Copyrighted image courtesy of Sandow Birk
Early this week I had the pleasure of seeing Bastards of the Party, a documentary which details the rise of Black gangs in L.A....The movie was created by Cle Bone Sloan a former gangbanger, but still member of the L.A. Bloods street gang who was featured in the full length feature film Training Day starring the award winning actor Denzel Washington...He has teamed with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua to produce this powerful film project which was 9 years in the making...
All For One and One For All
I always been a big documentary film fan and what I love about it besides the treasure trove of historical facts that is brought to life through the sincerity and intelligence of the subjects of the movie is the fact that some of the original members of L.A.'s early Black gangs were interviewed (gangs such as the Slausons, Businessmen and Gladiators) and through their invaluable interviews showed that there was a method behind the madness...Many of the gangs were formed in response to the intimidation and hate crime tendencies of vicious White gangs known as the Spook Hunters (similar to Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan) that terrorized many in the Black community and throughout the greater Los Angeles area during the 40s, 50s and 60s...Realizing that there's strength in numbers the young Black men formed groups in order to fight off their White aggressors working together as a unit or coalition to rid themselves of a collective problem or common enemy...However, once they won their wars with the Spook Hunters and were able to travel freely throughout L.A., they started to fight among themselves out of boredom...Epiphany and Destruction...
However, things changed with the Watts Riots of 1965, the assassination of Malcolm X and the formation of the Black Panther Party in Oakland...These events politicized the so-called hoodlums converting them into revolutionaries in order to effect positive change for the community...However, that was also truly the moment things fell apart for Black folk when J. Edgar Hoover saw the unity of Black folks as the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States...Thus marked the beginning of the second phase of COINTELPRO and the beginning of the end of the Black Liberation Movement with the government planned assassinations of key leadership figures such as charismatic L.A. Black Panther leaders Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggins on the UCLA campus; the divide and conquer techniques used to cause animosity and distrust between the Panther Party and the Ron Karenga led US Organization (the same Ron Karenga who "discovered" Kwanzaa); the frame-up and false imprisonment of nearly thirty plus years of Panther Minister of Defense Specialist and decorated Vietnam Veteran and War Hero Geronimo Pratt (the late rapper and Panther cub 2Pac's Godfather); and the proliferation of crack and automatic weapons into America's inner-cities through the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s were among the countless crimes committed by The State against its citizens that have caused much irreparable damage and harm to every generation of Black Americans born since the 196os...Aftermath
Unfortunately with the proliferation of private prisons, racist drug sentencing policies and lack of unskilled labor jobs combined with an uncaring educational system shall unfortunately continue to undermine many of the best and brightest that this country has to offer for many more generations to come...I think this movie is definitely a must see and should be shown to as many people regardless their color or background because if we are in this thing together we must understand how to help each other for the better and to do that we must understand each other's perspective...
Cle 'Bone' Sloan far right
Exclusive interview with Cle 'Bone' Sloan, former gangbanger, peacemaker and creator of Bastards of the Party
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/bastardsoftheparty/interview.html
http://www.bastardsoftheparty.net/
http://www.myspace.com/bastardsoftheparty
http://www.bet.com/Entertainment/firstpersonbone.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/arts/television/06heff.html?ex=1328418000&en=b634729157ec13b7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kaplan07feb07,0,2450479.column?coll=la-home-commentary
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