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Black Against Empire: The History And Politics Of The Black Panther Party (2013)

by Joshua Bloom(Favorite Author)

4.38 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0520271858 (ISBN13: 9780520271852)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

University of California Press

review 1: Between 1968 and 1970 the Black Panther Party was the vanguard of the revolutionary moment the United States was experiencing. They got there over a period of years of solid organizing, and through a charismatic leadership that positioned the Party as the armed defenders of ghetto communities they likened to occupied zones within the imperium. Huey Newton and company pointed the finger at police brutality, and pointed guns when necessary. It was by following California gun laws to an end no one expected, and then following through with social programs, a somewhat inchoate but powerful Marxist rhetoric, and a willingness to build power through cooperation and in some cases cooptation with and of other black power and civil rights organizations. It didn't hurt that the U... moreS was absolutely ripe for the moment, fighting an unpopular war in VietNam, a war of ghetto oppression, and a war repressing the liberal peace movement. The established power structure really didn't know what was hitting it, and it responded as power does when it's threatened. And, as if it were textbook, repression built resistance. The BPP thrived. But, the BPP was a mixed bag of programs, and an internal mess of power plays in which gangsterism would raise its head along side vital community service, in which factions vied for autonomy, and leadership, in which gender and gay equality fought and won battles within, and in which the national organization led with a very heavy hand.Eventually, the Party imploded, and the radical community has been picking up the pieces ever since.Black Against Empire is another attempt to pick up the pieces. It's a fascinating story, made more fascinating for me because of my proximity to the Party and its activities. I was in Chicago. There were two factions in the politics I was attracted to: those who wanted to end the war, and those who wanted to smash the state. I wanted to smash the state, and the Panthers, SDS and the Weathermen, Rising Up Angry, and the Yippies (my gang) were the milieu in which I liked to raise my fist. We did think we were making a revolution. Fred Hampton's assassination proved it, the trial of the Chicago 8 proved it, the Days of Rage proved it - well, those things proved we had a moment, the student uprisings and the revolutionary gangs of Europe, and Mexico reinforced the moment, the reaction of the authorities gave us phrases like "chaos builds community," but we were wrong, and were easily co-opted.The BPP was not an insurgency, and neither were the other groups I loved so much. Once state power figured out that giving in on a few thing would weaken us faster than all the SWAT teams in the world, we quickly fell apart, took our cookies, and went back to school, or work, or the farm, or wherever. Anyway, I'm going on now as obnoxiously as we did then.My biggest quibbles with Black Against Empire lie in the field of language, and an inflated importance of events.. Riots were not insurrections or rebellions, the over blown titles of authority the Panthers gave themselves were ridiculous, then and now, and the movement was really a moment - longer lasting than the Occupy moment, but a moment - none the less. Black Against Empire tries to make it bigger than that, but the fact is, it was big enough. That we're still enthralled has to tell us something.Given that, this was a good read, and a good look at the scope of the Party in its heyday. Its scope was great, and shines in the history of US radicalism, and its good for us to know about it - and to celebrate what was good. And, hey, berets and black leather - amen.
review 2: Paper panthersWhile I learned a great deal about the Black Panthers, I think the author overstates their importance. They were not responsible and in fact probably only marginally contributed to ending the Vietnam War, creating affirmative action programs, or inducing greater government hiring of minorities. For all their talk of insurrection, they never engaged in armed guerrilla warfare and their conflicts with the police were little more than haphazard shootouts. However, they did have style (black leather jackets and berets) and knew how to capture the public's imagination with Marxist language and free breakfast programs. The pictures of Huey Newton sitting on the "Wicker Throne" and of Kathleen Cleaver holding the shotgun in the doorway are iconic. They were master media manipulators but having just finished reading "Embers of War" they are hardly comparable to the Việt Minh with which they identified themselves.I think the book would have been served better if the author had taken a less worshipful tone. Except for the shooting of Fred Hampton which is explained in detail and had all the appearances of a political assassination, I wanted to know more about the details of the police shooting for which Huey Newton went to jail. The Panthers considered Newton a political prisoner, but knowing the facts surrounding his incarceration would have been more helpful. My assumption as to why such facts were not included (e.g., killing a police officer) is that it would have made the Panthers look less sympathetic. less

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