New Black Panther Party - Ras Jelani

From standing up in church at age eight to declare that Jesus was Black, to carrying Dr. Khalid Muhammad's casket through the streets of New York, Brother Jelani Ross's spiritual journey spans decades of seeking truth through various Black consciousness movements.Born to a Jamaican mother who raised him in the Rastafarian tradition, Brother Jelani takes us through his remarkable evolution—cutting off his dreadlocks to join the Nation of Islam, exploring the Five Percent Nation and Moorish Science, studying under Dr. Malachi Z York in the Nuwabian Nation, and eventually becoming the Mid-Atlantic Regional Chairman of the New Black Panther Party.What makes this conversation unique is Brother Jelani's ability to integrate seemingly different spiritual traditions into a coherent worldview. Rather than seeing each movement as separate or contradictory, he describes how they built upon one another, forming layers of understanding that have shaped his consciousness. "All the stuff that I've been a part of is still a part of me," he explains, emphasizing that knowledge is infinite and his journey has been about continually seeking and integrating new perspectives.The most powerful moments come when Brother Jelani shares his experiences with the New Black Panther Party after meeting Dr. Khalid Muhammad in 1997. He describes the discipline of standing post for hours during security details, the camaraderie among members, and the profound sense of purpose that comes with dedicated service to a cause greater than oneself. For those interested in Black liberation movements, this rare firsthand account offers insights into the practical application of spiritual principles through community organizing and activism.Join us for this profound conversation about spirituality, discipline, and the ongoing quest for Black liberation. Whether you're familiar with th

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• 14:46 (Cont.) New Black Panther Party - Ras Jelani

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

peace verse. Brother Mikey fever. Nyp talk show. Our brother Ron will be joining us soon. We got tonight our brother Jelani Ross, jelani Adiganegun, simba VA. Black Power, black Panther right. Black Hidden Chapter, if I got it correct New Black Panther Party, new Black Panther Party. Forgive me, I apologize again, my bad bro. You know it's one of those days, man, how you feeling brother, I'm feeling fine.

Speaker 2: 0:39

How about yourself, sir?

Speaker 1: 0:40

All is well, man, all is well. You see, I'm kind of on the same wavelength which I got the public enemy on. So I don't know, maybe, maybe we got something going on, man yo what's going on, yo what's going on everybody.

Speaker 3: 0:52

It's Ron Brown, lmc we already did that yo Ross Jelani. What's going on, brother? I don't know. I just came in and interrupted. What's going on? What questions you hitting with already?

Speaker 1: 1:08

No questions yet. We just started. Lisa Baptiste, what's up, ma? How you doing.

Speaker 3: 1:15

What's going on, lisa? How you doing? Let's put her on there, we go. All right now, let's go into it. Brother Jelani, how you doing? I watched the interview. I wasn't able to be here, I wasn't able to attend that night that y'all were building and, from what I know, you went through, you, you, you. You were a Rastafarian. Yeah, you came through the nation of gods and earths as well. So let's, let's unpack. Thank you, thank you, lisa. I really appreciate that for the $4.99. I really appreciate that. You already know that's going to a good cause.

Speaker 1: 1:54

The brother was a Nuwapian he mentioned also. Yes, sir, and it's not a law community partner.

Speaker 3: 1:59

Yes, sir, so I want to unpack the Rastafarianism. How did you get into the rastafarianism?

Speaker 2: 2:08

well, uh, my mother was from jamaica so I was pretty much raised rastafarian, even though my dad was from america. So there was a little uh, white jesus versus black hellish lassie. I had going on and of course I chose to stick with my culture, got kicked out of the church when I was basically eight years old. They were reading the scriptures and had like sheep's wool feet, like brass burning in the oven and at eight years old I knew that that was describing a black man and I stood up in church and told the preacher and everybody I said, all y'all going to hell. Uh, the uh picture that was given in the in the bible right, I respect that.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Don't feel bad, bro, I did the same thing too at 14 yeah, so.

Speaker 3: 3:19

So now, now, when you get into rastafarianism, can you break down the culture a little bit of Rastafarianism, because you know, for people out there who don't know, it's not about just Well, I'm going to tell you this is what I know. No disrespect to any rosters out there, no disrespect, this is all I know about Rastafarianism. Holly Selassie, that's number one. Smoking weed Right Sacrament. And no disrespect dealing with white women.

Speaker 2: 4:01

Well, yeah, we got to go in right there. Exactly, you know I was. That was never that type of roster. Find that's different.

Speaker 2: 4:14

I was raised culturally, you know, and there's a difference between you got roster and you got rascal. A lot of people never heard the word rascal before. You know what I'm saying. A rascal is like a fake roster. Basically that's what a rascal is. So if you're a roster fan, you know some go around saying one love. But when I say one love, it means one love amongst us. You know what I'm saying. Not one love for everybody. You know, because you know our culture well, the Jamaican culture we trace back to Queen Nanny of the Mountain. You know she was a Maroon of. You know she was a Maroon and her and her six brothers came from Ghana and they escaped up into the hills and they would come down and gather more people and go up in the hills to one day just came down and overpowered the British and took over the whole island. So I'm that type of roster fighter, not the type that hang out on the beach with white girls.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Right, yeah, I never seen those. That's a good thing Ron brought up. I've seen those rosters, the rosters I was raised amongst, I grew up amongst them. I believe in the nuclear family, I believe in the black woman, black man you know, the black gods. I mean the words from the Maccabees, the Apocrypha and the King James Bible. But they kept it back after. That's what they mean.

Speaker 3: 6:04

Right, hey, Mike, you got to get closer to the mic because it's like yeah, yeah, my bad, I lost my voice, my bad people.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Can you hear me now? Yeah, I hear you now, Cool, Got you.

Speaker 3: 6:14

So now that was the. So Rascals. I had never heard that terminology before, so that's the name right. You said Rascals.

Speaker 2: 6:22

Yeah, that's cutting deep when you say rascal instead of rasta. You know that's like a fake rasta. You know what I'm saying? Okay, rascal, but let's keep it funky. Bomba, clad, bomba, yeah yeah, so.

Speaker 3: 6:39

So I want to hear more about the, the, the culture, the rastafarian culture, like. What are the basic tenets?

Speaker 2: 6:47

well, I grew up worshiping uh helix celestia, who was the former emperor of ethiopia. Uh, it all had to do with a prophecy that marcus gavi has said. Mar Garvey said look to the east for the crowning of a black king, and at that time Emperor Heli-Selesai was the one being crowned as emperor, and stuff like that. You know that was in my early days. And then most people don't know you have three different sects of Rasta. Just like you got different sects of Muslims, different sects of Hebrews, they're different sects of Rasta as well. You know three main sexes, like uh bobo ashanti. Uh, you got uh ethiopian orthodox and uh you know, and your uh naya bingi naya bingi yeah yeah, okay.

Speaker 3: 7:58

So three main sex. Okay, now, can you. Can you, which sec was you a part of? Were you a part of?

Speaker 2: 8:08

well, like, uh, really I was, uh, I was dealing with uh, not being uh, that's what I was dealing with. Uh, I often incorporated some of all of them because at some point all of them cross over a little bit. Dealing with the same thing, especially dealing with Imperial Hell. As God I never called you know to a point. Well, one time I did call him Christ and I see conflict with that. Now I see conflict in even. You know, I was young, I had to learn. I worshiped a man. The man was a Christian. Basically he wasn't a Rastafarian, that was his name, he was basically a Christian. So, like I said, a lot of it was too close to Christianity for me. So then I began my travels into Islam with the Nation of Gods and Earths, the Moriss Temple Nation of Islam as well and the Ansar Allah community.

Speaker 3: 9:33

Now, OK, so now you go from Rastafarianism, then you go into the 5% Nation. Well, I went to the Nation of Islam first. You went to the Nation of Islam before the 5% Nation, yes, Okay. Now what was that like? I mean, did you have like some? How do you join the Nation? I know you have to like write a letter or something like that. You send it to somebody and then they tell you you could be a part of it. But I'm not a part of the Nation of Islam, so I don't know. So how does that go?

Speaker 2: 10:04

Yeah, you have to write a letter and receive your X and then be accepted into the mosque.

Speaker 2: 10:17

Now what made you leave the Nation of Islam? Well, like I said, I was Rastafarian at first. I went. What made me join was I went and listened to Minnesota Farrakhan right after he had came back from Libya, and then I started to join the NOI and I had to cut my locks off, and that was kind of deep for me. I cut my locks off, did what I had to do, put my bow tie on, went on the street, started selling papers. Now, what was the last question, what made me leave? Yeah, well, through my journeys, let me say this All the stuff that I've been a part of is still a part of me, but I was seeking, just constantly seeking, knowledge, and knowledge is infinite. So I kept going, uh, searching, uh seeking, you know, different stuff and adding it together and sort of led to me being, uh, becoming uh, uh universal. As a nawabi, I can say I'm universal.

Speaker 3: 11:41

Right Now, before we get there right now. You went from the Nation of Islam. You left, you went to the 5% Nation. When you went to the 5% Nation, did you have an enlightener or educator?

Speaker 2: 11:56

I did. I don't remember some of their names. It's been a while, but most of my studies, most of my studies, was on my own.

Speaker 3: 12:08

Okay, all right, there we go. Okay, cool.

Speaker 3: 12:11

I kind of see that now, now, now what, when it comes to the 5% nation, if, uh, you know, people feel like they could do that on their own and it's kind of not how it goes, really not kind of, that's just not how it goes now. Um, um, if you have it, you know, an enlightening educator is the best way to really grasp the teachings, the right way. Um, now, I just wanted to say that now, after you deal with the nation of gods and earths, you then go to the more science more science.

Speaker 3: 12:47

There we go. There we go now. Now, now, when you went to more science, you went into the temple. Now, even with more science, the best way to deal with moral science is to go to a temple or study under someone who is regarded as you know. They know a lot right, so to speak. But I would say from my experience, the best way to go about it is to go to a temple. So now, did you go to a temple or did you study under someone, or did you study by yourself?

Speaker 2: 13:19

Well, both I studied by myself, I studied with other people. I did go to the temple because I received my card nationality card as well.

Speaker 3: 13:35

And this was in Virginia. In Virginia, yes, okay. And this is in Virginia. In Virginia, yes, okay, and in Virginia. Do you remember what temple this was?

Speaker 2: 13:48

Well, they had like a bookstore where they was functioning out of and that was the store that was called Conscious Planet and that was the store that was called Conscious Planet. I was going to that bookstore and to the temple that was functioning out of that bookstore Got you, got you, got you.

Speaker 3: 14:46

So you had the Circle 7 and you had the 101s, and then you had the Morris literature.

Speaker 1: 14:57

Yes.

Speaker 3: 15:00

I still got it. You got your button on your lapel and all that, okay, cool. And how long did you stay in that school at Thor?

Speaker 2: 15:09

I stayed there about maybe a year and then I went to the Ansar Law community, which I stayed the longest in, the Anzal Law community, and then we went through other schools as well, leading up to now.

Speaker 3: 15:29

So I stayed with the teachings of the master teacher up until now, okay, so you're talking about the Master Teacher, as in Dr Malachi Z York. So what attracted you more? What attracted you to Malachi Z York's teachings the most?

Speaker 2: 15:52

Well, like I say, I was rastafarian. The first book I read was Ishali Selassiei Christ.

Speaker 1: 16:02

He didn't have a scroll on that.

Speaker 2: 16:03

yeah, Right and it just broke down the whole thing. And I'm looking at myself like, after, I'm checking out everything he's saying, I'm looking at myself like what am I doing? You know what I'm saying? This man was a Christian. He didn't really, he's not a Christ, a Messiah. You know what I'm saying. So, and no offense to the rosters, because I know how deep it go, but just you know my journey and my enlightenment to the rosters because I know how deep it go, but it's just you know my journey and my enlightenment. So I mean, there was a lot of stuff that made sense and how he went against the Mahdi of the Sudan, and you know it was just a lot to it. A lot of people don't know that he went against the mati and sudan, uh as well. So, uh, you know that comes from reading and researching stuff like that as well okay, now, now, you, you, you get into the new op.

Speaker 3: 17:14

Now, when you go into the new bobby. And now here's something's something that none of you know. This is exclusive information. I'm just bringing it to you today. Hold on, I can't really hear myself. I'm just bringing it to y'all. Today I actually joined the Nuwabian Nation. Word Ron.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Yeah, rahul Bhatt, you never told me that, really, ron.

Speaker 3: 17:38

No, but hold on, it wasn't even that long. They gave me my name. It didn't make sense so I didn't do it. I said that name does make. They slapped that together. I'm turning this way. I stopped because like my thing was like, okay, what they named me was Assure Something. That was so long ago. Assure Something. And then they put trainer in there, like a trainer. Yeah, they put like a physical trainer, even though back then I was how would that be a part of my name? I didn't understand that.

Speaker 2: 18:21

That was like an attribute that fits you.

Speaker 3: 18:25

Yeah, but it just didn't make sense to me, because I'm looking for something like something that's sovereign Like this is why.

