Whew!  I was worried there for a moment because I thought the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan didn't like me because I am Jewish.  At a recent event celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the original Million Man March, which he organized – and which, despite its name, didn't attract a million men – he cleared up the misunderstanding.

I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm anti-Termite. pic.twitter.com/L5dPQcnVg4

— MINISTER FARRAKHAN (@LouisFarrakhan) October 16, 2018

Oh, what a relief!  Who likes termites?

I really, really don't care if such a hate-filled person as the Honorable (self-named) Minister Louis Farrakhan approves of me or not.  Well, actually, that's not quite true, as I prefer that a person whose ideas are so repellent

to me and to other decent people wouldn't like me.

In the recent speech Farrakhan was acting true to form. Before the first Million Man March in October 1995, he spewed similar sentiments:

Farrakhan calling some Jews and others "financial bloodsuckers" attracted much negative publicity in the days prior to the march.

Well, at least he's consistent in his hatred, as he proved during his recent anniversary celebration, gleefully spreading his bigotry beyond termites.

"To the members of the Jewish community that don't like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent," he continued.

Farrakhan was referring to the strong reaction to antisemitic comments he made in a speech in May this year when he talked of "Satanic Jews who have infected the whole world with poison and deceit."

"I can go anywhere in the world and they've heard of Farrakhan," he continued. "Thank you very much."

"I'm not mad at you because you're so stupid," he continued, apparently still addressing Jews.

"So when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, you [know] what they do, call me an antisemite.  Stop it, I'm anti-termite," he said to laughter and applause around the audience.  "I don't know nothing about hating somebody because of their religious preference."

Farrakhan has a long history of antisemitism, and made another hateful speech in February this year when he said that Jews control the US government as well as Mexico, Ukraine, France, Poland and Germany.

He also said, "When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door."  He also claimed that Jewish people are the ones responsible for "degenerate behavior in Hollywood turning men into women and women into men," and that Jews are "the mother and father of apartheid."

Wow, as Jew, I'm so powerful!  And I didn't know until Farrakhan told me!  Thanks, Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan!  I will use my newly found power to reduce the evil you embody.

The real disgrace is that so many black people allow Farrakhan – and others like him – to exploit them and enrich themselves off their problems without helping them.

Oh, and not so by the way, Twitter is complicit in Farrakhan's bigotry.  According to BuzzFeed:

Twitter will not suspend controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for a tweet comparing Jews to insects, the company said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. ...

The tweet appears to violate Twitter's proposed new policies around "dehumanizing" tweets, defined in a company blog post as "language that treats others as less than human[.] ... Examples can include comparing groups to animals and viruses (animalistic), or reducing groups to a tool for some other purpose (mechanistic)."

However, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the rules have not yet taken effect, so Farrakhan's language is not in violation of any extant policy.  The spokesperson did not give a date for when the new rule would go into effect, or if it would at all.  He did not address whether Farrakhan's tweet would be in violation were the policy in effect.

Oh no, it wouldn't be in violation of Twitter's policy because not only doesn't Twitter seem to have consistent policy, but it certainly wouldn't want to be accused of...bigotry.  Or something.  But oh.

Twitter, I really hope you don't like me either.  Actually, I prefer termites to both Farrakhan and Twitter.

Image: Tom Hilton via Flickr.