Plankton
Superstar
My assessment:
1995 - Minister Farrakhan calls for the gathering of 1 million Black Men to DC. He speaks about atoning and going back home to be the change within the community. The news outlets covered it. It was must see TV if you were a Black American.
1996 - Minister Farrakhan does the one year anniversary of the MMM behind the UN in NYC. 2pac had just been murdered a month prior and there was a darkness in the air around that time in urban entertainment. The aura of the march a year prior was still strong. Again, the news outlets were covering it. It felt as if it was your duty to at least tune in on tv or radio to check for it if you were a Black American.
2000 - The Million Family March. The 5 year anniversary. Minister Farrakhan calls Black Men to bring their wives, girlfriends and children. BET had rappers and R&B artists promoting it. The overall theme was family unity.
2002 - Minister Farrakhan comes to the Salem United Methodist Church in Harlem. I see Eric B and Judge Mathis in this very expensive looking purple suit. Minister Farrakhan tells us that he went on the Mother Plane and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad spoke to him and told him in a few months The US would go to war in Iraq. A few months later, The US invaded Iraq. Me being still young and impressionable, that blew my mind and had me wondering if the minister was really a prophet walking the Earth.
2005 - The Million More March, the 10 year anniversary. This was the last big hoorah for the MMM in terms of it being a must tune in event. Jim Jones cursing on stage and Tookie William's message announced on the speaker was so poorly carried out, no one could here what he was saying. And this was right before he was executed. It was as if his message to the people before his death didn't even get heard. These 2 things were the stand out criticisms in terms of outshining the overall message of social and political unity.
2015 - The 20 year anniversary. This is where things took a turn. Prior to this march the word was that The NOI got under the table funding from the church of scientology to promote scientology in exchange for funding the MMM 20th anniversary. This raised a lot of questions within the Black community outside of the NOI due to the racist history of the founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard. It's an issue that lingers within the NOI's history till this day.
So where has the goal of the Million Man March come to 30 years later?
The central theme was Black unity and networking, along with spiritual and political growth.
I believe that the networking among Black people, specifically in America, is great due to social media's access to broad resources. That is one of the "pros". But the unity is where there are too many "cons." I have watched social media's great increase in influence pit Black people into separate groups. Black people taking sides over here and over there. Online stan culture where Black people will express vile, evil, vicious remarks to anyone who doesn't side with their agenda or cause. The Black disunity on this very website alone is a perfect example. Jesus Christ, I have been called the most vile, vicious things that the human mind can think of all because 'so called' Black people disagreed with me about social issues. On this website and social media in general, being vile towards someone you disagree with supersedes, being cordial and agreeing to disagree. I have watched gang culture increase greatly in Black America since the first march. From an entertainment perspective, Hip Hop being one of the biggest voices in entertainment, we saw 2Pac beefing with Biggie right after the first march. Jay Z and Nas beefing right after the Million Family March and Drake and Kendrick beefing right before the 30th anniversary of the MMM. We are currently witnessing the elders Judge Joe Brown and Judge Mathis beefing. Scammer culture is at an all time high in this era. Scamming your people is literally the opposite of Black unity. FACTS. Politically we still don't have a culture of political infiltration in a way the Jews( another minority group) have political infiltration within their culture. And spiritually, the church's influence is faltering, Atheism is on the rise among Black people and Black people in America are embracing all types of foreign spiritual beliefs. I've also noticed a vast interest in witchcraft like I've never seen before.
Conclusion:
Minister Farrakhan's influence in 2025 is nothing like it was in the 90's, where you had the hottest rappers (Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube,, 2Pac) using excerpts from his speeches as well as Black and non Black media all acknowledging his presence. Though his imprint on Black history is etched in stone Minister Farrakhan's influence has faltered in popularity 30 years after the first Million Man March. But the goal of Black unity on a spiritual, political and social level is still a wonderful thing to aspire towards. Maybe these last 15 years of 'Smartphone social media' has been Beta testing and we can finally attain that goal of Black unity on that level that Minister Farrakhan and the Million Man March's goal was hoping for by the 40th or 50th anniversary. Based on the issues of disunity as mentioned, we as Black people would need to 1) create a culture of political and government infiltration so we can affect policy and law making 2) Do like Malcolm X said and put our religious differences to the side when coming together for a common cause/issue that affects us directly 3) Learn to be cordial when having differences among each other. Especially on social media. Sadly this might be one of the most difficult, hence the abundance of entitled 'can't be wrong' people, uneducated people, trolls and mentally off people, all expressing their opinions online with sense of no responsibility towards their words. 4) We as Black people need a moral revolution. The moral depreciation in American society as a whole is bad but it really has taken a step backwards within the Black community. The promotion of degeneracy is at a high like never seen before in Black American history. This 'proud to be a thug and hoe' culture that has infiltrated the community. The over abundant use of profanity by Black people aged 35 and up. IMO it will take the youth to introduce such a moral revolution. It would take young Black men and women to do a reversal on the current culture of moral standards, bringing back shame to the point where even the elders will have to fall in line.
