The Black Panthers put Class First and Race Second

Because the Black Panthers were created and developed in black neighborhoods, identitarians assume the Panthers were a racial organization. This makes as much sense as assuming that because Marx and Engels were Europeans, Marxism is “white”.

You could argue that the Black Panthers began with a racial focus. You cannot argue that they did not quickly move past focusing on race to focusing on class, just as Du Bois, King, and Malcolm X did. Their words make this clear:

“Working class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. Let me emphasize again — we believe our fight is a class struggle, not a race struggle.” — Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

“First of all, we say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx, and Lenin, and Che Guevara, and Mao Tse-Tung — and anybody else that has ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that revolution is a class struggle. It was one class — the oppressed — and that other class — the oppressor. And it’s got to be a universal fact. Those that don’t admit to that are those that don’t want to get involved in a revolution.” — Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party

“Those who want to obscure the struggle with…