How the Tenets of Black Power and the Black Liberation Movement find expression in the Gang Girls A Rangerette
The Black Panther Party has a Self-Defense “10-Point Program”. The first point states that the Black Panther Party wants freedom and the power to determine the destiny of their black community. The second point states that the Black Panther Party wants full employment for its people. The third point states that the Black Panther Party wants an end to robbery by capitalists of their black community. The fourth point states the Black Panther Party wants decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings., The fifth point states that the Black Panther Party wants education for their people that exposes the nature of their society and that teaches them their history. The sixth point states that the Black Panther Party wants Black men exempted from military service. The seventh point states that the Black Panther Party wants an end to police brutality and the murder of black people. The eighth point states that the Black Panther Party wants freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county, city prisons, and jails. The ninth point states that the Black Panther Party wants all black people, when brought to trial, to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States. The tenth point states that the Black Panther Party wants land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.
In the first point, the Black Panther Party states that they believe Black people are not free until they can determine their destiny. In the second point, the Black Panther Party states they believe the federal government is responsible for giving every man employment or a guaranteed income, and if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from them and put in the community so the people can organize. In the third point, the Black Panther Party states they believe the government robbed them; they are owed debt from 100 years ago as retribution for slave labor and mass murder of over fifty million Black people. In the fourth point, the Black Panther Party states they believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to their black community, then the housing and land should be made into cooperatives so their community, with government aid, can build housing for its people. In the fifth point, the Black Panther Party states they believe in a system that will give their people self-knowledge, and without knowledge, he has little chance to relate to anything else. In the sixth point, the Black Panther Party states that they believe Black people should not be forced to fight in military service to defend a government that does not protect them. In the seventh point, the Black Panther Party believes they can end police brutality in their Black community by organizing black self-defense groups dedicated to defending their black community from police oppression, and all black people should arm themselves for self-defense. In point eight, the Black Panther Party believes all black people should be released from jails and prisons because they have not received a fair trial. In the ninth point, the Black Panther Party believes courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people receive fair trials.
In the third point, the Black Panther Party states they will accept payment in currency. In the sixth point, the Black Panther Party states they will not fight and kill colored people victimized by the government of America and will protect themselves from the force of police by necessary means.
The Gang Girls A Rangerette by Gwendolyn Brooks shows how these tenets of Black Power and the black liberation movement find expression in the poetry of the Black Arts Movement. Gwendolyn Brooks writes “Mary, the Shakedancer’s child from the rooming-flat, pants carefully, peers at her laboring lover….” (Brooks, 58-60). This quote could show how the second tenet of Black Power and the black liberation movement finds expression in the poetry of the Black Arts Movement. The poem could describe the wife of a husband who is not employed. The second tenet of Black Power states for the want for full employment. The poem could express the regret for the limited employment of women. Interestingly the tenets of Black Power uses the man and he in the fifth tenet about education which brings up the question of how the tenets applied to women.
Your insightful interpretation of the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program in relation to Brooks’s poem shows how you connect political tenets to literary expression. While I had read the story as a portrait of personal struggle rather than a political one, your alternative reading challenges me to think about that political dimension in a more nuanced way. I wonder, though, how you think the moment describing Mary watching her “laboring lover” would complicate this reading.
ReplyDeleteRobert, you did a good job at explaining the many points of the Black Panther Party! I liked your analysis in Brooks' writing, and how you went to apply the points past their face value. At the end of the day, these points needed to be applied in the communities that they needed to function within, and often times the lines that were created by the 10 tenets needed to conform to that diversity.
ReplyDeleteHey Rob, you clearly connect the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program to Brooks’s portrayal of economic struggle, especially in how Mary’s situation reflects the second tenet about full employment. Your point about the poem showing limits on women’s work is strong and raises important questions about how gender fits into Black Power ideas. I also wonder if Brooks uses Mary not just to reflect the Panthers’ concerns but to question the male-centered language in the tenets, especially the repeated use of “he.” This might suggest that Black women’s experiences called for a broader vision of liberation.
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