3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives 3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
had little to say about self-defense.~ The only way for the Panthers to incorporate theorists such as Bakunin into their own ideology, which exonerated violence in the name of self-protection, was to widen their definition of self-defense ; therefore, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver found it relatively easy, in order to justify a violent response, to equate violence with any form of oppression or injustice 6~ It was this logic that transfornKd the Panthers' defensive violence into offensive violence. David Hilliard further explained Huey Newton's implementation of offensive violence . "Fear is what makes him [Newton) fight so desperately," he explained, "be so severe and extreme . He always jp1~j,~$ that what he does to you, you're going to do to him. So he beats you to it."~ The March 23, 1968, issue of The Black Panther made it clear, in capital letters, by dressing the police : HALT IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY! YOU SHALL MAKE NO MORE WAR ON UNARMED PEOPLE . YOU WQ.L NOT KILL ANOTHER BLACK PERSON AND WALK THE S1'ItEETS OF THE BLACK COMMUNTfY TO GLOAT ABOUT Tf AND SNEER AT THE DEFENSELESS RELATIVES OF YOUR VICTIMS . FROM NOWON,WINYOU MURDER A BLACK PERSON IN THIS BABYLON OF BABYLONS, YOU MAY AS WELL GIVE ff UP BECAUSE WE WILL GET YOUR ASS AND GOD CAN'T HIDE YOU. The Panthers exploded conventional notions of self-defense and rc-defined them to include retaliation and revenge. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, Catechism of the Revolutionist (Oakland : Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, 196?), pamphlet, Bancroft Collection on Social Protest Movements, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. 6~For example, see note S2 . ~Hilliard, This Side of Glorv , 180 . 17 6
Simultaneously, they shouldered the burden of defending the black community of Oakland, and in doing so, transfornxd self-defense from a personal prerogative to a civic duty. With the ascendance of the Panthers, self-defense was no longer an individual act, but rather a collective measure of survival . Historically, civilians defending themselves and their families were exeaising what is at best a personal privilege serving only the particular interests of those defended, not those of the community at large ; but, as the Panthers understood it, self-protection w~ defense of the community . Without apparent consciousness of any difference, Panther rhetoric addressed issues of community defense as if it were only individual self-protection writ large . To illustrate, a cartoon by Emory Douglas depicted a Godzilla-sized black panther chasing a giant, white rat (wearing Uncle Sam's top hat) out of a black neighborhood as flames engulf the surrounding buildings. "DEFEND THE GHE'1T0," the caption boldly entreats~° Antagonistic toward their protectorate, white police officers in Oakland often failed to assume the primary responsibility of law enforcement : protection of the community. Only black citizens, such as the Panthers, could assume this responsibility. The Panthers' conceptualization of self-defense had a political dimension as well . Newton explained : To be political, you must have a political consequence when you do not receive your desires--otherwise you arc nonpolitical . When Black people send a representative, he is somewhat absurd because he represents no political power. He does not rcpc~esent land power because we do ~'i'he Black Panther (March 23,1968) . '°Philip S. Foner, ed ., The Black PantherS td . ed. (New York : Da Capo Press, 1995), 180 . 177
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had little to say about self-defense.~ The only way for the Panthers to incorporate<br />
theorists such as Bakunin into their own ideology, which exonerated violence in the name<br />
of self-protection, was to widen their definition of self-defense ; therefore, Huey Newton<br />
<strong>and</strong> Eldridge Cleaver found it relatively easy, in order to justify a violent response, to<br />
equate violence with any form of oppression or injustice 6~<br />
It was this logic that transfornKd the Panthers' defensive violence into offensive<br />
violence. David Hilliard further explained Huey Newton's implementation of offensive<br />
violence . "Fear is what makes him [Newton) fight so desperately," he explained, "be so<br />
severe <strong>and</strong> extreme . He always jp1~j,~$ that what he does to you, you're going to do to<br />
him. So he beats you to it."~ The March 23, 1968, issue of The Black Panther made it<br />
clear, in capital letters, by dressing the police :<br />
HALT IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY! YOU SHALL MAKE NO MORE<br />
WAR ON UNARMED PEOPLE . YOU WQ.L NOT KILL ANOTHER BLACK<br />
PERSON AND WALK THE S1'ItEETS OF THE BLACK COMMUNTfY TO<br />
GLOAT ABOUT Tf AND SNEER AT THE DEFENSELESS RELATIVES OF<br />
YOUR VICTIMS . FROM NOWON,WINYOU MURDER A BLACK<br />
PERSON IN THIS BABYLON OF BABYLONS, YOU MAY AS WELL GIVE<br />
ff UP BECAUSE WE WILL GET YOUR ASS AND GOD CAN'T HIDE<br />
YOU.<br />
The Panthers exploded conventional notions of self-defense <strong>and</strong> rc-defined them to<br />
include retaliation <strong>and</strong> revenge.<br />
Mikhail Aleks<strong>and</strong>rovich Bakunin, Catechism of the Revolutionist (Oakl<strong>and</strong> : Black<br />
Panther Party for Self-Defense, 196?), pamphlet, Bancroft Collection on Social Protest<br />
Movements, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.<br />
6~For example, see note S2 .<br />
~Hilliard, This Side of Glorv , 180 .<br />
17 6
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