Every movement has its symbols and icons. But when these are separated from their context and content they are nothing but brands, to be employed for whatever commercial or political purpose anyone has in mind, even purposes opposite those of the movement which gave birth to them.
Plundering the Panthers, Manipulating the Movement: Re-Branding the Black Panther Party
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Founded in 1966 and dissolved a little more than a decade later, the Black Panther Party is history. But a few thousand graying participants in what we always called “the Party” are still very much alive. Most of us still look for and find ways to contribute to the struggle for human liberation. But the sixties are a long way off. 1969 is as far distant from us today as the world of the Great Depression was from our youth. 1969 is a full quarter of the way back to the Emancipation Proclamation.
While the Black Panther Party is long dead, its symbols, slogans and icons, like those of the broader Freedom Movement live on as ripe targets for commercial, historical and political manipulation. The manipulators have grown incomparably more sophisticated since the sixties. The practitioners of modern marketing are able to separate the slogans, the symbols, the iconography of yesterday's movement movement for change from their historic context and wave them in front of audience to evoke the feeling, the smell, the memories of a previous generation's struggle for freedom. Even the memories are usually imaginary ones, since not much of the audience has any direct experience of the social and political atmosphere out of which the symbols, the language and the icons arose.
The marketing people have a name for this. They call it branding. A brand is a symbol used to evoke manufactured desires, to elicit real or imagined chills, thrills, memories or convenient attitudes in an audience. In the black community, branding electoral campaigns from dog catcher to mayor to congress with the stamp of the Freedom Movement is old stuff that's been done for decades. The 2007-2008 Obama campaign carried this about as far as anybody could, declaring that it WAS “the movement” so often and insistently that many folks who'd never experienced such a thing --- along with a few who really should know better --- seemed to believe it. But Advertising Age, the journal of the multibillion dollar marketing industry knew the truth. It awarded the Obama campaign its 2008 Brand of the Year Award.
You can buy Che Guevara's face on T-shirts, and Dr. King's family members have sued some people for the unauthorized use of his words and images with one hand while allowing giant corporations to use “I Have A Dream” in some of their commercials.
The Black Panther Party's symbols and language, its potent icons and images are not immune from this kind of thing. While nobody is making big money off any of it, a small group of political pretenders, paper panthers as we used to call them, have seized the Black Panther Party's name and symbols, and grabbed a few corrupted bits of its language and style to push a political agenda pretty much the opposite of the long dead Black Panther Party. The largest group of these folks call themselves the “New Black Panther Party”, and that's pretty much where the similarity ends. To illustrate how far these pretenders have carried the stolen iconography of the Black Panther Party from its actual context, I have reproduced below the 1966 and 1971 versions of the BPP's Ten Point Platform and Program along with what the so-called “New Black Panther Party” calls its Ten Points.
Founded in 1966, the year after Malcolm X's death, the Black Panther Party viewed itself as his ideological successor. Malcolm X had just emerged from the NOI and its almost purely race-based view of the world into an anti-colonial, anti-imperial world view, one that acknowledged the necessity of seeking white allies began to think in terms of class and race rather than race alone. This was not the position of the BPP so much as it was its trajectory. Just as Malcolm himself had been an unfinished work in progress, evolving from petty criminal to the NOI to something else afterward, the BPP seems to have viewed itself as obliged to evolve. It too was a moving target, tending steadily leftward for most of its existence integrating a Marxist and anti-imperialist analysis into its critiques of American white supremacy.
The old BPP appears, from the evidence of the 1966 and 1971 platforms, to have been moving in the direction of socialism. The organization which calls itself the NBPP on the other hand, appears to be aimed in a quite different direction, lifting phrases, concepts and a purely race-based world view from Ron Karenga’s and his US organization. Members of that organization were implicated and some were convicted in a series of murders and assaults on Panthers at the behest of federal and local authorities in California and elsewhere. But the pretenders who parade themselves in near-authentic Panther regalia are spouting verbatim the work of people who murdered members of the Black Panther Party on behalf of the US government.
Everything comes from somewhere, and origins do often mean something. It means something that the so-called New Black Panthers chose to call themselves that. It means that the NBPP want to be taken seriously as the moral or spiritual or political or ideological heirs of the people whose symbols they have appropriated. They're not anything of the sort. They are a distorted and cartoonish reflection of what the BPP was, racist, religious and nationalistic where the party was anti-racist, internationalist and secular; addicted to inflammatory rhetoric and posing in leather jackets, berets and with guns.
