Over at the nation’s most historically racist opinion rag, the National Review, David French is beside himself that the left criticized some Super Bowl ads for being politically incorrect while celebrating Beyoncé’s halftime act. He was truly offended that Elon James White made the following Tweet in response to a Toyota advertisement involving a high speed car chase.
How disgusting is it that we all were quite aware that the Prius was full of White dudes so they were safe from being slaughtered?#SB50
— Elon James White (@elonjames) February 8, 2016
Did Elon James White say that black people are “always” killed when they evade police?
Apparently Mr. White has already forgotten about LaVoy Finicum, the white protester shot after a car chase in Oregon. Besides, it is patently absurd to contend that black drivers in car chases are always killed. In fact, such slayings are mercifully rare.
So much wrong with that response.
But Mr. French’s real ire was reserved for Beyoncé.
The Left simply could not stop slobbering over Beyoncé’s use of Black Panther imagery during her halftime performance. The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber called it a “display of cultural power.” Vox raves that Beyoncé “came to play.” The Guardian’s Alex Needham declared that “Queen Bey” was “at the height of her powers.” But the Black Panthers, recall, aren’t guilty of “merely” murdering police officers; they tortured and murdered their own members. They embodied the Malcolm X philosophy of “by any means necessary” and carried it out with murderous efficiency.
If I wanted to fully re-litigate the legacy of the original Black Panther Party here, this would be a very long piece. I’m going to cheat a little for brevity’s sake and just give you a couple of links to explore. The first is the Wikipedia entry for Fred Hampton, a charismatic Chicago-based Panther who was executed in his bed by the police after being drugged with barbiturates by his bodyguard. Of course, his bodyguard was an FBI informant.
The second link comes from an article published yesterday in The Oregonian, which details the history of the Black Panther Party in Portland. Maybe the most significant thing about this piece is that The Oregonian takes responsibility for their horribly biased reporting that turned the public against the Panthers in a way that was totally unjustified by their activities.
If you’re really interested in this subject, you’ll want to look into the FBI program called COINTELPRO which targeted the Panthers with at least 233 covert actions in an effort to disrupt and discredit their activities, turn them against each other, and sow violence in their communities.
At the time, organizations like the National Review were supremely unconcerned with the police violence that had spawned the Panther movement in Oakland. They were even less concerned with the Second Amendment rights of black organizers who sought to shadow the police and document their abuses. In fact, they were supportive of the heavy-handed tactics used by the FBI and were completely appalled when those tactics were exposed by the Church Committee in the mid-1970’s. Just last year, the Review published a piece by infamous torture-apologist John Yoo in which he said “the Church Committee…set back the intelligence agencies for years.”
So, today’s piece by Mr. French is just the latest in a long and consistent line of articles in which the Review has supported Apartheid, opposed all anti-poverty programs, and objected to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They’ve never changed, and they’re still blaming the Panthers for infighting in their ranks that was deliberately created at the instruction of J. Edgar Hoover.
In closing, I’ll just give you this reminder of how COINTELPRO actually operated.
According to attorney Brian Glick in his book War at Home, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:
Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
Psychological warfare: The FBI and police used myriad “dirty tricks” to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists. They used bad-jacketing to create suspicion about targeted activists, sometimes with lethal consequences.
Legal harassment: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, “investigative” interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.
Illegal force: The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations. The object was to frighten or eliminate dissidents and disrupt their movements.
This is the kind of stuff that Glenn Beck and Alex Jones accuse the left of doing or plotting to do. It’s pure projection. And, in any case, just as with infringements on the right to bear arms, it’s all okay if the victims are black.
No wonder the right didn’t like Beyoncé’s homage to the Panthers.
Nothing to add to this.
NR to Black Panthers:
“Open Carry, U R Doon it rong”
I didn’t see the half time show but heard about Fox and fellow travelers having a sh*t fit about Beyoncé’s alleged Black Panther tribute. Anecdotal stuff: I talked to about 10 people who had watched the half time show. I think most, at least, vote D; I certainly wouldn’t characterize them as “radical” or whatever.
