A Conscious Brother with a Message
The room where the brothers gather is adorned with their religious artefacts. Charters, flags and portraits of their beloved leaders, teachers and guides grace the walls of the place we call our ‘church.’ Some of the brothers cover their heads with fezzes and others wear turbans, kufi's and "crowns". A crown looks like a kufi but it has a tassel attached to the top of the cap.
These brothers are members of the "New Unity Movement", which includes The Nation of Islam https://www.noi.org/ The Moorish Science Temple of America, or M.S.T. of A. http://msta1913.org/ the Rasta's http://www.religionfacts.com/rastafarianism
Hebrews http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism and Nations of Gods and Earths https://genius.com/Nation-of-gods-and-earths-what-we-teach-what-we-will-achieve-annotated a few Christians http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity and two Sunni Muslims https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sunni or http://www.religionfacts.com/islam
Many of these guys were (and some still are) gang members. They came into prison and got real spiritual. Chicago gangs are full of religious dogma, from Islam to Christianity, so the gang members if they are active or not still cling to the religious preference of their former gang.
One of the leaders of the M.S.T. of A., is giving a fiery speech about economics and nationality. His name is Parrow-El. He told me that his case manager just "put him in" for his halfway house. After many years of incarceration, Parrow-El is on his way home to "take his place in the affairs of men."
There is something genuine about Parrow El. He’s an ex-gang member from Chicago who got caught up early in the gang life. Out of all the brothers I could have interviewed, Parrow-El stood out to me as the best candidate to speak on MY2CENTZ.
M2C: Parrow-El, introduce yourself.
PE: A lot of people used to call me Chili, but now I am a new man so I go by my free national name, Brother Parrow-El.
M2C: Yeah, I was about to ask you about that 'cus some of the Vice Lords here still refer to you as Chili when they talk about you.
PE: (Laughing) Well you know, you got to give the Brothers their time to catch on to the truth, you know how we are brother!
M2C: So tell, me, how did you become interested in M.S.T. of A.?
PE: I always was familiar with the teachings of Noble Drew-Ali and his words on Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice. I learned this through the Vice Lord’s when I was young. When I caught the case, I started going to the meetings to stay fresh in my literature, and over the course of time, the lessons began to leave a fair impression on my character. I started to feel good about myself knowing that there is still much of "The Good Work" left to do with us as a people and as a nation.
M2C: Explain this Good Work?
PE: Well for instance, it’s not proven scientifically yet, but I believe that the descendants of ex-slaves suffer mentally from the ills afflicted on their parents. PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder is what it is clinically referred to. So in the M.S.T. of A., we are uplifting fallen humanity with love by teaching them to know themselves and their Father, God, Allah.
M2C: That's deep, I read a good book by Sister Joy DeGruy Ph. D. and she elaborated eloquently on that topic. https://joydegruy.com/resources-2/post-traumatic-slave-syndrome/
The title is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and healing, and it answered a lot of questions that for me. One question I had was why former slaves were considered three-fifths of a human being? Originally they counted black people as property and when slavery ended and blacks became citizens with the right to vote. So the whites decided to only count three out of five black people for the census. So only three out of five black people were able to vote.
Dr Joy DeGruy wrote about returning to Africa and how she was received by black South Africans. A lot of people in Africa do not even know what happened to us, they do not know that we were kidnapped and brought over here against our will. Dr Joy DeGruy spoke about how the children in South Africa had a purpose. We have to find our way here in America to give our children purpose.
PE: Let me check it out!
M2C: I got you. I see you and the brothers always holding meetings on Saturday, I thought y’all day was on Friday?
PE: The M.S.T. of A. holds meetings on Friday, however, The New Unity Movement meets on Saturdays. To build with each other the M.S.T. of A. joins the N.U.M. in those meeting to discuss a range number of topics, from better ways to deal with poverty to how to be better men for our family and communities. You know the door is always open for you bro!
M2C: Bet, I will come check y’all out. With all of the police shootings of our youth, what is your take on all of this?
PE: Brother, let me speak plain with you. The police ain’t doing anything new to our people in the city. They’ve been killing us for centuries. It seems like police shooting black youths is the hot trend that's 'gon guarantee ratings for the big news stations. And the gun violence in Chicago, with all the murder rate hype, means nothing to the talking heads but ratings and ratings mean money and money keeps the bosses happy so the correspondents keep their jobs. It is sad what’s going on in Chicago with all the violence. Black cops are killing us just as well as the white cops. Blacks are killing blacks on the Southside. Now, I bet you with everything goin’ on the way that it is, the people of Chicago will give certain rights away to the government just to be safe from all the gun violence. And when that happens, it will spread across the Nation.
M2C: That does not sound far fetched bro. So what’s the plan? How is the New Unity Movement combatting the violence?
PE: We will return to our communities and be the example of the message that we bring. We believe it does take a village to raise a child. To me all children are different. They do need responsible and loving adults to hold their hands and show them the way until they safely reach adulthood. The city needs good role models that will look after children and protect them. The New Unity Movement will do this in our communities.
M2C: How many times have we heard this brother? All these movements that are coming out and yet nothing has changed. They’re still locking us up faster than they can arrest us. I mean, what can you give the children in Inglewood other than a lecture?
PE: Well, myself and others plan to coordinate our efforts with Black Lives Matter and all our religious movements. We will create new meaningful relationships with the Chicago Police department and with the local and state government to make them understand how our children are our most valuable asset. This is just some of the work we plan to do.
M2C: Thanks for talking to My2CENTZ
PE: Thanks for having me.