Giornalismo, retorica, corruzione e Africa
Louis Farrakhan è un personaggio, per usare un eufemismo, molto controverso: è uno dei leader storici della Nation of Islam, il movimento religioso più estremista dei neri d’America, che predica idee come la separazione dei neri dai bianchi in uno stato indipendente, e che racconta che il suo profeta fondatore, incarnazione di Allah, nel 1934 è assurto su un UFO che da allora gira invisibilmente attorno alla Terra. E’ anche considerato il mandante morale dell’omicidio di Malcolm X, considerato troppo moderato.
Tuttavia, anche se un po’ datata, la sua risposta all’intervistatore di 60 Minutes che gli chiede della corruzione in Nigeria e nei paesi africani è uno dei momenti tipicamente alti del giornalismo americano: da una parte un giornalista che non si fa problemi a fare domande dirette e imbarazzanti e ad insistere senza farsi impressionare dalla retorica, e dall’altra una risposta carismatica che, pur arrivando pericolosamente vicina alla legge di Godwin, grida “pwned” da tutte le parti.
Naturalmente, su Facebook il video è pieno di commenti esultanti ed orgogliosi da parte di nigeriani…
Wallace: You go to Nigeria, which is, if not the most corrupt nation in Africa, and it is, it could be the most corrupt nation in the world, Minister Farrakhan…
Farrakhan: Oh, now, Mister Wallace!
Wallace: …it is the most corrupt nation that I have ever covered, I’ve been there 25 years ago and I’ve been there as recently as last year.
Farrakhan: Fine! So what? 35 years old! That’s what that nation is. Now here’s America, 226 years old, you love democracy, but there in Africa, you’re trying to force these people into a system of government that you just have accepted – 30 years ago, black folk got the right to vote. You’re not in any moral position to tell anybody how corrupt they are. You should be quiet, and let those of us who know our people go there and help them to get out of that condition, but America should keep her mouth shut wherever there is a corrupt regime, as much hell as America has raised on the Earth. No, I will not allow America, or you Mr. Wallace, to condemn them as the most corrupt nation on Earth, when you have spilled the blood of human beings. Has Nigeria dropped an atomic bomb, and killed people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Have they killed off millions of native Americans? How dare you put yourself in that position as a moral judge? I think you should keep quiet, because with that much blood on America’s hands you have no right to speak. I will speak, because I don’t have that blood on my hands. Yes there is corruption there, yes there is mismanagement of resources, yes there is abuse, there’s abuse in every nation on Earth including this one! So let’s not play holy or moralize on them, let’s help them.
Wallace: I’m not moralizing, I’m asking a question, and I’ve got an answer.
Farrakhan: Why would you put it as the most corrupt regime in the world? That doesn’t make sense.
Wallace: Can you think of one more corrupt?
Farrakhan: Yeah, I’m living in one. I’m living in one, yes! You’ve done a hell of a thing on this Earth, so you should not be the one to talk. You should be quiet, when it comes to moral condemnation.
[tags]intervista, giornalismo, farrakhan, wallace, 60 minutes, america, neri, razzismo, islam, corruzione, africa, nigeria[/tags]
