet Isa (Jesus) was sent with the gift of healing to his people who were diseased, so was Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) sent with the completion of character to the characterless tribes of Arabia.

While the Christian community and people such as myself mourned the death of those who were slain that night, they were then met with reality that on any given night that also their places of worship could be set ablaze. Day after day a Church was greeted by arson. What they needed was compassion, not sectarian groupthink. Sister Knight’s earnest attempt at delivering that compassion was a internet fundraiser. One of which I myself have created that takes literally no more than 35 minutes to develop. So from her 35 minute construction of a platform to drag her entire life through the muck of alleged Islamic blasphemy is indicative of our inability to shake the chains of our history of slavery, as African American Muslims. The slave finds any opportunity to differ no matter the cause or belief.

It pains me to believe that the same Ummah who witnessed a few a weeks ago in Texas, an armed Anti-Islam protest complete with assault rifles and racism entrenched in their saliva be met by clergy of ALL FAITHS to act as a barrier for the Mosque that was being terrorized. Are we so saved from damnation that we think that we have no place in the service of other creeds and religions? Were not many of our own fathers, mothers, elders and members of communities those who identified as Baptist, Catholic and Methodist at a time?

As a Muslim who has worked on all phases of the board with relief efforts, organizing, and human development, I assure us that any problem society faces the Muslim Community faces. 1/3 of Muslims in the U.S. are Black just as the Charleston 9 were, Just as the majority of the membership of the torched churches, and with people like Dylan Roof still at large we are not exempt from these acts. Much like we are not exempt from drug addiction, poverty, gun violence and other societal ills.

Fatimah Knight acted as a Muslim should in times like these, which is to inspire belief in Allah through empathetic action. I pray Allah rewards her and that she continues to represent the pluralism that our beloved Prophet (pbuh) instituted so many times when he interacted with those not of his faith and ideology.

If you are opposed to this message please put yourselves in the shoes of those who have lost loved ones and their centers for reflection and refuge in this tumultuous world. Notwithstanding, there are tons of others fundraisers at the website below where we can funnel our money to Muslim causes. I believe that serves more justice than blind condemnation.

Www.launchgood.com

With Respect,

Tariq Toure

Charm City and Black Owned Businesses: Infinite Possibilities Lie Ahead

The best way for us to live out dirt-bike fantasies as a child in Baltimore was to stick a bottle in between the back tire and the wheel well of our bikes. It makes a half ear ripping, half inspiring sound. Anytime during the 90’s you could’ve found droves of kids weaving through streets, perpetrating like this on peddle bikes, in one buzzing harmony. I was reminded of this sound when I covered the history of the Tulsa Race riots for the 40th time. White men, infused with gallons of hatred, saddled themselves in biplanes on Wednesday June 1st, 1921 and leveled an entire community of prospering blacks. Their engines hummed like the modified bikes of my childhood. Women carried the lifeless bodies of children and black men clenched hunting rifles fearing for their right to live. About halfway through the documentary, while the World War II issue aircrafts dropped firebombs from above what was known as Black Wall street, and again the planes echoed that same vibrating tone. Only this buzzing had a sinister pitch to it. No matter how many times I let the streaming clip buffer over and over again, it was no way I can submerge myself in the reality of that day, when a war was waged on the African Americans in that town. Bombs, grenades, and military grade rifles stormed upon Black Wall Street in 1921, and the idea of collective black progress altogether.

Ninety-four years have inched pass since we lost a symbol of economic salvation and in a city like Baltimore, a native of these thoroughfares and alleyways can only wonder what if. Is the city best known for heavily seasoned crabs and deafening homicides the sleeping reincarnation of Black Wall Street? I believe it deserves an analysis. Upwards of 600,000 people live in Birdtown. Not surprisingly, 65% of those city dwellers are black or African American, depending on how we want to use marginalizing language. Gentrification is taking its toll here, but the effects of divestment in Baltimore’s invisible neighborhoods are too much for any heavy-handed investor to kidnap all at once. So blocks upon blocks of storefronts, townhomes, and playgrounds sit unattended waiting for the next bulldozer. What we do have of economic development is sprawled out across the town between mom and pop eateries, car dealerships, and barbershops. Beyond these businesses a giant sleeps.

What lies behind the decaying facade of homes and buildings is the opportunity for African Americans to take hold of prosperity seldom found in America. I’m not here to tell you it’ll be easy. Publisher’s clearing house isn’t laying out any yellow bricked road. Political investors most likely will attempt to thwart even the idea of it.There won’t be any gold rush to the slums. And that all makes Baltimore another potential Mecca of Black prosperity. The densely populated neighborhoods and corner-store vibe should have any African American entrepreneurs licking their chops. Food deserts equal grocery stores. Malls that take three buses to get to, mean boutiques in walking distance. Abandoned warehouses are a manufacturing paradise. If you’ve learned the history of Tulsa, this landscape is oddly familiar. In 1921, Black Wall Street comprised 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. Today in Baltimore a dollar bill circulates the community for no more than an hour. On black wall street it sometimes took a year for cash to leave the hands of blacks.

