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Moments such as the brutal execution of #GeorgeFloyd are an extremely sad reminder that the violence against black people in America, is genuinely an existential crisis. Due to the way that media cycles run and social media cycles raise outrage, we are forced to quickly move on to the next outrageous act of the state, dealing with its immediacy, all the while having to constantly remind ourselves that this is nothing new.
I started ‘Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party’ prior to the killing of George, and have been going through it very slowly. I primarily picked up the book because of the importance place on that period of activist history as an exceptional moment of activism in the West. The Black Panther Party presented a militant and revolutionary attitude within the heart of Empire itself. As someone who studies securitisation though, I am fascinated by how they held the state to account, but also, unfortunately, how they were ultimately dismantled through the intense repression of the state. I’ve written more academically about the specific tactics of repression that were used against the BPP, but I’m always interested to read more about them.
Bloom and Martin’s book on the BPP attempts to be a definitive account on their history of the BPP, but particularly in relation to the way in which the revolutionary group designed its project and attempted to resist America from the inside. They have drawn on an incredible amount of information from a range of sources, and while I had certain issues with things they wrote, ultimately this is an excellent account of the history of the organisation and movement, as well as the wider politics they were situated in.
The movement didn’t just arrive out of a few ‘radical’ thinkers, but was forged in extreme violence of the state towards its black populations. Just between 1962 to 1965, LA highway patrol officers murdered 65 people, and ultimately the Watts Rebellion was sparked by an incident of police brutality against Rena Frye. You cannot separate the history of demonstrations and rioting by black people in the US from the incidents of police brutality.
Initially constituted as a self defence organisation, Bobby Seale’s Black Panther Party for Self Defense would provide security for celebrated black figures such as Betty Shabazz, the widow of the martyr Malcolm X, when she was due to speak publicly on race relations in the US. The origanisation morphed quickly into providing support to those impacted by police brutality, hold state officials to account, for example when Denzil Dowell was killed. They were there almost in the capacity of community first responders.
The Panthers saw themselves ultimately as a revolutionary force against an occupying army. The police were not seen as police officers, but rather as occupation troops in a domestic conflict with the black community. They took armed resistance seriously, not being afraid to show their weapons, but all the while complying within the letter of the law. Living what he preached, Heuy Newton was stopped by the police in the summer of 1967, and refused to compy unless he was being formally arrested:
“When an officer refused to accord him these rights, he made it clear that he would accept an arrest peacefully but that he would take the officer to court for false arrest. But if an officer attempted to go outside the law and abuse or brutalize him in any way, Newton was armed, as was his legal right, and he made it clear that he would not hesitate to use his weapon in self-defense.”
This approach was completely outside of the norm at the time, and the BPP provided an entire generation with the confidence to stand up to the police and against police brutality. The story of the bPP is necessary reading for all involved in community organising and a rights struggle. They embodied an ethic of resistance, but one that was well thought through and articulate. They did morph and change over the years, even bringing radical white allies into their world, but ultimately the s
I started ‘Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party’ prior to the killing of George, and have been going through it very slowly. I primarily picked up the book because of the importance place on that period of activist history as an exceptional moment of activism in the West. The Black Panther Party presented a militant and revolutionary attitude within the heart of Empire itself. As someone who studies securitisation though, I am fascinated by how they held the state to account, but also, unfortunately, how they were ultimately dismantled through the intense repression of the state. I’ve written more academically about the specific tactics of repression that were used against the BPP, but I’m always interested to read more about them.
Bloom and Martin’s book on the BPP attempts to be a definitive account on their history of the BPP, but particularly in relation to the way in which the revolutionary group designed its project and attempted to resist America from the inside. They have drawn on an incredible amount of information from a range of sources, and while I had certain issues with things they wrote, ultimately this is an excellent account of the history of the organisation and movement, as well as the wider politics they were situated in.
The movement didn’t just arrive out of a few ‘radical’ thinkers, but was forged in extreme violence of the state towards its black populations. Just between 1962 to 1965, LA highway patrol officers murdered 65 people, and ultimately the Watts Rebellion was sparked by an incident of police brutality against Rena Frye. You cannot separate the history of demonstrations and rioting by black people in the US from the incidents of police brutality.
Initially constituted as a self defence organisation, Bobby Seale’s Black Panther Party for Self Defense would provide security for celebrated black figures such as Betty Shabazz, the widow of the martyr Malcolm X, when she was due to speak publicly on race relations in the US. The origanisation morphed quickly into providing support to those impacted by police brutality, hold state officials to account, for example when Denzil Dowell was killed. They were there almost in the capacity of community first responders.
The Panthers saw themselves ultimately as a revolutionary force against an occupying army. The police were not seen as police officers, but rather as occupation troops in a domestic conflict with the black community. They took armed resistance seriously, not being afraid to show their weapons, but all the while complying within the letter of the law. Living what he preached, Heuy Newton was stopped by the police in the summer of 1967, and refused to compy unless he was being formally arrested:
“When an officer refused to accord him these rights, he made it clear that he would accept an arrest peacefully but that he would take the officer to court for false arrest. But if an officer attempted to go outside the law and abuse or brutalize him in any way, Newton was armed, as was his legal right, and he made it clear that he would not hesitate to use his weapon in self-defense.”
This approach was completely outside of the norm at the time, and the BPP provided an entire generation with the confidence to stand up to the police and against police brutality. The story of the bPP is necessary reading for all involved in community organising and a rights struggle. They embodied an ethic of resistance, but one that was well thought through and articulate. They did morph and change over the years, even bringing radical white allies into their world, but ultimately the s