The New Black Publicity Party

The New Black Publicity Party

http://inthesetimes.com/article/6321/the_new_black_publicity_party/

By Salim Muwakkil
August 19, 2010

Right-wing media catapulted the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) into
national infamy this summer with an exaggerated emphasis on a 2008
incident in which two members of the group, one with a nightstick,
were videotaped standing by the door of a poll site in a
predominantly black precinct in Philadelphia. The footage has been
viewed 1.5 million times on YouTube.

Attuned to publicity, NBPP chief Malik Zulu Shabazz is exploiting
this visibility to threaten violence at Glenn Beck's August 28 rally,
"Restoring Honor," which takes place at the Lincoln Memorial on the
anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have A Dream" speech.

Shabazz told the online magazine Mediaite.com that Beck's
demonstration is "going to meet direct opposition from the New Black
Panther Party. … He can bring his Tea Party, and we'll bring our
party, and we'll see Glenn Beck."

Both men are practiced provocateurs, and the stage is set for a
showdown. Many of Beck's supporters are big on Second Amendment
freedoms and are likely to be armed, as are members of the NBPP. Beck
is one of the prime movers of the right-wing narrative that the Obama
administration harbors pro-black biases and is practicing a racial
double standard. Last year Beck proclaimed Obama a racist "with a
deep seated hatred for white people or white culture."

This meme has proliferated in right-wing circles, fueling the
controversy around NBPP's alleged voter intimidation at the
Philadelphia polling place. In early January 2009, the Bush
administration filed a lawsuit accusing Shabazz and others of voter
intimidation. When the Obama administration arrived it dismissed the
suit against all but one of the men, arguing that the evidence did
not support the charges.

Although no voters complained of intimidation, Obama's critics argue
that dropping the charges is proof that he practices a double
standard. This argument has gained traction among right-wing media,
who have exaggerated the NBPP's significance.

The NBPP was founded in 1990 by Aaron Michaels, a community activist
and radio producer in Dallas, Texas, who got his initial inspiration
from former Milwaukee City Alderman Michael McGee. In 1990 McGee
created the "Black Panther Militia," a group comprised of street
gangs and other "street soldiers," to violently confront entrenched power.

(McGee later admitted that his primary motive for forming the group
was to extort aid for the black community from Milwaukee's
recalcitrant white leadership. His sole purpose was to provoke.)

Taking his cue from McGee, Michaels set up a similar group in Dallas,
registering the name New Black Panther Party for Self Defense in
1991. They used the "Black Panther" name because they sought to
hitchhike on the heroic legacy it evokes. But the NBPP never embraced
the ethos of community service advocated by the original Black Panthers.

Instead, Michaels adopted McGee's provocation model, espousing
genetic essentialism (i.e., white people bad, black people good),
racial separatism and armed self-defense, a doctrine more in line
with racialist groups like the Nation of Islam than the post-colonial
nationalism of the first Panther Party. (Surviving leaders of the
original group have repeatedly denounced the NBPP, even suing to
prevent it from using the name "Black Panther." The Southern Poverty
Law Center lists the NBPP as a "hate group.")

That shift in tone was consecrated and codified by the 1996 arrival
of Khalid Abdul Muhammad to the NBPP's leadership ranks. Muhammad had
been national spokesman for Louis Farrakhan until an infamous 1993
appearance at New Jersey's Kean University, where he made remarks so
racially offensive that Farrakhan suspended him from the Nation of Islam.

A charismatic orator, Muhammad became a racial provocateur without
portfolio. He was in big demand as a speaker and his voice has been
sampled on a number of songs by hip-hop artists, including Public
Enemy. Three years after becoming chairman of NBPP in 1998, Muhammad
died. Since then his position has been filled by Shabazz, whose plans
to disrupt Beck's August 28 event are par for the course­and almost
guaranteed to generate more publicity of dubious value.

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