Transforming the Black Silent Majority into an Engaged Black Majority

It feels like just yesterday Michael Brown, Aura Rosser, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner were murdered by the police.1 These were formative moments in my engagement in contemporary Black politics, as they occurred when I started graduate school at the University of Michigan. I was optimistic witnessing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement emerge across the United States as a force with which to be reckoned. Using protests and social media to disrupt the American sociopolitical and economic systems, BLM has grown into one of the most powerful, organized movements for the Black community to mobilize in the last three decades. Considering this, the BLM movement is at a critical stage in its development; it must institutionalize its movement, while also garnering support from African Americans who are not fully aligned with the movement's cause. This must be done in order to ensure that Black Liberation is not compromised to neoliberal forces.Heeding history, there are many parallels between the behaviors of the BLM movement in 2015 and the Black Panther Party (BPP) of the 1960s through the '80s. The BPP was comprised of progressively inclined people from all walks of life. They were articulate.2 They were tactful. They were informed about global affairs and the intersectional relationship between domestic and global inequality.3 Among other aims, the purpose of the BPP was to disrupt the unchecked power of the state, and to force the government to protect the Black community's constitutional rights.4 Likewise, the BLM movement embodies similar attributes; members are progressively inclined, extremely intelligent, sophisticated, and linguistically brilliant, orators and strategists willing to challenge citizens and politicians alike in order addresses the unchecked power of the state.5 Though the BLM movement has articulated a global agenda, most of its activism that has garnered attention has taken place in the US, with exception of the Toronto demonstrations in July 2015.6 This is likely due to the BLM movement's evolving efforts to connect with global activists affiliated with progressive or socialist movements, a tactic the BPP frequently employed.7Nonetheless, the BLM movements's agenda and its tactics should be understood as a positive extension of the Panther's work. Although the BLM movement and BPP would likely disagree on the necessity of bearing arms against police brutality-among other tactics or aims-this disagreement should be contextually interpreted. The BPP's use of violent tactics was necessary to combat overt police brutality and discrimination faced by communities across the US. Yet, the lack of institutional response to the rampant murders of unarmed Black people in 2015 have evidenced these atrocities occur covertly, too, in a post-racial America. While the death of Emmett Till is an example of overt violence, the failure of the US government to outlaw the Confederate flag is evidence of covert, institutional violence.8 Though the threats that the BLM movement and BPP have faced are remarkably similar, the historical contexts of each movement are distinct and noteworthy. Thus, it is not useful to rank the tactics of the BPP and BLM movement in their respective fights for Black Liberation.9As a young liberation movement, one reality that the BLM movement must reconcile with is its politics, agenda, and tactics are not fully celebrated by all members of the Black community. Despite the modern glorification of civil rights leaders of the 1950s through the '80s, many were labeled radicals in their respective time periods. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and others were iconoclasts-their ideologies defied the norm, so not everyone agreed with their politics, agenda, or tactics for achieving racial equality. While we see pictures and historical footage of Black people attending sermons and protests by the thousands, the reality is these people-though numerous-were not fully representative of the Black community or of all American citizens. …

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