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A review by korrik
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom
When I saw this title on the library bookshelf, it gave me pause. What did I really know about the Black Panthers really?
In grade school we learned about lynching, segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott & Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King, Jr., and then suddenly all that energy seemed to peter out, or at least was never mentioned again. I think we learned about Malcolm X and SNCC for half a second but burgeoning Black Power and Black nationalism didn’t get as much play as non-violence, integration, and assimilation.
Then there were the older (white) men in my family who spoke of Black Power and the Panthers disparagingly, the same way they did of ‘Women’s Lib’ and draft dodgers, so I had to assume the Panthers were righteous folks.
But other than that, I knew nothing.
This text was a much needed correction to the deficit in my knowledge. Focusing on the political history of the Panthers, the authors demonstrate how they were able to channel unrest, frustration, and anger into a compelling political and social program that served as the zeitgeist for a few short years, uniting anti-imperialists, anti-racists, and anti-war activists as well as moderate people throughout the United States.
It was deeply disturbing to read about how in some ways little has changed (ghettoization, police brutality) while other times I laughed aloud at how much had changed (the FBI illegally wiretapped Panther phones—ha! Today the NSA routinely illegally monitors our communications).
The authors don’t shy away from the negative aspects of the Panthers by in some regards do down play them: how armed self-defense attracted certain types people who didn’t work well within a hierarchy, less-than-revolutionary gender roles, Eldridge Cleaver admitting being a rapist in Soul on Ice, or how businesses were harassed into donating food for the free breakfast program, for example.
Overall, I found this volume to be illuminating and informative, full of excerpts from primary documents that helped explain the origins, ideology, and actions of the Black Panther Party.
In grade school we learned about lynching, segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott & Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King, Jr., and then suddenly all that energy seemed to peter out, or at least was never mentioned again. I think we learned about Malcolm X and SNCC for half a second but burgeoning Black Power and Black nationalism didn’t get as much play as non-violence, integration, and assimilation.
Then there were the older (white) men in my family who spoke of Black Power and the Panthers disparagingly, the same way they did of ‘Women’s Lib’ and draft dodgers, so I had to assume the Panthers were righteous folks.
But other than that, I knew nothing.
This text was a much needed correction to the deficit in my knowledge. Focusing on the political history of the Panthers, the authors demonstrate how they were able to channel unrest, frustration, and anger into a compelling political and social program that served as the zeitgeist for a few short years, uniting anti-imperialists, anti-racists, and anti-war activists as well as moderate people throughout the United States.
It was deeply disturbing to read about how in some ways little has changed (ghettoization, police brutality) while other times I laughed aloud at how much had changed (the FBI illegally wiretapped Panther phones—ha! Today the NSA routinely illegally monitors our communications).
The authors don’t shy away from the negative aspects of the Panthers by in some regards do down play them: how armed self-defense attracted certain types people who didn’t work well within a hierarchy, less-than-revolutionary gender roles, Eldridge Cleaver admitting being a rapist in Soul on Ice, or how businesses were harassed into donating food for the free breakfast program, for example.
Overall, I found this volume to be illuminating and informative, full of excerpts from primary documents that helped explain the origins, ideology, and actions of the Black Panther Party.