How Popular Culture Destroyed the Legacy of the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party (BPP) was not without problems, but they don’t deserve what a pack of grifters have done to their reps.

Exhibit 1 was Janet Jackson’s video, “Rhythmn Nation,” which employed revolutionary, militant costuming and posturing with zero political content. In other words, proto-fascist.

Exhibit 2 was Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime act, also in BPP-style regalia, including fake bandolier, again with zero political content but for brief, empty nods to #BLM and Malcolm X. Beyonce’s gazillionaire hubby Jay-Z was quoted regarding his limited support for charitable endeavors as saying, “My presence is charity.”

It could be my advanced age, but I’ve always found Beyonce to be totally uninteresting, unlike, say, Janelle Monae, Macy Gray, or Brittany Howard.

Exhibit 3 was the film “Black Panther,” wherein the villain was the one attacking African fantasy-paradise Wakanda and its heroes for not sharing their technology with the oppressed POC of the world.

Exhibit 4 is the hysterical publicity afforded the totally bogus “New Black Panther Party.” The actual BPP alumni had a website but now its links are mostly 503 errors.

The recent film Judas and the Black Messiah was not terrible, but I’m afraid it came too late. The most superficial aspects of the BPP — the leather, the guns — are what are cemented into the public mind. Much like SDS was a bunch of bombers.

Is there a positive legacy of the BPP? I would say so. I knew a few, but rather than unpack my own memories, I’d just suggest you delve into the literature.