Former New Black Panther leader Malik Shabazz, whose incendiary, racist remarks could fill a very long book, was interviewed by Megyn Kelly at Fox News Monday night.
Shabazz has had a long history of establishment media indulgence, which explains how he can now meritlessly present himself as the supposedly respectable head and co-founder of "Black Lawyers for Justice." Fox's choice to give him air time was questionable, but at least Kelly gave him no quarter.
After introducing him as someone "who doubts that we'll make it through this Cleveland convention without violence in the streets," and "also says he understands why the gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas is being described as a 'hero,'" the pair spent 4-1/2 utterly predictable minutes of their 6-minute exchange going back and forth about the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Shabazz's belief that the U.S. remains a "white supremacist" society. What wasn't expected occurred in the final 90 seconds. When Kelly challenged him about certain of his past remarks, Shabazz appeared to be thrown off balance, and ultimately declared that reparations "for all of our blood" would be a condition for achieving true justice in America, and that without them, "there cannot be peace."
In footage mercifully not included below (some of it can be found at Rush Limbaugh's website for those who can stand it), Shabazz insisted that Brown was a victim of police brutality, despite contrary forensic evidence, grand jury testimony, and U.S. Department of Justice findings. It's sad but true that facts don't matter, because if they did, the Black Lives Matter movement, which bases its existence on the false narrative of Brown's martyrdom and its false pose as a "nonviolent" organization, would be an inconsequential historical footnote by now.
Kelly then confronted Shabazz about his past statements, starting with his reference to white people as "crackers," and it appeared to unnerve him a bit. He played stall ball for a while, but Kelly got back to re-asking the question:
Transcript (bolds are mine):
MALIK SHABAZZ: When did I refer to white people as "crackers"?
KELLY: Yes.
SHABAZZ: I have in my anger, as many people in their anger, have referred to others as derogatory names.
MEGYN KELLY: No, I don't think that's a common term.
SHABAZZ: Okay.
KELLY: Did you think, did you say that "I think we should kill all the G-damn Zionists in Israel"?
SHABAZZ: No, I never said that.
KELLY: You never said that, that "their G-damn little babies and their old ladies should be blown up"?
SHABAZZ: Okay, when are you going to leave the script and acknowledge the death of Sandra Bland?
KELLY: Okay.
SHABAZZ: Freddie Gray.
KELLY: Okay.
SHABAZZ: Mike Brown.
MEGYN KELLY: Freddie Gray, four acquittals in that case. Four acquittals of those officers.
SHABAZZ: Bad prosecution.
KELLY: Bad prosecution.
SHABAZZ: Darius Stewart.
KELLY: African-American judge.
SHABAZZ: Darius Robinson.
KELLY: African-American prosecutor.
SHABAZZ: Eric Garner, uh, Alton Sterling.
KELLY: I'm not going to argue all of this. I'm granting that there's some bad police shootings.
SHABAZZ: No, but worse than bad police shootings. It's a bad system, and the country is going totally in the wrong direction, and until we get justice there's not gonna to be no peace.
KELLY: I got it.
SHABAZZ: And until the court system works, there can't be no peace. And until we get reparations and compensation for all of blood —
KELLY: Reparations.
SHABAZZ: — that you're spillin', of our blood, then Miss Kelly, there cannot be peace.
KELLY: You, the white people of America.
SHABAZZ: There cannot be peace. Well, the white power structure and you're a part of that.
KELLY: Oh.
SHABAZZ: You're an important voice. If you would speak up, if you would stop being so hostile to your position.
KELLY: I'm not hostile.
SHABAZZ: Do you recognize that black lives matter?
KELLY: We have a lot of folks from Black Lives Matter on this program —
SHABAZZ: Do you recognize that black lives matter? Do you say black lives matter?
KELLY: But they don't take antagonize positions when it comes to white people as a group.
SHABAZZ: Do you believe, do you believe -
KELLY: Malik, I've to I've got to go because I have my next guest.
SHABAZZ: — that black lives matter?
KELLY: I've to I've got to go because I have my next guest on. Thank you for being here.
SHABAZZ: There it is.
One indication that Kelly shook up Shabazz a bit is the fact that he had to look down at his notes to remember the name "Alton Sterling," a black man who died in a very recent incident involving law enforcement.
Shabazz indeed said what Kelly has accused him of saying about Israel and Zionists. Wikipedia notes that the Southern Poverty Law Center, apparently with a lot of spare time because right-wing extremist groups aren't as prominent as SPLC pretends they are, quotes Shabazz as having said the following in 2002:
"Kill every goddamn Zionist in Israel! Goddamn little babies, goddamn old ladies! Blow up Zionist supermarkets!"
As to the end of the interview, because Kelly wouldn't directly answer Shabazz's repeated and inanely interrupting question with a yes or no, "Do you believe black lives matter?" supposedly "there it is." This delusional man thinks he's somehow proven something.
Well, he's correct in one sense. "There it is" indeed — someone who has set preconditions which clearly can never be satisfied so he can stay in the race-baiting business as long as he'd like.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
