scholarly journals Resisting racial militarism: War, policing and the Black Panther Party

2021 ◽  
pp. 096701062199722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nivi Manchanda ◽  
Chris Rossdale
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Black Panther Party ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Liberal Societies ◽  
Police Action ◽  
Black Panther

The past ten years have witnessed a revival in scholarship on militarism, through which scholars have used the concept to make sense of the embeddedness of warlike relations in contemporary liberal societies and to account for how the social, political and economic contours of those same societies are implicated in the legitimation and organization of political violence. However, a persistent shortcoming has been the secondary role of race and coloniality in these accounts. This article demonstrates how we might position racism and colonialism as integral to the functioning of contemporary militarism. Centring the thought and praxis of the US Black Panther Party, we argue that the particular analysis developed by Black Panther Party members, alongside their often-tense participation in the anti–Vietnam War movement, offers a strong reading of the racialized and colonial politics of militarism. In particular, we show how their analysis of the ghetto as a colonial space, their understanding of the police as an illegitimate army of occupation and, most importantly, Huey Newton’s concept of intercommunalism prefigure an understanding of militarism premised on the interconnections between racial capitalism, violent practices of un/bordering and the dissolving boundaries between war and police action.

scholarly journals THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S PUBLISHING STRATEGIES AND THE FINANCIAL UNDERPINNINGS OF ACTIVISM, 1968–1975

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-217
Author(s):  
ANDREW M. FEARNLEY
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Black Panther Party ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Financial Structure ◽  
Funding Sources ◽  
The Us ◽  
Freelance Writers ◽  
Post War ◽  
Black Panther

AbstractHistorians of America's post-war social movements have said little about the financial underpinnings of activism, and this article aims to address this oversight. It focuses on the Black Panther Party, which was formed in Oakland, California, in 1966, and was soon one of America's most visible, and controversial, black power organizations. The article sketches the array of funding sources from which the party drew, and reconstructs the apparatus it fashioned to steward those resources. It condenses the discussion to one of the organization's most lucrative streams, that of book publishing, and relates this to the period's literary culture, which, in the US, witnessed a ‘black revolution in books’. Between 1968 and 1975, members of the party published some ten books, which together raised $250,000 in advances, and additional sums through their sale, serialization, and translation. The production of these works relied on the assistance of several freelance writers, and was guided by the party's commercial agency, Stronghold Consolidated Productions. By recovering the role of these groups and the infrastructure they fashioned, the article shows how publishing was connected to the wider financial structure of the organization, and prompts us to see that the Panthers’ books were not just accounts of their activism, but examples of it.

Visualizing a Black Future: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-311
Author(s):  
Colette Gaiter
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Panther Party ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Gun Carrying ◽  
The Us ◽  
Hero Archetype ◽  
Gun Culture ◽  
Black Panther

In the post-Civil Rights late 1960s, the Black Panther Party (BPP) artist Emory Douglas created visual messages mirroring the US Western genre and gun culture of the time. For black people still struggling against severe oppression, Douglas’s work metaphorically armed them to defend against daily injustices. The BPP’s intrepid and carefully constructed images were compelling, but conversely, they motivated lawmakers and law enforcement officers to disrupt the organization aggressively. Decades after mainstream media vilified Douglas’s work, new generations celebrate its prescient activism and bold aesthetics. Using empathetic strategies of reflecting black communities back to themselves, Douglas visualized everyday superheroes. The gun-carrying avenger/cowboy hero archetype prevalent in Westerns did not transcend deeply embedded US racial stereotypes branding black people as inherently dangerous. Douglas helped the Panthers create visual mythology that merged fluidly with the ideas of Afrofuturism, which would develop years later as an expression of imagined liberated black futures.

scholarly journals Minicities in suburbia – A model for urban sustainability?

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Gunnar Røe ◽  
Inger-Lise Saglie
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Region ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Big City ◽  
Car Travel ◽  
The City

In the 1970s it was argued that suburban centres in the US had developed into “minicities”, offering a wide range of possibilities for consumption, cultural events and a sense of the urban. In this article we explore to which extent this description of minicities may be valid in two cases in the suburban hinterland of Oslo. We further discuss whether the “urbanization” of these suburban centres may contribute to a more sustainable urban development, with respect to everyday travel. We conclude that the growth of these minicities may reduce car travel, either because of their excellent public transport connection to the (big) city centre and other nodes in the increasingly decentralized urban region, or because they may serve as a substitute for the city centre. However, an empirical investigation of the role of minicities must be based on a deeper understanding of the social and cultural processes that guide the everyday life of today’s sub­urbanites.

