Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Second rate reporter says what?

A consequence of cucumbers

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

We still have time to mess this up!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

This fight is for everything.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / Sorry About Your Black Panther Party

Sorry About Your Black Panther Party

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Some must see tv tonight on PBS’s Independent Lens: The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution

In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored — cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the diverse group of voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

Record it if you can’t watch it live!

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  5. 5.

    scav

    @gwangung: I’m expecting LEOs across ‘merca to be hiding under their beds, rolling out to take occassional potshots at passers-by and/or the TV set (sending out pleading calls for PBS to be defunded mid-broadcast for promoting police genocide).

  8. 8.

    Germy

    Does anyone remember the Black Panthers movie from about 20 years ago? Chris Rock had a tiny role in it, and the guy who played Tank in The Matrix was in it, also.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’ve got the DVR set. I’m looking forward to the part about how they went to the California state house open carrying, as they were legally entitled to at the time, and it scared the daylights out of the white establishment so badly that Governor Ronald Reagan quickly got behind gun control legislation. Because disarming African Americans wasn’t a hallmark of Jim Crow and segregation or anything. Good times!

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    Damn…DNA…neither one of the grandparents who raised him were his biological grandparents and niether him or his mother ever knew

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    And the sick irony was they weren’t doing anything but trying to raise themselves from poverty. Wanting respect and auto money. And then, self-defense.

    And it scared most white people right out of their skulls.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    I’m streaming the Westminster Dog Show. The NYTimes has live coverage of the sporting event, because of course they do.

  25. 25.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: How about the Equesticles? People already know that around the Equesticles you’re “in the least amount of danger possible.”

  31. 31.

    BlueDWarrior

    @raven: Problem with a documentary on the Black Panthers is that the history is so gnarled you’d probably have to run a documentary mini-series to even begin to accurately describe it.

  32. 32.

    ? Martin

    @Baud: Remember when Republicans lost their shit over Tinky Winky? Rainbow Dash’s ambiguous sexuality would be equally terrifying.

  33. 33.

    BlueDWarrior

    @? Martin: And the thing about it is that the writers clearly want to avoid any strong romantic implications about anyone except the (older) adults, so everything about the main characters is vague and unfocused.

  34. 34.

    Hal

    A conservative white friend on Facebook insisted the Black Panthers were just as bad as the KKK. I guess if you ignore 4000+ murders, arsons and who knows how many assaults, to say the least, you’ve got a point.

  38. 38.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Hal: For a lot of white people of the time, and still many now, any time Blacks assert themselves means they are being militant and potentially foment a hot revolution against the White establishment.

  40. 40.

    BlueDWarrior

    @raven: Because ultimately this is our country too, even admitting a lot of our ancestors were dragged and shipped here against their will.

    In some sense, we simply refuse to surrender and leave, or enclose ourselves into easily ignored ghettos anymore. In some sense, there is a mild analogy with the LGBT community in that we will continue to assert ourselves and the ‘white establishment’ has to deal with it.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    @BlueDWarrior: Don’t have to tell me – I have a daughter and have seen every episode. I have advanced the theory that MLP is really a vision of post-apocalyptic earth as it’s the only explanation for why ponies would have invented bowling when they have no thumbs – they didn’t, humans did and pony archeologists uncovered the activity and resurrected it.

  43. 43.

    Kathleen

    @raven: Have you seen the HBO documentary Breaking The Huddle about the desegregation on SEC football teams? The film focused on Alabama. One of the best documentaries I’ve seen. Some of the stories broke my heart.Those young men who broke the color barrier were heroes.

  46. 46.

    eclare

    DVRing. BTW, any male who noticed the berets the backup dancers were wearing should have their heads examined. Yeah, gorgeous women dancing like crazy, but OMG, the HATS! Good grief, I’m female, I didn’t notice.

  47. 47.

    raven

    @Kathleen: No but I read the book about it. I know football was tough but what Perry Wallace endured was worse. Being the only African American in the gym at Ol Miss and LSU in 1966 was horrific.

  48. 48.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Doesn’t Gil Scott Heron say something like America is # 1 in the world at being shocked? I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated Winter in America until we had a black president.

