Former Black Panther roars about race in America

Blacks have made little social progress since the Civil Rights movement, former Black Panther Elaine Brown said Friday night at the University Student Commons Commonwealth Ballroom.

Brown, leader of the Black Panther party in the late ’70s, said she supports reparations for black people. She also said a shift in the way blacks are perceived and the way they perceive their own race is needed.

“Racism is such a permeating part of our society, we don’t even realize it’s happening,” Brown said. “We forgot about (Martin Luther King Jr.’s) dream.”

With 50 percent of all prison inmates being black, Brown said white, upper-class society chooses to blame the black community instead of addressing why so many blacks are involved in crime.

“We (blacks) went from being a slave class to a criminal class,” Brown said. “People tell me to be upset about the Confederate flag, but I’m upset about the American flag.”

Blacks are told they are responsible for economic and political inequalities that exist between blacks and whites 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, Brown said.

Brown criticized former President Bill Clinton, who she mockingly referred to as “Master Clinton,” as a perpetuator of this myth.

Blacks were never free to achieve equality with whites, Brown said, as they never were given the financial support to overcome the longstanding effects of slavery.

Brown also criticized President Bush for sending troops to Iraq, arguing that the $2.8 billion Bush proposes to use for the war in Iraq could be used to provide reparations for blacks instead.

“Black people go around talking about, ‘why can’t we just stop talking about it?’ ” Brown said. “In order to turn the page, we have to write it.”

Brown discussed the racism upon which, she said, the U.S. truly was founded, and she argued that class has become a major issue for all U.S. citizens, regardless of race.

VCU employee Michael Otley, 30, said he thinks Brown’s inclusion of Native Americans as an oppressed people brought validity to her argument.

“I really appreciated it when she said the Black Panthers couldn’t be free unless they understood the Native Americans and their situations,” Otley said.

Celina Williams, a senior English major, said Brown changed her opinion of the Black Panther party.

“I didn’t know that they were that progressive,” Williams said. “I thought she was fantastic.”