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Dr Yusef
Bey Transcends
Eurocentric American Culture
By Marvin X James Baldwin described his father as an
African patriarch, noting how he ruled his house and his church,
the awesome power he displayed that Baldwin recognized in chiefs
when he eventually went to Africa. Today, as I sat in the sanctuary
of Oakland's Allen Temple Baptist Church, along with the
overflow crowd celebrating the life of Dr. Bey, it became
crystal clear to me that I was witnessing the life of a man who
had transcended American culture and was living a lifestyle
unabashedly Islamic and Afrocentric.
For example, it was noted that he fathered
forty-three children, which is far beyond the accepted family
lifestyle of Christian American culture, although there are some
Christian families with twenty or more children, unusually the
result of monogamy. It is indeed rare for a man to sire as many
as Dr. Bey produced. And the positive quality is that he took
care of them all and as a result, many of them spoke of their
love for their father and for their siblings. One son said,
"Yes, I know all of my brothers and sisters and I love them
all."
As child after child professed deep love for their father, they
reminded me of the recent conversation with Saddam Hussein's
daughters who professed similar unconditional love, despite the
fact that their father had killed their husbands. Someone noted
that despite all the negative allegations of child abuse, Dr.
Bey was a loving father and a symbol of great strength to his
forty-three children, gave them spiritual knowledge and taught
them economic self-sufficiency.
As was noted by the speakers, the so-called Negro is often
unable to cherish, love, and support one child, often leaving it
in poverty and neglect as he continues his daily round producing
more in the manner of the stud slave of yesteryear. But Dr. Bey
cared for his and clearly they loved their father as child after
child testified.
Although the wives were mainly silent, except for one who sang,
it was noted by Dr. Bey's brother, Minister Rabb, that his
brother's wives were well able to speak about the man they
loved.
I thought to myself, the Christians in the audience must be
going through a transformation because Bey's lifestyle was never
presented so openly yet honestly in contrast to the American
cultural tradition of hiding any information about multiple
wives and offspring beyond monogamy. The revelation of this
man's life might not be so shocking on the East Coast which has
a long tradition of Islamic and Yoruba culture, but this African
lifestyle is most certainly kept underground on the West Coast.
When Dr. Bey was indicted for the sexual assault on young girls,
someone mentioned that even this was in the African tradition of
men marrying or having sexual relations with young females. So
in the Afrocentric sense, was he a child molester?
As we regain African consciousness, it is inevitable that our
lifestyle is going to revert to traditional customs and values,
that will of course be at variance with American social values.
So what? Gays and lesbians are out of the closet, why should the
Afrocentric lifestyle of men like Dr. Bey and the women and
children who love him, remain in the closet?
In openly living his life, Dr. Bey went beyond the man he loved
and honored, but who secretly lived a similar polygamous life,
the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Two of the Most Honorable
Elijah Muhammad's sons by Tynetta Muhammad, attended the
celebration of Dr. Bey. Indeed, Dr. Bey had given Tynetta and
her children refuge when Wallace (Warith) Muhammad refused
to recognize his siblings not from the womb of his mother, Clara
Muhammad.
So in our natural trend to transcend America, as more and more
African Americans adopt Islamic, Yoruba, Kemitic, and Ethiopian
religion and mores, we must anticipate the revolutionary effect
upon African American culture, especially Christian
culture But Dr. Bey revealed that family
organization is not a joke, a whim, a game children play, but a
task of great responsibility, requiring discipline,
intelligence, strength, and spirituality.
One of Dr. Bey's sons noted, "Our father made us soldiers,
even our sisters are soldiers, and we are going to continue to
soldier!" About ten of the sons performed a Fruit of Islam
military drill for the audience to great applause.
What we witnessed was the aboriginal holistic approach to life
that Dr. Bey lived and taught his wives, children, and
community. One must be healthy physically, mentally, spiritually,
and economically. One must transcend dysfunctional American
culture. An African proverb says, "Wood may remain ten
years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile."
And the Black man and woman in America must be independent and
self-sufficient, otherwise America shall remain an ever elusive
Martin Luther King, Jr. dream, rather than the freedom, justice,
and equality we can achieve overnight when we follow the example
of men like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Dr. Yusef Bey,
taking the good from their lives and discarding the rest into
the dustbin of false reality, religiosity, and human
exploitation.
10/3/03
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Dr. Yusef Bey Makes
Transition
By Marvin X
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area's most prominent Muslim has
made his transition. Although he never called himself a minister
or imam, but simply a businessman, Dr. Bey was definitely a
spiritual leader to his small community, but also a leader and
businessman to the general community. Indeed, more whites probably
bought his Your Black Muslim Bakery products than the blacks he
offered jobs, training, discipline, and spiritual enlightenment
based on the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Many people might say he was a bad man, but no one can say he did
no good whatsoever, after all, look at the block of businesses he
has established on San Pablo Avenue in North Oakland. Where else
can one purchase healthy food from an African American business?
Where else in the Bay can you buy a loaf of bread baked by black
people? Who else will hire convicts, dope fiends, and prostitutes?
So Allah will weigh his works on the scale of justice in the
judgment hall, as He shall do each one of us. For every ounce of
good Dr. Bey has done, he shall be rewarded, and for every
ounce of evil he has done, he shall be rewarded.
Like many blacks, he migrated from Texas to Oakland, where he
worked in his father's bakery, then later established his own. He
joined the Nation of Islam and would eventually become a captain,
his brother Billy or Rabb was the minister of the Oakland mosque.
Sometimes there was violent competition between the Oakland and
San Francisco temples, until Dr. Bey finally focused on his bakery
business, holding meetings at the bakery for his employees and the
general public.
A Muslim who practiced polygamy, he fathered many children. As he
made his transition, he was facing charges of child abuse,
although several counts were thrown out because of a recent
Supreme Court decision.
On the positive, he worked with me on the 1980 Black Men's
conference at the Oakland Auditorium, presenting the best plan for
helping black men do for self -- establish businesses and work
cooperatively for upliftment. At the conference, he told the
thousand brothers, "If you want to do something, go at it in
a big way, don't do it small minded." And this was indeed Dr.
Bey's way, to establish himself as a giant among men, to be
outstanding, even sometimes extravagant, and of course he could
recognize these qualities in others. After reading my
autobiography, Somethin Proper, he ordered a box of 50
copies, and said, "Marvin, I ain't never read someone who
wrote with such self confidence." Now who had more
self-confidence than Dr. Bey?
No matter what, his business practice must be emulated by young
black men, especially with American jobs going to China, Russia
and India. Even if we hate the messenger, we better be wise enough
to examine the truth in his message and discard all that is false
and evil, taking the rest to the bank. As-Salaam-Alaikum, Dr.
Yusef Bey.
posted 2 October
2003 *
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update 30 July 2008 |
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