THE PANTHER PARADOX: A Liberal's Dilemma

by Don A. Schanche ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1970

Schanche seems to have a low opinion of liberals. He relays each frisson of his blazer-wearing-ex-Holiday-editor meets black-revolutionary-culture-hero experience, dwells on sex (Cleaver's rapist past and wife's thighs) plus violence (an investigation of the Newton case)--but he credits his audience with no real curiosity about Panther organization, membership, regional variations, effect of losing top leadership, etc. And he mashes together his changing attitude toward the Panthers (he decided they were other than ""a tough-talking NAACP"") with his interpretation of the Panthers' changing positions. The former is paramount; it mostly comes from his fascinating meetings with Cleaver, whom he admired and rather clumsily interlocuted and offended by writing that Algerian exile had diminished Cleaver's power and purpose. In lieu of a developed political discussion of the Panthers, there are snatches of biography (""the icon"" Newton, the ex-bourgeoise Mrs. Cleaver) and sociology (Oakland, Schanche found, suits radical perceptions of the world). Schanche has important insights--about the paramilitary style, ""poorly buried streak of black nationalism,"" missing vision of a post-revolutionary society--but they emerge as invective rather than analysis, and the book (which concludes with a call for police reform) simply reassures pro-Panther liberals that the Panthers are indeed persecuted while assuring anti-Panther liberals that the Panthers are indeed unworthy of support. Some of this material appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and the Atlantic.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION