NCJ Number
187055
Journal
Intelligence Report Issue: 100 Dated: Fall 2000 Pages: 16-23
Editor(s)
Mark Potok
Date Published
2000
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article profiles the beliefs and practices of the New Black Panther Party, which focuses on hate rhetoric about Jews and whites.
Abstract
The New Black Panther Party appears to be a federation of as many as 35 chapters in at least 13 cities, with informal but important links to certain black Muslims and other small black groups. The party's overall ideology, as well as the uniformity of that ideology within the party, is difficult to assess. Some local leaders seem far less radical against whites and less anti-Semitic than their national spokesmen. One version of the new Panthers' platform, drawn from a 1997 web site, is similar to the original Panthers' tenets, but with a key difference; whereas, the original Panthers demanded "an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities," the new party calls for "an end to robbery by the white man." Khalid Muhammad, who first appeared publicly as the new Panthers' leader at a demonstration in 1998, had long been known as the leading spokesman for the black separatists Nation of Islam, before he lost that post after strong criticism for his violently hateful speeches. He has since launched repeated diatribes against "white devil crackers," "bloodsucking Jews," and "faggots." In the fall of 2000 in a Detroit speech, he stated that "There's only two kinds of white folks, there's only two kinds, bad white folks and worse white folks. ... [Malcolm X] said if you find one good, kill him first, before he turns bad. Because he's only faking." The Dallas chapter of the new Panthers had early indications of the new party's radical direction. In May 1993, two of its leaders organized a demonstration reportedly calling for separation of the races and the overthrow of the U.S. Government. The new Panthers have organized protests against the Klan. The most public activities of the Panthers have been seen in Muhammad's organization of Million Youth Marches, held in Harlem, NY, in each of the last 3 years; however, the declining attendance at these marches has not helped the Panther image as a powerful organization. The new Panthers has not gained the support of millions of black people, and it has angered whites, Jews, and most blacks, who view it as fundamentally racist. It has left a bitter taste with some of the communities that its members, guns in hand, purport to be helping.