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By: Timothy Cooper

Infused with the 1960’s grandeur of his ancestors but speaking with the inspiration of a hip-hop wordsmith, Farajii Muhammad is a young man who is committed to helping plant the fruitful seeds of tomorrow for Generation Y.

Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, the 29 -year-old social entrepreneur has created the New Light Leadership Coalition and the Youth Empowerment Movement, launching pads for encouraging our youth to be future leaders in fields such as politics, finance and education. Having received a prestigious Echoing Green fellowship in 2006, and making waves in media with his radio show Listen Up! On Morgan State University’s WEAA 88.9FM, the Towson University graduate continues to spark insightful conversations about solving the problems that face each of our communities, and he wants to bring the young people to the discussion table. Black Power recently talked with Farajii Muhammad about his passion for youth development, the excitement and trepidation over our new President and his future goals in and out of the political arena.

How did growing up in Baltimore affect your decision in working with the youth?

I was exposed as a young brother to all types of opportunities; by the time I went to the Baltimore School for the Arts during high school, [those opportunities] gave me another view. I realized that a lot of my brothers and sisters that I grew up with weren’t exposed to that, they still had to go through the city schools and the opportunities just weren’t the same. So, seeing all these things happening, you just get to a point where you say somebody’s got to say something and something has to be done. I always grew up with the mindset that you don’t talk about the problem, be a part of the solution. When I started to see paradigms in the society shift and the structure of the family break down, I was like ‘Yo, I’m a young man, and my future looks dim.’ And that’s where it started.

How vital is the tool of education for the future of our youth?

There still seems to be a great divide between black Baltimore and white Baltimore in the sense that the education that we’ve gotten in the public schools is not as efficient for us to make some gains in our personal lives. So, educationally and economically, we’re still at a disadvantage; even though we do have what we would call a middle class. I grew up in a “middle class” environment, but I knew that my father and others that I knew were only a paycheck away from poverty.

 We just lived in a nicer neighborhood than our brothers and sisters down on Greenmount Ave, but it was still the same. And I would just say that growing up and seeing what’s happening with young people, it was one of those things where you would see these young folks engaged in all types of stuff. I mean, we used to have a lot of recreation centers and a lot of things to do when I was growing up, but that’s not the case anymore. Recreation centers are closed down unfortunately, and a lot of programs that served young people to keep their minds from becoming idle have kind of gone out of business. Now, a young person’s only option is getting involved in sports; but the streets are still there with the influence of being involved in the drug trade. So what I saw is that there has been a shift of where we are as society.

But there has been a greater shift in how society treats young people. We’re seeing that the community is turning its back on a young person, and the young person is turning his or her back on the community. We’re finding that the acceptance of young people is not there, and trying to nurture them is something that’s kind of dying away because now adults are kind of fed up with this generation.

You and your wife co-founded New light Leadership Coalition, and you also have the youth empowerment movement. Why did you feel the need to create these outlets?

With New Light, we started back in 1999. We started with the idea of teaching, training and empowering young people to become leaders in their schools and communities. We decided to go out on the mission based on us doing a peer-centered approach to leadership development. What my wife, Tamara, and I saw growing up was that, again, we were exposed to some good things; however, the vast majority of our peers weren’t exposed to things. That can leave a gap of progression within a generation. What we’re trying to do is even the playing field and provide an opportunity for young people to become leaders regardless of where they are. We believe with the NLLC that every young person has the potential to become a leader, but that decision has to be made by him or her to decide that. If they decide that they’re not going to move forward, then that’s a personal choice; but we have given them an option to make that choice. What we have found is that a lot of young people want to become leaders, but they just don’t know how.

The outlets for us to become leaders have become really adult oriented and genuinely don’t have our interest at heart. What we try to do is redefine that whole culture and say that young people can teach and train other young people to become leaders. We’ve developed a leadership curriculum called the youth leadership development program where we go out to teach and train the young people in the schools and community organizations.

Wherever we can find young people, that’s where we want to be sharing some of the fundamental principles of leadership that are not just used by a few, but these are universal principles of leadership that are used by many. Whether you’re Donald Trump or Minister Farrakhan or your community organizer, these are sound, foundation-building principles. But we can do so much more and impact so many more people if we started working together. I feel we can get others; not just black folks, but those who are working with white, Asian and Latino youth who are living in Baltimore and part of the school system and the community, but they just don’t know how to access the resources or take advantage of the opportunities.

Congratulations to you on the Echoing Green Fellowship that you won in 2006.

I appreciate that brother.

Absolutely. Can you talk about how that fellowship helped to progress your movement?

The fellowship was beautiful because it was the first fellowship that I applied for and was blessed to get. It was a two year fellowship that ended this year in September. In 2006, it was a fellowship to work on the Youth Empowerment Movement. It was one of those fellowships where they really just gave us the technical assistance, support and backing to do our community projects. With Echoing Green, it’s not so much about the project, it’s about the individual; they’re looking to invest in the future social entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Even though the project was the Youth Empowerment Movement, they really wanted to show their support and love and provide resources in getting me shaped to hone my skills for the people.

