Candidate profile: Dwayne Hemingway-El

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Dwayne Hemingway-El’s federal lawsuit against the city of High Point has quite a bit to do with his candidacy for mayor.

It goes back to Aug. 6, 2007. Freddie Lee Fuller called Hemingway-El by cell phone and asked him to come witness a traffic stop. Fuller’s “lady,” who possesses an official-issue North Carolina driver’s license, had been driving. The problem apparently arose because the couple’s SUV bore a Moorish license plate. Hemingway-El said that they had a North Carolina plate inside the car.

Another distinction, among many: Hemingway-El showed me his North Carolina identification card during a visit this morning to the modest brick house he shares with his family. For the category of race, it bears the letter W for white.

“Calling yourself African American is not true,” the 38-year-old candidate said. “Moors are the only ones with true rights. I’m a Washitaw Moor. Washitaws are a group of Moors out of Louisiana. We are loyal subjects of the emperor of Morocco.”

He pulled out a tattered and ancient copy of Black’s Law Book 4th Edition and showed me the definition of “free white person.” Included with many different European lineages was the grouping “Moors of Spain.”

“I’m an American citizen,” Hemingway-El said. “My nationality is Moorish.” A critical distinction: American, not US. We’ll get to that a little later.

“I’m going to piss a lot of people off,” Hemingway-El said. “We’re here to correct error, kill the rumors and straighten out the facts. Our message is love, truth, peace, freedom and justice.”

He pulled out a laminated copy of The Moorish Science Temple of America The Divine Constitution and By-Laws, and read through it line by line. It’s a fairly concise document.

A couple of salient points about this constitution: It addresses fears that outsiders might harbor of subversion. It also provides some context as to why its members don’t have much use for widely accepted racial categories.

“All members must obey the laws of the government,” it reads.

And: “This organization of the Moorish Science Temple of America is not to cause any confusion or to overthrow the laws and constitution of the said government, but to obey hereby.”

About its members: “They are not Negroes, colored folks, black people or Ethiopians because these names were given to the slaves by the slaveholders in 1779.”

Hemingway-El discovered the Moorish nation when he went into federal prison in 2000. As required by North Carolina law, he wrote on his candidacy filing that he was convicted of unlawful possession of ammunition in Essex County, NJ, and his citizenship rights were restored in 2004.

I mentioned that, in my view, race is a fiction with no biological basis that was invented to create a set of false classifications to oppress people of color and uphold white privilege. Hemingway-El heartily agreed. He told me he scorned the identity of African-American — as if an individual comes from an entire continent. He asked me about my own ethnicity. My forebears come from a handful of European backgrounds that I’m aware of: English, Irish, Dutch and German.

“I know you might be a mixture, but you have to take it by the horns and claim it,” Hemingway-El told me.

Isn’t US citizenship the nationality that really matters?

“No, it is not. The United States is a corporation.”

Later he implored me: “I’m trying to bring you into the constitution, so you can know your rights. Now you’re going to have to reprogram yourself.”

Remember, Hemingway-El’s pending federal lawsuit against the city of High Point stems entirely in his intervention in a traffic stop in which a member of the Moorish nation was displaying a Moorish tag on a vehicle in place of a North Carolina tag, to the apparent consternation of the High Point Police Department.

What would be the harm in just displaying the official-issue North Carolina tag, I asked.

“You lose your right,” he replied. “You willfully give away your right.”

Traveling in a motor vehicle as a non-commercial activity is not something the state has a legitimate interest in regulating, Hemingway-El told me. As a practical matter, he acknowledged that he displays a North Carolina tag on his car because he got tired of paying fines and having his vehicle towed.

“Understand where my plight comes from,” he said. “My people, the Moorish soldiers founded the Piedmont Triad. Winston-Salem was named Western Salaam. The Moors were in power until 1850 here.”

If my concern were historical fact-checking, I could conceivably end up with an article that was 75 percent refutation. Instead, I’m interested in exploring the worldview of the man who would be mayor of High Point.

Recall that Hemingway-El expressed a desire to “bring” me “into the constitution.” The constitution to which he referred and the one that he honors is the original document, as it was ratified before the Bill of Rights and the rest of the amendments were incorporated.

“These were added later on to take away some of your rights,” he said. “We haven’t had real judges here since the 1700s. These dudes here are administrators for the corporation.”

He pulled out a pocket version of the Constitution and started reading from the Fourteenth Amendment. I pointed out that the entire body of civil rights law from the 1960s forward is based on the “equal protection” clause under this amendment.

“We’re not dealing with civil rights,” Hemingway-El said. “We’re dealing with human rights. Civil rights is a joke. That doesn’t do anything for our people. They’re still walking around calling themselves black.”

I gathered through our conversation that Hemingway-El and other Moorish adherents embrace the concept of American citizenship as distinguished from US citizenship, the former relating to the Constitution pre-Bill of Rights. Hemingway-El speaks of America as a legitimate legal authority, while the United States is merely a corporation.

“I don’t go to the US citizen thing,” Hemingway-El told me.

In fact, Hemingway-El attested that he is a US citizen when he registered to vote, said Charlie Collicutt, deputy director of the Guilford County Board of Elections.

Granted, nationality and constitutional law have little to do with the day-to-day duties of the mayor of High Point. Despite his point of contention with the city, Hemingway-El presents himself as an everyday person who would be mayor of all High Point.

“I speak and greet with all the people,” he said.

Hemingway-El would like to relieve taxpayers and find ways to cut energy costs.

“All the small businesses are worried about taxes,” he said. “The cost of energy is going up. We need to find alternative energy sources, so that way we don’t have to kill people’s pockets.”

Hemingway-El would like the police to take more of a community approach by instituting more foot patrols, and hosting athletic games and cookouts. He told me High Point needs to introduce a National Night Out event in which police and citizens get to know each other better. In fact, Lt. Steve Myers said, High Point has had National Night Out for “many, many years,” and the event takes place in 25 different locations across the city tonight.

“Put ’em on foot patrol, waving at the people instead of riding in their AC mean-mugging,” Hemingway-El said. “Let them serve and protect instead of harm and harass.”

He also would like to implement a requirement that all employees of the city of High Point reside in the city.

“You need to have a vested interest in High Point,” he said. “You’d feel more passionate.”

Hemingway-El said is confident that when voters get to know him they’ll like what they see.

“I am honest, that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “I love everyone and everything. I’m here to bring back love energy.”