Shabazz lectures, despite blackout

Carnegie Mellon University student Sen. Edward Ryan had two questions for Malik Zulu Shabazz,… Carnegie Mellon University student Sen. Edward Ryan had two questions for Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

“First, do you hate me as a white person?”

“I have been taught to respect all people,” Shabazz replied. “But I have certain presumptions from what I know, and when I look at you, I do think you are a racist.”

Ryan then asked if Shabazz could put aside the color of his skin and shake his hand — a request which Shabazz initially rejected.

“I cannot put aside the color of my skin,” he said. “I don’t know you. You have to show me what you have done to fight for black people.”

“I voted to bring you here so students could hear what you had to say, for you to discuss your views and to protect your free speech,” Ryan said.

“I will shake your hand,” Shabazz said. They shook hands as the audience applauded.

Shabazz’s almost three-hour-long lecture at CMU encompassed a range of topics, including racism, black history, genetics, the slave trade, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Middle East affairs.

Interest to hear Shabazz speak was high. Even when the 200-person capacity venue was full, a line of people stretched around the corridors of the university building. Many more were left outside, said CMU campus police.

“I was to come here to give an innocent speech,” said Shabazz, flanked left and right by a dozen men and women dressed in uniforms of black combat fatigues and black berets.

“They did everything they could to stop me coming here today,” he continued. “And I am disgusted with the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University [because] they are trying to crush my freedom speech.”

“They say I am a hatemonger, and they say I am racist, and they say I am an anti-Semite,” he said. “You might have thought from this that you were coming here today to see a wild animal.”

Shabazz began his career as a student organizer at Howard University. Upon graduation, he founded the Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization that brings together black attorneys for civil rights cases. After joining the New Black Panther Party in 1998 as their national attorney and spokesman, Shabazz succeeded Khalid Abdul Muhammed as national chairman.

Half an hour into his talk, the lights mysteriously went out. Through the darkness, the image of Shabazz, shielded by eight or nine guards, was visible.

As approximately 30 audience members held up their cell phones to dimly illuminate the room, Shabazz pushed away his security.

“They want us to get scared and leave,” he shouted. A resounding chant of “Black Power!” began.

Ten minutes of the lecture was conducted in light from the audience members’ raised cell phones. With no immediate reason for the lighting failure, Shabazz said it was an indication of racism in Pittsburgh.

“Racism drips to the core of Carnegie Mellon University,” he said. The lights were eventually restored, though no explanation was given for the brief outage.

“I was told, when I came, to stick to the subject of the black college student. Now we will talk about white racism.”

“Textbooks in high schools and here at Carnegie Mellon University teach that black history began with us being bound in chains, waiting to be civilized by the white man,” he said. “We are the original people of this planet. We produced the white man”

He gestured to a display of two dozen grainy photos of early 20th-century lynchings of black people hung on the blackboard behind his podium.

“Our holocaust did not last six years,” he said. “It lasted 400 years.”

Moving to the subject of the Middle East conflict, Shabazz said he stood alongside the Palestinian cause.

“Zionism is terrorism,” he said, adding that he didn’t blame Palestinian organizations that carry out attacks on the Israeli army and Israeli citizens.

“They are responding with any means necessary,” he said.

For Aaron Weil, executive director of Hillel Jewish University Center, the lecture was a frightening experience.

“He incites hatred and violence,” he said of Shabazz. “While he is entitled to free speech under the constitution, he is not entitled to the venue.”

Weil also took issue with Shabazz’s security force.

“After people went through metal detectors to get in, they were met with guards armed with weapons,” he said.

Shabazz described his security force as being “ushers.”

“If you lose your way and find yourself moving to the front to try and stop me speaking, they will usher you back to your seat,” he said.

“I was surprised the university allowed it all to happen,” he added.

Following his lecture, Shabazz fielded questions regarding topics such as homosexuality and genetics.

To a question about whether the New Black Panther Party is supported by the original Black Panthers, the Black activist organization founded in the late 1960s, Shabazz said that his party was supported by a few original members.

“We have the support of some, and others do not support what we believe,” he said.

A statement on the Web site of the Huey P. Newton Foundation denounces the New Black Panther Party’s use of the original party’s name and history. Newtown was a founding member of the original Black Panther Party.

“The Black Panthers were never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the ‘white establishment,'” it reads. “The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people.”