Where the real Black Panther Party accepted functional alliances with whites, the new imitators are frankly racist. Where the old Black Panther Party was beginning to recognize the significance of patriarchy, the oppression of women and homophobia, the so-called New Black Panther Party is baldly homophobic and male-centered. Where the Black Panther Party was secular and had a strong socialist current, the imitators are holier-than-thou, and blacker too. I offer as evidence the table below, in which the 1966 and 1972 Ten Point Platform of the BPP is reproduced alongside the 1990's version put forth by the so-called New Black Panthers. They are evolving backward, not forward.
David Hilliard, the BPP's former chief of staff points out that many of the so-called New Black Panthers are former members of the Nation of Islam. Although their beliefs are still quite close to those of the NOI, he says, it's easy to see why they don't call themselves New Black Muslims, or the New Nation of Islam. Although never especially large, the NOI has quite a few young men in its ranks who would take vigorous exception to what they would see as the misuse of their name and symbols. The Black Panther Party on the other hand, has been gone for decades, and the youngest former Panthers are nearly sixty. So borrowing our name and symbols is probably a lot safer.
The old Black Panther Party is long dead. The New Black Panthers and pretenders like them don't seem to have an original bone in their bodies. Nobody looks to these pretenders for original analyses of current happenings. They cannot and do not fill rooms with ordinary people anyplace in the country. This so-called New Black Panther Party was never alive. They are undead, zombies living off the remnant symbols of a previous generation. The real movement that is to come in this country, and in our communities, will arise from some other quarter.
I know it's coming. I just hope, like the rest of us graying ex-Panthers, to stick around long enough to see, and maybe take some part in it..
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BLACK PANTHER PARTY 10 POINT PLATFORM AND PROGRAM, OCTOBER 1966i |
BLACK PANTHER PARTY 10 POINT PLATFORM AND PROGRAM, 1971ii |
NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY 10 POINT PLATFORM AND PROGRAM, iii |
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1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community. |
1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.
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1. We want freedom. We want the power to practice self-determination, and to determine the destiny of our community and the black nation. |
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We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny. |
We believe that black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities. |
We believe in the spiritual high moral code of our ancestors. We believe in the truths of the Bible, Quran, and other sacred texts and writings. We believe in Maat and the principles of Nguzo Saba. We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our divine destiny. |
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The Black Panther Party as I knew it was a determinedly secular organization, that while generally respectful of religious claims, held itself apart from affirmations of religious piety, lest it be seen as favoring one religion over another, or for that matter privileging those who were religious over those who were not. |
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2. We want full employment for our people. |
2. We want full employment for our people. |
2. We want full employment for our people and we demand the dignity to do for ourselves what we have begged the white man to do for us.
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We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. |
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. |
We believe that since the white man has kept us deaf, dumb and blind, and used every “dirty trick” in the book to stand in the way of our freedom and independence, that we should be gainfully employed until such time we can employ and provide for ourselves. We believe further in: power in the hands of the people! Wealth in the hands of the people! Arms in the hands of the people! |
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The so-called New Black Panther Party formulation of this point is widely at variance with that of the BPP. Its line about “begging the white man” simply has no place except to name “the white man” as villain, something the BPP quickly moved away from as early as 1968 and 69. The inclusion of a bit of Nation of Islam doggerel is also a nod to a worldview utterly opposite that of the BPP. The “arms in the hands of the people” is also nothing but radical posing, and has no educational value. The BPP viewed its ten point platform and program as an educational tool. |
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3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our black community. |
3. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities. |
3. We want tax exemption and an end to robbery of the black nation by the capitalist. We want an end to the capitalistic domination of a Africa in all of its forms: imperialism, criminal settler colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, sexism, Zionism, apartheid and artificial borders.
