A Taste of Brown...

A Taste of Brown: A Black Panther’s Movement Critique

And, he told me about what he dreamed.

And a feeling familiarly came around.

Man, where have you been for all these years

Man, where were you when I sought you

The above lyrics signified a certain type of uniformity and camaraderie, characteristic of the legendary Black Panther movement. However, uniformity and camaraderie were soon threatened when Elaine Brown became head of the party. When the former leader Huey Newton went into exile in the late 1970’s, Elaine rose to the position of leadership, drastically changing the internal party structure. Elaine became a female symbol of power, holding an office traditionally held by men.

The Black Panther party came into existence addressing suffering in America. The 1970s were a time of federal troops in the South being employed to repel racist, police﷓advocated violence against black children attempting to attend school with white children. It was a time of constant police attacks on b

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I leaped from my seat and rushed into the ladies’ room… I dialed the operator for the number of a mental-health clinic (147). If a black woman assured a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race.

There were hundreds of thousands of people… who benefited from our free-food programs, our free medical clinics and legal-aid programs, our prison programs, our schools and education programs, our service programs for seniors and teens and abused children and battered women and homeless people (16). In another section, she elaborates,

Sexism was a secondary problem. Upon reading the book, one sees a logical progression of thought.

One must remember that these “observations” or conclusions are based on one woman’s perspective and should be analyzed in correlation to the facts about the time period.

Now that the goals of and reasons for the Black Panther party were axiomatic, leadership now played a role. A sister has to learn to shoot as well as to cook, and be ready to back up the Brothers…. Nonetheless, she presents this view in her text that the major goal of the party was enacted. A Sister has to give up the pussy when the Brother is on his job and hold it back when he’s not. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. This subject is crossed with the misogynistic undertones of the organization. One notable time is the rhyme she quotes:

If you white, you right

If you yellow, you mellow

If you brown, stick around

If you black, git [sic] back

Way back! (31)

A final weakness is her portrayal of female – male relationships within the party in the novel. There seems to be a recurring theme of ownership and dominance in the novel.

Approximate Word count = 1704
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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