Images of an African god and African accomplishments are some of the images that Muhammed Akil shows to students who attend his presentations.

The Charles Manson version of Jesus Christ is something else Akil shows to his audience. Akil uses these pictures to spread his ideas of how implicit racism is a deterrent to African-Americans.

Akil is a modern-day road scholar who finds enlightenment in decoding religious, political and historical messages that he says hinders the development of African-American identity.

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With a venerable and penetrating voice, Muhammad Akil spoke to an audience of 30 Wednesday night in Student Center Ballroom B. His presentation, Decoding Racism:Reading Destructive Images, was sponsored by Black Affairs Council and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Akil affirms European influences have disillusioned African realities and skewed any positive self-portrayals African-Americans might have of themselves or of one another.

Implicitly, Akil said white racist messages have disrupted a sense of self-worth in the black community and intentionally confused the role of the black male.

Under the conditions of white supremacy, he said, black male does not mean macho or cool but instead it means soldier or warrior against white supremacy.

Akil attributes much of the identity crisis to suggestive Christian messages, such as the image of a white God and white angels in biblical pictures.

Akil showed images of Jesus Christ, calling Christ an all-purpose white man whose skin color keeps African-Americans subjective and passive to white culture.

After showing four pictures of Christ, Akil explained how each one looked slightly different, but their skin color never changed. Akil advised the audience of the consequences of embracing the concept of a white savior.

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The white man keeps you spiritually malnourished with the white figure of Jesus, Akil said. It can be a blond-haired Jesus, or a brunette-haired Jesus.

Any image of a white man will do to keep you variably connected to them.

Akil said some black students live in a fantasy world when they think they can get high paying jobs and then just blend into a bias-free society. He said that African-Americans need to work together to provide more opportunities for their race.

Individual powers derive from group power, Akil said. Right now, we’re black managers of a white reality.

Akil included deceptive product advertisements as well as suppressed religious identities in that white reality.

He showed different brands of malt liquors marketed to African-Americans, and explained how they all had names of firearms, such as Colt 45, King Cobra and Magnum.

Pacia Anderson, a freshman in journalism from Springfield, was enlightened by this revelation as well as Akil’s entire presentation.

African-Americans need to wake up and explore history, she said. We’re not speaking to each other, we’re gossiping. This really needs to stop. Things don’t have to be this bad.

But Eric Mach, an undecided sophomore from Baytown, Texas, did not buy everything Akil had to say.

Blacks like to use whites as scapegoats for their problems, Mach said. Everybody makes their own choice.

Pamela Cramble, a junior in pre-med biology from Chicago, said the images were hard to take, but truthfully documented the history of a strong African race.

Akil concluded the presentation with a list of helpful suggestions to better the quality of life for all African-Americans. Suggestions included ceasing name calling, cursing, snitching and throwing trash on the streets.

White people know something better than we do, Akil said. They know not to throw trash around their campuses. Black students know better too, because a clean environment is conducive to learning.

But as soon as they get into the hood they throw a McDonald’s bag out the window.