Revolutionary Suicide

by Huey P. Newton

Not that I am happy with the suffering; I simply refuse to be defeated by it.

Rebellion was the only way we knew to cope with the suffocating, repressive atmosphere that undermined our confidence.

That is often the way of the oppressor. He cannot understand the simple fact that people want to be free. So, when a man resists oppression, they pass it off by calling him “crazy” or “insane.”

For a while I thought of becoming a minister, but I gave it up when I studied philosophy in college. I began asking questions about the concept of religion and the existence of God. In trying to find God and understand Him as a philosophical existential Being, I began to question not only the Christian definition of God, but also the very foundation of my religion. I saw that it was based on belief alone, the soundness of which was never questioned.

for them, the only way to win freedom was to meet force with force. At bottom, this is a form of self-defense. Although that defense might at times take on characteristics of aggression, in the final analysis the people do not initiate; they simply respond to what has been inflicted upon them. People respect the expression of strength and dignity displayed by men who refuse to bow to the weapons of oppression.

The oppressed are always defensive; the oppressor is always aggressive and surprised when the people turn back on him the force he has used against them.

The Black Panthers have never viewed such paramilitary groups as the Ku Klux Klan or the Minutemen as particularly dangerous. The real danger comes from highly organized Establishment forces—the local police, the National Guard, and the United States military.

We were made to feel ashamed and guilty because of our biological characteristics, while our oppressors, through their whiteness, felt noble and uplifted.

I think that when man clings to the idea of a God, whom he has created and placed in the heavens, he actually reduces himself and his own potential. The more he attributes to God, the more inferior he becomes, the less responsible for his own destiny. He says to God, “I am weak but thou art mighty,” and therefore accepts things as they are, content to leave the running of the world to a supernatural force greater than himself. This attitude embodies a kind of fatalism, which is inimical to growth and change. On the other hand, the greater man becomes, the less his God will be.

Many activities defined by the ruling class as criminal are the acts of poor and exploited people, desperate people, who have no access to the channels of opportunity.

There is an old African saying, “I am we.” If you met an African in ancient times and asked him who he was, he would reply, “I am we.” This is revolutionary suicide: I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude.

the wise man and the fool have the same end; they go to the grave as a dog. Who sends us to the grave? The unknowable, the force that dictates to all classes, all territories, all ideologies; he is death, the Big Boss. An ambitious man seeks to dethrone the Big Boss, to free himself, to control when and how he will go to the grave.