Speaker 3: 18:34

Yeah, like something more, maybe African-Arab, arabic kind of sounding or something like that, and they say trainer. I said oh nah, and then so I didn't go, I didn't follow through with it. I focus mainly in my studies 5% teachers and more science. Those are my two. It's mainly in my studies. 5% teachers in moral science those are my two, and I studied a little bit of masonry, but my main two that I focused on was the 5% teachers in moral science. But that's a little secret. I tried the Nuwabian Nation before. Now, when you get your name, when you get your name joining the Nuwabian Nation, and then what happens afterwards.

Speaker 2: 19:25

Well, I had to reach to that point. So my first name that I received from Malachi Z York was my Morris name, which is Naya Akum El, which means that El Elo will establish. Later on, my name became Huni Zoza, which is my Egyptian name. So I have maybe like four different names. A lot of people know me by different names. The Muslims know me as Hanif Amir, hanif Abdullah Muhammad and, of course, my Rastafarian name, which is Raz Jelani Adegun Semba, which is my legal name wait a minute, that's your legal name.

Speaker 3: 20:29

Yes, wow, so your mom, your dad named you that there was a little, oh, I get Mom.

Speaker 2: 20:38

your dad named you that there was a little.

Speaker 3: 20:41

Oh, I get what you're saying. I know what you're about to say, right.

Speaker 2: 20:45

By him being a Christian and her being a Rasta. That is the name that she had for me. So I later on changed it to what it was supposed to be. Got it Makes sense, Makes sense. So I later on changed it to what it was supposed to be Got.

Speaker 3: 20:58

It Makes sense, makes sense. So now you're from, now you get into the Nuwabian Nation. What was the first thing you do joining the Nuwabian Nation?

Speaker 2: 21:13

What's the first thing you do? You know, you got your name, you got your. What's the first book you got? Well, basically, you know, in the Nuwabian Nation, like I said, I go back to the Ansar Alláh days. So even in the Ansar Alláh days we was considered shortly after we was considered the United Nawabi Nation the most. So I tie all of it in together, all of it in together. So, when I got into the Asa'ala community, like I said, the first, well, the first book I read before I got in was Israel and Celestial Christ. And then I began reading Leviathan 666, year 2000,. What they Expect, part 1, part 2. And you know, even before then in the SRL community, we had like way a bunch of scrolls before we even got to year 2000, what they Expect. You know, leviathan 666 was like revised maybe three or four times or something like that. And the crazy thing about that is it always had Trump's face on the cover. As the head of the beast, as the head of Leviathan. It always had Trump's face up there.

Speaker 1: 22:36

So that got to do with, uh, some of the time that we're in right now I have a question were you part of when they went to the whole nubian hebrew, something like that?

Speaker 2: 22:46

yes, uh, nubian islamic hebrews. Uh, htm. Holy tabernacle ministries. Yeah, uh, ministries. Egyptian Church of Keras. I was in the order of the ancient mystical order of Melchizedek, sons of the Green Light, amun All of the orders I've been a part of as well.

Speaker 1: 23:18

It was too much going on at the time. Just looking at it, I'm like yo, it's like every three to six months. There was like a shift.

Speaker 2: 23:26

That was a part of the journey, though it was from 1970 to 2000. We went on something that was called a long walk on a short path, and within that time period we were supposed to learn a certain amount of knowledge to be able to teach by the time the year 2000 came around to be able to teach classes. 2000 came around to be able to teach classes. That's what I do. The first and second Sunday of the month is teach classes.

Speaker 3: 24:06

Wait, we're going to get there. Okay, you had something to say, go ahead, yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:12

I teach the YBN classes the first and second Sunday of the month. I run my Panther meetings the second and third I mean the third and fourth Sundays of the month.

Speaker 3: 24:27

Okay, Now you know, what I noticed from like brothers from the New Wabian Nation is that they have this so like super calm, Zen demeanor. How is it that a lot of them, a lot of a lot of them, a lot of the brothers and sisters from the Nuwabian Nation has this Zen calm demeanor? Where does that come from? Do you guys all meditate? What is the daily practice of a Nuwabian?

Speaker 2: 25:02

Yeah, the daily practice. Basically, you know it's meditation, prayers, chants. There we go Different stuff. Here we go Different stuff. Okay, boom, practicing the hajj, the language, you know, just living it. Reading the books, reading the. You know the scrolls, the of rocks, the, uh, master secrets, actual facts. You know what I'm saying? Uh, becoming more knowledgeable, uh, right.

