American Notes Demagogues

When Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan added a taint of anti-Semitism to Jesse Jackson's 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, many black leaders seethed--but in silence. No longer. After Farrakhan laced a + speech in Los Angeles last month with racist remarks, Mayor Tom Bradley condemned the Black Muslim's "dangerous" anti-Semitism and said he and the minister were "poles apart." Before Farrakhan was to speak this week in Madison Square Garden, a coalition of the city's black and Jewish leaders denounced him. Said black City Clerk David Dinkins: "When (Farrakhan's) opinions express racial prejudice and bigotry, we cannot be silent, for in this climate, silence can often suggest assent."

Farrakhan has made some friends too. In Los Angeles, Thomas Metzger, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who heads a racist group called the White American Political Association, attended Farrakhan's speech and kicked in a $100 donation. Metzger, a self-described white separatist, likes some of Farrakhan's ideas, but says, "I don't see myself moving any closer to him since that would defy logic."