Things That Make White People Uncomfortable

by Michael Bennett

The Black Panther Fred Hampton also taught me about intersectionality. Everyone should know more about Fred Hampton. He was killed—executed—by the Chicago police, in collusion with the FBI, when he was just twenty-one years old, and his loss continues to be felt. Hampton was so far ahead of his time that we’re still catching up. He saw working with Native Americans, poor white people, and gay people as essential to the Black struggle. He created the first “rainbow coalition”—it was logical to him to find connections between different struggles, but somewhere along the way, since his death, we’ve lost that logic. Today, we are fighting for Black Lives Matter and Black liberation, but we will succeed only if we can figure out how to connect our struggle with every other effort out there for justice and equality. That’s why you see me working with Native Americans, Palestinians, women, and people in Africa and Haiti.