The Black Panthers Party for Self-Defense

Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in 1966. Like many others, the Civil Rights Movement – more specifically the death of Martin Luther King Jr. – ignited them into action. While riots broke out in major United State cities, Newton and Seale poured over a document, the Platform and Program of what they want and what they believe, which served as the foundation of the Black Panther Party. Both men were active in Black Politics in college and both became involved with a group called RAM (Revolutionary Action Movement. The Black Panther Party became the largest Black Revolutionary organization to ever exist: they were the high point of the Civil Rights Movement with 5,000 full-time members who were either unemployed or were willing to give up their jobs.

Women, making up 70% of the party at one point, held vastly different roles than those of the men: who occupied all the leading positions. The Party confined women to secretarial, administrative, childcare, and other traditional roles, while men developed political ideas, spoke, and held leadership roles. Despite many attempts, the Party never achieved gender equality.

According to the Black Panthers, the exploitative capitalist system had deep roots of economic and political racism; therefore, in order to reach Black liberation a revolutionary movement to overthrow the entire power structure must occur. The Black Panthers recognized that a small class held all the economic and political power and that they used that power to exploit the majority. The devastating fiscal reality of Blacks; 32% living under the poverty line, 71% of the poor living in metropolitan areas, and 2/3 living in the ghetto – confirmed this theory.

While Seale branded the white man as the oppressor, he did distinguish between racist whites and non-racist whites and he brought that philosophy to the Panthers. He also claimed the Panthers differed from cultural nationalists because the Panthers – while believing in Black nationalism and Black culture – did not believe either of those things would lead to Black liberations, thus rendering them ineffective.

Instead, he advocated for taking up arms for self-defense against police brutality and giving back to their community in a number of ways including free breakfast for children, health clinics, and shoes for children. According to Seale, to fight racism with solidarity; to fight capitalism with basic socialism; to fight imperialism with proletarian internationalism should serve as the Party’s guiding philosophy.

The development of the Civil Rights Movement directly promoted the formation of the Black Panther Party. The movement, largely based in the south, centered itself around demands of desegregation: particularly of busses, schools, waiting rooms and lunch counters.

Considering the police, local white mobs, and the KKK, civil rights protestors constantly faced the threat of attack or of being killed. Despite this reality protestors stuck to their philosophy of civil disobedience and passive resistance, as MLK demanded. Though, while tensions and violence against the Civil Rights Movement increased the Black Panther Party picked up the ideology of Malcolm X, who called for a more revolutionary philosophy and a militant stand.

As violence against them surged, the Panthers leaned further into Malcolm X’s philosophy of self-defense by means of patrolling the police. With police brutality becoming more severe against Blacks, Huey learned the laws and could cite his right to observe a police officer carrying out his duty as long as a reasonable distance was maintained and could cite the court cases that defined what that distance was. The Panthers actions of self-defense inspired and empowered many. People found security in watching Black brothers and sisters protecting themselves and their interests.

In October 1966, the Black Panther party released their Platform and Program of what they want and what they believe. Many of their demands were simple: such as decent shelter fit for human beings, land, bread, education, clothing, justice and peace. They desired the power to determine the destiny of the Black Community and for power to return to the Black Community to organize, employ, and provide a high standard of living for its people. They wanted accurate education as the saw education as an opportunity to teach Blacks their true history and role in present day society. They felt that without that knowledge of themselves and their position in society and in the world they had no hope to identify with anything else.

Some of their more vital demands were to end police brutality and the murder of blacks by racist cops. They hoped to achieve this by organizing Black self-defense groups dedicated to defending the Black communities from racist policing, oppression and brutality. They also demanded to be tried before their peers – a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical and racial background – in court, rather than by just the white man.

With their Platform and Program of what they want and what they believe drafted and finalized, the Panthers felt ready to officialize themselves as an organization. On Jan 1, 1967, with the month’s paychecks of Seale, Newton and Bobby Hutton – their first member who police shot in the head and killed in the Spring of 1968 – rented out an old shop, and transformed it into an office, or their base for operations. Purposefully based in the community, working with the people, and for the people, the Party began to grow.

