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Why oh why won’t the New Black Panther Party exit the building?

RELATED: Why We Tolerate Hateful Speech

Malik Zulu Shabazz (born Paris Lewis, pictured holding mic), national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, told World Net Daily’s Aaron Klein that his group – all seven or so of them – may be hitting a voting booth near you them in November. Why? According to Mr. Shabazz, to ensure there is no “intimidation against our people.”

Shabazz explained:

I will say that as this election comes up in November, we will consider our options. And we will consider the fact whether we will legally and lawfully go to the polls again to make sure there is no intimidation against our people, which was our intent in 2008.

This is the politically correct way of saying they’d like to spook about seven White people for a few minutes before “the law” attempts to disenfranchise Democratic voters of varying hues.

Somewhere a FOX News reporter is trying to keep his composure as he luxuriates in the mere thought of the footage he’ll be able to feed to the fringe that makes up that network’s viewership. At this very moment, I’m rolling my eyes at the speed of a Beyoncé beat.

Klein then asked the New Black Panther Party leader whether he would bring batons or billy clubs to polling stations as they allegedly did back in 2008:

No sir. And you’re not gonna bait me in to that. I know what you are here to do. And that’s not true. We will be there. I mean, if we are there. If. We are not saying we will be there or not, but whatever we will do, it will be legal and lawful under the Constitution of the United States.

Shabazz added:

We were not found that we intimidated anyone, and therefore we were not charged, and that’s why we are walking free today, happy as a bird, to the [dismay] of many.

He means many on the right as they were the ones who conceived and consistently perpetuated that fable about Shabazz’s fold.

To that end, if the New Black Panther Party knows it is the right-wing media who is condemning them, then why cater to them?

A recent tweet from Slate’s Dave Weigel offers an answer:

Notice that the New Black Panthers only really do interviews in conservative media, where they can troll comfortably.

Indeed, the group has long been condemned by the original Black Panther Party for being a Canal Street version of them.

Meanwhile, conservative media will entertain reports like:

New Black Panthers plan to create inner city militaries that would go in to nurseries and kill White babies and murder white people n the street.

Ditto on stories in which the group tells the RNC at their convention, [our] “feet will be on your motherf**king necks.”

And similar to past veiled threats, such as those involving Trayvon Martin, this “we-may-or-may-not-appear-at-the-polls” warning is much ado about nothing. It is very much annoying, though.

A recent string of encouraging legal rulings notwithstanding, there remains legitimate reasons to worry about how Republican-led voter suppression will play out in the looming election. But while it’s understandable to have lingering fears, if you don’t really have much to offer in the way of mounting a meaningful defense, why bother commenting?

Oh, yeah, to attention whore while simultaneously keeping the courtship going.

It may not appear so on the surface, but there’s some fondness between the New Black Panther Party and conservative media outlets: they need each other to tickle their fancies and keep the fools who fall for their shticks fed.

While this is cute for both of them, they should get a room and go away already. The whole lot of y’all.

Sound off!

 

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

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