Shemot and Fred Hampton's Black Panther Party

I rewatched Judas and the Black Messiah the other day, as well as pieces of the powerful documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. For those who do not know, Fred Hampton was a leader of the Black Panther Party here in Chicago and nationally in the late 1970s, before he was murdered by the FBI in December 1969 at the age of 21. He founded the Rainbow Coalition, a multi-racial, anti-fascist, socialist/communist coalition that brought together the BPP, the Young Patriots, the Young Lords, and various Chicago street organizations to defend their communities from the police and other forms of state-sanctioned violence.

I find Fred Hampton's life, vision, and legacy inspiring, and in reading the opening lines of this week's parsha, I was struck by how relevant these early moments in Exodus are to Fred Hampton and the BPP's fight, and our own fights against facism and white nationalism today. I'll be looking at Exodus 1:8-14.

The Israelite people are much too numerous for us: In Pharaoh's opening line, he expresses a fear of being outnumbered, of losing power because the Egyptians were in the majority and could one day be in the minority. This is a fear we see playing out all around us today in white nationalist movements and the touting of the Great Replacement theory.

Rabbi Paul Kipnes of Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA reflects in his piece, "Israel in Egypt: From Valued Subjects to Persecuted Minority":

"Xenophobia, fear and hatred of strangers or non-natives, is a powerful tool, because when given the choice between being insiders and outsiders, too many people will do anything to remain the former, even if it means they have to give up former friends or coworkers who were in the latter group. In Egypt, indignity upon indignity was shrewdly foisted upon the Israelites: forced labor, taskmasters set over them, embittering of their lives, and the command to kill the baby boys. It must have been an intricate and cynical campaign of xenophobia.

...

We witness this intentional xenophobia at work in early American history as Native Americans were transformed into savages and all but wiped out. As African Americans, once slaves then freed, were systematically dehumanized, “scientifically” deemed inferior, denied equal opportunity by Jim Crow laws, and, more recently, adjudged as almost universally dangerous and subject to mass incarceration.

... He goes on to break down how a society moves into this state:

A society moves from inclusion to denigration by means of three interrelated elements: (1) an intentional campaign that distorts the perception of some group within society into hated, supposedly dangerous enemies, (2) the purposeful stoking of fear to control the majority population so that they would rather look the other way then rise up and resist, and (3) the slow disparagement of the cornerstones of society—legal, economic, social, free press, and political institutions—until society is so controlled by the disease of xenophobia that these institutions lose all authority."

This root fear is one that animates so many of the injustices in our society today. We could spend hours detailing the many ways that the United States government, since the earliest moments of its existence, has sought to demonize and distort the perception of Indigenous people, Black people, poor people, and created oppressive policies that allow for state-sanctioned harm of, violence against, isolation and oppression of those they have set out to demonize. We see the creation of the BPP in response to this ongoing state sanctioned violence against Black and poor people in the US, and in response to the shortcomings of the Civil Rights movement and the NAACP's ongoing efforts to mitigate that violence.

Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase AND So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor AND The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites (14) the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.: The solution to the fear of/prospect of losing power? Population control. You can remain in power if you don't let any population that is not you continue to exist. If you control their population growth through oppression, you can always guarantee your own supremacy.

Michelle Alexander speaks about this phenomenon in the United States in her book The New Jim Crow. For those who haven't read it, this book, in part, explores the implementation and proliferation of modern mass incarceration as a legal replacement for the now illegal Jim Crow, which was a replacement for the then illegal chattel slavery, which was all a means of wealth accumulation and status maintenance for those already in power: white, wealthy men. I will quote directly from the book later on, but something that always strikes me about Fred Hampton's speeches is that he is incredibly clear that the oppression of all peoples in America, no matter their race, is rooted in capitalism, is rooted in labor-based oppression, is rooted in controlling all people of lesser means, and must be dealt with as a class issue primarily and first. Because it is through oppression of the worker that the ruling class is maintaining control of the broader underclass.

otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground: those in power will always have a fear of those not in power coming to recognize their shared self interest AND coming to recognize their shared oppressor; at which point they can join together to fight back against their shared oppressor in pursuit of their shared self interest. It is assumed, even before the Egyptians begin oppressing the Israelites, that if Egypt were to come under attack, the Israelites would join with the enemy to fight the Egyptians. And it is important to note that the Egyptians, like oppressors we see today, decide that the way to avoid that outcome is to oppress and annihilate the Israelites, not create a nation in which the Israelites and Egyptians can live peacefully and fully side-by-side with one another.

"The most ardent proponents of racial hierarchy have consistently succeeded in implementing new racial caste systems by triggering a collapse of resistance across the political spectrum. This feat has been achieved largely by appealing to the racism and vulnerability of lower-class whites, a group of people who are understandably eager to ensure that they never find themselves trapped at the bottom of the American hierarchy." - Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

Fred Hampton, "Revolution and Racism": "We, the Black Panther Party because of our dedication and understanding went into the valley knowing that the people are here in the valley, knowing that our plight is the same plight as the people in the valley, knowing that our enemies on the mountain and our friends are in the valley. And even though it’s nice to be on the mountaintop, we’re going to go back to the valley because we understand that there’s work to be done in the valley. And when we get through with this work in the valley, we’re going to go to that mountaintop."

But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites: How is that possible? In spite of, in the face of, against all odds - they increased and spread out. The more they were oppressed the more they flourished. They tried to burry us, but they didn't know we are seeds. The more they flourish, the harder their oppression becomes, they more they flourish, the harder the oppression becomes.

Fred Hampton, "Revolution and Racism": "When I talk about the masses, I’m talking about the white masses. I’m talking about the black masses. I’m talking about the brown masses, and the yellow masses too. We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire. But we say you put out fires best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re going to fight racism with solidarity."

There are many moments of solidarity and resistance in the Torah. I want to lift up today this clear moment of resistance shown by the Israelites in the face of their oppression by the Egyptians. The more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out. Even at only 19, 20, 21 years old, Hampton had the clarity to understand the circumstances of his own oppression, and to recognize that the only way to live under or with this oppression was to join with others, rise up, create a free breakfast program, create a community space for people to spend time safely together in, create a health clinic to serve the community. In the face of attempts to destroy them, they created. May we all have the clarity to understand the ways in which, in the face of oppression, we can create. And may we also have the clarity to see the ways in which we are, wittingly or unwittingly, supporting the oppression of others because our own perceptions of others have been distorted to view them as hated, dangerous enemies.

Lakeview Minyan D'var 1/13/23