The same thing that happens to a lot of extremist groups, they refuse to adapt and align with others that aren’t the same as them, but share their viewpoint. The Panthers did not hold women in the same regard as men, and thus, their female membership was non-existent. Towards the end, there are stories of brutality against women, and during the late 70s and early 80s, women were attempting to gain more rights for themselves. Imagine being a member of the Panthers and having a wife that was a feminist. It doesn’t take violence to overthrow a movement, simply reducing their numbers at the street level can be enough to ground them. With fewer and fewer men joining or staying with the panthers, and the issues surrounding Huey P. Newton, the power of the party declined and eventually collapsed under itself with no one to support it.
This is a super simplified and very narrow argument for the downfall of the Panthers. I would suggest reading up more on it. There are plenty of books on the subject. Just remember that the more you read and study, the greater an informed position can be reached. Don’t rely on just one narrative or one viewpoint. Read, analyze, and discuss with others. Knowledge is gained slowly and deliberately and rarely completed.
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.
To simplify even more from a general anthropological perspective of many topics…
Tribalism is a reault of conservative values no matter how ethically good the cause or what those values may be. Not adapting to what’s socially going on, or doing things like responding to an oppressing tribe by using the same tactics of that tribe just creates discord. One need simply compare MLK to the Panthers. Same cause at the core, but entirely different values and ideology. And of course, tribalism is rife when there’s in-fighting of those that are ultimately wanting the same core outcome because it’s deteriorated to camp vs camp.
Lastly and most importantly, it gives bad reputation to the core idea and creates social opportunity to instill doubt with fallacy…
“They champion for this. It’s good.”
“Yes. But they also do this, so it cannot be good.”
“This is true.”
It’s not, but the average of our collective doesn’t think hard enough to consider such things. We fucking love a good flag and warcry; tribalism is in our nature and an old lingering detrimental trait that even the most progressive of intents can be snuffed out or tarnished by.
I don’t know the full details of the BP demise, but I imagine this general recipe we see countlessly in all history is not too far off.
You been listening to Behind the Bastards four-parter on Clarence Thomas too? As Miles Gray observes, a lot of people with terrible opinions were able to move civil rights efforts forward into actual policy. (Thomas wasn’t one of those, but he dabbled in with black nationalism and misogyny in his early career.
We Have Ways of Making You Talk, about WWII, now over 600 episodes. Chatty, inspired, incredible guests. Not all about D-Day and Iwo Jima, but dealing with lesser-known stories and personalities. The hosts are Al Murray and James Holland (whose brother Tom does an excellent podcast called “The Rest is History”.
“the show where we don’t just report on spirituality, fringe science and claims of the paranormal, but take part ourselves. We join religions, undergo alternative medical treatments, and hunt for ghost, goblins, demons, and deities. If it has an extraordinary claim attached to it, we’ll check it out.”
youarenotsosmart.com psychology, sociology, & more. Sounds boring but is fascinating. His own description:
The central theme of You Are Not So Smart is that you are unaware of how unaware you are which leads you to becoming the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. You Are Not So Smart is a fun exploration of the ways you and everyone else tends to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation, and behavior. I hope you’ll rediscover a humility and reconnect with the stumbling, fumbling community of humans trying to make sense of things the best we can.
Truth be told right now it’s One Piece. I never watched / read when I was younger, but was aware of it in the periphery. I watched the first episode of the Netflix adaptation and immediatly decided that it might be worth checking out. 900 some odd episodes later and I’m kinda sad I’m near the end of what’s currently available. Is it dumb as shit? Yes. Is it immensely charming and at times genuinely moving? Yes. Could it use a massive trimming of the fat—oh god yes. But still I love how completely zany the world is and how unabashedly batshit crazy things get.
Wildfires and flooding here in northern Ontario. Can’t really prepare for these things… Just pack up and go when needed. Wildfire got real close to town last summer, and MNRF were beginning to setup sprinklers around town, but eventually the fire was taken care of. We were ready to pack up and go if the time came, but luckily never needed to.
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