  51. 51.

    Adam L Silverman

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I explained to someone yesterday that if one of our allies, that was also a nuclear power, was demonstrating that it was going to willingly engage in a Constitutional crisis (or the local equivalent) coupled with the wackiness of our election system, we’d be preparing to invade in order to secure the nukes and prevent a major catastrophe. Something has gone very, very wrong over the past 40 years.

  52. 52.

    ? Martin

    Oh, and TIL that Elena Kagan was recommended to Obama to join the court by none other than Scalia. I do not think Tony would approve of leaving a seat vacant for partisan reasons.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: Given how outspoken Chief Justice Roberts has been about the Senate not moving fast enough to fill the backlog in District and Appellate Court appointments, which were seriously gumming up the system, I would be surprised if he doesn’t make it known that regular order should be followed: the President nominates, the Senate does its actual job.

  59. 59.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Fear of a black planet, and the black president who is the wedge that will usher in the same. I think future historians will mark January 20, 2009 as the beginning of our country’s mass psychosis.

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    Some things never change…

    “We want freedom, decent housing, education, employment and end of police brutality” ..

    “We don’t hate nobody because of their color! We hate oppression! We hate murder of black people in our communities! “

  64. 64.

    eclare

    @Baud: Have told a friend with Canadian citizenship who works here, please take me with you when you know what hits the fan. He said only if we took Bieber.

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: I think most Americans don’t care, unless something were to happen between India and Pakistan.

    Funny story: when I was doing my MA in religion in Miami I was teaching a lesson dealing with indigenous religious traditions and syncretism in Central America and the Caribbean. I asked my students to name a Central American state. The student from Belize put his hand up and when I called on him he answered “Kansas”. Almost as funny as when one of my Jewish American students came up to me with a TANAKH (Jewish Bible/Torah, Prophets, Writings) and said she was having trouble doing her homework because her Bible seemed to be missing the Book of Mark…

    Good times!

  70. 70.

    BlueDWarrior

    The whole subtle politics of hair amazes me sometimes. Like, the only way Beyonce could have aggravated white conservatives more is if she let her hair grow into an afro puff for the performance.

    Now personally, I like the natural or the kinked style more on ‘sisters’, because it’s not difficult to figure out which women have had to chemically treat their hair to get straightness and which ones just have that naturally.

    And don’t get me started on hair weave… ugh I can go on for hours about hair weave…

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: No, I was at FIU. University of Miami’s religious studies program is meh. FIU was just beginning a stand alone, previously it was the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. I was the first graduate of the program and it has gone on to become one of the top religious studies programs in the country.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: He and I correspond occasionally. He’s a sharp guy. And I’ve been saying what he’s saying for years. Though I’d wager he’s been saying it for years too.

  78. 78.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Adam L Silverman: If India goes up in flames the results won’t be pretty. A student leader at a major Indian University was charged with sedition for giving a speech critical of the ruling party’s parent organization the RSS, journalists and opposition party leaders were roughed up outside a court house in Delhi at was supposed to be hearing of the case. There is even footage of a BJP state legislator throwing some punches.

  79. 79.

    raven

    @Adam L Silverman: Ah, he was, or is, Poli Sci “Professor of International Studies, University of Miami,Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois”. I had him in the early 70’s for Comparative Communist Systems in Eastern Europe and Soviet Foreign Policy. Really good guy and those courses were eye openers for a pissed off 20 year old vet.

  81. 81.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: I know of him, but never met him. Grad school is very compartmentalized. I barely knew anyone outside of my own program as I just didn’t have the time – between teaching and doing my own studies and research and writing. I was fortunate to take a course on Islam and International Relations from Mohiaden Messbahi from FIU’s IR department. Really sharp guy and a really excellent course.

  84. 84.

    BlueDWarrior

    Wow this was an important point I had forgotten… so many actual Black Panthers were women. That probably aggravated the powers-that-be even more.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: Walrus has a narcissism OCD issue. I’m still waiting on that graywolf guy to actually tell me what he means by socialism. I think I asked him to tell me back in 2009 or 2010. My impression was anything he didn’t approve of politically, economically, or socially, but I never got confirmation.