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We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment as currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over twenty million black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make. |
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make. |
We believe that this wicked racist government has robbed us, and now we are demanding the overdue debt of reparations. A form of reparations was promised 100 years ago (forty acres and a mule) as restitution for the continued genocide of our people and to in meaningful measure and repair the damage for the african holocaust (maangamizo/maafa). We believe our people should be exempt from all taxation as long as we are deprived of equal justice under the laws of the land and the overdue reparations debt remains unpaid. We will accept payment in fertile and mine rally rich land, precious metals, industry, commerce and currency. As genocide crimes continue, people’s tribunals must be set up to prosecute and to execute. The “Jews” were given reparations. The Japanese were given reparations. The black, the red and the brown nations must be given reparations. The American white man owes us reparations. England owes us reparations. France owes us reparations, Spain and all of europe. Africa owes us reparations and repatriation. The Arabs owe us reparations. The “Jews” owe us reparations. All have taken part in the African holocaust and the slaughter of 600 million of our people over the past 6,000 years in general and 400 year in particular. We know that this is a reasonable and just demand that we make at this time in history. |
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The BPP moved from identifying “the white businessman” to “the capitalist”. But the NPP moves in the opposite direction, further back than where the BPP started as Malcolm's successors. Again with “The white man”, “the Jew” and “the Jews”. As units of political analysis these don't make the grade, and don't allow us to tell Mordecai Vanunu from Ariel Sharon. Worse than useless, they are destructive to a correct understanding of where we are and who we walk among. |
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4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings. |
4. We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings. |
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings, free health-care (preventive and maintenance). We want an end to the trafficking of drugs and to the biological and chemical warfare targeted at our people. |
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We believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people. |
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our black and oppressed communities, then housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people. |
We believe since the white landlords will not give decent housing and quality health care to our black community, the he housing, the land, the social, political and economic institutions should be made into independent Uuamaa “New African communal/cooperatives” so that our community, with government reparations and aid (until we can do for ourselves) can build and make drug free, decent housing with health facilities for our people. |
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The “ujaama” reference is straight out of Ron Karenga's work. The NBPP are followers of the man who, at the FBI's behest, was complicit in the murder of several members of the Black Panther Party. |
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5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society. |
5. We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society. |
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this devilish and decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history/herstory and our role in the present day society.
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We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else. |
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.
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We believe in an educational system that will give our people “a knowledge of self.” If we do not have knowledge of self and of our position in society and the world, then we have little chance to properly relate to anything else.
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“Devilish?” This is simply infammatory rhetoric with no purpose other than to strike a provacative pose. It's the language of a cult, not the analysis of a political organization. |
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6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service. |
6. We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people. |
6. We want all black men and black women to be exempt from military service.
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We believe that black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of america. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary. |
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide our selves with proper medical attention and care. |
We believe that black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that holds us captive and does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, “by any means necessary.”
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This is just plain laziness. The old BPP existed when there was a military draft to fill the ranks of an army fighting in Southeast Asia, an era when combat units like the 82nd and 101st Airborne were about half black. Since the late seventies the US Army has become a “volunteer” force and the combat arms are lily white. The NBPP, formed in the late 1980s, has not yet taken any of this into account. |
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7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. |
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the united states. |
7. We want an immediate end to police harrassment, brutality and murder of black people. We want an end to black-on-black violence, “snitching,” cooperation and collaboration with the oppressor.
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We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The second amendment to the constitution of the united states gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self defense. |
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the united states uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people, other people of color and poor people inside the united states. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all black and oppressed people should be armed for self defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces. |
We believe we can end police brutality in our community by organizing black self-defense groups (black people’s militias/black liberation armies) that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist, fascist, police/military oppression and brutality. The second amendment of white America’s constitution gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should unite and form and “African united front” and arm ourselves for self-defense.
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Again, this is simple parroting of what others did a generation earlier. Real movements for change are creative, and evolve new explanations for new phenomena that come to the fore. The NBPP seems to have nothing new to offer. |
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8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. |
8. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression. |
8. We want freedom for all black men and black women held in international, military, federal, state, county, city jails and prisons.
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We believe that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial. |
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desire of the united states ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the united states government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors. |
We believe that all black people and people of color should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial. ‘released’ means ‘released’ to the lawful authorities of the black nation.
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9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the constitution of the united states. |
9. We want freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in u. S. Federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country. |
9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in a court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by white law of the constitution of the united states.
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We believe that the courts should follow the united states constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th amendment of the u.s. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the black community. |
We believe that the many black and poor oppressed people now held in united states prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the united states or by the united states military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial they must be guaranteed, by the united states, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trial. |
We believe that the courts should follow their own law, if their nature will allow (as stated in their constitution of the united states) so that black people will receive fair trials. The 6th amendment of the united states constitution gives a man/woman a right to an impartial trial, which has been interpreted to be a “fair” trial by one’s “peer” group. A “peer” is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this, the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been and are being tried by all white juries that have no understanding of the “average reasoning person” of the black community.
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10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a united nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny. |
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology. |
10. We demand an end to the racist death penalty as it is applied to black and oppressed people in america. We demand freedom for all political prisoners of the black red and brown nation!