Speaker 3: 25:47

So so now on it, like you know how a muslim, they, they pray five times a day. Five percenters deal with the mathematics, and 120 on a daily basis. Right, the, the day's degree, right, the, uh, the moors, um, they read the circle seven. They have, you know, uh, uh, friday meetings. They have sunday meet. They have meetings, uh, sunday meetings, um, what is the culture like for the nuwabians? So do you get up in the morning, do you pray, or do you get up in the morning and you chant? Like how does the format work?

Speaker 2: 26:32

Well, we chant at certain times during the day and you know, read our scrolls, study.

Speaker 3: 26:41

Now would you say you're one of the most disciplined Nuwabians. You know, or do you know people who are way more disciplined than you? I?

Speaker 2: 26:52

know people who are way more disciplined than me. What makes me different is I'm sincere in whatever I do. There may be people that know more than me, but if I'm in something I'm sincere about it. I'm not saying I'm the one that's in it that knows everything. You know what I'm saying. There are people that know way more than me. My hat goes off to them. I'm on my journey and they're on their journey. Actual fact.

Speaker 3: 27:29

Got you Actual fact. Can you take us through any of the chants, or is that private?

Speaker 2: 27:39

I don't want to.

Speaker 1: 27:41

It's private, I don't want to go there.

Speaker 2: 27:44

It's private. I don't want to go there, it's private.

Speaker 3: 27:50

Tamika in the building. Islam Mo. We got the Mo in the building.

Speaker 1: 27:56

So you said so you started, how long, how long you stayed in the journey? You say what year did you join the NSAR? So I know that's probably back in the eighties. Right, yeah, that was back in the eighties. Wait, back in the eighties, you look like my old age?

Speaker 3: 28:07

How old?

Speaker 1: 28:08

are you.

Speaker 2: 28:13

Let's just say black little crap.

Speaker 1: 28:17

So you basically so that means you studied for a while then.

Speaker 3: 28:20

Yeah man. Damn. Hold on, hold on, hold on. You've been studying since then, yeah, before then, yeah, that's crazy. So yo we babysitting this guy right here, yeah definitely.

Speaker 1: 28:36

I'm just curious to know, like you know, being that with the whole situation with Malakazi you're being incarcerated, all these students of his, the movement should still be thriving. It's like once he went away, some people just like they just gave up and say you know, we focus on him instead of you know doing things to continue the mission, you know picking up and keeping it moving.

Speaker 2: 28:58

Yeah Well, you know the mission is still thriving. Of course we want him free and out the mission, the mission continues. Of course we want him free and out the mission continues. You know, we'll get to that point. We'll get to that point one day. There are many out there who think we won't get to that point.

Speaker 3: 29:26

But those of us who know know. Now I want to talk about the uh, the new black panther party. You said that you met. I think you even met or saw that. No, you had a conversation with dr clare, right?

Speaker 2: 29:43

yes, I met him. Uh, I was in the asullah community. I was selling oils and incense and books and Dr Khalid Muhammad walked up and we had a conversation. So I had been studying him already before I met him. And when I met him and when I met him, it was just like. It was like wow, like, like blew my mind. So there was a point where I had to exit the anti-law community and I became a member of the new Black Panther Party and that doesn't mean that I wasn't still Ansar Allah, because I was still studying and everything. So I was studying my Black nationalism as well. As you know our community, which to me is Black nationalism too, because you know it is If a man built, you know, as many nations as he did, how can we say that that's not Black nationalism? Nationalism, the root word is nation.

Speaker 3: 31:12

That's a fact. That's a fact. So now you meet Dr Khalid, you have this conversation, you join the new Black Panther Party and then I remember being a part of the new Black Panther Party. I'm going to say every time I have anybody from the new Black Panther Party on, I'm going to probably repeat it every single time.

Speaker 3: 31:33

The new Black Panther Party was a experience I had that changed my life, because it made me understand what discipline, true discipline, true discipline felt and looked like the things that we had to do, especially if you were set to be security for that day, if you had to be security, you were on post and you were standing at attention pretty much for a long period of time. Eating wasn't all that important at that moment. You know what I'm saying. For hours you drink your water, you might catch a banana or whatever, right, but also dedication. I learned a lot about what dedication was about discipline and dedication.

Speaker 3: 32:40

Now, in the new black panther party, when I was a part of it, we would go to Trenton and we would go out there and build with Devon Devon, brother Devon, a lot, brother Devon, a lot. We would go there. Now, this is what changed my life at this point Now. First of all, you gotta wear your BDUs right I'm in them right now, exactly right, and it don't matter how hot it is. And them boots, they're not comfortable at first.