Relating to people’s needs served as a huge factor of the Black Panther Party. Seale reiterated the Party’s goal to change the existing system for a better system through revolutionary programs rather than just reform. Unfortunately, the success of the Black Panthers earned them the attention of the FBI and put them under fire from the American state. The FBI’s and J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) intensified against them: Party offices raided and burnt out food provisions. In addition, police, the KKK, and white mobs killed twenty-five Panther members in 1969 alone. Their work was disrupted, their finances drained, and their party was infiltrated – all done by the FBI.

Today the Black community is still hurting. The Black Panthers Platform and Program of what they wanted and what they believe has still been unable to come to full fruition.

Cameron Ward

I attended a progressive boarding school in southern Vermont

Cameron Ward

for three years. I believe at the time, a good 23% of my peers were international students. I felt that privilege was all around me. But it was a different kind of privilege; it was the privilege to get to experience other cultures and learn of their hardships, oppression and struggles. Every year for MLK day we would have workshops surrounding the idea of diversity and acceptance. We did privilege checking exercises, heard voices of those who in other circumstances might not feel safe, and developed ideas to better understand what privilege is and how to expose it. My snowy, secluded high school campus of 250 students and a multitude of faculty created a safe space for students of color. The ultimate, ironic conclusion is that every place should be a safe place. We have to do better, we can do better.

Melina Cantu (2)

“I’m more privileged being ‘white’ Mexican, but if I was white I wouldn’t be as privileged as I am within the hispanic community. Because of where I grew up and the people I grew up with – who are much more privileged than the typical Southwestern student – what’s normal for me and for my friends is not the norm for a lot of kids here. I was really privileged and I grew up with a lot of privileged kids and I feel like if I were born white I wouldn’t have been born with this much privilege. So, I don’t know, I think there’s so many ways that could go. But overall I just feel blessed for being born where I was.”

Melina Cantu

How would your life be different if you were white?

“I think there’s a lot of ways it could be different. For the most part, I already consider myself white because even though I’m Mexican racially, which is complicated in itself, when people look at me they consider me white to begin with. In a way I’m blessed. I’m privileged because even though I’m Mexican people don’t see me as Mexican that much. If I was white; well, first and foremost, a lot of guys have been interested in me because I am hispanic. Would those guys have still liked me if I was white? Who knows. If I was white I wouldn’t have even been inclined to learn about hispanic culture. Because I’m Mexican, I grew up learning a lot about Mexico and that made me want to learn more about the different cultures within Latin America. If I was white I don’t think I would have done that. But I may have had even more opportunities if I really was white. For example, when I submit applications for jobs they just see Mexican. They don’t see me as a person, so maybe it would affect me in that way. If I was white I wouldn’t have the support of my parents like I do now because the support they give is so cultural. So yes, there are pros, but I wouldn’t be as compassionate and caring, or love having at least 10 people at my house. I’m happy with who I am.”

Elise Gabriel (2)

Elise Gabriel, senior.

Should people be aware of the ways in which they are privileged?

“Most definitely. One of the most dangerous parts of privilege, white or otherwise, is the privilege of not knowing that you have it. To live without being aware of, or worse, denying one’s own privilege is to discount and discredit the experiences of those who don’t live with that same privilege. I’m aware that while I do my best to be sensitive to and respectful towards issues of race, as a white person, I still benefit from existing racism.

All too often I hear white people claim that race is an issue of the past. White privilege is the privilege of only having to see the progress that has been made, and not the work that still needs to be done. “Not being racist” doesn’t mean you don’t benefit from racism.

I often see privileged people become furious at the mere suggestion that they have privilege because they assume it means they don’t deserve the things they worked for. I’ve worked extremely hard for all of the things I’ve achieved- and I am proud of that- but I try to remain aware of the huge advantages that helped me along the way. There’s a fine line to walk between recognizing that while we all deserve to celebrate reaching the finish line, we didn’t all start the race in the same place.

