I mean, fuck, let’s just ask Wikipedia what the Black Panthers were about?
The Black Panther Party or BPP (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982, with its only international chapter operating in Algeria from 1969 until 1972.
Wait, Self-Defense? Well I mean, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I’m sure the KKK thinks they’re “defending themselves” too. Let’s keep going.
At its inception on October 15, 1966, the Black Panther Party’s core practice was its armed citizens’ patrols to monitor the behavior of police officers and challenge police brutality in Oakland, California.
Oh. They were literally founded to fight police brutality, something that’s still a huge issue today. That… doesn’t sound like a black KKK at all, does it?
In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The Black Panther Party instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, and community health clinics.
They set up health clinics and free breakfast for children? Sounds like they should be sainted, not demonized. So why do people think they were so awful again?
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover called the party “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”, and he supervised an extensive program (COINTELPRO) of surveillance, infiltration, perjury, police harassment, and many other tactics designed to undermine Panther leadership, incriminate party members, discredit and criminalize the Party, and drain the organization of resources and manpower. The program was also accused of using assassination against Black Panther members.
Oh, right. J. Edgar Hoover, and his super-illegal “counterintelligence’ program designed to spy on and discredit such dangerous radical groups as feminists, anti-colonial movements, Vietnam War protesters, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Their primary tactics included abuse of the legal system to make these groups appear criminal through false evidence and wrongful imprisonment. They also used slander and outright impersonation to make “leftist” organizations look bad, going as far as to put out false media stories, fake publications supposedly from the groups, and even entire faked meetups and violent demonstrations by agents claiming to be operating under the group’s banner.
So yeah. Black Panthers were a community organization group that fought against police violence, but somehow people got in their head that they were the black KKK. Thanks Hoover.
origamiaround
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
2087
gracieabrams
prguitarman