None of them – not one – caught the Black Panther tribute. They just enjoyed Queen Bey’s performance and whatever else was happening.
I looked at some photos and a brief video of part of the performance. In the photos, I can see a nod to the Panthers – black berets, afro ‘dos, black leather outfits. I would wager a lot of money that if viewers were truly honest, a huge percentage had NO IDEA it had anything to do with the Panthers… until the usual suspects in the rightwing media (all of it, Katie) ginned up the usual outrage amongst their heavily propagandized viewers.
A couple of my friends started to heatedly argue with me that Queen Bey’s performance had nothing to do with the Panthers. I said: don’t get angry with me; go look at Fox. They’re the ones stirring this pot.
My friends also went back and looked at some still photos. They concede, too, that perhaps this was a nod to the Panthers but maintain that fact was mostly lost on the majority of the audience.
FWIW. I don’t care one way or the other. I know who Beyoncé is but have no opinion about her, her singing, or her performance choices.
I DO know that there has been a sustained and huge effort to disenfranchise the Panthers and to paint a very bad picture of them that is mostly either untrue or at least inaccurate. I DO know that the Fibbies via the COINTELPRO ops went after the Panthers in a big way.
I also know that the Panthers did more good than harm in their communities and they were mainly responding to dire situations which “the man” was doing absolutely EFF ALL to rectify or improve.
People unfamiliar with the Black Panthers should read the links provided. It is something with which everyone should be familiar, imo.
For me, the Stupid Bowl is a big media hoopla. I’ve have watched a number of half time shows over the years, and for me, nearly every single one has SUCKED bc it’s not a great venue for any sort of real performance by artists that one may like. IOW, commercialized dreck for the masses. If you like that sort of thing… fine with me. Useless to complain, IMO. It is what it is. Crapification of musical performances for the financial gain of the 1%.
Didn’t waste my time on the game, but once the corporate owned MSM began pushing the Beyonce story, I checked her halftime performance out.
I remember the late 60’s-70’s so I could see the reference, and understand what she was trying to do.
My take, the blubberheads of Fox Hate media not the FBI are the push back this time….and of course the sitting President gets their panties all twisted up.
I think the hagiagraphy of Beyonce over formation is eye rollingly over the top though what she actually did was admirable on a personal and professional level. Of course NR would lose theur shit over it.
Whites getting pissed at blacks for introducing a non-white perspective is like men getting pissed at women for not responding to a catcall with a blowjob.
most people I know didn’t even notice, including me by the way and I’m way more plugged into these issues than my friends are
Liked the whole halftime show (although I thought Bruno Mars and his backups looked like they were dressed in black garbage bags) and quite honestly missed the entire reference to the Black Panthers.
When I was 18 in 1968 I marched with the Black Panthers and SDS in an election day protest in downtown Newark. I can assure you, if the Black Panthers dressed like Beyonce we would have had a much bigger turnout.
“.the kind of stuff that Glenn Beck and Alex Jones accuse the left of doing or plotting to do. It’s pure projection.”
Well, no, not exactly projection. It comes from the fact that Beck and Jones are in a line of RWNJ’s descended from ca. 1950 Joe McCarthy and the China Lobby, and the later John Birch Society (1959– ), all of whom considered the CIA a nest of leftists and commies.
The CIA has always been controlled by the Eastern oligarchy and its satellites, and from its foundation incorporated large elements of the Nazi world view, which was often almost indistinguishable from militant anticommunism, and Allen Dulles was the faithful servant of this oligarchy. But Dulles and his friends were also at the center of the socially sophisticated “Georgetown set”. In those days there WERE lots of liberals (whatever that means) in the CIA, and of course the CIA co-opted a large share of the liberal media and “the arts”, both here and in Europe. (Google “Operation Mockingbird, and see Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: the CIA and the world of arts and letters.) More broadly, there was (and is) bitter hatred between eastern “internationalists” and western individualists like the Kochs.
It is a strange and distorted world view, but it originated not in projection but cultural hatred and paranoia.