Black Panther Party's 50th Anniversary Examined Through African Diasporic Aesthetics of Cool
Sampada Aranke's essay for the Style Wars column explores "the cool" as a Black diasporic aesthetic with ancient African roots, serving as resistance and survival. It critiques the perception of coolness as a history-less style, linking its acceptance to a denial of blackness under white supremacy. The essay highlights the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP), founded in October 1966, marking its 50th anniversary, and describes it as a threat to the racist status quo. It references the 1140 Black people shot by police in 2015, including Rekia Boyd and Mike Brown. The BPP's tactics and the FBI's COINTELPRO are discussed, concluding with coolness and throwing shade as political and aesthetic practices against racial capitalism.
Key facts
- The essay marks the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, founded in October 1966.
- Robert Farris Thompson's 1973 essay "An Aesthetic of the Cool" defines coolness as a Black aesthetic with African roots.
- Krista Thompson theorizes "throwing shade" as a Black aesthetics of cool related to sidelong glances.
- Chris Ofili's 2006 painting Iscariot Blues is analyzed as employing coolness and shade as aesthetic strategies.
- The BPP was described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1968 as the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country."
- 1140 Black people were shot and killed by police in the U.S. in 2015, including Rekia Boyd, Mike Brown, and Tamir Rice.
- The BPP's first public appearance was at an anti-police violence rally after the April 1967 murder of Denzil Dowell.
- Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal embodies a "necessary prison cool" according to scholar Jessica Millward.
Entities
Artists
- Sampada Aranke
- Nicole Archer
- Anne-Louis Girodet Trioson
- Robert Farris Thompson
- Krista Thompson
- Chris Ofili
- Peter Doig
- Beyoncé
- Sojourner Truth
- Robert Johnson
- Mumia Abu-Jamal
- Jessica Millward
- Paul Waldman
- Laura Smith
- Steve Martinot
- Jared Sexton
- Bryan Wagner
- Amy L. Wood
- Orisanmi Burton
- Martin A. Berger
- Ward Churchill
- Jim VanderWall
- Liz Derias
- Andres Alegria
- Lincoln Bergman
- Muhammad Ahmad
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- Elmer G. Pratt
- José E. López
- Ricardo Romero
- Akinyele O. Umoja
- Laura Whitehorn
- Édouard Glissant
- Betsy Wing
Institutions
- Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
- FBI
- Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO)
- Oakland Police Department
- North Richmond police
- The Guardian
- BOMB Magazine
- African Arts
- The Art Journal
- University of Michigan Press
- Harvard University Press
- University of North Carolina Press
- University of California Press
- South End Press
- PM Press
- The Feminist Wire
- The American Prospect
- SFAQ & NYAQ Publications
- Château de Versailles
- Connecticut 9
- Harlem Renaissance
- Black Emergency Cultural Coalition
- Pepsi
Locations
- Africa
- United States
- Oakland
- California
- North Richmond
- Philadelphia
- Pennsylvania
- Liberia
- Dahomey
- Saint-Domingue
- France
- Versailles
Sources
- SFAQ —