Phenomenal Blackness Black Power Philosophy and Theory by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-06T12:12:15+00:00

Returning to his true love to write a very brief introduction to Bobby Seale’s account of Huey Newton, Cleaver adds “An Aside to Ronald Reagan” (1968a), then governor of California. While the Cleaver of the introduction is self-effacing in deference to Seale, the writer of the “Aside” celebrates the self in opposition to “Mickey Mouse,” Cleaver’s name for the future president. ⁷ Reagan had attempted and at first failed to exercise some control over the University of California’s Board of Regents to prevent Cleaver from delivering a series of ten lectures. Defiant, Cleaver taunts Reagan for having the temerity to try such a thing, believing that, while the governor may have legislative powers, he should have no say in the intellectual and political content of university-sponsored courses and events. This bold presentation stands in odd tension with the introduction just below it, separated only by another, buffering introduction by Robert Scheer, explaining that Cleaver compiled the Newton texts only in conjunction with Seale. Scheer as editor cedes editorial control to Cleaver, who then disavows his own work in preference to Seale, who bows before Newton. At the end of the editorial chain, only Newton is left to bear responsibility for the publication and the ideas therein. Cleaver’s betrayal is complete. ⁸

There are hints of this two-facedness already in Cleaver’s “On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party” (1967), written as the Black Panther Party’s minister of information, stating and situating the influences and goals of the movement in relation to those of Marxist-Leninists. ⁹ Cleaver cites the party’s minister of defense, Newton, as the movement’s key interpreter of Marxism and Leninism, writing: “However, we must place heavy emphasis upon the last part of that definition—‘interpreted . . . by our Minister of Defense. . . .’—The world of Marxism-Leninism has become a jungle of opinion in which conflicting interpretations, from Right Revisionism to Left Dogmatism, foist off their reactionary and blind philosophies as revolutionary Marxism-Leninism. Around the world and in every nation people, all who call themselves Marxist-Leninists, are at each other’s throats. Such a situation presents serious problems to a young party, such as ours, that is still in the process of refining its ideology” (1969, 1). Cleaver continues with this critical observation: “For too long Black people have relied upon the analyses and ideological perspectives of others.” Looking to Newton for the proper understanding of the same forces Marx and Lenin interpret, Cleaver alludes to the minister of defense’s Revolutionary Suicide when he states: “Our struggle has reached a point now where it would be absolutely suicidal for us to continue this posture of dependency” (1969, 1). Reiterating Newton’s thought, Cleaver insists: “No other people in the world are in the same position as we are, and no other people in the world can get us out of it except ourselves” (1969, 1). The obstacle to this is these facts, according to Cleaver: “There are those who are all too willing to do our thinking for us, even if it gets us killed.

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