First of all, let me start off by saying that this movie would NOT be in theaters this month if it were based on the REAL Black Panthers.
The Black Panthers, also known as the Black Panther Party, was a political organization founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to challenge police brutality against the African American community. Dressed in black berets and black leather jackets, the Black Panthers organized armed citizen patrols of Oakland and other U.S. cities. At its peak in 1968, the Black Panther Party had roughly 2,000 members. The organization later declined as a result of internal tensions, deadly shootouts and FBI counterintelligence activities aimed at weakening the organization.
The Black Panthers were not solely focused on violence. One notable program was Free Breakfast for Children. They fed as many as 20,000 children in the 1968-69 school year. This was portrayed by detractors as a propaganda and recruitment tool, as the children were taught party messages and ideology during the meals.
As I re-read the above paragraphs, what strikes me is this: “The Black Panthers were not solely focused on violence.” I don’t even know what that means because in order to fight against racism, hate groups and a government that is hell bent on our annihilation, how could it be otherwise? Non-violence did not work because if it did, the man who history lauds as one of the most peace-loving men to have ever lived would have lived out his natural life instead of having been assassinated and we all know who I am referring to; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That man tried in every way possible to bring about change, peacefully and what did he get for his efforts, he got an assassin’s bullet, that’s what he got for drawing attention to the plight of slaves in America. That’s right, I said, “Slaves!” Because that is what we all are and aren’t we reminded of it every single day.
Slaves make up only 13% of the population count in America and yet in 2014, slaves represented 34% of the prison population in America and that number is worse today.
Nationwide, Black children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court.
For as long as the government has kept track, the economic statistics have shown a troubling racial gap. Black people are twice as likely as white people to be out of work and looking for a job. This fact was as true in 1954 as it is today.
The most recent report puts the white unemployment rate at around 4.5 percent. The black unemployment rate? About 8.8 percent.
But the economic picture for slaves is far worse than those statistics indicate. The unemployment rate only measures people who are both living at home and actively looking for a job.
What do you think would happen if the unemployment rate for Black people included those who are incarcerated? Add in those who are incarcerated and the unemployment figures for Black men jumps to 18.6%.
The Black Panthers knew that there was no peaceful way to go about effecting change because those who made up the Black Panthers, had themselves been victims of white oppression as we are today. We only have the illusion of freedom because at any given moment, each of us could be killed for no reason whatsoever and this has been playing out on city streets all across America. The slave patrols are decked out in blue and brown uniforms and have been given legal authority by the government of America to round us up whenever it pleases them to do so. Some of us are actually locked inside cages, but those of us who are not actually IN a cage are just as caged. Go into the ‘wrong’ neighborhood and find out how free you are. Protest the murder of another slave for too long and see how fast Gestapo pigs are called out to initiate a curfew to get you off the streets and locked in at night because when you burn down the white man’s means by which he makes a profit, you see just how much a slave, you still are. Get sick and walk in the doors of a hospital seeking help and they will show you that a sick slave is of no use to them, here, and here.
So yes, it is most important that you, as adult slaves, take your children to see this new Black Panther movie that is set to come out in theaters everywhere during this celebration of Slave History Month. Continue to promote the ideals behind slavery, racism, bigotry, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, income inequality, mass homelessness, gentrification, a school-to-prison pipeline, low educational attainment, mass poverty and government sanctioned murder by cop because you are indeed promoting all of the aforementioned especially seeing as how this movie is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. And in order to understand how racist Walt Disney was is to read about Walt Disney.
The charge: Walt Disney was racist.
The evidence: These charges stem primarily from the use of racial stereotypes in Disney movies from the 40s: Dumbo’s black crows; Fantasia’s black servant centaurette; and Song of the South, a movie so offensive that the Disney company will no longer let it be seen in public. Then there is Walt Disney’s own behavior: Gabler cites a meeting in which Disney referred to the Snow White dwarves as a “nigger pile” and another in which he used the term “pickaninny.” The book notes that Disney anticipated the Song of the South controversy and attempted to make it less racist with a rewrite and meeting with the NAACP. The meeting never happened, and the movie was released anyway. There was also some controversy about the company’s unwillingness to hire minorities at Disneyland.
