Please write a short answer response 2-3 paragraph in response to the following question I attach on files.
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B la c k P o w e r , t h e n a n d n o w
By caitlin
Created 03/22/2012 11:41am
H ow political struggles and concepts from the '60s are anim ating a new generation
Angela Davis has drawn connections between the Black
Power and Occupy Wall Street movements.
PHOTO BY LUKE THOMAS
"W e're not ever to be caught up in the intellectual m asturbation of the question of B lack
P ow er. That's a function of people w ho are advertisers that call them selves reporters."
That's how the radical student and civil rights leader S tokely C arm ichael opened a speech
about B lack P ow er — a term he helped popularize — at U C B erkeley in 1966. B ut the ideas
and concepts behind B lack P ow er proved to be an enduring ones that are enjoying a
resurgence today.
A ngela D avis epitom ized the B lack P ow er m ovem ent to m any observers. The author,
scholar, and professor w as a B lack P anther P arty m em ber w ho then joined the C om m unist
P arty U S A and brought a class analysis to issues of race, building on the m ovem ent that
began in the '60s for decades to com e.
In recent m onths, as the O ccupy W all S treet m ovem ent began to focus the country's
attention on econom ic and social inequities, D avis has spoken out regularly in support of the
m ovem ent and draw n connections back to her early activism . S he has em braced the "99
percent" paradigm , and the connections betw een various issues that O ccupy activists have5/17/2015 Black Power, then and now
http://www.sfbg.com/print/2012/03/20/blackpowerthenandnow?page=0%2C2 1/4 sought to highlight.
"O ur dem ands for justice lead us tow ard dem ands for prison abolition. A nd our dem ands for
prison abolition lead us to dem ands for free, quality education. A nd our dem ands for free
quality healthcare, and housing, and an end to racism , an end to sexism , an end to
hom ophobia," D avis said M arch 1 in O akland at a benefit for O ccupy 4 P risoners, a coalition
of O ccupy protesters and prison justice advocates.
C onsciousness surrounding those connections can be largely attributed to efforts from B lack
P ow er organizers.
"W hen I listen to the w ay young people so easily talk about the connectedness of race,
gender, and sexual issues, and I rem em ber how w e groped our w ay tow ards an
understanding of those connections, it m akes m e really proud," D avis said in a January
interview w ith Independent Lens.
A nd as D avis said at the M arch 1 event: "O ne of the m ost exciting accom plishm ents of the
O ccupy m ovem ent has been to force us to engage in conversation, explicit conversation
about capitalism , for the first tim e since the 1930s."
The m ovem ent's econom ic m essage also seem ed useful to K iilu N yasha, a S an Francisco
based journalist and form er m em ber of the N ew H aven B lack P anther P arty.
"G lobalization has already happened. It's not happening, it's happened. O ne percent,
internationally, ow ns and controls 80 percent of the w orld's resources. P eople are dying all
over the w orld of every com plexion w hich you can think of" N yahsa said M arch 14 at a panel
discussion called R eboot the R ainbow .
The original R ainbow C oalition the topic of the M arch 14 panel included the B lack P anther
P arty, the P uerto R ican Y oung Lords, and the poor w hite Y oung P atriots organization, and
w as com m itted to a B lack P ow er concept: organize your ow n, fight together. B uilding
coalition is m ore im portant now than ever.
"It's not B lack P ow er right now ," says Terry C ollins, president of K P O O radio, a blackow ned
station long focused on com m unity em pow erm ent. "It's people pow er. It's pow er unto the
people w ho are in need: all the people out there w ho are out of their hom es, students w ho
ow e so m uch that they're like indentured servants."
O ccupy the H ood is a national effort to encourage participation of people of color in O ccupy
W all S treet. In its m ission statem ent the group w rites, "It is im perative that the voice of people
of color is heard at this m om ent!"
The focus of S an Francisco's O ccupy the H ood chapter is "threefold," according to organizer
M esha Irizarry: "The copw atching in neighborhoods that are crim inalized, especially poor
neighborhood of color. It's freedom fighters against foreclosures. It's also bank transfers."
O ccupy the H ood show ed up M arch 16, w hen a group know n as the Foreclosure Fighters
organized and supported A lliance of C alifornians for C om m unity E m pow erm ent, H om es N ot
Jails, and related groups— occupied their latest foreclosed hom e. "W e're liberating this
house. W e're taking it out of the hands of the oppressor," said A rchbishop Franzo K ing of the
A frican O rthodox C hurch.5/17/2015 Black Power, then and now
http://www.sfbg.com/print/2012/03/20/blackpowerthenandnow?page=0%2C2 2/4 "Jesus C hrist w as an uncom prom ising revolutionary. H e spoke truth to pow er. Then they
killed him for it," added K ing in a nod to the radical religious leaders w ho have influenced
liberation m ovem ents throughout the years.
