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New Black Panther Party starts in Denver
By Amy Woodward
awoodwa5@mscd.edu

Settled quietly on East 22nd Ave., address 1426 doesn’t resemble the shops next to it. While the other shops have signs for their operations, 1426 has only a few advertisements on the window that read, “Shea Butter Sold Here.”

It is the office for the New Black Panther Party, or NBPP, a political and cultural organization for the unity of black people in America.

“We operate out of total love,” said Ra’EL Shaffii, minister of information for the NBPP’s Denver chapter. “We are not anti-white or anti-Semitic. We just want to be dependent on self.”

The NBPP is not affiliated with the Black Panther Party, which was started by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in the 1960s as a political organization that aimed to stop police brutality and support the black community.

The Black Panther Party does not recognize the NBPP as a legitimate black movement, but Shaffii said that NBPP is its own entity.

“Yes, we are a part of those brothers … a part of the African struggle,” he said.

The NBPP believes in the uniting of blacks and “the rites of passage for manhood and womanhood,” Shaffii said.

There have been individual gains for blacks, but as a whole, struggles still continue, according to Shaffii. The NBPP would like to change the current situation for blacks, and defines itself as a “self help” concept.

“Together we can pull one another out by the bootstraps,” Shaffii said.

Professor Jacquelyn Benton of Metro’s African and African-American Studies department said that one of the issues blacks face today is simply being acknowledged as human beings.

“We still have the same struggles that have been issues of the past. If everything is okay, there would be no need for a group like (the NBPP),” she said.

Benton described the attitude toward blacks today as the “Jim Crow” attitude, or ideas that keep black people from having equal rights.

“These attitudes still have an effect on perception and policy,” she said.

According to Benton, struggles to keep African-American studies as a valid discipline are prevalent on campus.

“We are still dealing with the same issues to maintain those departments and to try to convince the administration that there is a need for these departments,” Benton said.

Members of the NBPP want to be viewed as equals to other races and want the right as human beings to acquire good jobs and live freely, not only locally, but also nationally. They want to gain security for themselves and for future generations. Politically, the NBPP would like to develop a voice in legislation and hopes to change the unequal distribution of wealth, Shaffii said.

“We want to enhance our education and family values,” he said.

Brandon Barnett, a Metro sophomore, said, “I think black people can come up if they want to. I think it is all about choice.” Barnett said he thinks blacks still face racism but feels it is not as harsh as it used to be, and he doesn’t plan on joining the NBPP anytime soon.

“My question is, what does the NBPP really stand for?” said Cordelia Randall, a junior at Metro. “Do they take it by force, or do they say get off your butt and try to do better?”

Randall said the black race is no different than any other race, and there are those who want to go forward and those who want to stay where they’re at. She said blacks may not always be equal or viewed as the same, but she feels the difference between now versus the 1960s is that there wasn’t any opportunity in the 1960s.

“I am tired of an organization that has to represent the whole black race,” Randall said. “We are all characterized as the same: we all can sing, we all can dance, we are all good at sports. It’s a perception and sometimes we buy into it.”

The NBPP started in 1989. David Height is the founder of the three-month-old Denver chapter.

“We’ve come about through the spirit of the whole liberation struggle,” Shaffii said. “We are out to defend ourselves on those who intent on making us obscure.”