I see that I’ve got to change a few words, Slaves, take your “nigger piles,” your “pickanninies” to see Walt Disney’s Black Panther and while you’re there ask the theater to beg the Disney Corporation to re-release the movie, “Song of the South,” so that you can then return and view how happy and helpful slaves were to white folks when we were still needed to pick cotton, cook and clean for them and lie down with them upon demand.
This blog post is a direct result of another blog I read about how Black children should see this movie, “Black Panther” because it will show them that there were great Black kingdoms and it will show them that Black people can have super powers and everything will just be great. Seriously???!! So these Black pickanninies, once they’ve looked at this movie, will leave the theater thinking that they have the ability to fly to freedom, to escape poverty, to get into a leaky boat and head to some great Black kingdom, to understand that the reason their daddy, uncle and cousin is incarcerated is because they just refused to use their super powers to escape incarceration in a land where they will never be free, whether caged or not. Yes, give your pickanninies the illusion of “Black Panther,” produced and released by the same company that lovingly gave us “Song of the South.”
By viewing “Black Panther,” our pickanninies will celebrate Slave History Month like it should be celebrated. We will continue to enrich the coffers of our slave owners just as we’ve always done. We may no longer cook all Massa’s meals, we may no longer pick his cotton, we may no longer tend his fields from sunup to sundown, but by god, we shall surely give our hard-earned pennies to him during this month that he has set aside for us to celebrate his benevolence towards us by putting together a movie starring many who look like us and who are from a fake kingdom when the truth of the matter is this movie is not far off its mark because there truly was a kingdom and our ancestors resided there, but the Walt Disneys of this world saw an opportunity in your ancestors and so they took them, they took them to enrich themselves and you are a product of that enrichment and you are still enriching them today. Oh, I am pretty sure that it was just a major coincidence that “Black Panther” is coming out just in time for Black History Month, I am that naïve.
I am so very sorry that the strong Black people of yesteryear are no longer with us because the women of the Civil Rights Movement would not be taking their children to see a movie that will be released by the very same company that released “Song of the South.” Their children would take part in a boycott of this movie just as they took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.
The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5, the day Parks would be tried in municipal court.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Black women and men of his day, showed us all how to stick it to the white man; one word, BOYCOTT! And that is just something we have never been willing to continue because a movie is more important than mass incarceration, massive unemployment, income inequality, gentrification, mass homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, gangs, drugs and crime in ‘Black’ communities, inequality in health care, brain developmental problems in our children due to lead paint poisoning and yet, we are going to celebrate all of this by watching a movie because we just want a two-hour break from our reality and right afterwards, we will continue to piss and moan and whine about why we are still, slaves, and treated as such. Ask your cousin Terrell if they are showing this movie in the prison he’s serving a 30-year sentence in for having on his person, a dime bag of weed. Ask your niece, Lakeisha if they’ll be showing “Black Panther” at the prison she is serving time at because she was arrested for prostitution and drug possession; drugs to feed her crack habit. Yeah! Ask them! And then go to the affluent suburbs of Atlanta and see how white affluent heroin addicts are treated. They’ll not be rubbing shoulders with Lakeisha since affluent white addicts that have engaged in prostitution to feed their habit are sent to rehab for as many times as it takes to get them back on the road to recovery. Meanwhile, Lakeisha sits inside a prison slaving away for pennies sewing shirts and pants for corporations because you see, she is inside a ‘For Profit Prison’ and when she goes to shower, some white male prison guard is watching her and then is making her perform sex acts on him and he is raping her. But by going to see “Black Panther,” we are doing her a world of good, just as we are also doing the Black man that’s doing time and submitting to homosexual acts, just as much good because when he gets out, his wife or girlfriend is going to understand what it means to have AIDS!
And don’t forget the popcorn as you sit back, relax and enjoy “Black Panther,” the movie.
Happy Black Slave History Month!
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