This Ain’t Our Fight: Why Black Panther History Is Being Misused — Again
- January 18, 2026
- By T'Malkia Zuri
Julio P. Newton???? Where yo’ people from for real? 
Because what we are watching right now isn’t solidarity — it’s historical misdirection.
Groups are running around in “black” radical aesthetics, invoking the Black Panther name, threatening ICE, and dragging so-called Black Americans into immigration battles that were never ours, never centered us, and were never part of our historical movements.
That’s not just inaccurate — it’s dangerous.
The Problem With “Tether Panthers”
Let’s be very clear:
This new wave of so-called Panther groups — what many of us are calling “Tether Panthers” — is not the historical Black Panther Party.
Borrowing berets, leather jackets, patrol language, or militant aesthetics does not create historical continuity.
And more importantly:
👉 Immigration enforcement was not a Black Panther platform issue.
What the REAL Black Panther Party Actually Fought For
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, founded in 1966, emerged from very specific conditions facing native Black Americans living under U.S. state power.
Their work centered on:
Police brutality and state violence
Economic exploitation of Black communities
Housing, education, and healthcare
Political self-determination for Black people
Opposition to U.S. imperialism and foreign wars
Their mission was domestic, community-based, and self-determined.
Not immigration.
Not deportation policy.
Not defending non-citizens.
[Newsreel Footage of Black Panther Party Rally and Student Protests, Alameda County, California. ca. 1966–1969. Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. National Archives Identifier 12101. Video.]
The Ten-Point Program Makes This Plain
The Panthers didn’t leave their politics vague. They wrote them down.
The Ten-Point Program demanded:
Jobs for Black people
Housing fit for human beings
An end to exploitation of Black communities
Control of institutions affecting Black lives
That absence is not accidental. The Panthers were fighting for a people already here, already targeted, already dispossessed — native Black Americans whose labor built this country and whose communities were under siege.
Autochthonous Means Indigenous — Not Imported
Many of us are Autochthonous Americans of Turtle Island.
We didn’t cross borders.
The borders crossed us.
So no — everyone does not get to conscript us into their political fights, wrap themselves in Black history, and then call it “Panther energy.”
Many of us want you GONNNNNNEEEE. ✈️🛬
That’s not hatred. That’s delineation.
🪶🪶🪶👆👆👆
A Necessary Clarification on Modern Groups
Recent social-media statements claim certain modern organizations are “the original Black Panthers” or direct continuations of the historic movement.
Here’s the factual reality:
Inspiration ≠ lineage
Community patrols ≠ Panther ideology
Aesthetic similarity ≠ organizational continuity
The original Black Panther Party:
Was centrally organized
Produced written doctrine
Operated within a defined political era
Disbanded as a national organization by the early 1980s
Claims of continuity must be measured against documented structure, ideology, and purpose — not symbolism.
Why This Matters Now
When Black political history is blurred:
Black Americans take the heat
Black Americans get surveilled
Black Americans get blamed
All while our unresolved issues — land, lineage, political recognition, reparative justice — are pushed aside once again.
We’ve seen this movie before.
This ain’t our fight.
Final Word for the Record
Clarifying what the Black Panther Party was — and what it was not — is not gatekeeping.
It is historical responsibility.
This is documentation, not denunciation.
And documentation is how history survives distortion.
Sources & Archival References
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Ten-Point Program (1966)
Stanford University & Library of Congress Black Panther archives
Editor’s note: This article references publicly available social-media content for the purpose of historical clarification and commentary. All names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
