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

When African American writers come together to discuss the cultural importance of Minister Louis Farrakhan, says editor Amy Alexander, "loving him or hating him is not really the issue." The fact of the matter is, Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (NOI) have had a demonstrable impact on American society, particularly African American society, which any assessment of his worth must acknowledge.

The essays here approach Farrakhan from varying standpoints. Some contributors, such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Michael Eric Dyson, try for total journalistic or academic objectivity. Others, recounting their personal experiences in NOI, have generally positive things to say about the minister and (most of) his teachings. (As the more ambivalent Louis Pitts Jr. observes, "Of course, I don't agree with everything he says" is a euphemistic way of saying, "Of course, he gets really crazy sometimes about the Jews.") And some authors are explicitly negative: Stanley Crouch labels Farrakhan's rhetoric as a "political medicine show," and Irene Monroe tears into the misogynistic and homophobic elements of NOI doctrine as elaborated by the minister. Although The Farrakhan Factor can't tell you what to think about one of the late 20th century's most prominent African American leaders, it will certainly give you plenty of food for thought. --Ron Hogan