Speaker 3: 33:17

Now, this is the deep thing about the new Black Panther Party the boots are not comfortable. The BDUs is not all that comfortable either, but guess what? The purpose, the purpose threw all out of the window. Once you realize your purpose and your mission and you had a team, family with you, helping you along and the camaraderie, all that, my feet, the BDUs, like that, I didn't even think about that anymore. And there was a point too where, in New York, under Shaka Shakur because I was rocking with Shaka Shakur, sister Khadijah, brother Hannibal Free, brother Hannibal, free Brother Hannibal, and I already know you then we got to have met brother Hannibal, free, brother Hannibal, free brother Hannibal, um and um.

Speaker 2: 34:08

I already know you. Then we got to have met we. We had to we had to.

Speaker 3: 34:14

We had to have met. Yeah, we had to. So all the right names, exactly. So now that experience, right, like just that. I forgot where I was before you said that, but anyway, I'm going to continue on with my experience. The Vine of Law we go out there. It changed my life, changed my whole perspective, because he sat us down and we had to sit down and watch videos. The video that we were watching was about COINTELPRO. He put us in a place, turned the lights off or not off, or down. He turned them down and we're watching a video on COINTELPRO. Just the whole experience.

Speaker 1: 35:11

Ambience yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:12

It's the ambience, the gear, the camaraderie. The whole program is on some soldiers.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Invoke that spirit out of you.

Speaker 3: 35:24

Bro, I learned how to check people for weapons in a whole nine, bro. That experience I'm not going to lie man the Black Panther experience, new Black Panther experience, the way I learned it, if it could be implemented in other groups, it'd be, that'd be.

Speaker 1: 35:47

Why are we doing that with Paul, when I told you I did the Hebrews with lights when I was in PA, the same thing he's like do a drill line and all that.

Speaker 3: 35:56

You don't want that on camera. That's not. Here's the thing, though. I'm going to tell you this too. And more is science. I don't know if I I'm going to tell you this too. And Morris science I don't know if I I'm going to just say it. I went through something like a MIT kind of training thing. Right, it was similar to the new black Panther party program. It was. It's almost the same. That's the thing about it. Like a lot of these groups, they have more similarities than they have differences. And it's so crazy like it's. If you can see in my brain, I see the connection with it all. You could all easily come together and be like, oh, y'all do that too. Yeah, we do that. Yeah, yeah, we do that too. And we do, yeah, y'all do that too. Yeah, we do that. Yeah, yeah, we do that too. And we do, yeah, yeah, y'all do that too. Yeah, it's all already connected. It's just we have some kind of issue with unity. On top of it's also politics involved as well. That's why it's all ideologies bro.

Speaker 3: 37:06

Exactly so to move forward. When you became a part of the new Black Panther Party, did you have that same experience I had?

Speaker 2: 37:18

Yes, and more Like when I met Khalid Muhammad, that was in 1997. So I'm going to tell my age in a minute more, when I met Khalid Muhammad, that was in 1997. I'm going to tell my age in a minute. He's been around. I'm telling you, bro, he's been around. Man, my birthday is mine, but I'm going to tell my age in a minute. I might as well go and say I'm not a scientist. I'll be 56 tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 37:45

You don't look like it, bro. Damn Good diet man man, good jeans, black don't crack.

Speaker 3: 37:52

Black, don't crack man them chants he be doing man. I want to know what that was doing over there.

Speaker 1: 37:59

I met Ron at Black Panther Black Panther rally. That's how we linked up. I was with the Panthers. It's crazy, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:06

Yeah, yeah, that's how we linked up. I was with the Panthers. It's crazy. Yeah, side of Chicago, hands off Side of Chicago.

Speaker 1: 38:10

Yeah, that's what's up.

Speaker 3: 38:14

So you had similar experience right. So you went through that whole. So you were security, you were on post Right.

Speaker 2: 38:22

Right, I do a lot of security here now. I did a lot of security in the past being on post. Almost every lecturer has came through Norfolk.

Speaker 3: 38:39

Brother, we got to talk about them posts right now we have done posts. So when you had a lecture and you were on post, you're not moving.

Speaker 2: 38:51

Well, I am, because I'm considered the officer of the day most of the time. Oh right, right right. So I'm on the move while everybody else is stationed there.

Speaker 3: 39:00

Brother that is insane. Real quick story, real quick story. I forgot to say this. This is where I was missing.

