“A Taste of Power” – My first book review

Crossposted at Blueberry Shake.

I just finished a fantastic book, and I want to tell you all about it. The book is called A Taste of Power: a Black Woman’s Story by Elaine Brown. I picked it up in a used bookstore for about six bucks, but it seems to be pretty widely available. Paperback version over at Amazon is $12, and at Powell’s the same version is $10.50. It chronicles Brown’s childhood and eventual chairmanship of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California in 1974 – 1977.

I’ll admit I went into this having no prior knowledge of the Black Panther Party whatsoever. But through Brown’s autobiography I have learned of Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale. (Interesting note: Ericka Huggins is the only one that doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.) While in the middle of reading this book, I also read The Black Panthers by Gene Marine, published in 1969 (whose other titles include Food Pollution: the Violation of Our Inner Ecology and Male Guide to Women’s Liberation) that only makes passing mention to the women in the Party, mostly focusing on Newton, Cleaver, Seale and other prominent men. In fact, a photograph caption refers to a group of marching women as Black Panther “Sisters” and a group of marching men as Black Panthers. Notice the word “sisters” in quotes? As if the women aren’t “real” Black Panthers but the men are?

In A Taste of Power, Elaine Brown documents painful aspects of her life – wanting to be white as a child, and rejecting all things associated with being black until her twenties. She talks about so many things the Party did that the media ignored; free food giveaways, community schools opened and operated, health clinics, and programs that enabled people to visit their family members in jail. She didn’t shy away from the violence, though; she openly described the weapons and explained that the guns were a way to protect themselves from a police force that was brutal, racist and everywhere. She was also open about the Party’s goal of trying to become a powerful force (both politically and physically) in Oakland, in order to help the poor black population.

It is not until the last quarter of the book that Brown delves into the sexism and machoism that surrounded her but (almost) never touched her. She recounts an incident of being beaten by Party member Steve, who she was in a sexual relationship with, and after going to Newton, then-chairman and her close friend, was told that it “was not party business.” Not only that, there was a general consensus that she had it coming, anyway:

Huey’s arms were strong. But he lowered them, surrendering to the men, most of whom thought “it was about time.” I was an arrogant “bitch.” I had been the backbone of that L.A. clique, had defied the chairman, hid behind Huey, been forced into their leadership, among violations. Getting my ass kicked was just what I need, the men had responded. What did I expect him to do in the face of such a tide of opinion. Huey shrugged. It was, arguably, a violation of party rules, but categorically not really party business, he finished. Anyway, I should never have been in the bed of such an “ugly black motherfucker,” he concluded. (313)

But her closeness with Huey (close friend, former lover) protected her most of the time from men who thought she was a little too mouthy to be a Black Panther woman. Ironically, it took for her to become chairman for her to see the worst of it. She encountered bitter complaints when she appointed women to leadership roles, and resistance when she tried to outlaw physical assault against Party members, a move aimed to stop the beatings of women she knew was happening. One exchange she had with an anonymous Party member was an example of the opposition she faced from the men in the Party:

There was one result of all this I had failed to think through: I had introduced a number of women in the party’s administration. There were too many women in command of the affairs of the Black Panther Party, numerous men were grumbling.

“I hear we can’t call them bitches no more,” one Brother actually stated to me in the middle of an extraordinarily hectic day.

“No, motherfucker,” I responded unendearingly, “you may not call them bitches ‘no more.'” I turned brusquely to Bill, my bodyguard, and told him to make a note for Larry to deal with “my Brother here.” (362-363)

Like many black women of that era, Brown resisted then-contemporary feminism, seeing it as racist, classist and having no bearing on a black woman’s life. After more closely experiencing the sexism within the Party, she begins exploring the concept, and tries to develop the Panthers into a Party with gender equality. I’ll admit, once she started deconstructing those ideas in the book, I immediately starting to enjoy the story even more. By the end of the book, it was clear why she didn’t investigate those issues before, but I found myself, while I was reading, hoping she would talk about sexism that she experienced, or gender equality, or something. She would mention these things, but she never spent time deconstructing it like she did with race. Once she began to see the sexism around her, and try to change it, I could almost hear the click! sound in her head as she put it all together.

I’m almost positive there are messages in this book that I missed, and while I understood everything she was trying to say (on an intellectual level…I think) not being a black woman means that I will not be able to understand these issues on an emotional level. I’ll keep reading, and I’ll try to understand, but all my reading and writing and commenting on blogs has taught me an important thing: I’ll probably never fully understand. I can try, and it’s good that I try, but I have to stop there. I can’t appropriate this story (or even a dozen stories) and try to say I know what it’s like to be a black woman in the US. That’s probably the most valuable lesson I learned by reading this book.