Seize the Time!: Military Aesthetics, Symbolic Revolution and the Black Panther Party

2020 ◽  
pp. 242-268
Author(s):  
Amy Abugo Ongiri
Keyword(s):  
Military Intervention ◽  
Black Panther Party ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Black Panther

Government agencies like the FBI and CIA and both local and statewide law enforcement agencies would successfully meet the challenge of the Black Panther Party with a military intervention that would destroy its political power, but they were relatively powerless to counteract their successes in the realm of the symbolic in which the Panthers successfully re-scripted a visual language of military might to argue for Black liberation. While most militaries conceive of propaganda as a way of ‘selling’ the violence that they are charged with conducting, the BPP saw propaganda as one of their most primary imperatives. Just as the Panthers used images of the Black body in military poses and formations to challenge ideas of national belonging in the US, the Panthers’ use of a military aesthetic challenges us to think in new ways about the uses to which a militarised body might be put beyond further state sponsored notions of masculinity.

Iran: The state and terrorism in Iran

2019 ◽  
pp. 363-384
Author(s):  
Ali M. Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
State Policy ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Impact

This paper discusses the role of 'terror' and 'terrorism' as an aspect of state policy in Iran during the twentieth century, looking at its historical context both within Qajar Iran and as an aspect of state policy during there French Revolution. The paper critically assesses Iranian state's relationship with the term, as both a perceived victim and perpetrator, and focusses on the application of political violence against both dissidents and political opponents where the term 'terror' is used in Persian as a synonym for assassination. The paper looks at the various justifications for the use of terror and political violence, the legacy of the Rushdie affair and the impact of the US led Global War on Terror on perceptions within Iran. 

Migrants as Knowledge Producers: Participatory Photography as a [Limited] Tool for Inclusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277
Author(s):  
Magdalena Arias Cubas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Participatory Methods ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Common Practices ◽  
Participatory Photography

Who is the expert or the knowing subject that produces knowledge? This is a key question driving postcolonial and feminist critiques of the social sciences, which is yet to be fully explored with regards to the production of knowledge on migration. These critiques emphasise that ‘experts’ do not generate knowledge from a detached and neutral point of observation, while they also question the distinction between ‘experts’ and those that are construed as ‘objects’ of study. Through a reflection on primary research conducted as part of a PhD project with Indigenous people in Mexico and Indigenous migrants with an irregular status in the US, this article draws attention to the role of migrants (and others affected by migration processes) as potential producers of knowledge, rather than as merely passive ‘objects’ of study. In particular, this paper emphasises the significant (albeit limited) role of participatory methods, such as participatory photography, in correcting common practices of exclusion in the production of knowledge on migration.

Reaffirming trust in social enterprise in the COVID-19 era: Ways forward

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1, Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 120-130
Author(s):  
Michael Snowden ◽  
Roopinder Oberoi ◽  
Jamie P. Halsall
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 has overwhelmed and stretched existing healthcare infrastructure in both developed and developing economies and pushed governmental response mechanisms to the brink. Globally, governments elicited the call for corporate support, asking social entrepreneurs and social business ventures to organise efforts to build voluntary support for the large-scale response needed during the sudden lockdown disruptions. By April 2020, 26.5 million jobs were lost in the US alone (Lambert, 2020), global stocks plummeted at least 25% and gross domestic product (GDP) contracted significantly for all countries. With reduced domestic demand for non-food goods, reduced foreign demand for US goods exports, supply-chain disruptions, and plant closures, the manufacturing sector saw a huge decline (Reinicke, 2020). Governments all over the world announced massive stimulus packages. The US has approved $2 trillion financial support to combat the economic downturn so far (Emma & Scholtes, 2020) and EU finance ministers have recently approved €500 billion in stimulus measures (Riley, 2020). It is estimated that the global economy will grow at -3 percent in 2020. This article sheds light on the role of social enterprises in addressing the societal problems caused by COVID-19. The authors highlight the efforts of virtual and collaborative associations who seek to swiftly recognise issues and develop solutions, which create social value and alleviate the plights of suffering communities. This article sheds light on the role of social enterprises in addressing the societal problems caused by COVID-19. The authors highlight the efforts of virtual and collaborative associations who seek to swiftly recognise issues and develop solutions, which create social value and alleviate the plights of suffering communities. The authors place emphasis upon the role of the social entrepreneur in developing a way forward in these challenging times and present a contemporary conceptualisation of the social entrepreneur in the form of an “avatar” and the impact that this may have on social enterprise.

