Friday, July 2, 2010

Panther, Panther Burning Bright, in the Politics of the Night






collegiate Bill and Hillary;
the logo of the original Black panthers, founded 1966

"The force of what was called Panther rhetoric or word mongering resided not in elegant discourse but in strength of affirmation (or denial), in anger of tone and timbre. When the anger led to action there was no turgidity or over-emphasis. Anyone who has witnessed political rows among the Whites will have to admit that the Whites aren't overburdened with poetic imagination."
- Jean Genet
French political activist, wanderer and petty criminal,
poet, author, avant-garde playwrite, essayist
1910 - 1986

I came across this little gem on politifact.com earlier today:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/feb/15/chain-email/she-did-not-help-the-black-panthers/
It turns out, this is not the first time someone has tried to use a false accusation linking the Black Panthers to a powerful political figure as a discrediting tactic.

It was also tried with Hilary Clinton, back on January 24th, 2008.

I offer this in support of my claim about racism and racist fears, and attempts to manipulate an unwitting or too-trusting political base on the right with it. This time the story was about the original Black Panthers; Hillary was their contemporary, a law school student at Yale.

The intentionally-false-story went:

"Hillary's main extracurricular activity in law school was helping the Black Panthers, on trial in Connecticut for torturing and killing a federal agent," ......


Show of hands, who thinks this is plausible, much less true?

Nobody? Penigma readers are correct! No, no dead federal agent; no, no help from Hillary.

Bonus points if you were aware that at one time, Hillary Rodham Clinton had campaigned for Goldwater and was active in Republican politics on her college campus.

I'd love to ask the same question about believing this story, over on my friend Mitch's blog, Shot in the Dark. They generally seem all too willing to believe ANYTHING, so long as it is something bad about someone they regard as a political opponent.

They are not so very quick though, to fact check, or make corrections about these stories.

I hope the next time anyone who reads Penigma sees one of these 'Black Panther' Stories, they will raise an eyebrow, and be more skeptical.

Or, please, tell me.

I'll dig into it, and share it here, whatever the facts turn out to be.

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