Panthers, Violence and the American Way

By Joshua Ddamulira

The other day, I got into a heated discussion about the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan. Here was the crux of the argument: Are the two groups actually equivalent extremist groups? The person who took the affirmative side believed that both groups fought vehemently for a truth relative to their beliefs. To Klan members, whites were the superior race, and people of “inferior” races climbing up the socioeconomic hierarchy opposed the Klan’s truth. As a response, the KKK terrorized and martyred blacks and other minorities in order to send a social message so that certain behaviors would not continue. The arguer of the affirmative paralleled the KKK with the panthers saying that antiracism was their truth, but their means of “violent action” to combat that racism makes them the equivalent to the KKK.

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Haters: The psychology of Black failure in America (Part I)

By Richard Montgomery

I recently had the opportunity to moderate a roundtable discussion on the psychology of African American consumerism in the United States, and one of the topics that emerged from the conversation was the subject of competition in the Black community. While there were various opinions on the etiology of this concept, I left the discussion feeling that this issue needed further examination. 

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Forever In Debt

By Joshua Ddamulira

America is forever in debt to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as everyone who was a part of the Civil Rights Movement, for enabling a platform for: * beautiful American entertainers like Michael Jackson * beautiful American athletes from Hank Aaron to Michael Jordan * beautiful American coaches like Tony Dungy * beautiful American actors and actresses like Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ruby Dee

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