Chartism in 1848: Reflections on a Non-Revolution

1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Weisser
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Social Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Great Confidence ◽  
Better Than

The standard interpretation of 1848 in Britain is that while Continental Europe reached a turning point and failed to turn, as the famous aphorism states, Britain reached its turning point in 1832, turned, and thus avoided revolution in that year of revolutions. The British middle classes, unlike their Continental counterparts, were loyal in 1848. They enjoyed a broader franchise, some reforming legislation already passed, and commitments to various welcome changes in the future made by diverse politicians. All of this gave the British middle classes great confidence in British institutions and their own future under them, as well as the belief that their country was fortunately different from all the other nations. Without the middle classes, the Chartists could have never succeeded with any kind of insurrection. So, while the capitals of Europe echoed with sounds of musketry and cannon, Britain was at peace because her Constitution was essentially better than anything that prevailed elsewhere.Modern historiography has done little to change this interpretation of 1848 that was first proclaimed by self-congratulatory and relieved Victorians. All the accounts stress the fortunate uniqueness of Britain and the key role of middle class loyalty. Priscilla Robertson wrote, “During the days of 1848, England stood apart, unshaken, apparently unshakable. Her reformers were already in power. …” In a recent study of the 1848 revolutions, Peter Stearns focuses on the ways the middle class abetted Continental revolutions at the same time that they were instrumental in preventing revolution in Britain. These are really restatements of Elie Halévy's classic explanation. While John Saville's treatment of 1848 differs from traditional accounts in several ways, particularly in stressing the vigor of the Chartist left's resistance after April 10, his explanation for the failure of revolution does not. He concludes that the British government could count on “whole-hearted support” much further down the social scale than could Continental governments. Moreover, despite all the newer research on political violence, crowds, and revolution, the standard interpretation of Britain's fate in 1848 remains: middle-class support for the regime was too strong while Chartist support for an insurrection was too weak.

scholarly journals When Mental Walls Lead to Physical Walls: The US-Mexico Border Wall, Art, and Public Conversations about the Social Responsibility of Engineering

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Madison May Macias ◽  
Peter Pohorily ◽  
Jorge Morales Guerrero ◽  
Darshan M.A. Karwat
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Interactive Art ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Art Installation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Us Mexico Border

The fact that engineering is involved in highly political issues—from climate change caused by fossil fuel extraction to how we understand truth itself because of deepfakes—makes it imperative that we find new ways to highlight the crucial role that engineers and engineering play in shaping society, and new ways to hold engineers and engineering accountable.  We have designed, built, and installed an interactive art installation called When Mental Walls Lead to Physical Walls to generate public conversation about the social responsibility of engineers and engineering, using the US-Mexico border wall as a case study.  We find that the politically charged nature of the topic might make it difficult for attendees to speak directly to ideas of social responsibility.  At the same time, the installation provides opportunities for attendees to question, critique, and reflect on the effectiveness and impacts of the design of the border wall and the motivations engineers might have in working on this project.  With proper planning and execution, the installation can be used as a research tool to understand how diverse audiences—from engineering students to those who may not have any experience in engineering—understand the role of engineering in society. 

scholarly journals Feeding Revolution: The Black Panther Party and the Politics of Food

2014 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Potorti
Keyword(s):  
Black Panther Party ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
Food Programs ◽  
To Come ◽  
Practical Agenda ◽  
Black Panther

This chapter examines the role of food in the symbolic politics and practical agenda of the Black Panther Party (BPP), founded in the late 1960s in Oakland, California.  Situating hunger and the politics of food at the center of drives for racial justice, it argues that the BPP’s anti-hunger efforts and food-centered campaigns were driven by an implicit understanding of the power of food in battles over racialized definitions of personhood, a forum for both enforcing and resisting hegemonic authority.  From this vantage, the Panthers and their allies in the East Bay community utilized the Party’s popular food programs, specifically its Free Breakfast for School Children Program, as staging grounds to prepare for a revolutionary overthrow of the socio-economic order.  In addition to strengthening the physical bodies of African Americans to ensure their “survival pending revolution,” the food programs served a deeper organizing function by encouraging community members to come together to meet an immediate, practical need and, in doing so, to visualize themselves as part of a larger movement for change.  The Panthers’ subsequent demands for consumer rights and calls for conscientious consumption (both as purchasers and eaters of food) highlighted the role of food politics in perpetuating racial injustice while demonstrating the capacity for food-related protest to challenge structures of hunger and patterns of widespread malnourishment.

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