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Someone made an ahistorical infographic about how the Asian American Movement "directly ripped off" the Black Power movement & instead of just taking criticism like a normal person I got told to make my own post, so here it is. Sorry it's a thread I suck at graphic design.
I will be taking this time to examine Yellow Power: The Formation of Asian-American Nationalism in the Age of Black Power, 1966-1975 written by Professor Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar @ProfOgbar http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/souls/vol3no3/vol3num3art3.pdf
There is absolutely no doubt that no organization has influenced the radical activism of minority communities like the Black Panther Party has. Asian-Americans were no exception, inspired by the "militancy, political analysis, and organization," of the BPP.
Taking advantage of a law permitting visible carry of firearms, the Panthers patrolled their neighborhoods following police cars & stopping when they see a Black person getting arrested, observing the procedure, making sure the law was followed & the person knew their rights.
After the Mulford Act was quickly passed, the Panthers were no longer able to "police the police." (See: gun control's racist history.) Members of the BPP were also required to attend political education courses, and memorize the 10 point platform of the party.
BPP Founder Huey P. Newton: "It's a Marxist-Leninist program and I was greatly influenced by the Cuban Revolution, and the Black Panther Party are practical revolutionaries. We identify with the armed struggle of colonized people throughout the world."
The militant defense of their communities along with the education and mobilization of people living within their communities and programs to meet their needs such as the providing of free meals was a massive inspiration to building an Asian movement.
The formation of the Third World Liberation Front, a coalition made up of the Black Students Union, Latin American Students Organization, Asian American Political Alliance, Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor, and other organizations also served as a major influence.
Berkeley's Asian Student newspaper directly credited the work of Black students for bringing political organizing onto college campuses and wrote:
W/ Black nationalism & Black power movements transforming the political landscape, AsAm militants shifted the public face of their pan-ethnic "nation," from the docile Oriental stereotype to "radical harbingers of progress who were no longer enamored of whiteness."
This is significant to me for multiple reasons, as assimilationism has been a scourge within the Asian-American community for too long, while now stopping short of renouncing an Asian identity, the urge to break through the so-called bamboo ceiling still exists.
This also leads to a failure or even refusal to connect or stand in solidarity with their respective homelands, and siding with the imperialist power that is the perpetrator of the violence that forces colonized people to flee and seek refuge within the empire.
With the formation of the Red Guard Party, a militant AsAm organization modeled after the Black Panthers, they cosponsored demonstrations and panels calling for justice for the Panthers and ending "the pig repression of the Vanguard Party."
Recognition of the Panthers as the vanguard means that the Panthers were the main organization to draw the masses to revolutionary politics and serves as the force of proletarian power against class enemies. This doesn't sound like "ripping off" or "decentering" to me.
In addition to the Red Guards standing in militant solidarity with the Black Panthers, the Asian American Political Alliance declared an alliance with Black and Chicano students and by extension, affirming their support for the liberation of all colonized people:
The RGP viewed the BPP as an example of, "radical resistance to racial and class oppression." Many liberal AsAms today continue to push the line that colonized people (including Asian people) don't share the same fight. This is bullshit.
Regardless of whether or not Asian people and Black people are oppressed the same way (we definitely are not) the hyperfocus on this distracts from the reality that our liberation is interconnected.
A community standing up to back Black liberation is far more meaningful than the individualistic "reflecting" that Asian-Americans are constantly doing even though we are in a time of people collectively pulling down statues of slave-traders and dumping them into rivers.
Unfortunately, like other radical organizations of the time, membership in the Red Guard dwindled due to police repression and harassment. The FBI and CIA were also very eager to undermine the Guards and Panthers. (See: COINTEL PRO)
In 1971, remaining members decided to disband the Red Guard. Their former members continued to organize however, with many joining the New York based I Wor Kuen (義和拳), drawing from the boxer rebellion that attempted to expel western colonizers from China.
The IWK adopted a 12 point platform, not dissimilar from the 10 point platform of the Panthers: https://asianamericanactivism.tumblr.com/image/68946140266
There is still a treasure trove of information in Professor Ogbar's article that I failed to address due to concerns that this thread would be too lengthy.
My main message is as Asian Amerikans look back on this era as a token moment and not real movements, we erase our own radical history. The work of our predecessors was a fight against white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism w/ wholehearted support for the Black struggle.