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When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to supper, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariable the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. |
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. |
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And, as our political objective, we want national liberation in a separate state or territory of our own, here or elsewhere, “a liberated zone” (“new africa” or africa), and a plebiscite to be held throughout the black nation in which only we will be allowed to participate for the purposes of determining our will and divine destiny as a people. Free the land! “up you mighty nation! You can accomplish what you will!” Black power! History has proven that the white man is absolutely disagreeable to get along with in peace. No one has been able to get along with the white man. All the people of color have been subjected to the white man’s wrath. We believe that his very nature will not allow for true sharing, fairness, equity and justice. Therefore, to the red man and woman, to the yellow and to the brown, we say to you “the same rabid dog that bit you, bit us too!” All power to the people!
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i From “The Black Panther” newspaper, (DATE)
ii From the Huey P. Newton Foundation at http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm
iii From the web site of the New Black Panther Party at http://www.newblackpanther.com/10pt.pdf
Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com
Comments
Chastising the youngins or challenging them?
That seems to me to be the crux of the matter in terms of how we interpret Mr. Dixon's critique. A much stronger critique comes from Mr. Hilliard.
Aside from this article I have not researched the NBPP enough to fully critique that they do or are about. I would be interested in their programmatic responses to their 10 pt. statement. Is the NBPP consigned to rhetoric or do they have programmatic responses? Programmatic responses is what distinguished the original BPP. I can only offer that perhaps Mr. Dixon is only echoing in part what Mr. Hilliard is saying in the link, that is, the NBPP has failed to "find it's own legitimacy within the Black community." The concerns regarding the linkage to the Nation of Islam or Islam in general as an appendage to the former BPP also seems to have merit. I never equated the BPP to religiosity of any kind. (in fact I opined that were perhaps even anti-religious, Christianity being the "white man's religion.")
Lastly, as we have seen from the Mainstream's appropriation of "Black incons and symbols for capitalistic, consumeristic purposes," 'Hip Hop and Rap" being prime examples, the concerns about diluting the brand, traditions, historicism and purposes of the original Panthers seems well founded. One of my co-workers (who is white) and I often joke that the best way to destroy a "culture" foreign to America's is to inject capitalism into the picture and let the cancer of consumerism, hollow symbolism, and individualism take root.
Accordingly, I too am concerned about the degradation of the original Black Panther "brand." We have seen first hand how the Obama Phenomena has rebranded the truth and legacy of MLK, Jr. who would be protesting Obama's policies were he alive today. Check out Ebony and Essence as exhibit A in this complicity. At the Black-owned radio station I volunteer at, there's a child's book that (has the nerve) to draw on the legacy of Black icons like Frederick Douglass, Garvey(?), MLK, Jr. and others, and attempt to draw a thread, to suggest continuity from these esteemed Black iconic leaders to President Obama. I find that revisionism appalling. So it's clear that even Blacks will be complicit in selling pipe dreams, as Mr. Hilliarad says, "to spin gold for themselves."
There is enough historical distortion going on at present, a constant rebranding and revisionism of the intersection of American and African American history. We don't need any more oaky doak, our hands are full enough at this time. Let's see what programmatic responses, what grass roots legitimacy the so-called NBPP garners over time, that will be the litmus test of their legitimacy.
Last but not least, and slightly off subject, while I agree reparations are warranted and that there are even international law/legal precedents for pursuing the same, I have problems with focusing on reparations as a major theme for the simple fact that White folks ain't going to give us shit, no matter how right that is. And because we should be involved in nation building instead of expecting the domestic or international legal systems to force American and European whites to fork over billions they don't have or if they had, damn sure ain't relinquishing. Reparations, IMO, often comes off as "fist in the air" sloganeering. "We want reparations!" when white folks ain't giving you shit, a fact that is, moreover, crystal clear.
How about the pragmatism of building carpenters, plumbers and skilled tradesmen, enacting laws that faciliate converting dilapidated and abandoned structures into habitable abodes, train people in our communities in jobs that change our physical environment and cannot be exported versus begging "the Great Satan" to do right?
Great article.
Great article.
A bit too harsh on the New Black Panther Party
I think you article is somewhat useful, but unnecessarily harsh.
I agree with the brother this seems to be a group trying to make sense out of the tremendous challenges we face as a people, in some instances as you know, more formidable than when the Black Panther Party was formed.
Many of the points they make is of course true and politically correct but needs developement and a sharper analysis in my opinionl, but there are many groups out there now trying to find their voice in the midst of all the craziness and a rapidly deterioating political and social situation for black folks.
your ariticle in some ways seems almost like a blanket condemnation and i think that is a mistake, we need to find ways to come together no matter how misguides some of us might be. I am sure there are genuine people in the new black panther party who are still struggling to find a solution to our problem and are open to discussion and debate on how we move forward.
