What would you consider a Black Panther to be a civil rights activist or a criminal?

Throughout my educational journey we have learned about many points in history and there impact on the American people, but one thing that I felt that wasn't covered enough in school's is the effect the Black Panthers had on the United States and the influences in had on young African American men growing up. If they were brought up in schools it was very briefly and didn't really go into detail about what they were about, also mostly describe them more as a crime organization. In the film Night Catches Us by Tanya Hamilton is set in a Philadelphia in 1976 in a post Black Panther active movement. The main character in the film is Marcus who is an ex-panther who comes back to Philadelphia because the death of his father and is faced with his dark and violent past, because of his past decisions he is considered a "snitch" among the active Black Panthers in the area. Marcus runs into a long lost friend Patricia who was also a member of the BPP(Black Panther Party) and this two are faced with the same issues that they have been fighting since the beginning of the BPP and tries to pass down the information about the movement to the younger generation who is Jimmy Dixon and Iris Wilson who are curious about the party. Jimmy is the young 18 year old boy who wants to prove that he belongs with the party by using a common BPP element of violence by killing a police officer and how the police act towards this act of violence. This is a movie that illustrates conflict between two generations of African American and the journey to understand the past and the issues still prevalent in 1976. The class concepts that are expressed in this political and emotional fight is white privilege, active anti-racism, passive anti-racism, and African American film makers.

The first point I'd like to discuss is the effect of white privilege on the film, and how it was perceived among the masses. White privilege is the unearned, unnoticed advantage for white people based on social norms that have been established through out the nation. In this film many African American are taken advantage of or oppressed due to the prevalent appearance and conflict with white police officers in the area. An example of this occurred in the beginning of the film when Jimmy was picking up can's in a private lot and a officer was harassing him by telling him to leave his cart and leave by blocking in him in by his car. In reaction Jimmy sayed something rude to the officer and because of that the officer uses police brutality and arrests the young men because he was expressing his freedom of speech. The officer thought he had the right to arrest Jimmy for no reason because he was different race and was a show of force that the white people could do anything they wanted and get away with it because of the social structure of the era. This type of white privilege was evident through the whole motion picture and I thought it did a good job of depicting these conflicts between African Americans and whites people.

It was interesting to see this in a film and opened my eyes to how much hurt this put on African American community's, in other words I believe it was wrong to unjustly do this to a group of people who just wanted to be treated with respect, and as human being. Is this too much to ask for American citizens to be treated equals? Well no I don't believe its to much to ask, but if you were to ask white people that were actively involved in rebelling against the BPP they would be a good portion of these individuals that would disagree with me because they are so brain washed that "white is the only good", the reason for this is because it has been ingrained in are society that dates back to the beginning of this country. The only flaw in this concept in the movie is that the African American community doesn't do anything to fight these wrongs, and were almost to submissive to the the power of the white man. This could be because of lack of time to address the problem or because they wanted you to form your own opinion of what would have happened in reaction.

Secondly I'd like to address the topic of Active Anti-Racism, Passive Anti-Racism and Active-Racism that was being displayed in the film. Active Anti-Racism was being practiced by the BPP and the African American community. They did this by reacting to police and civil oppression that was going on in 1976. This appeared only once in the beginning of the film which was very surprising to me because of what I've read about the BPP, I believe this was because of the time period this story was told in, which was two years after this movement started to die down. The example of this occurred when a African American man was being harassed in front of a local store in the African American community and Jimmy trying to prove something defended the young men and started calling the officers a derogatory terms like "pig" which was commonly used in the Black Panthers. While this was all happening participants of the BPP drove by in are car and shot out the back window of the cop car with a shotgun, to show that they will be there for citizens of the same group. Also I feel like they did this to express that police brutality wouldn't happen without consequences, I would consider this group to be a mini army for members of the African American race.

Another element that showed up once in the film is Passive Anti-Racism which was demonstrated by Patricia's boyfriend when he was talking to Patricia about her past and he said "You all are living in the past, and fighting an invisible enemy" which I took as that he felt like the issues that she has fought in the past weren't current, which was interesting because he was African American man, and went against most of the other African Americans characters views in the film. This was a way to show both perspectives of people of the oppressed group, and that he felt like there was no point in continuing the fight for civil rights because the job was already done and these issues weren't prevalent anymore. This is because in the film he was never shown in conflict with the police and didn't experience many of the elements that were being demonstrated, so with his lack of his first hand experience he was oblivious of the issues and this is why I feel like his opinion was drastically different from rest of the films African American characters.

Finally the last concept that was a major role is how the movie was seen through the eyes of the oppressed this was a result of having a African American director and writer. This was beneficial to the development of the characters because Tanya Hamilton grow up during this era and probably has seen, or even experienced some of these wrong during her lifetime. This film took Tanya seven years to write, and you can really see that in her work on the film because it is very precise with its messages, and was just put together very well, when considering all the elements of oppression that was conflicting through the film. She could relate to what the characters were going through and gave the film a very real image of life for the African American people during this struggle for rights and the opportunity to succeed in this country that is full of opportunity(aka opportunity's for everyone who's white.) This is demonstrated by the troubles they have with the society system in place and you can see it in the eyes of the characters that they really feel the hurt that went on during that time, and how it could destroy families in the process of fighting for freedom. This just shows how powerful freedom is to people that are being oppressed in America, people came to this country for the opportunity's to escape oppression from other countries.

In order to do so we should try to fulfill the words of are founding fathers "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."(Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence). This is a demonstration that we are all no matter what race have rights given to us at birth, and that we all should have the opportunity to make something of are selves. In correlation with the film we should have are rights in tact without the interference of racist cops and be able to walk in any community without being harassed because the color of are skin. This movie sends out the message that even if you aren't apart of the social norm that you should fight for what you believe in because if not you will be pushed around all your life, so if the Black Panthers never existed then this could be still prevalent in today's society throughout the country. It is just proof that movements for rights will eventually ware down people of the majority group and in the end will make you successful in what you are wanting, if you are willing to fight hard enough for your beliefs. So to answer my question that I asked in the title after reviewing the information and seeing it in a media outlet, I would have to determine that these citizens that were involved in the Black Panther Party were not criminals they were good people who were tired of not have a say in this world and had the courage to stand up for there people in order to fight for rights that they deserved for the start. This group was apart of a counter cultural movement that went against the norms of society and for that there were reacted towards, with them being killed, wounded, or thrown in to jail and it was all worth it for them because there was no other option, it was either fight for what you believed was right, or continue to be oppressed and have the thought in the back of you head that you had to watch every movement or sound you made because it could end up hurting you physically and mentally as a result. I believe that if I were alive during these times of civil rights movements, I feel like I would have been a strong supporter of this movement and would do anything in my power to help them get what they rightfully deserved. So I feel like these men and woman of the Black Panther Party should be considered hero's not just for African American but for all types of people all over the world because they showed that if you set your mind to it there isn't anything that is going to stop you from fulfilling your dreams.