This Blog Is Full Of Crap

My question for Q10 is "What took you so long?"

The date was Oct. 15, 1995, the place Washington, D.C. On the eve of the Million Man March, a rally organized by the Nation of Islam, the organization's youth minister was ready with rhetoric and venom.

Angered by Jewish protests over a conference dedicated to "the black Holocaust," 24-year-old Quanell X told the gathering that offended Jews "can go straight to hell," then expounded on his sentiments to a Chicago Tribune reporter.

"The real deal is this: Black youth do not want a relationship with the Jewish community or the mainstream white community or the foot-shuffling, head-bowing, knee-bobbing black community," Quanell said. "I say to Jewish America: Get ready ... knuckle up, put your boots on because we're ready and the war is going down."

A dozen years later, Houston's best-known black activist says he has changed. He is not only older but wiser, no longer beholden to revolutionary politics or an angry young man's immature view of the world.

Now Quanell has something else to tell Jews: He's sorry. He was wrong, he says. And though it may anger some in his community — perhaps to the point of threats to his safety — he wants to make amends.

Is this change genuine, or will word leak out that he's gone off the deep end again, cheering along at the latest guest speaker firing up the crowds at TSU with the usual anti-Semitism thinly disguised as anti-Zionism?

This is his reasoning:

He said the change began about six years ago when he came face to face with racism within the Muslim community. After helping to organize a pro-Palestinian protest at the Israeli consulate in Houston, he discovered that some Palestinian protest leaders were not happy that an African-American Muslim would play such a visible role. The source of their discomfort was the color of his skin.

"It was almost like somebody had taken two electrical currents and stuck them to me and touched me. It shook me," he said. "I grew up believing that racism did not exist among Muslims. ... I grew up believing that whenever I saw a Muslim, he would see me as his brother ... no matter where he was from or what racial background he came from, or what race or group of people he belonged to."

That led him first to depression and disillusionment, then to a period of education and enlightenment. He said he found out that racism has existed in the Muslim world since its earliest days, and that Muslims played a role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Congratulations, Q10. You've discovered something that the rest of the world has known for a very long time: your Arab masters still see you as a slave and a lesser being.

What do I think?

Until he starts openly questioning the core tenets of The new Black Panthers and The nation of Islam which espouse anti-Semitic bigotry, I think it's just for PR.

But, hey - I've been wrong before. Maybe he'll even pull a Sammy David Junior and convert.