Speaker 3: 39:10

Went to MIT training and um, uh, uh, uh, uh, more science, right, Um, and I forgot where it was, man, it was somewhere, jersey, jersey, right, brother, I thought it was just. You know the ties and the fez, and you know we just go in there, we just go. You know, read the circle seven and da-da-da-da, no, no, they put on them BDUs. No, no, no. Even though they had different colors, it wasn't no BDU, it was just a suit, right, right. But Now it's hot as hell in this spot, though, and you got a suit on Right. You're standing up, standing up for a long, long training, bro, like it's subtle. It's like subtle training, like it's brilliant, brother, it's brilliant Like that. Morris signs MIT, a Mufti in training, mit, a Mufti in training. You know what I mean. That experience was one of the best experiences I've had, aside from the new Black Panther Party training. Maybe I should have been in the Army or something, I don't know. I just like that kind of training.

Speaker 2: 40:20

I understand what you're saying, bro. The longest I ever stood post was at Khalid Muhammad's funeral. His funeral was long, bro, like I still post almost the whole time. How many hours was that? Maybe, like I'm thinking like 18, 20, something like that. Like like his funeral was. I can't say how long it was it had to be like maybe three hours.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Well, I still posted for a long time without with even carrying the casket through New York and stuff like that as well. You know what I'm saying. All that is considered. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3: 41:03

Right, you had to carry the casket.

Speaker 2: 41:06

Being on post, I was able to be one of the ones to help carry the casket through New York and you know we carried that up on our shoulders Right. So I was there when Afrika Bambaataa and some other rappers came through and paid homage. As a matter of fact, I was standing right beside the casket when Malik took a button. One of these took it off of me and placed it on Khalid Muhammad's uniform, as he was in the casket, and that button went to the casket, to the grave with him.

Speaker 1: 41:57

Powerful.

Speaker 3: 41:58

So you're holding posts for hours. So now your experience with the New Black Panther Party. You join the New Black Panther Party. You join the New Black Panther Party and you become, I guess, a regional chairman of the regional chairman in Virginia. So how did you get that position?

Speaker 2: 42:21

Well, I became. I joined in 1997. I joined under somebody else. The guy's name was Michael Muhammad. So under Michael Muhammad we were under Dr Khalid Abdul Muhammad, because he was still alive. He didn't pass away until 2001. Still alive, he didn't pass away until 2001. So after he passed away in 2001, michael Muhammad stepped down. There wasn't too many of us here. I had grasped a lot of stuff from Michael Muhammad, but more so from Khalid Muhammad, from doing maneuvers with Khalid Muhammad to the point where I was able to Virginia first before I became a regional chairman. It was years later when I became the mid-Atlantic regional chairman for the NBPP, and I don't think I have been I think that's been within the last two or three years East Coast on recruitment missions for the new Black Panther Party, so that we can rebuild our legacy and try to bring it back to the point where, when we had morals, you know, when we was under Khalid Muhammad, we was in our prime, and so this needs to be brought back as well, as the people that love Khalid Muhammad just need to come back together, because Khalid Muhammad was no, he was in the Nation of Islam, but when he became a new Black Panther Party national chairman.

Speaker 2: 44:48

This was his organization, the NBPP, the NBPP, the New Black Panther Party. So there are people that love Khalil Muhammad and are not in the New Black Panther Party, and we just want to bring the love of Khalid and keep his legacy alive and the legacy of the new Black Panther Party, because this is the organization that he was in. There are people that have went off and started other organizations, but a lot of them organizations split off from the new Black Panther Party. We need to bring everybody home to the MBPP. We need to have one strong new Black Panther Party, not all these splits. And you know different groups, you know what I'm saying so.

Speaker 3: 45:44

You're saying they're like different factions of the MBPP.

Speaker 2: 45:51

Yeah, due to misunderstandings. Yeah, a few different factions of the MBPP.

Speaker 1: 45:59

Yeah, I believe we spoke about that last time. There's alliances as well.

Speaker 2: 46:03

I don't want to dub their name wrong with the, in fact a little separate, but it's kind of like the mbpp right yeah, well, when you say, in fact, that's uh not effing around coalition and within a coalition you have people from other organizations as well, and the mbpp as well, oh, all right gotcha.

