Black Panther vs Black Lives Matter
When I think of a significant individual in history for organizing a movement I think of Huey P. Newton. Huey P. Newton is significant because he’s known for organizing the Black Panther Party which was created to help African Americans in their neighborhood from police brutality. This group is significant because it was ignited after the assassination of Malcolm X who is known for fighting for African Americans’ equal rights. This organization was created by both Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale enforced a change within the college curriculum in Merritt College by joining the Afro-American Association which eventually led to the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. I admire these individuals because they enforced a change in how the rest of the country at the time saw African Americans.
These individuals are admiring because they pushed for African Americans to be seen more as a human opposed to just a number in history. I feel that if this movement was enforced then African Americans would be living in fear for the rest of their lives because of police enforcement. This movement was known for enforcing rules to be treated as equally opposed to being treated as less than a human. The Black Panther movement wanted to enforce the 10 point program which was to give blacks equal rights to whites at this time. The 10 point program was used to enforce that blacks are given freedom, full employment, end to robberies by whites, shelter, fair education, exempt from military service, stop murdering, release from jail, treated fairly in court, and peace. I believe that would like to enforce the protection for African Americans in this current society that we live in because we are targeted in the certain community due to the color of their skin.
The Black Panthers 10 point program should be implemented more in my community specifically because blacks are racially profiled daily in neighborhoods that are currently becoming gentrified. Gentrification within specific neighborhoods brings an increase in police activity targeting blacks. I feel that the 10 point program was enforced more at this time then crime rates would be decreased and the level of police shooting towards unarmed African Americans would decrease as well. The Black Panther Party taught me to always be on guard and protect what is yours by any means necessary. I believe that Huey P.Newton and Bobby Seale started this organization to put blacks on notice that we can protect ourselves by any means.
The Black Panther movement was influenced by Malcolm X who strived to push black equality by enforcing freedom by any means. Malcolm X believed that violence would be the only way blacks would be noticed in the United States to the point that their voices can be heard. I would emulate the Black Panther movement so that African Americans of today’s society can be seen as a citizen instead of a percentage. The Black Lives Matter movement that’s been implemented in the world we live in today has shared the same ideas of the Black Panther but through nonviolent protest due to the hatred that African Americans face on a daily basis in the United States.
