In this section of Revolutionary Suicide, Huey P. Newton reflects on an early political experience that deeply shaped the way he approached organizing people through the Black Panther Party. [Full text is below]
While searching for political direction as a young student, Huey encountered members of the Afro-American Association. Instead of helping him understand ideas that were new to him, one organizer responded with arrogance and dismissal because Huey was not already politically developed. Huey explains that this interaction taught him an important lesson: revolutionary organizing cannot be rooted in elitism or talking down to people who are still developing political consciousness.
Reflecting on this experience, Huey writes that he tried to discourage members of the Black Panther Party from “putting down people who do not understand.” Instead, he believed people should be treated cordially and ideas should be explained as fully and clearly as possible. He recognized that many people (not all people) are not unwilling to understand, they simply have not yet had the opportunity to develop politically.
That reflection feels especially relevant right now, particularly as many of us are trying to organize outside of our normal political circles and beyond the people who already agree with us.
One thing I wrestle with in this video is the difference between revolutionary patience and liberal patience. Revolutionary patience means meeting poor and working-class people where they are, remembering our own political development, and walking alongside people while still challenging harmful ideas. Liberal patience, on the other hand, often becomes endless concession-making, particularly toward openly reactionary or fascist politics. Liberal patience will have you patient with forces that are actively trying to destroy you, and impatient with people who are victim to the same oppression you’re struggling against.
Huey’s reflection is not about abandoning political principles. It’s about understanding that consciousness develops over time and that organizers have a responsibility to engage people in ways that invite growth instead of shame.
I also reflect on how easy it can be, especially after first becoming politicized, to develop a sense of elitism and to believe that learning more automatically places us above other people. But many of the revolutionaries I’ve studied consistently challenge that tendency and remind us that patience, humility, and accessibility are necessary parts of organizing.
Ultimately, this section serves as a reminder that nobody comes out the womb politically developed. Revolutionaries are forged through theory and struggle. Remembering our own process, the mistakes we’ve made and the people who helped us along the way can help us stay patient with others while still remaining committed to helping people grow politically over time.
In the discussions at Phi Beta Sigma, a social fraternity I joined for a while, I expressed my anger about society and white racism. The others told me that I sounded like a guy named Donald Warden who was preaching Blackness at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. He was the head of an organization called the Afro-American Association. I went to Berkeley to find Warden and hear what he was saying. The first member I met, though, was Maurice Dawson, one of Warden’s tight partners. He turned me off with his arrogance. I had come searching for something, and he scorned me because I did not already know what I was seeking. I could not understand what he was saying about “Afro-Americans.”
The term was new to me. Dawson really put me down.
“You know what an Afro-Cuban is?”
“Yes.”
“You know what an Afro-Brazilian is?” “
Yes.”
“Then why don’t you know what an Afro-American is?”
It may have been apparent to him, but not to me. But I was still interested. Maurice taught me a lesson that I try to apply to the Black Panther Party today. I dissuade Party members from putting down people who do not understand. Even people who are unenlightened and seemingly bourgeois should be answered in a polite way. Things should be explained to them as fully as possible. I was turned off by a person who did not want to talk to me because I was not important enough. Maurice just wanted to preach to the converted, who already agreed with him. I try to be cordial, because that way you win people over. You cannot win them over by drawing the line of demarcation, saying you are on this side and I am on the other; that shows a lack of consciousness. After the Black Panther Party was formed, I nearly fell into this error. I could not understand why people were blind to what I saw so clearly. Then I realized that their understanding had to be developed.