Still, no matter how aware of my privilege I may be, there’s a limit to what I can do about it. I can’t change the socioeconomic gap correlated to race, I can’t make police officers stop giving differential treatment based upon race- no matter how much I wish that I could. What I can control are my attitudes and my actions. As a white person, other white people are far more likely to listen to me if I challenge their notions about race- despite the unfairness of my bias. I believe it’s wrong to speak about experiences that I haven’t had because my privilege protected me from them. But, by being aware of my privilege, I can contribute to a greater platform for those who are less privileged can be heard. Being aware of one’s own privilege is merely the first step.”

Elise Gabriel

Elise Gabriel, senior.

What does white privilege mean to you?

“To me, white privilege describes the daily safety and security, the freedom from discrimination and micro-aggressions, that is so customary to my life that it is hard to even see. It is the fact that, from before I was even born, I had better prospects for my life than many people will ever have. Beyond living with less fear, with more advantages, and so on, white privilege is living without commentary on my race, without the worry of how I represent my race to the world. The greatest power lives in invisibility, in perceived solidarity. When a person of color commits a crime, it is construed as a representation of their entire race. When a white person commits a crime, the culpability is solely their own. We are so quick to accuse all Muslims of terrorism thanks to the actions of only a few, yet we do not think for a minute that the Westboro Bapstist Church represents all Christians by any means. It is a very dangerous lie to believe that white people do not have a race or a cultural identity, and there is so much dangerous power in this invisibility when it comes to race. The average white person’s actions and perspectives are perceived as unbiased, despite the fact that they are extremely biased because we live without ever having to see the discrimination that people of color live with. And because we are perceived as unbiased, it is far too easy to invalidate the lived experiences of non-white people as a “neutral party.” White privilege is the fact that, if I need a band-aid, I can find one that matches my skin. And because I have white privilege, I never even noticed this until someone else pointed it out to me. One of the most dangerous parts of white privilege is the privilege of not knowing that you have it.”

Amy Gu

Amy Gu, sophomore.

How do you want people would initially view you?

“I hope they see an individual that they don’t know yet, but that they will get to know instead of making assumptions and thinking they already know me. I hope that they understand that some of my qualities are due to my culture; but, also that I’m not a token. And while I do have social anxiety disorder that doesn’t mean that every Asian on the planet has social anxiety disorder.”

Amy Gu

Amy Gu, sophomore.

How does race affect the way people initially view you?

“I think race is such a huge issue for me. Everything I do right now, everything I’ve ever done, and everything that I plan to do is going to be related to race and to the way people judge me because of my race. My biggest issue, I think, is that my race and my ethnicity don’t match. I look like I’m Chinese, but I’m American. In that way I’m kind of an outsider among my own people and among foreign people.”

Arthur Garcia III

Arthur Garcia III, sophomore.

“I think that I’m a fantastic person. I don’t need anybody to define who I am. Not based on sexual preference, not based on what I choose to wear, not based on my skin color. Why? Because I’m Arthur motherfucking Garcia the third and nobody can put a label on that.”

Arthur Garcia III

Arthur Garcia III, sophomore.

“I was at Dillard’s one weekend, when I was in high school, and I was trying on high heels. So I’m trying them on and I start to notice that people are staring at me. After a few minutes I was surrounded by security guards. Not surrounded as in them rotating around me, but in the sense that they were there just to look at me. They kept walking by, staring at me and giving me ugly glances so I went to go talk to the Assistant Manager who was also just standing there looking at me. I told her that her actions and her doing this to me was unfair. Just because I am a male choosing to wear what is typical female attire does not give you the right to make me the subject of hate. I told her that while I’m reacting in this way, she should understand what this could mean and do to somebody else. She has no idea if someone’s going through a depression or something and ends up killing themselves because of the implications behind what it means to be gay. The thing is: there shouldn’t be that issue. People should just be accepted for who they are. If they want to wear clothing that’s not their ‘typical clothing’ let them do it. What harm does it do to you?”