B lack P ow er w as concerned w ith selfdeterm ination, w ith organizing w ithin com m unity. That
legacy is still strong as S an Francisco's A frican A m erican com m unities experience an out
m igration and continuing police harassm ent and violence.
"B lack sailors and black arm y personnel built the shipyard," said Jam eel P atterson, a founder
of the B ayview H unters P ointbased com m unity organization B lack S tar Liner Incorporated.
"H unters P oint, W est P oint, H arbor R oad— they're all m ilitary nam es. The soldiers stayed
there w ith their fam ilies. The area has a rich A frican A m erican legacy going back to the '40s.
N ow it's fading...w e w ant to m ake sure that com m unity's still here 20 years from now ."
P atterson rem em bers being a child in the '70s w hen, on the tail of an era brim m ing w ith black
liberation efforts. "There w ere m ore com m unity events," he said, but now , "P eople don't have
connections w ith each other. That's w hat w e're building."
The group does regular events w here they serve free hom ecooked m eals to residents,
rem iniscent of the B lack P anther P arty's free breakfast program . "W ith every plate, you get
inform ation," often K now Y our R ights rem inders for encounters w ith police, said Tracey B ell
B orden of B lack S tar Liner.
They have also spent countless hours in C ity H all m eetings advocating for their com m unity
and reporting back on city policies that affect it. "W e occupy the P olice C om m ission m eeting,"
said B ellB orden.
P olice are a central and tricky question for the B lack P ow er m ovem ent of the '60s, as w ell as
organizing efforts today. B lack P anther P arty m em bers spent years serving free breakfast to
children, w riting and selling new spapers, and even running election cam paigns, but they are
often rem em bered for carrying guns and efforts to "police the police." S o m any leaders w ere
arrested that energy that could have gone into feeding or education w as often channeled into
freeing prisoners.
"I w as in the second chapter of the B lack P anther P arty," N yasha said at the M arch 14 event,
"w hich basically existed to get the first chapter out of jail."
R ecent police crackdow ns have fed indignation not just about policing protesters, but about
the role police play in poor com m unities of color. "O ne thing O ccupy has done is address the
issue of policing in com m unities of color, to the extent that som e afterm ath of w hat w e're
seeing at O ccupy is shedding light on how police can som etim es treat people," said
K im berley Thom as R app, executive director of the Law yers' C om m ittee for C ivil R ights of the
B ay A rea.
"In black neighborhoods, police should be com m unity partners, not com e in and exert m ore
force than necessary. A nd at protests, they should be there to ensure safety, not just to arrest
people unnecessarily or use excessive force," R app said.
P olice crackdow ns on O ccupy are the first exposure m any w hite protesters of the younger
generation have had to excessive police force, an issue that w as central to the story of the
B lack P ow er. S adly, for m any black and other protesters of color, excessive police force is
nothing new .5/17/2015 Black Power, then and now
http://www.sfbg.com/print/2012/03/20/blackpowerthenandnow?page=0%2C2 3/4 "It's absolutely the case that police brutality show n tow ards m any O ccupy protesters has
brought to the forefront the issue of police violence and led to an aw akening am ong m any
w hite folks of the day to day reality of police violence that m any people of color have lived
w ith now for m any years," M ichelle A lexander, author of The N ew Jim C row , told the
G uardian.
E nraged at police beatings (see "O P D spies on and beats protesters," Feb. 14) both O ccupy
O akland and O ccupy S an Francisco have held "fuck the police" m arches. M arch 18, after a
sixm onth com m em oration celebration brought 3,000 to Zuccotti P ark in N ew Y ork C ity,
follow ed by 200 arrests and ram pant police violence, O ccupy W all S treet protesters follow ed
suit, holding their first antipolice brutality m arch.
O ccupy W all S treet has reanim ated concepts that burned through the '60s, such as violence
vs. nonviolence, the system ic causes of personal econom ic w oes, and the peoples'
relationship to police. W ith the consciousness created by B lack P ow er activists, today's
organizers have a foundation on w hich to build their ow n answ ers to these questions, across
issues and generations.
N ational O ccupy the H ood has called for action concerning Trayvon M artin, the unarm ed
black 17yearold w ho w as shot Feb. 26 and w hose confessed killer has yet to be arrested.
Taking up highprofile cases of injustice and w orking m ore closely w ith organizers to respond
to the needs of local A frican A m erican com m unities could bring m ore pow er and truth to the
rage for justice currently galvanizing a new generation.
"It's about black reem pow erm ent," A rchbishop K ing said. "It's like the torch, the light of
freedom and justice, has actually gone out. A nd w e're trying to relight that. That's w hy I'm so
excited about the O ccupy m ovem ent; it ties into the B lack P ow er struggle. A nd I think it's
w aking up som e of us old revolutionaries to stand up."
N ew s V olum e 46, Issue 25 A ngela D avis B lack P ow er N ow O ccupy W all S treet
Y ael C hanoff
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