AFRICAN HOLOCUAST | CRITIQUE OF THE BLACK PANTHER 10 POINT PROGRAM

African Holocaust | African Race | The appreciation or relevance of Africaness is located in the face of a multi-racial world and the primary function of defining African identity is first and foremost an exercise in political self-interest and African agency. The power of definition must remain with the majority and today African is a term used to super-umbrella all the indigenous ethnicities of the African continent and their modern-day descendents in the Diaspora

- SLAVERY
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- >>Slavery Revolts
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- >>Mental Slavery
- CULTURE
- >>Culture Complex
- >>Rites of Passage
- >>Kwanzaa
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- >>Language & Africa
- >>Music and Dance
- IDENTITY
- >>African Race
- >>Consciousness
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- ANCIENT AFRICA
- >>African Kingdoms >>Ptahhotep of Egypt
- PAN-AFRICA
- >>Business & Africans
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- >>War and Religion
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- >>Garvey Economics
- >>African Leaders

Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter

– African Proverb

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will

– Frederick Douglass

The most pathetic thing is for a slave who doesn't know that he is a slave

– Malcolm X

Every man is rich in excuses to safeguard his prejudices, his instincts, and his opinions.

– Ancient Egypt

Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right.

– Dr. Martin L. King, Jr

What kind of world do we live in when the views of the oppressed are expressed at the convenience of their oppressors?

– Owen 'Alik Shahadah

We are not Africans because we are born in Africa, we are Africans because Africa is born in us.

– Chester Higgins Jr.

Leave no brother or sister behind the enemy line of poverty.

– Harriet Tubman

If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.

– African Proverb

If we do not stop oppression when it is a seed, it will be very hard to stop when it is a tree.

– ' Alik Shahadah

If the future doesn't come toward you, you have to go fetch it

– Zulu Proverb

CRITIQUE OF THE BLACK PANTHER 10 POINT PROGRAM

Contradictions to African Agency

Ben Levi Yahweh

2005

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism

Wole Soyinka

With all due respect to the contributions of the Black Panther Party. We would not be were we are without them and the likes of them. But hindsight gives us the perfect vantage point for self-critique and re-evaulation.

It has long been the position of some, that while necessary in the time, the Black Panther Party emerged it was ideologically divergent from its parent ideology created by the likes of Malcolm X.

First and foremost the Black Panther ideology generally ignored spiritual and cultural advancement. something which sparked a conflict with Dr. Maulana Karenga. More seriously there was a lack of Pan-Africanism and more often than not seemed extremely reactionary seeking a better cage over true African autonomy and plurality in America. And this is exemplified in their fatal naive understanding of economics. So much so that most of their White allies are now CEO of large companies, owners of the film stock of the revolution, and they are semi-destitute. (see Business)

And we must look at all the different groups of the past and see what was notable and successful about them. We can see the health policies of the Hebrew community, the do for self and economics of the Nation of Islam, the political resilience of the Black Panther Party. We can also see an error in ethics, which caused a lot of questionable moral behavior and ultimately was the point used to undermine their activities.

We should, as mature people, be entering an age of dynamic critical thinking where we can sit down and interrogate our world, and the arguments of those great men and women that came before us. Unfortunately, the current African world is more binary than progressive. Almost tribal! Blinded by romance and nostalgia to the point where productivity is dead on arrival.

"We must be respectful to all our elders and ancestors who died and sacrificed so our world would be so much richer. But also we must respectfully interrogate every ideology and methodology on its merit and relevance to our contemporary moment. (Amos Wilson) We must therefore, critically deconstruct and reconstruct our world to take the best traditions and continue to build on them.

It is only us, this generation, that has the joy of hindsight to take up this task. If we are not mature enough to go beyond romance we will be stuck in a moment in the 60's in a world that has long since evolved. Our formats for revolution will not only be out-dated but even oppressive." (Shahadah)

WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
Impossible language of contradiction . You cannot “Want power to self-determine” it is a linguistic contradiction. To say “WE WANT…” is the voice of a non-self- determined people like a child asking for a sweet. We can say we demand reparations but we cannot say we demand freedom to self-determine. We must seek it within ourselves and do it, we should not ask for it. This really shows zero lack of understanding of the term self-determination.

WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
"We want ” again is the problem. What we need to do is employ each other and seek independent business which we own, control, and run. Then we engage with them as and when we see fit and stop being a resource of their companies and be our own resource .

WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
This is valid but we must do this for self again. If we took on the role of educating our people and investing in African business and setting up our own companies then it would not matter. They rob us because we let them. Our artist s want big money and sell their souls to these companies. We are myopic and this is the only way they are able to exploit us. We need to own our own culture and not let it be sold to us by non-African groups.

WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
If we keep addressing the head of weeds they will always come back, even if in a different form. The key again and in general , is to do the above and all things will fall into place. If we are m en we fix our own problems . W e have enough wealth, so yes, demand that they do it but have a plan for they are not going to do it and purge our dependency. Our future can no longer be held in the air waiting on a European verdict.

WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
We need to not look at the fruit of the problem but the root of the problem. The education is poor because we expect them to educate us. Maybe it would be better to look at having full African participation in the national curriculum and funding for more African centered schools. Asking for the wrong thing means we will be back asking when the root of the problem bears new fruit.

WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
We need more African doctors and more African run health centers. How can we trust the people that did so many experiments on us ( Tuskegee ) with our health ? They are the reason for our bad health in the first place.

WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
Yes we do. But this can again be achieved by making sure we are sitting in political positions to act and change things. If we have political power all these things will fall into place. And not black politicians but African centered politicians.

WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
Yes we do, and we need to ban together in unity with all the oppressed people of the earth on an international level—beyond borders .

WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We do not want them free on the basis of color, we want them free on the basis of justice. So maybe some retrials but we need to stop giving people a reason to arrest us. Let us not pretend that many of our people have done silly things. The difference is, for those silly things they get the hardest side of the law. But had they not done anything in the first place there would be so few of us in prisons and jails.

WE WANT LAND , BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
This is a poorly constructed point which seems to throw in disconnected points in order to make a clean 10 as opposed to 11 points. My suggestion is the need for representation selected and elected by our community in all areas relating, but not limited to , our interface with UK / America and the broader world. We also need to have an economic program in place which promotes fair-trade and commerce with Africa and African owned business in the USA/UK and naturally in Africa. This will achieve much more than the above point. Because we can go on forever asking for items but if we change the system that creates those problems then we have no more system producing the problem.

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