In this provocative book, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the most outspoken critic of the civil-rights establishment in America today, lays bare its corrupt leadership, courageously taking aim at the bigest names?Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, among others?claiming they are nothing more than scam artists profiting off the hatred and disorder they foster in the black community. Peterson insists it's time to throw off the oppression of the established black leadership and stand for the American ideals of freedom, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and moral principle.

SCAM

NELSON CURRENT

Contents

Foreword..........................................................................ixIntroduction......................................................................xiii1. Blacks Need No Leaders.........................................................12. The New "Massa"s...............................................................183. Blacks Are Not Suffering Due to Racism.........................................384. A Church and Liquor Store on Every Corner......................................555. Instead of Reparations, How About a Ticket Back to Africa?.....................696. White Fear.....................................................................857. Repudiating Jesse Jackson......................................................958. Louis Farrakhan, American Hitler...............................................1139. Al Sharpton, Riot King.........................................................12410. Boycotting the NAACP..........................................................13211. The Father's Role in the Family...............................................14912. The Attack on the Man.........................................................16313. Why Black Women Are So Mean...................................................17214. Save the Children.............................................................18215. How Black America Shall Overcome..............................................190Afterword.........................................................................204Acknowledgments...................................................................219Notes.............................................................................221Index.............................................................................231About the Author..................................................................235

Chapter One

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The day of the leader must end-the dawn of the individual must arise

Black Americans do not need the kind of self-appointed leaders they currently have. I don't recall the entire black race in this country taking a national vote to elect Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, the NAACP, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Congressional Black Caucus, or liberal black preachers as our leaders, yet they've seized the mantle of leadership and claim to speak for all blacks in this nation.

Their leadership, however, has proven to be disastrous. These arrogant elitists have given us a continuous diet of racism, paranoia, affirmative action programs, and higher welfare checks; and many display little or no personal integrity in their own lives.

These self-proclaimed leaders have helped grow a welfare system that has resulted in the elimination of the black man as head of the family and placed the government as the "daddy" in most black families today. As a result, civil rights leaders have become the head of the people.

Nearly 70 percent of all black children are born out of wedlock. The welfare system was originally set up to pay recipients money for each child, so this provided incentives for welfare moms to have more children rather than to care for those they already have. (The Welfare Reform Act passed in 1996 has helped encourage moms to get off of welfare, but this process is far from over.)

Current black leaders preach racial hatred and welfare dependency, not peace and independence. They earn their fat salaries by stirring up the racial pot and portraying blacks as the hopeless victims of racism. Unfortunately, most blacks have accepted these men and women as their new slave masters and have allowed these individuals to speak for them. We don't need their leadership.

It is a dangerous thing for a person to blindly put himself under the leadership of any man or woman. Blacks who allow themselves to be led around like sheep by the likes of Jesse Jackson are forfeiting their independence and free will. These leaders almost inevitably exploit their followers. These current black leaders tell blacks how to think, whom to vote for, and how to live their lives.

By preaching race hatred and the cleverly packaged ideology of socialism, these leaders have convinced millions of blacks that white America owes them special treatment: welfare checks, affirmative action programs, and even different grading systems in our nation's universities. Black educators have even created a fictional Afrocentrist history that pushes phony notions of black racial superiority in our nation's schools. Other educators have devised what they call critical race theory, which claims that there's no such thing as objective reality-that "rationality" is simply a tool of white males and is designed to oppress minorities.

Black preachers who have been seduced by these deadly attitudes and political philosophies are perpetuating a cycle of hatred and violence within the black community. They, too, have given up any reason or logic in their preaching and simply parrot the latest politically correct opinions from the Jacksons and Sharptons.

These pastors maintain control of their congregations by instilling a sense of fear in them. Black churchgoers are told that if they challenge the preacher, they're sinning against God. This fear-based manipulation keeps black churchgoers under the domination of these preachers who line their pockets with the tithes of their cult-like followers.

I frequently have black preachers on my daily radio program and have debated them in public forums and on TV. I have seen firsthand how they react when their ideas are challenged. They typically resort to name-calling, accusing me of being condemnatory and judgmental, and incorrectly citing Scripture to chastise me. Every now and then, they even accuse me of being an "Uncle Tom" or a "house nigger"-anything to dodge dealing with facts.

Several years ago, I interviewed the Rev. Leonard Jackson, a pastor at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles. I challenged Jackson to explain why his church and its senior pastor Cecil Murray were handing out "AIDS Prevention" packets to church members when these packets contained condoms. I was astonished by his reply. He denied that his church was telling its members, in essence, "Here's a condom-go out and have sex out of wedlock." But then he justified the condom distribution program by saying that AIDS is a major health problem and there are people who will choose to have sex outside of marriage.

By passing out condoms to his flock, Rev. Murray and his staff members are sinning against their congregation and their surrounding community. They should be preaching abstinence-not giving mixed messages to their churchgoers about sexuality and immoral behavior. When you hand a condom to a church member, you're saying it's okay to engage in unsafe sexual behaviors outside of marriage.

This lax attitude about sex should come as no surprise. Rev. Murray's church is a Hollywood celebrity church. In addition, Murray is a long-time supporter of Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson.

When it was discovered that Jesse Jackson had fathered an illegitimate child with his secret mistress, Cecil Murray responded with these words: "His enemies will have a weapon, but his friends will have...