Farrakhan Chides Obama, Rips GOP and Romney in Charlotte

Speaking in Charlotte on Sunday, Louis Farrakhan had this advice for President Barack Obama:

Fight.

“Mr. President, you’ve got to realize you’re fighting for your presidential life,” the leader of the Nation of Islam told an estimated gathering of 6,000 at Bojangles’ Coliseum. “You’re fighting for your vision of the Democratic Party and the country.”

In marking the 17th anniversary of his 1995 Million Man March on Washington, D.C., Farrakhan was scheduled to talk about the economy and a Muslim “blueprint for ending need and want.”

But with the Nov. 6 election three weeks away, the 79-year-old Muslim leader changed his mind, instead offering advice to the president and country, describing a United States still ruptured by race.

Then Farrakhan spent two hours hammering at racial — some critics will call them racist — themes.

To begin, the highly controversial Farrakhan accused Republicans of having “overt” racist motives in their opposition to Obama, the country’s first black president. He attacked a political process that he says is controlled by monied interests and wants “to keep America white.”

{snip}

He said he thinks Obama and his advisers worried about the president appearing like “an angry black man” [at the presidential debate]. The reasoning: “You can’t go out there and beat up on a white man. You’re going to lose the white vote.”

He then turned his comments back to the president.

“You aren’t going to win any more white votes by being kind and gracious,” he said. “Be a little black.”

{snip}

He also addressed an audience largely absent from the event: white America.

“What have I done that you could hate me so?” he said.

He then answered his own question with harsh words that had the arena on its feet: “You can’t buy me, and you can’t make me into your n — — -.”

Farrakhan’s audience was largely local but drew African-Americans from across the country — old and young, Muslim and Christian, dark suits and elegant dresses, sweatshirts and jeans. {snip}

He was backed on stage by family members, out-of-town African-American Muslim leaders and several of Charlotte’s prominent black religious and political figures, including NAACP President Kojo Nantambu, the Rev. Dwayne Walker, pastor of Little Rock AME Zion Church, and Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake.

{snip}

He spoke of rising tide of diversity that America must embrace or “you will die. But you won’t take us down with you.”