Everyone loves to talk about how The Black Panthers were heavily armed and heroes and are WHY we have gun control laws. And parts of that are true. But it also drastically undersells the various militant groups involved in the Civil Rights struggle and the Black Panthers in particular.
Because it wasn’t guns that held off the government. It was genuine outreach programs like the People’s Free Food Program. Their efforts weren’t “Let’s all live on a ranch with guns”. It was about organizing the people so that any force coming after them would have to wipe out entire cities in the process. AND it was about making sure those cities would side with (among others) The Black Panthers.
The revisionist history about how it is all guns, at best, ignores the actual genius organizing that went on. And, tinfoil hat, it is a great narrative to play to the Call of Duty generation and to alienate those activist groups.
And just another thing that REALLY pisses me off:
Everyone loves to talk about how The Black Panthers were heavily armed and heroes and are WHY we have gun control laws. And parts of that are true. But it also drastically undersells the various militant groups involved in the Civil Rights struggle and the Black Panthers in particular.
Because it wasn’t guns that held off the government. It was genuine outreach programs like the People’s Free Food Program. Their efforts weren’t “Let’s all live on a ranch with guns”. It was about organizing the people so that any force coming after them would have to wipe out entire cities in the process. AND it was about making sure those cities would side with (among others) The Black Panthers.
The revisionist history about how it is all guns, at best, ignores the actual genius organizing that went on. And, tinfoil hat, it is a great narrative to play to the Call of Duty generation and to alienate those activist groups.
It’s not all about guns. But guns were definitely a part of it.