KHOU's McShan inverviews Quanell X

KHOU's Jeff McShan had a much-publicized interview with Quanell X last night — and despite the indication that it would show us who Quanell X really is, we don't know all that much more now than we did before.

The only thing that seems clear about Quanell X is that he's full of contradictions. In the interview with McShan, he recalled what he called a turning point in his life: a conversation he had with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after his brother died during a drug deal. "I was coming up the ranks in the Nation of Islam, and I remember I sat down with the minister and I was angry and I wanted revenge," Quanell X told McShan. "I remember this like yesterday ... he said to me, 'Brother, what do you want more, revenge or change?'" He said he chose change, but McShan juxtaposed that with a quote from Quanell X when convicted murderer Gary Graham was executed in 2000: "If blacks wanted to take out some of their frustrations, they should go over to River Oaks and beat up some rich white folks." In a way that would promote change, we suppose. (There was also the infamous quote from Quanell X just before the Million Man March in 1995: "The real deal is this: Black youth do not want a relationship with the Jewish community or the mainstream white community or the foot shuffling, head-bowing, knee bobbing black community. … All you Jews can go straight to hell." We'd hate to see what he was like in revenge mode.)

It's those kinds of statements that have put whites on edge when it comes to Quanell X, who some say is breaking down race relations. His critics also claim he's causing a divide between civilians and police: Last summer, for example, he was in the news almost daily criticizing HPD's handling of the investigation into a series of murders around Acres Homes. On the other hand, Quanell X has managed to get more than 20 fugitives to turn themselves in to police — most recently Timothy Wayne Shepherd, who confessed to Quanell X that he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Texas A&M student Tynesha Stewart.

McShan also touched on the source of Quanell X's funding: Some of it comes from rappers, to whom he said he acts as a paid consultant, and some comes from unnamed businessmen. According to McShan, some police officers say Crime Stoppers pays him, too — and though Quanell X didn't confirm or deny that, he adamantly insisted that he doesn't get together with families and split any money he might receive from Crime Stoppers. "That is a flat-out lie," he said. "I deny that."

As for other tactics for which he's been criticized — including a protest in June 2000 during which Quanell X's New Black Panthers showed up outside the state Republican Party convention in downtown Houston dressed in military-style uniforms and carrying rifles and shotguns — Quanell X said they're only unpopular because of racist tendencies. "Nobody broke the law," he said. "White folk carry guns in federal Civil War reenactments every year in Houston and Texas, but why did they get afraid when a group of well-disciplined and focused black men were coming down the streets with guns? Because that is their own internal guilty conscience eating at them."