Reply #26: well, I 'll try [View All]

But I can't promise satisfaction.


Iverglas: Now, hands up everybody who agrees with the political philosophy of Huey P. Newton ... or has a clue what it was ... . How about: hands up anybody who lives by it, or does anything at all to advance the struggle of African-Americans "for democracy and freedom".

I'm not intimately familiar with the political philosophy of Newton and the Panthers, but I do know a little bit about it.

As for "living by it" or doing things to "advance the struggle of African-Americans", I'm not sure how to do that.

Iverglas: And then, hands up anybody who is exploiting the struggle of African-Americans "for democracy and freedom" for no other reason but to advance their own interests (or maybe for the chance to say "Negroes with guns" a few times) ... .

The pleasurable aspect of repeating the phrase "Negroes with guns" is lost on me. And I hope that I'm not exploiting the black struggle if I say that it seems perfectly reasonable for blacks to want to defend themselves with guns, and equally reasonable for blacks and non-blacks to agree on gun-rights issues.

Iverglas: How about: hands up anybody who would shoot an African-American (or is that "Negro"?) youth who broke into his/her home?

Shoot the kid? With what? Not all gun control opponents are armed to the teeth, y'know. There's an ancient four-ten around here somewhere, but there's no chance of anyone shooting it until a missing part is replaced. So I'm almost as gunless as you.

As for whether I would shoot the hypothetical black youth if I were better armed than I am in real life, I have no idea. Really, I haven't a clue what I would do in such a situation. Perhaps I might be more likely to shoot a male intruder than a female one -- which may yet qualify me as some kind of bigot -- but I doubt that I could find a black intruder more frightening or more shootable than a white one. But all of this is speculation. If you apply surprise, terror, adrenalin, and a loaded pistol, who knows which principles and inhibitions will hold and which will fall? I want my inhibitions to be the right and healthy ones, and I want my principles to be rock-solid. But fear can corrupt anything and anyone, and I wouldn't bet that my strength of mind is superior to fear.

Iverglas: I surely do hope that nobody who put his/her hand up for that last one had the gall *not* to put his/her hand up for the one right before it.

Me, I am a timid sort, and very short on gall. But then, my votes were "I don't get it," "I hope not," and "I don't know," so I think I'm off the hook here.


Iverglas: I just don't think that Huey P. Newton, or Robert Williams, would have been real impressed with the sincerity of people who claimed to support their cause -- which was not "RKBA", it was DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM -- and shot (or supported the shooting of) African-American kids who broke into their houses.


But part of their cause was very specifically the right to keep and bear arms. Roebear is not wrong about that. I know what you're driving at, and I appreciate your point about opportunism and how exploitative it is (and your concerns are valid ones, I don't deny that).

But. There's a reason why Newton et al named their group the Black Panther Party for Self Defense:

So Huey says, "You know what we're going to do?" "What?" "We're going to the Capitol." I said, "The Capitol?" He says, "Yeah, we're going to the Capitol." I say, "For what?" "Mulford's there, and they're trying to pass a law against our guns, and we're going to the Capitol steps. We're going to take the best Panthers we got and we're going to the Capitol steps with our guns and forces, loaded down to the gills. And we're going to read a message to the world, because all the press is going to be up there. The press is always up there. They'll listen to the message, and they'll probably blast it all across this country. I know, I know they'll blast it all the way across California. We've got to get a message over to the people."

Huey understood a revolutionary culture, and Huey understood how arms and guns become a part of the culture of a people in the revolutionary struggle. And he knew that the best way to do it was to go forth, and those hungry newspaper reporters, who are shocked, who are going to be shook up, are going to be blasting that news faster than they could be stopped. I said, "All right, brother, right on. I'm with you. We're going to the Capitol." So we called a meeting that night, before going up to the Capitol, to write the first executive mandate for the Black Panther Party. Huey was going to write Executive Mandate Number One.

-- Bobby Seale, in Seize the Time



Executive Mandate Number One is too long to paste here in its entirety, but here is a representative excerpt:



The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general and the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is now considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder, and repression of black people.

(...)

Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated, and everything else to get the racist power structure of America to right the wrongs which have historically been perpetrated against black people. All of these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit, and hypocrisy. As the aggression of the racist American government escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of America escalate the repression of black people throughout the ghettoes of America. Vicious police dogs, cattle prods, and increased patrols have become familiar sights in black communities. City Hall turns a deaf ear to the pleas of black people for relief from this increasing terror.

The Black Panther Party for Self-defense believes that the time has come for black people to arm themselves against this terror before it is too late. The pending Mulford Act brings the hour of doom one step nearer. A people who have suffered so much for so long at the hands of a racist society, must draw the line somewhere. We believe that the black communities of America must rise up as one man to halt the progression of a trend that leads inevitably to their total destruction.



As I said, your concern about pro-rkba opportunism is a valid one. What I'm wondering, though, is what Newton himself might have preferred: genuine goodhearted sympathy from non-bigots, without the right to armed self-defense; or general indifference and enmity -- but with the right to armed self-defense fully intact*.


Mary



*Ah, but what might he prefer now? you ask. Yes, I know that Huey Newton died of gunshot wounds decades after he wrote the statement above. So I meditate on the sad truth that California's gun control laws don't seem to have helped him any...