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TheBlack Panther Platform: What We Want, What We Believe

HueyNewton and Bobby Seale wrote the Black Panther Platform in 1966 whenblack people in America lacked the freedom and power to economicallydetermine their destination as a community. The Black PantherPlatform was the counter-hegemony that served as the alternativeideology that critiqued and challenged Martin Luther’s hegemonywhich advocated for civil disobedience and integration. Thecounter-hegemony called for a separate community in total that hadits own ways and means of dependence.

of the Black Panther Platform

TheBlack Panther Party employed a confrontational approach when dealingwith the various injustices faced by black Americans. They weredirect and explicit in their demands. They justified this aggressiveapproach since the civil disobedience formula as advocated andchampioned by Martin Luther King seemed not to bear fruit and wasfurther proved to be ineffective after his killing. The Black PantherPlatform reflected the outrage among black communities in America. Anexample of this direct confrontation was their insistence that theAmerican military to cease recruiting black American men alsocaptured the feelings of the general black American citizens sinceblack soldiers serve a government that does not protect black peoplewithin its own territory.


Itwas during this time that Black Americans registered high levels ofunemployment and hence lacked income. The federal government was toblame since it served the public disproportionately disfavouring theblack people. The Black Panther Platform demanded that the whitebusiness owners should employ black people. They also demanded thatthe government should redistribute capital from the white businessowners to the unemployed and impoverished black Americanscommunities. This form of redistribution of wealth was to enable theblack communities to build their own financial empires that will, inturn, employ its own people and thus create a financially independentcommunity.

Theconcept of reparations was accepted by governments that had causedhistorical injustices and crimes to its victims. The holocaust is anexample whereby the Germans are financially aiding the Jews inIsrael. Similar acts of reparations were demanded from the Americangovernment by the Black Panther Platform. The American government wasyet to fulfill its pledge to compensate the black people with fortyacres of agricultural land and two mules for the unpaid labor duringthe four hundred years of slavery.

TheBlack Panther Platform demanded decent housing to be provided by thefederal government since black Americans were landless and lackedfinances. They also believed that black people were entitled to afactual education that correctly captures the horrendous historicalinjustices committed by the white American establishment, theircurrent effects on the black people and the way forward.

Structuralobstacles hindering an equitable society

Thejustice processes as employed by the American judiciary system isoperational on racial biases. The black American defendant cannotreceive a fair trial by a jury that is not made up of a proper peergroup. According to the Black Panther Platform, black Americandefendants are usually tried by an all-white jury. This biased racialapproach in the selection of a jury is unconstitutional and resultsto a biased ruling. The unconstitutional composition of juries andtheir biased rulings are based on the racial stratification that islegitimized by American social institutions.

TheAmerican police is another institution that has been using brutalforce when handling black American citizens. They are oftenmanhandled, harassed and even killed with no cause. The Back PantherPlatform advocate for the observance of the law as set out in thesecond amendment, where Americans have the right to bear arms for thesake of self-protection. This approach was intended to provide blackAmericans with a self-help remedy and hence protect their lives whenunder police danger.

Theemployment sector in America in 1966 was schemed to disfavor theblack Americans. As a result, a huge population of the descendants ofblack slaves are largely unemployed or do not have permanentemployment. Consequently, the black populace is left economicallydisenfranchised and unable to freely determine their destiny. Thisstructural obstacle is informed by the historical ideology of classformation aimed at exploiting the black American proletariat throughunderpaying or enslaving them. This form of structural obstacle wasapproved by the largely white American society.

Historicaland ideological origins of the above structural obstacles

Theblack Americans were denied paid labor or full employment by thewhite business owners based the historical ideology that the whitecapitalist class of employers embraced. They believed that blackAmericans were good for slavery and deserved no wages.

TheAmerican judiciary system was structurally inept to conduct a fairtrial since black defendants were unconstitutionally tried by anall-white jury. The ideological underpinnings of the unjust systemwere based on the false held belief that all black people had acriminal mentality and hence unsuitable for determining what isright.

Offeredsolutions and alternatives

Ultimately,the Black Panther Party calls for the severance or rescission of thesocial contract that establishes the existence of the government thatdoes not protect and advance the inherent and unalienable rights heldby free people. This severance is to be executed, as a matter ofduty, by dislodging the government from power. Adherence to thespirit and the letter of law as set by the constitution isimperative. Thereafter another responsive government will be put inplace to protect the rights of men to have liberty and freedom topursue happiness [ CITATION Dil13 l 2057 ]


Diller,Jerry V. CulturalDiversity: A Primer for the Human Services.Boston: Cengage Learning, 2013. 21 Novemeber 2016.