Spring Break
Female Black Panther Leader Challenges Discrimination
Sara Aboulafia with reporting by Alexandra Neale
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News
As part of Smith College's Black History Month activities, Elaine Brown, the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party, spoke in Weinstein Auditorium Monday night. Brown's talk focused on the question: "Where do we go from here?," a question Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. raised in 1966.
Dr. King, Brown said, posed the question just after the Equal Rights Amendment and Civil Rights Act were passed. But despite the passing of that legislation, the answer to that question remains the same now as it was in '66: "We have to assess where we are today," she said. The current situation for African Americans looks stark, based on the grim statistics Brown recited.
Over 2 million people are in prison in the United States, she said, the highest rate in world. Fifty percent of those prisoners are Black. African Americans have the highest poverty rate, Brown said, the lowest employment rate and the highest unemployment and homeless rates.
Brown told the audience that America's racial inequities had to be faced. "This is our reality," Brown said. "This is not what we would like it to be, but this is what it is." Brown castigated past and current political leaders for failing to recognize the systemic reasons for such sobering statistics. She criticized presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama for failing to discuss race in America in a meaningful way, "as if poverty doesn't exist among Blacks in meaningful numbers" and using such misleading political rhetoric as "we're not red or blue or liberal or conservative."
Brown also criticized Bill Clinton, a man who she said implied that Black people are solely responsible for the issues that are inflicted upon their community, and a man whom people mistakenly consider to be the nation's "the first Black president," a characterization Brown rejected to audience laughter.
Brown also delivered a summary of the difficulties and successes of Black history from emancipation until today, a history she said had been "whitewashed." But it's not merely forgetting, she said, that is the heart of the problem but the lack of criticism and outrage for comments like those Clinton made, and policies which continue to encourage discrimination not just against Blacks but against women, the poor, Latinos, exploited immigrant workers, Islamic citizens, the disabled and even those policies which do harm to the natural environment.
Dr. King, Brown said, posed the question just after the Equal Rights Amendment and Civil Rights Act were passed. But despite the passing of that legislation, the answer to that question remains the same now as it was in '66: "We have to assess where we are today," she said. The current situation for African Americans looks stark, based on the grim statistics Brown recited.
Over 2 million people are in prison in the United States, she said, the highest rate in world. Fifty percent of those prisoners are Black. African Americans have the highest poverty rate, Brown said, the lowest employment rate and the highest unemployment and homeless rates.
Brown told the audience that America's racial inequities had to be faced. "This is our reality," Brown said. "This is not what we would like it to be, but this is what it is." Brown castigated past and current political leaders for failing to recognize the systemic reasons for such sobering statistics. She criticized presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama for failing to discuss race in America in a meaningful way, "as if poverty doesn't exist among Blacks in meaningful numbers" and using such misleading political rhetoric as "we're not red or blue or liberal or conservative."
Brown also criticized Bill Clinton, a man who she said implied that Black people are solely responsible for the issues that are inflicted upon their community, and a man whom people mistakenly consider to be the nation's "the first Black president," a characterization Brown rejected to audience laughter.
Brown also delivered a summary of the difficulties and successes of Black history from emancipation until today, a history she said had been "whitewashed." But it's not merely forgetting, she said, that is the heart of the problem but the lack of criticism and outrage for comments like those Clinton made, and policies which continue to encourage discrimination not just against Blacks but against women, the poor, Latinos, exploited immigrant workers, Islamic citizens, the disabled and even those policies which do harm to the natural environment.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 7
doug hogan
posted 2/08/08 @ 6:18 PM EST
from wikipedia:
Brown unsuccessfully ran for the Oakland city council in 1973. Radical right writer and former Black Panther associate, David Horowitz, has accused Brown of ordering the murder of Betty Van Patter, a Black Panther Party accountant, in 1974. (Continued…)
netim
NME
posted 2/09/08 @ 5:59 AM EST
Wikipedia + "Radical right writer" great source!
Steve Gregg
posted 2/23/08 @ 3:46 PM EST
Your hero, Elaine Brown, became head of the Black Panthers by sleeping with Huey Newton, a street thug and the head of the Black Panthers, who regularly beat her. (Continued…)
Smith Dad
posted 3/14/08 @ 10:47 PM EST
Elaine Brown is just another ex-60s radical thug attempting to revive the glory days. She did nothing to help her people then, and her calls to action are lame now. (Continued…)
Anne Allen
posted 4/12/08 @ 3:51 PM EST
As a Smith alumna, I wonder if there are any standards at all as to who is invited to speak on campus? And are there any students willing to speak out against the vapidity of thought (to put a kind spin on it) which describes the rantings of speakers like Brown? It might be an exercise in "feel good" to sit and listen to accusatory diatribes, but after the self-flagellation, is anyone interested in intellectually honest discourse? If so, Smith might consider inviting to speak someone like Thomas Sowell. (Continued…)
Taffy Gould
posted 4/16/08 @ 2:22 AM EST
How terribly sad that our once-fine, once-esteemed College continues its slide towards irrelevance to all but the most radical. I am angered that the pride I once took in being a Smith alumna has now been replaced by shame. (Continued…)
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