BLACK PANTHERS VS. The TEA PARTY

I was fourteen years old in the summer of 1969. We sat in the playground at Patcher Park in Gary, Indiana and watched Chicago Panther leader Fred Hampton talk about community involvement, guns, drugs, and parental control. All we wanted to do was play ball, but Brother Fred’s message kind of put me in a trance. I knew right then, that this dude was the real deal. I cannot help but remember, and relive, the joy and pride of that day. I also became frustrated and angry because I now knew who the real enemy was. Wow, strong angry Black men going to war against the oppressive and racist U.S. government. But, do not get confused. Tea Partiers, carrying and waving guns, screaming nigger this, and nigger that, threatening violence against our Black elected officials, and holding anti-tax rallies is not the same as the Black Panthers response to overt police brutality, which involved developing community-based programs that promoted self defense, Black political power, and freedom from economic exploitation. When white people say that all they know about the Black Panther Party is that they were a crazy group of niggers led by angry, gun-toting radical’s, shows their (white people’s) lack of understanding of the Black Panther Party’s grassroots political philosophy and commitment to community organizing. The truth of the matter is that the Black Panther Party and the Tea Party are nothing alike. To begin with, the Tea Party does not offer anything close to the in-depth sophisticated analysis of the political and economic condition of oppressed people. The Black Panther Party developed a 10-point platform of demands and reform proposals intended to improve the lives of ordinary people in Black communities. The Tea Party, meanwhile, has a terrible understanding of the way current political and economic systems operate. They spend their time protesting stimulus programs, social programs, healthcare reforms, the deficit, repealing civil rights legislation, and re-segregating private businesses, but that’s not the same as building a movement that enacts change through projects like the free breakfast program for children, as the Black Panther Party did. Whether you agreed with the Black Panther Party politics or not, they at least had an agenda that was full of action! The difference is as clear as being assassinated in the middle of the night by the FBI’s counterintelligence campaign (COINTELPRO) that claimed the life of several Black Panther Party members including Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark. Their murders were probably the worst act of violence against the Black Panther Party by the racist police, who in Chicago and anywhere Black folk lived, partnered with the FBI to target civil rights groups and our people. My serious analysis of the Tea Party’s values, members, goals, and racist rhetoric led me to believe that this group is not a modern white version of the Black Panther Party, but is instead the very opposite of the Black Panther Party. While our history is being blurred by these racists, you need only look at Texas and Arizona, where their resident racist lawmakers are attempting to erase some of our most important moments in the nation’s history from public school textbooks. But for me, and for so many others like me, when those who represent these systems come looking for us, they don’t come to our front doors politely, knocking first, they bust through, shooting first. The Tea Party's biggest drawing card is its racism, just as white racism is central to the success of the Republican Party. Forget about the Tea Party's other supposed issues, like the budget and the bank bailout. That's not what puts fire in their asses. This is America, remember? Race is all some white people understand.