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Civil Rights Essay, comparing panthers to nonviolent movement.
Civil Rights Comparative Essay
In this essay I will compare the Black Panthers, the Black Power movement
and the non-violent multiracial movement for civil rights. I will compare
protest strategies and point out the advantages and disadvantages to each
method.
I will begin by analyzing the goals of the Black Panther Party as derived
from the"Black Panther Party" document. The Panthers wanted a state of
racial separation between whites and blacks. Blacks would become a
semi-independent, self ruled faction in the United States which would be
monitored by the United Nations. Their ‘Black Nation’ would be socialist.
Also, they wished to have decent houses and the actual facts to the role of
the black man in America. The Panthers demanded that all black convicts be
liberated from jails and prisons, and they demanded that blacks be exempted
from military service. This is confusing because on one hand they demand to
be treated as decent American citizens and on the other hand they wish to
form their own nation. This shows a lack of organization and set goals due
to their inherently contradictory statements. They wish racial
discrimination to end, yet they demand that felons be released from prisons
because they’re black.
However, the Black Panthers did something that comes natural. They decided
to make sure that racial discrimination and brutality is stopped by armed
members of the Panthers who made sure the police didn’t abuse their powers
towards black people. Although this is a naturally justified action because
of the ‘racial tensions’ of that time, there were several reasons why this
was counterproductive. One is that when a police officer stops someone and
the officer suddenly observes a group of angry armed people watch his or her
every move he or she will not apply the law no matter if it would be
justified. Since this is directly or indirectly obstruction of justice, it
will bring unwanted hostility from the authorities. Also, the population is
less likely to support an armed group than an unarmed one that poses no
potential physical threat.
The Black Power movement was a movement which sought to organize the black
component of society. It would temporarily isolate it and make it stronger
through a project seeking to improve ‘interior’ relations. Thus, once this
goal was achieved the black community could bring an organized, coordinated
opposition to segregation and racism, in this way they would have more
bargain chips so as to receive equality. This sounds like a wonderful idea,
right? It may, but it isn’t. Why? Because if you isolate any component of
society from the rest you will create strong tensions between the two. And
in this period of time that would’ve been a catastrophic mistake. Once
African-Americans would’ve been isolated from whites a backlash would’ve
been inevitable and the civil rights movement would’ve been killed.
The best civil rights protest tactic is without a doubt the multiracial
non-violent method. This method brings support from all races because of
both its non-violence and its racial diversity. If you have a protest that
is composed of only black, the whites will shrug, be annoyed and walk away
thinking that they had no business there in the first place. While if you
have a racially diverse group protesting something unfair, the white walking
across the street or watching it on TV will say ‘Yo, these people have a
point- I think I’ll support this cause!’ Another good thing about this
strategy is the fact that if a person sees a whole bunch of guys dressed in
black with AK’s shouting for racial equality or independence, he/she won’t
be likely to support that cause. Instead they’ll probably go back home and
load their shotgun ‘just in case’. While if you see a lot of people taking
physical abuse from a bunch of Klansmen and the protesters’ response is
singing about freedom while a hater is about to smash their brains in, the
reaction is stupefaction, revulsion against hate and then taking to the
streets to support civil rights.
Of all the different methods of protest the latter one was the best
organized, most supported and successful rights movement.
Most of the information has been derived from the following documents:
"Debates Over a Multiracial Civil Rights Movement" and "Black Panther
Party", some information related to the Panthers came from "Black Power".
Post Scriptum
Still in 1990’s America we nevertheless have a race problem. Racial
prejudice is found everywhere from jobs to education to justice. Between
two people who have the same qualifications for a job the non-black hiring
person will choose the non-black. The Harvard recruiter won’t even look
twice at black person who’s got the same qualifications as a whitie. OJ
Simpson had obviously killed those people, but due to ‘racial appeasement’
they had to let him go. Prejudices like ‘blacks are lazy’ and ‘thug
nigga’’ are still out there, it hurts me to have to have to write this, but
it’s the bitter truth. Those that say that America is the land of
opportunity, racial equality and justice are blind or in denial. As the
examples above prove, I speak the truth. The fault can’t be placed on any
one group- it was a team effort. The white says "Blacks are lazy and
stupid, he’s not coming to MY Yale!" So the black doesn’t get to a good
school, he doesn’t get a good job and he’s disillusioned (rightfully) about
the system. His kids grow up thinking that they won’t get anywhere in life,
so they don’t try. The white man says . . . This is a vicious cycle that the
government is trying to address, but the procedure is slow, tedious, bumpy
and unstable. Until this mode of thinking by the people upstairs and the
masses we will continue to live hypocritically. That’s what I think anyway-
I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
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ET go homepage... (bad joke, sorry.)