This is no phenomena. It was a community birthed out of necessity. Segregation pushed blacks 80 years removed from slavery to the margins of society. Black Tulsa had no choice but to survive. And given a chance to survive for Black America means an undeniable renaissance. We now look upon a city who’s 90 years withdrawn from an act of terrorism that served as symbol of keeping negroes in their place, and we are again in the margins. Mass incarceration coupled with the war on drugs has left entire communities obliterated. But, it has also paved a way. Unlike our forefathers we know that the institutional lines drawn in the sand are a refuge for our culture, heritage and economic freedom. Nowhere else in America is more open for Black Business than Charm City. The people have already come, unfortunately they were brought here against their will hundreds of years ago. It is upon the great minds of our generation to build it.

A Black Father on Stephen and Riley Curry

Thanks to the Center For Disease control we have statistical evidence that levels all the redirect that the Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs of the world have tried to spew about the lack of black fatherhood. Their scathing comments follow the same hate parade. Even Geraldo Rivero, who has already done ages worth of media damage to the image of the black family altogether, said that Lebron James should have worn a “Be a better father” t-shirt when the “I Can’t Breathe” trend took hold of the NBA. To the contrary, the CDC cited, 67% of Black dads who don’t live with their kids see them at least once a month, compared to 59% of white dads and just 32% of Hispanic dads. And I grew up in West Baltimore, where supposedly all of these overly generalized concepts meet to create the fiasco ran daily on Fox News. Till this day I can run you down a mile long list of black fathers who took their children just as seriously as cops take being marksmen when targeting black flesh. Sadly they never make the news. Where I’m from the Will Smith “Pursuit of Happiness” type of sacrifice happens just as much as Stephen Curry severs ankle ligaments on the basketball court. That being said, what he does at press conferences holds more weight than just toting around a toddler with buckets of personality.

         Everyday I’m seen with my daughter I know I’m kicking an oppressive stereotype in its balls, but again, what Stephen Curry is doing, we haven’t developed the ebonics for. Some call it “Light Privilege”, others call it a publicity stunt. I call it poetry. This year Curry solidified his place among the mythical creatures of the NBA such as “Pistol Pete” Pistol Pete Maravich, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, “Del Curry”, and White Jesus himself Larry Bird. As of March, Curry made a compelling 845 three pointers equaling to 1,935 points worth of beyond the ark glory in his career. To watch him play, is to witness a skill so patented into his DNA code, that only the whispers of mice eating left over popcorn at the stadium are heard when the ball leaves his hands. His court vision is bionic, defense ferocious, and has what we say in Baltimore City, the ball on a string. Curry’s a sensation on the court, but as a family man and father, he’s setting an example few young black boys see on TV.

Riley Curry is her name, and by no imaginary standards is she anything short of gorgeous. As Adam Clayton Powell once said “We got everything from chalk to charcoal, Black is beautiful baby”. But, it isn’t simply her sun dipped hair or smile littered with pea-sized teeth. Her exploits on national television press conferences with her father are a double entendre of an inconvenient truth and seldom obtained freedom. All of the violence and chaos that circulates the news every morning rides the same story line. Black kid gets shot by cops for being “defiant”, maybe he should have had a father. Black kid shoots a fellow teenager. Where were his parents? Black kid gets accepted into all Ivy league schools, not a word about his lineage, DNA, run ins with the law, or Facebook posts quoting trap music. In the stage-play that has occurred during Golden State’s current playoff run, “Steph” is modeling responsible black fatherhood, on purpose. As a black father myself, I long for the days when our children are able to run wildly through the supermarket, knock lucky charms  off  the shelves, and throw fits of rage that frighten senior citizens in the baked goods aisle. Riley Curry yells at the microphone during her dads Q&A and even shushes him at times. Steph is never ashamed but sheds proud smiles while trying to answer the same mundane questions that ball players have been getting asked since Wilt Chamberlain. 

          I thought all of America enjoyed it. It was the type of comedy by osmosis that we needed during a time where black men and women are being shot for “not being raised correctly”. Riley interjects, we laugh and feel warm and gooey inside. But, CBS thought otherwise I guess. They decided to ask in a recent headline “Are kids being at press conferences a distraction?”. And, in my opinion yes they are. They’re the perfect distraction from the business as usual display. Black athlete’s children crowding podiums are the most glorious distraction corporate media has ever allowed for the black community. Little brown faces sit on the laps of America’s gladiators and inspire a radical idea. The thought that maybe a young man who currently lives in the grips of his own cycle of fatherlessness would begin to admire his favorite NBA star not only for his American Sniperesque jump shot, but for his candid fatherhood, and vulnerability is golden. 

         Whether Curry’s daughter has anything to do with beating the army that is Lebron James in the finals is not up for me to decide. Just know that in a sport dominated by the same people who without a basketball in their hand would be deemed criminals will entertain the entire world this month. Most of those gentlemen if not all are fathers. Many have the same wishes for purpose and prosperity for their children. Yet all of them have a unique opportunity to euro-step over generalizations, crossover stereotypes, and let the spiteful chatter fade away into the darkness. So until the daily news changes I say bring your whole family to the podium. Have a cookout there. Every moment of it is backbreaking for those who still harbor hate, and just maybe motivation for a marginalized father to pick up the phone after years of misunderstanding and play his part.