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What caused the downfall of the Black Panthers group? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 11 months ago by return2ozma to c/asklemmy

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Interested in the history and the social programs they created like free breakfast.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This one feels a bit off the mark. Women served in key leadership roles as the party grew and evolved (partly owing to the fact that most of the original leadership was either imprisoned or murdered straight out). Is that to say that there were not problematic actions that should be called out re: women and their treatment within the party early on? Absolutely not. One of the things Huey later came to see as detrimental was his insistence on free association early on (i.e., free love) which ended up causing drama and caused a lot of harm particularly to the women involved in the arrangements later on. That being said, here are the words from the horses mouth (so to speak) re: women and other oppressed marginalized groups:

"Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion. I say “whatever your insecurities are” because as we very well know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the woman or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us or take the nuts that we might not have to start with. We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people.

What truly did the party in was a combination of FBI and police assassinations, too much trust placed in Eldridge Cleaver (which Huey, again, came to regret later on), too much reliance on whitewashed panther satellites and academic-first "revolutionaries," along with Huey and Bobby spending close to a decade in prison and off the streets, during which time the party had morphed away from their community action roots and been splintered due to infighting.

I highly recommend Huey's "Revolutionary Suicide" for an insider's look and opinion (also, it's just a great read overall from a fascinating individual).

Edit: also, to call them an "extremis group" betrays, imo, bias founded on decades worth of whitewashed government propaganda.