Seize the Time: The Black Panthers (2 of 2)

So they started a program which encouraged the black people to pick up the gun, in order to defend themselves and their homes. And under our constitution, every person has the right to own a gun and to defend himself. They also began several programs to serve the needs of poor black people whose welfare was completely neglected by the government which works, as we know, mostly for the rich. (And very few black, or yellow, people are rich.) As the Panther ideals of black pride, black self- reliance, black power, and black army for self-defense spread to more and more black people and became very popular, the rich whites, their flunky politicians, and their cops got uptight, fearing that the black people would begin to show some of their power with the leadership of the Panthers. So at first they spread false rumors and evil gossip, trying to make people think that the Panthers were a bunch of bad trouble-makers. This trick didn't work, because the blacks saw that the Panther programs like FREE CLOTHING, FREE HEALTH PROGRAM, FREE BREAKFAST FOR CHILDREN, LIBERATION SCHOOLS, and PEOPLES POLICE PATROL (to make sure that police brutality wouldn't happen) not only did not harm the people, but helped to meet various needs of their daily life. Since this dirty campaign of big lie failed to destroy the Panthers, cops and the rich white politicians are now trying to destroy them by sneaky ambushes, murders, jailings, etc, etc.

The Panthers are not the only non-white organization under vicious attack by the white cops. The Spanish people's organization called the Young Lords is also facing the same brutality. Two weeks ago, 13 Young Lords were beaten up uptown while they were trying to speak to the Spanish people in a church. Also on the West coast, 20 Chinese and Japanese students of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) were arrested and beaten while demanding a program in which they could learn the history and the culture of their own people.

The rich whites who run this country think that by putting down these non-white peoples organizations, we are going to get even more scared and let them run our lives. They are wrong: for every Panther murdered by the police, there will be five more new, young Panthers who are awakened and made angry by this brutal act and fight back. The same with the Young Lords. And the same is true of us Asian-Americans (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc.). As long as there is poverty in Chinatowns across the country, as long as there is unfair treatment and discrimination, as long as there are those racial insults, as long as the white soldiers are sent to murder thousands of innocent Asian women, old people, children, and babies (let's remember the Songmy massacre as long as we live), as long as white people think of us as "gooks," "dinks," "slope-eyed," and "chinks," as long as any of these things continue to exist there will be Yellow People in this country who will fight for decent lives, no matter what the consequences or the threats may be.