Your article comes close to dismiissing the whole group as obselete and not worthy of any kind of consideration. I think this is a serious mistake. Think about it
peace
hamadi
Fetishizing the symbols & icons of struggle is always wrong.
That's what the NBPP has done. At best this is lazy and destructive, creating a situation where people can be fooled into imagining that wearing a costume and putting one's fist in the air are "revolutionary" acts. They are not.
Appropriating the symbols and icons of a previous generation's movement to push an agenda in most important respects the opposite of that which produced the symbols is frankly dishonest. Former BPP chief David Hilliard nailed it when he asked why these people don't call themselves the "new black muslims", and declared that if they did we'd have no arguments with them, and that's far closer to what these people are.
Of course if they did that, some of the NOI or others would probably express their displeasure with the appropriation of their name in a pointed and personal fashion, much as we might have done in our younger days. With the youngest BPP vets in their very late sixties and the organization itself long disbanded, the legacy of the BPP is a much more inviting target for these kind of pretenders.
As elders, we aren't about to knock on their doors and school them. But neither will we refrain from calling this lazy, dishonest, un-creative and profoundly un-revolutionary pattern of behavior what it is.
Nobody is stopping these people from making a contribution to the struggle except themselves. Clearly that is not their intention. The NBPP and others like them are grownups doing what they want to do, not building on our legacy, as we tried to build upon what our predecessors left us. They are misprepresenting, distorting and defaming it, turning it into a cartoon, just another empty brand for empty consumption. A brand that leads nowhere, organizes nobody, produces no new analyses of changing phenomena -- a dead end.
Aiming for Equality
A very strong use of words and a well verse article. This article is very interesting and full of information. Hope we could get along through aiming equality.
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Turning Winds
a lil hard on the nbpp
Hotep Ndugu Dixon,
Assante Sana for your analysis. Since we started out this comment using Swahili, let's not give Mulana Karenga more credit than what is due to him. Ujaama was used in Tanzania (Tanganika - Zanzibar) as the great Julius Nyere lead these countries to unite and be an example of what is sorely need in the Afrikan World.
While being critical of the NBPP is necesary, we must understand that many of these brother and sisters are searching for an organization and a means to uplift and protect the masses. We should attempt to get together with the new group to assist in it's development. If this means disbanding the name NBPP or modifying it's mission so be it. But again we are in serious trouble in this country, more so than back in the 60's. We are searching and we need help
Peace!
very important article;saving it -
I think having the platforms is important. "Where We Live", Sally O'Brien's show, WBAI (yes, please see www.takebackwbai.org re the coup by management from the Pacifica top with collaboration by new majority on the Local Station Board) has covered the BPP for the many years that I have listened to the show. Repression is not over for some survivors of political police/federal harrassment of political prisoners from the BPP. Safia Bukhairi was a cohost of the radio show for many years, until her death at a young age; she was a BPP and her stories re being jailed as a political prisoner were chilling.
"Grandpa" Al Lewis, on his WBAI radio show (he and the show, continued by his wife, Karen after Al's death, are gone) frequently spoke about the BPP and that he had taught some history classes in one of the BPP centers.
I am just a bit too old (although younger than Al was) and too slow in my learning curve to have understood enough about the BPP in "real time". (I did "get" that it was murder of BPP in "real time".)
I didn't "get" to understanding police brutality in NYC until the mid1990s, although I knew about it in NOLA in the mid1960s, when my first spouse was a community organizer in the antipoverty program and that police brutality was one of the issues the community wanted to work on. (I'm an atheist Jew moving ever closer to socialism. Former spouse is/was Jewish and his organizing partner, who "vetted him" before he got the job, was Tom Dent, Black writer/playwright/poet, friend who was born, lived in NOLA except for a couple of years in NYC before we knew him.)
OK the Black Panther Party is dead, now what?
See I don't have a problem with the BPP or the NBPP they are doing their thing. I do have a problem with many of our "new" Black Nationalists talking heads though. Oh I've seen and heard some of those folks talking straight from the Neo-Con talking points. Some of them outright hate black people, especially if those black people do not agree with their ideology. They are deemed sellouts, house negroes, etc. This is the very language I've heard myself. You can go into some of these nationalist bookstores and find books from right wing white authors. I've seen this in stores in Atlanta and Houston. Initially, I thought that this article was going to be about just this subject, the TRUE hijacking of the Black Nationalist Movement.