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But I know what I'm seeing in America. And because I see that black people, Sylvester, in the intellectual fields and professional fields are not going to be free until there is a new relationship with the Jewish community, then I feel that what I'm saying has to ultimately break that relationship.
Just like they felt it necessary to break my relationship with the Black Caucus, I feel it absolutely necessary to break the old relationship of the black intellectual and professional with the Jewish community and restructure it along lines of reciprocity, along lines of fairness and equity.
Q. TIME: How much does this black/Jewish controversy actually wind up hurting black people?
A. Farrakhan: I did not recognize the degree to which Jews held control over black professionals, black intellectuals, black entertainers, black sports figures; Khallid did not lie when he said that.
My ultimate aim is the liberation of our people. So if we are to be liberated, it's good to see the hands that are holding us. And we need to sever those hands from holding us that we may be a free people, that we may enter into a better relationship with them than we presently have.
So yes, in one sense it's a loss, but in the ultimate sense it's a gain. Because when I saw that, I recognized that the black man will never be free until we address the problem of the relationship between blacks and Jews.
Q. TIME: If you could tell the readers of Time magazine anything you want to tell them about Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam, what would you say to them, or do you even care?
A. Farrakhan: Of course I care.
I would hope that the American people and black people would give us a chance to speak to them not on a 30-second sound bite or not even through Time magazine or any other white-managed magazine or newspaper but allow us to come to the American people to state our case.
I would hope that before the House of Representatives or the Senate will follow the advice of others to do things to hurt the Nation of Islam and our efforts in America at reforming our people, that you would invite us before the Senate or before members of the House of Representatives to question me and us on anything that I have ever said in the past.
And if they can show me that I'm a racist or an anti-Semite, with all of the legal brilliance that's in the government, and I, from that lofty place, will apologize to the world for misrepresenting what I believed to be the truth.