Speaker 3: 46:23

Yeah, okay, and and and. So the misunderstandings. You know, abdullah and Yassiril, last week, wednesday, we were talking about etymology and things and he was talking about the. I think it's called the I forgot the name of it but it's basically your tongue's connection to your brain and how you pronounce words and pronunciation and things like that. And what was spoken on was you know the fact that Black people, so to speak quote unquote has. You know, a lot of us come from poor education, us come from poor education. I'm speaking, you know, primarily here in America. A lot of us come from poor education, poor educational backgrounds, and when we communicate with one another, we don't understand how the English language should go so that we have better communication without so much discord. You know what I mean Language is art.

Speaker 2: 47:35

Exactly. It's also, you know, from my perspective. You know is part of a spell. You know, when you start talking about the English language, you start with spelling, and the root word of spelling is spell. So you know, we are in our oppressor's language and we're casting spells on each other in our oppressor's language. This is why we have to get to the point where we have our own. I'm a Nuwabi, I'm going to say our own lahaj, which means language. So we have our own lahaj within the Nuwabi community. We have our own lahaj and it's on different tones and vibrations, so that we don't have to speak English all the time. We can talk to each other in different tones and vibrations and that cuts out a lot of the confusion within the English language.

Speaker 3: 48:45

Hold on, hold on. Ok, I like that right there, brother, I like that right there. So now in Virginia, where is the new Black Panther Party going? Now, would you say, the numbers are up, are they down? How about nationally? Are the numbers up or are they down nationally?

Speaker 2: 49:09

Well, the numbers are going up. Nationally, Even locally, the numbers are going up. You know all the time you're doing it. There are members that wear the uniform, there are members that don't wear the uniform. When we go out on certain maneuvers, we know who members and who not Everybody looking at the people in uniform. But there are other members there as well and we move like that for specific reasons. I can say that without giving too much away.

Speaker 1: 49:51

I have a question though, being that you know, in the history of what COINTELPRO, the effects of it upon Black people and the Black Panthers and other movements, have you guys mastered a way to counter that completely, how to counter the counterintelligence program? Have they built up a strong defense against the immunity, against that?

Speaker 2: 50:10

Well, you can never master it completely. You can do background checks and you can weed people out with the. If they can't stick to the rules and regulations and the bylaws and stuff like that, you can weed them out. Most of the time they'll weed themselves out. You know, if a person's an agent they'll try to do as much more they try to do more right than anybody else, basically. But you know you can't be scared of the agents, because agents get converted too, and I learned that when I was down in Edenton, georgia.

Speaker 2: 50:58

I couldn't prove that nobody was an FBI agent, but I get that gut feeling. They were there. Some of them knew the doctrine more than me, better than me, just like I'm pretty sure there are some Panthers who know more than me as a Panther, and some of these people are not sincere. You know, some of these people are Asians, but I'm not quick to call a person an Asian because a lot of these people are just too stupid to be Asians. You know what I'm saying. They're on the same. I don't want to use the N-word, but they're on that stuff. Gotcha, gotcha.

Speaker 1: 51:41

Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 51:46

Now is this like as being a regional chairman, you get you, you get pretty, you're privy to a large network on that position, in that position. So you know, um, this is like a full-time kind of situation. You got here, or how's this work?

Speaker 2: 52:07

Yeah, it's definitely full-time. I have my local work that I have to do, I have my regional work that I have to do and also national work because I've been in the organization so long. I was grandfathered in to national as well, without even holding really holding a national position, but I'm sort of there like a advisor because of the experience in the new Black Panther Party, and when I say that I'm talking about the national central committee of the new black Panther Party.

Speaker 3: 52:53

Now, before we close, you know I just want to, you know, propose this to you. You know, the next time you come up, I want you to, you know, build a little bit more about the new black Panther Party and also the new audience. Teaching like whatever, whatever you can share with the public and, you know, information that they may need or even get inspired to to join the new Black Panther Party. For instance, I'm going to tell anybody you know that's like you joining the new Black Panther Party under the right leadership. You going through some good training. You know that's like you joining the new Black Panther Party under the right leadership. You're going through some good training, some good, really good training. I'm an advocate for going into the new Black Panther Party, so maybe you could, you could talk about that, you know.

Speaker 2: 53:40

Yeah, let's, let's. Let's do two shows. Let's separate it. Let's do one on the white man, one on the new Black Panther Party. That's peace. Let's do that. Let's do two shows. Let's separate that.

Speaker 3: 53:47

Let's do one on the white man, one on the new black Panther party. That's peace. Let's do that, let's do that. On that note, brother, we will have this brother back up, a regional chairman of the new black Panther party, ross Jelani. Thank you for coming out this evening. We really appreciate you, brother, and we are out of here. Peace.

Speaker 1: 54:06

Black power, black power.