For about five seconds in 1967, Bay Area conservatives had good reason to be paranoid. The Black Panthers were armed and not hiding it. Initially the Black Panthers existed for one reason only: copwatching. Tired of police abuse at the expense of black people, the Black Panthers of Oakland used to show up, armed [read: heavily armed] whenever a police arrest was being made. The Panthers presence assured that no police abuse would take place. When the Panthers took an armed contingent to Sacramento to intimidate government officials, newly elected California governor Ronald Reagan fast-tracked a law banning public weaponry. For five seconds, conservatives felt there might be consequences for the actions and methods they supported.
Geez, where to go from here? It’s 51 years later, and we still have excess police abuse aimed at black people; citizens have armed themselves with cameras instead of rifles, but all that does is provide proof, not a solution … oh, and in the mean time, 2nd amendment nuts made sure all white Americans could arm legally under pretty much every circumstance to discourage other gun nuts from being armed (?) and … Ronald Reagan, once the poster child for racial discrimination in America, is now hilariously liberal by modern GOP standards … that all happened; none of it is accidental and at least some of it is a reaction to the Black Panther movement.
I grew up in Oakland during the time of the Black Panthers. I knew the names Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver better than I knew the name Ronald Reagan. Did you know Bobby Seale ran for mayor the same year the Oakland Athletics defeated the New York Mets in the World Series? Unlike the Athletics, Seale did not prevail, and by 1973, he was considered a sell-out. The Black Panther movement was political but never office-seeking. The Panthers wanted to influence soft power; the kind of power that kept police officers from beating the tar out of black people … and they were loathed for it. They are still loathed for it.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution documents the key players and events in the struggle. It’s impressive when you think about it; The Black Panthers went from a bunch of guys who wanted to see better policing to topping the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Of course, in the 1960s, it was a little easier to top the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Being black and owning a firearm could probably get you in the top 10 by itself. Theirs was a different fight from the Civil Rights movement. The proof was in that the Panthers evolved from places where Jim Crow never happened, but discrimination took place all the same. While the Black Panthers began as copwatchers, the movement grew into an octopus – a international multi-armed beast intent on addressing any topic important to African-Americans. It covered oppression and police brutality, but it also covered education, poverty, chauvinism, 
and philanthropy. Don’t miss that Black Panther breakfast! Come for the militancy, stay for the alms.
The parallels are quite sickening when you think about it. The Black Panthers evolved into a movement designed to give African American a greater voice in society. Herbert Hoover declared The Black Panthers the #1 threat to America. Using the FBI’s immense resources, he targeted the movement NOT for elimination, but for propaganda. Hoover wanted to destroy the credibility of the Black Panthers. When you think about it, how is this any different from Right Wing media? Fox News, Newsmax, OAN … their #1 function is identifying opponents and then destroying their credibility. Well, let me back up a little: the primary function of these companies is to keep an audience. The best way (and pretty much only way, it seems) is to feed the conservative rage machine with whatever it needs to hear to stay angry. And the best way to do that is to identify enemies and destroy their credibility. Fox News is simply carrying the baton for the FBI’s worst legacy.
The Black Panthers were a self-defeating organism from the outset. unfortunately, that seems how it is with black people in America. It’s how it has always been, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. The Panther shelf-life was limited, just like BLM’s is. This is not going to change until the United States evolves into a place where President Donald Trump is an impossibility. Right now? We are about as far from that as we can get.
When viewed through enlightened prism
America has an eternal schism
Our landscape is scarred
Atonement is hard!
Much easier to deny and vote racism
Not Rated,115 Minutes
Director: Stanley Nelson
Writer: Stanley Nelson
Genre: The guidebook on how one might “stick it to THE MAN”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Former Panthers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: MAGAs
