Black Muslims Disrupt the Grammys, Dedicate Song to President “Agent Orange”
No question, the most political moment of the 2017 Grammy awards came when A Tribe Called Quest performed their hit song, “The People.” Busta Rhymes a long time Native Tongues collaborator with Tribe dedicated the performance to President “Agent Orange,” and “The Cheeto” for his, “failed attempt at a Muslim ban.” As Tribe took the stage they smashed through a literal and symbolic wall and filled the stage with a diverse group of people of color, to go with the songs political refrain, “All you black folks you must go… All you Mexicans you must go, Muslims and Gays, boy we hate your ways.”
While the viral Grammy moment has quickly been written about all over the world what every story fails to mention is that two of the four ATCQ members (Ali Shahed Muhammad and Q-Tip aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed), as well as Busta Rhymes, are Muslims. If they were Muslims of any other race this would have been the headline as we made as a point of emphasis above.
The media in the age of the “War on Terror,” over the last fifteen years has systematically ignored and erased Black Muslims from the mainstream view of Islam in America. This despite the fact that Black Muslims still make up the largest (and first) racial group of Muslims in the United States. That is of course if you don’t use white supremacist influenced fact sheets on Muslims that would call Arabs and people of Indian descent White.
As Chance the Rapper so beautifully represented Black Christianity with his performance and acceptance speech at the Grammys, so too did A Tribe Called Quest represent the beautiful, and radical Black Muslim tradition. A tradition that lived in the media with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, but a voice that has been largely stamped out by media who knows the power of its influence when what they are selling is lies. Lies and the demonization of Muslims as perpetually foreign to the United States, a reality that is in almost every way as responsible for the Muslim ban as the hand that singed it. As Tribe so eloquently reminded us with their performance, RESIST!