 When people invest time and money in you, it just makes you really think twice about what you’re doing, and for me it’s been an eye-opening experience because it made me take my job and my role in the community more seriously. If somebody’s willing to give their time, resources and money to back you in something, you just feel a little bit more valuable about who you are and the contributions you’re able to make. I think that’s a beautiful thing, man; especially if you’re grinding and you’re doing things in the community. Community activists and organizers generally don’t get a lot of funds; I mean we get people saying keep up the good work, but to have the financial backing so that you don’t have to worry about if your bills are paid or worrying about where your next dollar is coming or ‘ I hope I get that grant !’ The fellowship relieves a lot of that stress so you can stay focused on the larger mission of reaching and helping other people. It was a beautiful experience and I truly enjoyed it.

Speaking of another community organizer, President -elect Barack Obama, what do you think about the history his campaign has made and the future impact it will forever have on politics?

[Laughs] Yo, let me just say this real quick, because I know with the magazine, ya’ll already down for this. Man, it was just incredible! I have never seen that in my life, you feel what I’m saying? His campaign is so mind blowing, it’s going to be one of those things we’re going to be hearing about and studying for years and years to come. There has never been a presidential candidate nor campaign that was done like Barack Obama’s, it was like the perfect campaign, man. Here this man came from being a long shot, to being a frontrunner, to being the President of the United States within two years.

 Even more incredible is his rise to this level where four years ago, we really didn’t know who this man was unless you’re politically savvy or you heard about him at the DNC convention in 2004. Then for him to shoot onto the scene and defeat a major political player like Hillary Clinton, it’s almost like, wow. Now, I’ve thought about what if he didn’t win; it would have been like one of those things like ‘yeah it was too good to be true.’ I don’t think people would’ve gotten really mad; we would’ve been like ‘yeah, that’s just how things are.’

 But seeing him win, he shattered the mold on how to campaign politically. It was already historic how he campaigned; but he didn’t get elected on just some 60 or 20 votes, he smashed [laughs]. I just heard on CNN that McCain had won the state of Missouri, bringing up his votes to like 170-something, then they said Barack Obama was like 360-something; like, that’s beyond a landslide. I’ve truly been inspired by the brother and what he’s done, it’s a beautiful thing to see a family like that. I pray for the brother all the time, man, because I really want to see him successful and be able to carry out the vision that he has in his mind. This campaign and his presidency has really inspired a lot of people to not just think about the country or government differently, but to think about people differently. It has caused people to look at black men differently-I think, it has caused people to look at our struggles here differently; it has caused people to look at God differently.

This has been an eye-opening experience for a lot of people beyond politics where this really touched a nerve in our psyche in all of what we thought about America and ourselves. I heard Minister Farrakhan say that his presidency was a confirmation that we weren’t forsaken by God; like there had to be another force playing in this presidency. [Black people] only represent 12 or 13% of the country’s population, so for white youth in particular to come out in droves and vote for us, that says a hell of a lot. It’s still mind blowing, I’m still “recovering” from watching him on TV when it says president-elect. I’m waiting for that day of January 20th when he takes the office officially, and I want to put it out there that we need to help the brother as much as we can to offer our skills and talents, man. I mean, we got to change the direction this country is going in, but it’s not going to change on his shoulders. He’s the catalyst; he might be the energy or the electricity to get some things moving. However, making things change is going to be up to us. That brother really opened a lot of people’s eyes and I ‘m really proud and happy that he was able to get the seat.

With Barack Obama taking that seat, what do you think it means for Black America. Does it change the struggles we’ve been fighting for?

It will change some conversations about racism. It will change the conversations about education and the value of black men in America. However, we’re getting to a point that even though that was a great historic moment, we’re going to probably be finding ourselves in a state where hopefully the momentum will continue; because I think some things will change, but I don’t think everything will change. There is still going to be injustices committed against black youth, Asian, Latino, and poor whites. There’s still going to be some things that really need to be done for us to really be repaired and restored in this country. I think Barack Obama’s presidency is the beginning of a change; however I don’t put all my hope and faith in his presidency. What I would encourage folks to do is to work in trying to build on that momentum and to continue to do the work that’s being called of us because it’s apparent that there’s something happening in America. What we’re going to see-and what we’ve already started to see-is that there have been not just white people, but I’ve heard black people say that I didn’t want Barack Obama to win. His candidacy is really bringing to light what people have been feeling; deep-seated hatred and racism, deep-seated hatred of self. I feel like over the next four years, it’s going to be a purging process; a process is going to purify. But you can’t be purified without taking out all of the crap that’s lying deep within. You’ve got to get that removed first before anything good can replace it. That’s what we’re seeing right now, the break down of an old way of thinking and the emergence of a new way. It’s going to cause some pain; it’s going to cause some people to lose their minds.

 However, it’s necessary because this country needs to be made new again. Things are going to get worse before they get better because we have to become so dissatisfied with our current condition to the point we’re going to be tired of living like this. And I think that’s’ what’s going to happen.

The youth that you work with, how did they respond to Barack Obama’s victory?