  90. 90.

    slag

    So, did the TWIB folks finally give up on us? I’ve been wondering where they’ve been for a while now. Did I miss something?

  93. 93.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Baud: I want a president who is up on the best TV family out there, if only second-hand. Certainly you can assign someone in your campaign to become a fan.

  98. 98.

    BlueDWarrior

    That was a powerful statement right there. When MLK died it might have been the last chance for an amicable solution to the problems of the era; no matter how much LBJ and others in the establishment would have called for peace, things were going to get set on fire, quite literally.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    @BlueDWarrior: China isn’t in bad shape. They’re going through some turmoil, but you can largely ignore their stock market. Unlike western nations, their stock market is largely unconnected to their broader economy. It’s still a communist country, after all.

  100. 100.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    All of the evidence you needed for psychosis was on display Saturday night, with JEB’s paid operatives all booing facts and cheering the lies about 9/11, in total denial or pretending to be which is just as fucked up. The GOP knows at a subliminal level that GWB was such a fuck up that he gave them Barack Hussein Obama who won two elections in landslides, changed the country, and it has completely baffled them into psychosis. That’s how big a fuckup GWB was. So now manbaby JEB has to tweet a dick gun pic to his donors to let him know he’s got this, unaware that they’re all running for the exits. He’s done after SC, and we’ll never see another Bush for a long time. Heckuva job, Bushie.

    Which means in the space of 8 years, President Black Ninja took on the Clinton machine and the Bush GOP establishment, and ju jitsued them into self-destructive psychosis. It’s been really something to watch, but wicked scary because guns.

  106. 106.

    The Golux

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Bin Laden had a very good understanding of what was going to happen…

    I’ve always had the feeling that Bin Laden rubbed his hands with glee when Bush was elected, knowing that he would get the overreaction from the United States he hoped for in spades from Bush and Cheney. In other words, the election of Bush actually helped advance the 9/11 attacks, much more so than if Gore had been elected.

  109. 109.

    BlueDWarrior

    @lamh36: You know, I would not be surprised if a Trump-led FBI started doing things like this to the more organized parts of the Black Lives Matter movement.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    When J.EdgarHoover declared the BP number one terrorist org in America it was open season Panthers #BlackPanthersPBS

  112. 112.

    The Golux

    @eclare:

    The Mountaintop speech is peerless.

    Oh my God, yes. If you don’t choke up at “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”, you’re not human.

  113. 113.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The fact that Obama got Osama – that was head exploding time for them. I think the moment the news broke that Obama got Osama was the true psychotic break. The final humiliation by the black man. BOOM goes the dynamite!

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @schrodinger’s cat: That question is worth a thread on its own (although Adam probably knows the answer).

    IMHO, rapid changes in inequality (of any type) give rise to reactionary religious sentiment.

  116. 116.

    lamh36

    @RilwanB5 32s32 seconds ago
    Tied up and gagged In a court of law #BlackPanthersPBS

    Listening to this vocal recording of Bobby Seale’s trial, and I’m just disgusted and all I thought was…with this history, you wonder why Black folks don’t trust the court system?

    Tied and gagged in to his chair for daring to putting up a defense for himself!

  118. 118.

    Calouste

    Article in the Guardian about the Republican candidates’ ground game in Nevada, emphasizing Trump’s lack thereof.

    The thing is, what no one in that article seems to realize, is that Trump doesn’t need a ground game in Nevada, or in pretty much any of the caucus states. Caucus states don’t have that many delegates, and they assign them proportionally with a low threshold or no threshold at all. Nevada for example assigns their 30 delegates proportionally with no threshold. Minimal effort by Trump might get him 2, maybe 3 less delegates than maximum effort. For the last he has to underperform by 10%.

    Super Tuesday on the other hand sees many states (for a total of 438 delegates) that have non-proportional allocation of delegates and/or high (20%) thresholds to get any delegates, or assign part of their delegates by district, which implies a 16.67% threshold. In Trump’s current leading position he will get far more bang for the buck by running up the score on Super Tuesday than he would ever get out of Nevada. Besides, the 15-20% thresholds in many Super Tuesday states makes it useful for him to keep in all five other current candidates, more likely that none or only one of them will make the threshold which results in Trump getting a bigger share of the delegates.

