[Video follows excerpts and commentary]

Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, leader of the new Black Panther Party, says that their party, like the Tea Party, should be armed. Speaking at a Black Panther Party National Convention in Atlanta, Shabbaz said, “of course we should be armed mentally, culturally, and spiritually. If you don’t think we need to be in self defense, according for those (sic) who are watching, to our second amendment rights – if you think we should go less than our so-called Constitutional rights, you’re out of your mind.”

Unlike the Tea Party, which has for the most part stopped short of calling for its members to intimidate police and other government officials by arming themselves with weapons and violence,  Black Panther Party member King Samir Shabazz says that everyone in their neighborhood should be armed and willing to defend their community against police – namely Caucasian police officers:

The quickest way to get rid of police brutality is to get rid of police.

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We need deacons for defense in each and every black community. It makes no damn sense why cracker police come in your neighborhood and militarize your neighborhood. They go home to their stinkin’ wife and children and they don’t have to police their neighborhood.

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Twelve black men standing on the corner. One little punk cracker come driving through the hood and say “get off my corner niggers,” and you flee. Everybody on the corner strapped, and you still scared.

I love fightin’ me some crackers. I love fightin’ peckerwoods Police shake in their boots when they see me. Why? Because I defend my hood. and niggers in the woods too. I stay in jail. Why do I stay in jail? Because I defend my hood.

Had a Tea Party leader made such a speech, we no doubt would have seen it all over the mainstream media as an example of hate speech and racism within the movement.

While Mr. K. Shabbaz has a resonating point about individuals arming themselves and working within their communities to police crime, including law enforcement brutality, his racial based motives is where we differ.

It seems that Mr. K. Shabbaz sees everything in black and white, and has failed to realize that the very system he is arguing is unjust towards black communities is similarly brutal and unfair for whites. We’ll avoid the historical discussion about how blacks were treated in America during the slave trade, as these arguments no longer have as much merit today as they did, say, in the 60’s. We understand the history. Most realize slavery was not only wrong but an abomination of the very founding of this country and our Constitution.

Until Mr. K. Shabbaz and the Black Panthers work to create color blindness within their own organizations, the majority of white Americans will consider them a hate group, because let’s be honest, based on this video, the voter intimidation incidents during the 2008 election and other actions of the Black Panther Party, their motivations seems to be strictly based on race. One can’t help but get an image of a Black Panther member screaming “the white man is keeping me down!”

Guess what Black Panthers: That rich, powerful and sociopathic white man that is making your communities poorer and imprisoning blacks unjustly for crimes that shouldn’t be crimes are doing the exact same thing to White communities, Latino communities and Asian communities. This so-called “white man” is keeping us all down, except he also happens to be black and Hispanic and positioned in Congress, the Judicial branch and across the spectrum of government institutions.

Though there may be individuals within the government that are racially motivated to harm others, the fact of the matter is that the system as a whole could care less what color you are. By segregating ourselves into racial groups, we further empower those who would control us and become instruments of our own tyranny.

There is common ground that can be found here, as the grievances against the powers that be are very similar in many of the groups protesting the actions of government including elements of the Democrat and Republican Parties, Tea Partiers, and the Black Panthers.

Protect yourself Mr. Shabbaz. Then protect your community. Then protect your state and your country. But most importantly, understand that directing your anger at a group of people based on the color of their skin is simply, well, racist. And if you expect others to change while you wear black, white and brown shades of glasses, then no change will ever be enacted in America.

Watch Excerpts from Black Panther Party Convention in Atlanta: