Customer Reviews

The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan

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Alexander has assembled a potpourri of seventeen pieces about Farrakhan, ranging from the scholarly (by Ernest Allen, Jr. on the evolution of the Nation of Islam-the single best quick survey of this subject, incidentally) to the hysterical (by Leonard Pitts, Jr. on Farrakhan's ability to incense white Americans). The short articles also range from the enthusiastic (Aminah B. McCloud lauds his "realistic road to solutions") 182 to the condescending (the editor: "I find the idea of Farrakhan as Dangerous Black Leader a ridiculous proposition") 14 to the outraged (Itabari Njeri considers him "the worst thing that could happen to Black people at the dawn of the twenty-first century"). 240 If no consistency can be found in their approach or their views, one generalization can be hazarded. Few of the authors, not even the several Muslims among them, take Farrakhan's Islamic aspirations very seriously. Repeatedly, they stress that his unique place in the life of American blacks has been won despite the outlandishness of his cosmology and the severity of his way of life. They see him rising to his current position of importance due to an ability to organize and to articulate African-American resentments, plus his perverse ability to alarm whites; 105 they attribute little role to the quasi-Islamic content of his mission.

Middle East Quarterly: Islam in the United States December, 1998

Three and a half stars. While it would have been nice if this book had one, stand-alone introductory biography of Louis Farrakhan, and then the articles in reaction to his life, the reader can glean quite a few biographical details about Farrakhan, Elijah Muhammad, and the Nation of Islam. The collection of authors commenting on Farrakhan may sometimes praise him for his ability to speak for the oppressed black man, but more often they criticize him for his negativity, anti-Semitism, and lack of a clear positive agenda for the African-American community. Farrakhan message is as ambiguous as his legacy will be, and it is clear that he is only one voice in the African-American community, who cannot speak for all. Readers should find some engaging comments and criticism in this anthology of writings on Louis Farrakhan.

Foolish enough to have dropped a dollar into the cup of a blind man? Don't feel too bad -- over a million other benighted souls did the same thing! Listening to a million dollars rattle sounds a lot like a diamondback on his last lurch forward. Great ideas have never come at such a discount and this book tells you why.

This book was written by someone who obviously does not have an open mind and may not have even heard Farrakhan actually speak.

I was disappointed...