New Jersey gubernatorial candidate and Newark mayor Ras Baraka (D.) defended the Nation of Islam and accused critics of trying to silence him after a video surfaced showing him applauding racist and violent comments from Louis Farrakhan, the group’s notorious anti-Semitic leader.
While serving as Newark’s deputy mayor in 2004, Baraka hosted Farrakhan to celebrate the first day of Kwanzaa. The Nation of Islam minister encouraged the mostly black audience to “break his neck” if “the cracker hit you on the jaw,” called white people “the devil,” and praised Baraka’s father. Baraka, for his part, called Farrakhan a “role model” whose teachings helped him “become a man” as a college student.
“The cracker hit you on your jaw, you break his neck. That’s the way we think,” Farrakhan said, prompting Baraka—in the front row—to stand and applaud, video footage posted by the Nation of Islam shows.
After the video resurfaced, Baraka provided a lengthy statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday, saying he would “not be bullied.”
“I will not be bullied or silenced into walking away from the fight for justice. I will not be cowed into denouncing my lifelong work for peace, equality, and equity,” Baraka said. “These latest accusations and insinuations aren’t just false—they’re a reflection of the fear my candidacy is provoking in the political establishment.”
“The Nation of Islam holds deep respect in many parts of the Black community because of the work they’ve done to reduce violence and support self-determination in neighborhoods that have been ignored and abandoned for generations,” Baraka added.
The Nation of Islam and its leader have long histories of anti-Semitism. Farrakhan, for example, has compared Jews to “termites” and has praised Adolf Hitler as a “very great man.” The Nation of Islam, meanwhile, sent a letter to several House Democrats defending its leader, telling them not to listen to “Satanic Jews” in 2018.
Baraka, the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, is a leading candidate in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He describes himself as an “underdog,” even though he has the highest favorability among the six Democratic candidates jockeying for the governor’s mansion, according to a March 5 Fairleigh Dickinson University poll.
Farrakhan, during the 2004 speech, said the “cracker is the real devil” and praised Baraka’s father—another anti-Semite.
“You’re dealing with a devil, man. You’re not dealing with righteous people. This cracker is the real devil, and you better wake up and realize that,” Farrakhan said.
“Ras Baraka came from a father that understood, ‘You kill my cat, you lose your dog,’” he added.
Amiri Baraka, while serving as New Jersey’s poet laureate in 2002, wrote a poem suggesting that Jews had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
“Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?” Amiri Baraka wrote in a poem titled, “Somebody Blew Up America.”
Farrakhan, during the 2004 speech, said black people, not Jews, are the subject of biblical prophecies.
“You may think that’s talking about some Jews somewhere, but it’s talking about you,” Farrakhan said to the predominantly black audience.
The younger Baraka, in his statement to Jewish Insider, denied any anti-Semitic accusations.
“I am not antisemitic. I have never been. And it’s offensive and irresponsible for anyone to suggest otherwise,” he said. “Throughout my life, I’ve built bridges across communities, faiths, and backgrounds to stand for justice and peace.”
“This is what happens when someone challenges a broken status quo that’s failed working people for decades,” Baraka continued. “So let’s be clear, the people trying to twist my words and my record are the same ones who don’t show up for any community—not Black, not Jewish, not Latino, not South Asian, not working-class people from anywhere. These are people who rely on our collective division.”
Baraka did, however, praise Farrakhan and his teachings during the 2004 event.
“It wasn’t until I heard the voice and the organization of the Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan that I really began to try to stand up straight and get the courage that I needed to get to begin to organize in the community the way I should have,” he said.
Baraka hosted Farrakhan again in 2017 while serving as Newark’s mayor to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Million Man March.
“For all these years, the American taxpayers’ money has been given each year to Israel to maintain them on the land of the Palestinians. So don’t you tell me that we have not earned by our sweat and blood—a land of our own and to obligate them,” Farrakhan said. “Since we cannot get along with them in peace and equality after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced, we believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced on us by white America justifies our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own.”
Baraka, who did not return a request for comment, has not shied away from associating with anti-Israel groups while on the campaign trail. On March 11, he spoke at an anti-ICE rally that featured the Council on American-Islamic Relations New Jersey, an anti-Semitic group that characterized Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel as a prison break, calling it “inevitable” and “not unexpected.”
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