Come on man, you know what they’re response was. I mean, they loved it. Everybody has been excited. But this is the thing about us as young folk, whether you’re talking about brother and sisters our age or younger; when I was at my polling place, a lot of the older black women got so excited that they literally started clapping hands, screaming and hollering ‘way to go’ every time a young person would walk in and vote. Moments like that, a young person will never forget. The thing is, if you see that the neighborhood hustlers out there like ‘Yo, ima vote for Barack son,’ that says something. I was out in the street just a few weeks before the election doing some community work and this brother came up to me and was like, ‘Yo, what’s up?’ Now, I didn’t know what this dude was going to say, but him and his homeboy came up and said, ‘Yo, I gotta question, son. I ‘m trying to register to vote, how do I do that? [laughs].’ I started laughing a little bit, because it was like 9-something at night, you chilling out here, and the first question you ask me is how do I get registered to vote? It was one of those moments when you’re like ‘wow, okay’ [laughs]. But as much as we’re happy, we’re still skeptical about how much change is going to actually take place. And I think the skepticism just comes from a higher expectation. We’re finding out that the culture of politics now is a game of getting power, but not really being honest with the American people about what’s really going on about the healthcare crisis or where we are economically and socially. The skepticism is still there with young people because we’ve been lied to so many times, and that’s justified. However, we can’t just complain that nothing is going to change. Well, why isn’t anything going to change? It’s not about what Obama’s going to do; it’s about what you’re going to do. That’s what I appreciated about him saying at the DNC in Denver that this is not about me, this is about you. And when you’re talking about empowering citizens again, now we’re talking about real change and moving this country forward. If it’s still this whole thing that we want the government to provide for our needs; to give me a check, to feed my family and to employ me, the government is not going to do that. The government is not for that and it has shown us time and time again-I think Hurricane Katrina was the biggest example- that it doesn’t think about the interest and concern of the disadvantaged. We have to start thinking like that.

Do you plan on making a political run in Baltimore?

[Laughs] Nah, brother. That’s funny, because everybody always asks me that question. Right now, I want to continue to serve and have a greater impact on young people from [my current] capacity. As much as I love politics, there’s also this love/hate relationship I have with it. I’m not looking to get involved in that respect. What I see myself doing is informing the people about what’ going on and keeping them abreast about what’s happening. I’m very interested in being just a soldier who is on the front line of just teaching and training other young people to change their way of thinking or to learn how to think critically about what’s happening-especially black youth. But all young people in this day and time need to be trained and taught what to do with all of the potential they have inside and what to do with all of the skills that are lying dormant inside of them today. With politics, if it’s going to be, it’s going to be, that’s not something on my radar. We’ve done some work with the mayor of Baltimore, and I’m looking to continue to build that relationship to help any politician that is trying to do something positive and of value in our community. But I’m not gunning for that spot of the next City Council President or anything like that.

I know you have a show on Morgan State University Radio; can you talk a little about that?

I enjoy radio broadcasting a lot, so I really want to take my radio program to the next level; getting it syndicated in the very near future so that we can have a voice in the national conversations. We have a Tom Joyner, a Michael Baisden or a Steve Harvey, but as much as these brothers are laying the foundation for us now, we need to hear young people across the country who are discussing the issues that are affecting society.

We need to have our perspective put out there, so that way people can really say that this generation is not a deadbeat generation, or a generation full of thugs or criminals or prostitutes. This is a generation that thinks and has great potential to take things to the next level, and my radio show is all about that. It’s like how can we highlight what’s happening in the news, but at the same time we highlight things young people are doing and getting them involved in the bigger conversation. So, with the organization and the media piece on my hands, my plate is full. Everything that I’ve been able to accomplish has been something that God has blessed me to do. Of course I have goals, but I’ve learned from Minister Farrakhan and some of my other mentors that you’ve got to wait for inspiration and let God guide you on this journey.
What are the future goals for Farajii Muhammad?

I’m looking at a couple of things. As far as media, I really want to get into TV as well. I got a little taste of it in the city of Baltimore doing a cable show right called Real Talk. It’s a show about bridging the gap between young people, the community and the police department. With that experience, I’m thinking maybe I can go further along in television. I want to be able to build NLLC to be an institution in the community. We’ve been around for nine years and I want this thing to be around so I can pass something on to my children. I want to get that up and running and have that with many different programs, mentoring and scholarships and all types of things that young folks need. I just want to be a voice man; whatever opportunity I’m given to share what I’ve learned, that’s something I’m definitely looking at doing. Also, I’m thinking about writing a book at some point. A lot of people have asked me, but ya’ll are the first media people that I’ve put that out to. I’m looking at putting some things down on paper to share with others. But over the next 2 to 5 years man, I’m looking to do that work and at the same time assist with whatever needs to be done; whether it’s in the government or helping Baltimore city. I love Baltimore, this is my home. I’m looking to work with anybody that’s trying to make this city better and more youth friendly. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m not one to avoid grinding and doing the things we need to do to move forward.

This story is filed under: Have You Checked the Children?, Politics