A non-racist voice of reason

Everything I thought I knew about the Black Panthers was a result of their activities during the 1960s. At that time, they were very confrontational at best and downright hostile at worst to anyone who didn't unreservedly approve of their agenda and methods. While not all of them were guilty of reverse racism, there was nonetheless a general tendency to lay a collective guilt trip on white folks. 

To someone like me—who has always despised racism as a rationally and morally bankrupt behavior—I found it pretty disturbing to be stuck in the Bad Boy Box™ just because of the color of my skin. I suppose that was the point—they wanted to dish out a taste of some of the unfairness and injustice that black folks have had to put up with for far too long. 

But in so doing, they proliferated injustice—at least, that was true of those who dished it out purely on the basis of skin color, and without regard for the character of those they dissed—the very same injustice they resented in the first place. In other words, some of them were black racists. All racists are morons, and black racists are just as morally reprehensible as white racists. Assholes are still assholes, whether they're black, white, brown, red, yellow, green, or purple.

Anyhow, that was then, and this is now. At least one of the original Black Panthers—Larry Pinkney—recorded a video last year (2013) that scores huge points on the Acknowledging Reality Meter™:

I don't know what else Mr. Pinkney stands for, so I'm not endorsing any agenda he might have. All I'm saying is that there's so much that's right about what he says in this video that it's well worth the time it takes to view it for anyone who isn't addicted to the kind of political narcotics that have been pushed on American citizens ever since the U.S. Constitution was ratified...and has been persistently undermined since then.