    I’m not sure if Trump is working the delegate allocation on purpose the same way as Obama did in 2008, but none of the party officials in that Guardian piece seemed to have a clue.

  119. 119.

    BlueDWarrior

    @lamh36: It goes to show, while the establishment has no time or patience for people saying ‘revolution’, when it is people of a certain hue, that antipathy turns into a vile hatred.

    Like I said before, I honestly fear for the BLM and associated movements if Trump (or any other Republican) gains the Presidency.

  120. 120.

    lamh36

    Wow..Black Panthers and poor white in solidarity in Chicago brought together by Fred Hampton…Hoover most feared young whites supporting the Black movement and “prevent a Black messiah”.

    So FBI placed a plant disguised as Hampton’s bodyguard…and if you read anything you know what happened.

    “Fight with raciscm, not with racism, but with solidarity” – Fred Hampton

  122. 122.

    BlueDWarrior

    @lamh36: That right there should tell you how paranoid Black people are whenever someone under the age of 30 can show themselves to galvanize all the youth in such a way.

    At the same time, 2016 American is not 1969 America, so while the threat of just outright murder is less, you can still end up with being frozen out of main avenues of communication and the like.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: Fluoride in the water. No, I haven’t been listening to Alex Jones, why do you ask?

    More seriously, the US certainly, and I would reason that other societies as well, has a religiosity cycle. There were previous iterations: the Great Awakening, Willian Jennings Bryan and the religious portions of the Progressive Movement, the religious portions of the Temperance Movement. Even the American Revolution had its share. Read Marsden’s book on how many of the Founders used apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric in describing what was going on and often referred to King George as the anti-Christ. We’ve been in one since the mid 70s. And since the leadership of this one, which is definitely reactionary, has captured a good chunk of one of our two political parties, I’m not sure when it will abate.

  129. 129.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @lamh36:

    That is the true threat to the oligarchy – the dismantling of racism so that everyone can see how you’re being played by the Man. Fred Hampton saw up v. down rather than just black v. white. Showing others that is dangerous.

  130. 130.

    eclare

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: George Carlin had a good bit about this, how the rich play everyone against each other so no one notices they are taking all of the money. Looking forward to watching the doc tomorrow. History was a bit before my time, born 1968, but those who don’t know history….

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yes. I was referring to the US state of Indiana not having any air craft carriers. I am very aware of India’s flat tops. From a military ally point of view this is a good thing as it helps us keep China in check.

  133. 133.

    Chris

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I explained to someone yesterday that if one of our allies, that was also a nuclear power, was demonstrating that it was going to willingly engage in a Constitutional crisis (or the local equivalent) coupled with the wackiness of our election system, we’d be preparing to invade in order to secure the nukes and prevent a major catastrophe. Something has gone very, very wrong over the past 40 years.

    I’ve often wondered if the other major powers’ military and intelligence establishments put a lot of thought into planning for contingencies in the event that the U.S. ever goes completely over the edge (civil war, economic collapse, a Republican president that really is every bit as touched in the head as his public rhetoric suggests). Kind of like the way we watch Pakistan and wonder what to do if it finally blows.

  135. 135.

    Chris

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I wonder what’s the reason behind the rise of the religious right? You see it here, in India, in the Middle East too.

    Equally interesting is that they all popped up at about the same time. Maybe not in India, I’m not very familiar with its politics. But for the three Abrahamic religions, the religious right phenomenon went viral in the late seventies and eighties. There seems to have been a general disillusionment with and rejection of the more modernist and secularist ideologies of earlier in the twentieth century, be it modern liberalism in the U.S, Labor Zionism in Israel, or Arab Nationalism and its equivalents in neighboring countries like the Shah’s regime in Iran or the Soviets’ buddies in Afghanistan. Whether it’s all interconnected or due to completely different forces that happened to appear on the scene in their respective countries at about the same time, I can’t say.

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