1995 - Minister Farrakhan calls for the gathering of 1 million Black Men to DC. He speaks about atoning and going back home to be the change within the community. The news outlets covered it. It was must see TV if you were a Black American.
1996 - Minister Farrakhan does the one year anniversary of the MMM behind the UN in NYC. 2pac had just been murdered a month prior and there was a darkness in the air around that time in urban entertainment. The aura of the march a year prior was still strong. Again, the news outlets were covering it. It felt as if it was your duty to at least tune in on tv or radio to check for it if you were a Black American.
2000 - The Million Family March. The 5 year anniversary. Minister Farrakhan calls Black Men to bring their wives, girlfriends and children. BET had rappers and R&B artists promoting it. The overall theme was family unity.
2002 - Minister Farrakhan comes to the Salem United Methodist Church in Harlem. I see Eric B and Judge Mathis in this very expensive looking purple suit. Minister Farrakhan tells us that he went on the Mother Plane and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad spoke to him and told him in a few months The US would go to war in Iraq. A few months later, The US invaded Iraq. Me being still young and impressionable, that blew my mind and had me wondering if the minister was really a prophet walking the Earth.
2005 - The Million More March, the 10 year anniversary. This was the last big hoorah for the MMM in terms of it being a must tune in event. Jim Jones cursing on stage and Tookie William's message announced on the speaker was so poorly carried out, no one could here what he was saying. And this was right before he was executed. It was as if his message to the people before his death didn't even get heard. These 2 things were the stand out criticisms in terms of outshining the overall message of social and political unity.
2015 - The 20 year anniversary. This is where things took a turn. Prior to this march the word was that The NOI got under the table funding from the church of scientology to promote scientology in exchange for funding the MMM 20th anniversary. This raised a lot of questions within the Black community outside of the NOI due to the racist history of the founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard. It's an issue that lingers within the NOI's history till this day.
So where has the goal of the Million Man March come to 30 years later?
The central theme was Black unity and networking, along with spiritual and political growth.
I believe that the networking among Black people, specifically in America, is great due to social media's access to broad resources. That is one of the "pros". But the unity is where there are too many "cons." I have watched social media's great increase in influence pit Black people into separate groups. Black people taking sides over here and over there. Online stan culture where Black people will express vile, evil, vicious remarks to anyone who doesn't side with their agenda or cause. The Black disunity on this very website alone is a perfect example. Jesus Christ, I have been called the most vile, vicious things that the human mind can think of all because 'so called' Black people disagreed with me about social issues. On this website and social media in general, being vile towards someone you disagree with supersedes, being cordial and agreeing to disagree. I have watched gang culture increase greatly in Black America since the first march. From an entertainment perspective, Hip Hop being one of the biggest voices in entertainment, we saw 2Pac beefing with Biggie right after the first march. Jay Z and Nas beefing right after the Million Family March and Drake and Kendrick beefing right before the 30th anniversary of the MMM. We are currently witnessing the elders Judge Joe Brown and Judge Mathis beefing. Scammer culture is at an all time high in this era. Scamming your people is literally the opposite of Black unity. FACTS. Politically we still don't have a culture of political infiltration in a way the Jews( another minority group) have political infiltration within their culture. And spiritually, the church's influence is faltering, Atheism is on the rise among Black people and Black people in America are embracing all types of foreign spiritual beliefs. I've also noticed a vast interest in witchcraft like I've never seen before.
Conclusion:
Minister Farrakhan's influence in 2025 is nothing like it was in the 90's, where you had the hottest rappers (Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube,, 2Pac) using excerpts from his speeches as well as Black and non Black media all acknowledging his presence. Though his imprint on Black history is etched in stone Minister Farrakhan's influence has faltered in popularity 30 years after the first Million Man March. But the goal of Black unity on a spiritual, political and social level is still a wonderful thing to aspire towards. Maybe these last 15 years of 'Smartphone social media' has been Beta testing and we can finally attain that goal of Black unity on that level that Minister Farrakhan and the Million Man March's goal was hoping for by the 40th or 50th anniversary. Based on the issues of disunity as mentioned, we as Black people would need to 1) create a culture of political and government infiltration so we can affect policy and law making 2) Do like Malcolm X said and put our religious differences to the side when coming together for a common cause/issue that affects us directly 3) Learn to be cordial when having differences among each other. Especially on social media. Sadly this might be one of the most difficult, hence the abundance of entitled 'can't be wrong' people, uneducated people, trolls and mentally off people, all expressing their opinions online with sense of no responsibility towards their words. 4) We as Black people need a moral revolution. The moral depreciation in American society as a whole is bad but it really has taken a step backwards within the Black community. The promotion of degeneracy is at a high like never seen before in Black American history. This 'proud to be a thug and hoe' culture that has infiltrated the community. The over abundant use of profanity by Black people aged 35 and up. IMO it will take the youth to introduce such a moral revolution. It would take young Black men and women to do a reversal on the current culture of moral standards, bringing back shame to the point where even the elders will have to fall in line.
point. Even though some things were accomplished a partial completion is still a failure unfortunately
