by John Bear
Daily Lobo
James Calhoun of the hip-hop trio the Black Panther FUGITIVES said the party has gotten a bad rap.
"It's not this mad black organization out to kill all white people," he said.
He said that's how the party is perceived in the mainstream American collective consciousness. You say "Black Panther" and more than likely people will say "Angry black men with guns."
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And it is true, some of the members did carry weapons. Calhoun gave as an example Huey P. Newton, who was one of the founding members. He carried a gun, but only because people on the block where he lived were getting shot, he said.
Black Panther FUGITIVES will perform Saturday at Keller Hall along with Thomas Mapfumo as part of UNM's celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
Calhoun was born into the party. His parents were active members. He was born in 1971, the year, he said, the party began to disintegrate. Though it didn't dissolve until 1980, he said the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program's subversive tactics had begun to undermine the organization. He said the FBI did things like keep the leadership separated and instill paranoia that eventually brought them down.
Shortly after he was born, Calhoun's mother packed up and moved to New York, bringing him with her. He eventually went back to California, but he spent his formative years out East, hanging out with Tupac Shakur and getting submerged into hip-hop. He spent his early years in the music business as a producer. He became disenfranchised with the industry and began producing for group mates Terrence Trotter and Geoffrey McMullen. The Black Panther FUGITIVES - Future Under the Guidance of Intelligent True Individuals who Visualize Every Struggle - has existed since 2001.
Calhoun said the group doesn't have a problem with commercial hip-hop, but he avoids making it himself. He said he and his cohorts are in the trenches, doing free shows and not at all concerned with getting paid, but adding that no one wants to be poor.
"I don't really do that 'shake your booty' stuff," he said. "I'm 35. I have two daughters, and I don't want them to shake anything. Don't do that."
He said his music is ideally suited for people with bills to pay.
"It's not for people who don't pay rent," he said. "If you're 16 or below, you probably won't like it."
The party was involved in many community outreach programs, some of them the first of their kind. They set up one of the first sickle cell testing programs and a free breakfast program for school children. Calhoun said the Black Panthers implemented 36 social programs.
"This is not an organization of destruction," he said. "It is for the people, by the people, so it can't be destroying people."
He said the U.S. government didn't really take much notice of notable black leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X until they shifted focus from black issues to the more inclusive civil rights issues. This, he said, terrified the government because it threatened to upset the balance of power. He said many of the problems in the United States billed as race problems are, in fact, economic, and there is no real middle class in this country, only poor people and rich people.
"It's not a black or white thing," he said. "It's a money thing. It's always been a money thing."
At the end of the day, Calhoun wants to use his music to enlighten people, and conjuring up the Black Panthers is not a cheap publicity stunt.
"I don't do this for money," he said. "I am not trying to get famous off the Black Panther Party."
From 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dorion Hilliard and Calhoun will present a panel discussion "Black Panthers to Hip-Hop" in the SUB.
