Social Justice Advocate still
stands for the rights of others

Ericka Huggins is a walking bundle of history, moreover, the soft-spoken educator, and an original member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) sat down with me at L’Amyx, a charming coffee shop on Piedmont Avenue to discuss the new documentary, THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975.

MIXTAPE --the 96-minute chronology from Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson, co-produced by acclaimed actor and civil rights activist Danny Glover-- focuses on the interplay between BPP members amid a climate of unrest and revolution on the precipice of this critical era in American history.  Things were bad for black people and many thought the BPP provided ready solutions.

A contemporary chord runs through the retelling of this era by way of hip-hop celebrity Talib Kweli and R&B stand out, Erykah Badu.  Coupled with commentary from luminaries including Kathleen Cleaver, Sonia Sanchez and Harry Belafonte, MIXTAPE reminds us of our collective struggles and ongoing progress.  

Our conversation begins --

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV):  What are you most critical of, when you reflect back on your life, looking through the lens of this documentary?

Film director Göran Hugo Olsson

Ericka Huggins: I don’t have a critical response. I am grateful for it because it is one of the first attempts by a person --who is not American-- to show us history and not slant it.  He (Olsson) had fresh eyes. The footage he found, and I am so thankful that it exists, the clips he put together to make Black Power Mixtape, gives a forum for conversation about the challenges we face as Americans that we are in denial about.  That we are ashamed of or guilty about or that we are pissed off over; I love it because it opens conversation.  So, I don’t have a critique of it. What I wonder though, is if there is something that others don’t like about it, why they don’t they make a film about it (Black Panther Party)? OK, now that this one exists, what else can we do?

There could be a hundred films; there could be a film for every year of the timeframe that he focused on: ’67 to ’75.  There could be a 1967 piece done through fresh eyes from ’68, ’75, ’76, ’77, 2011… because one of the beautiful things about the film is that it shows that era of history which many of us have no clue about.  The young people that I teach, they don’t know anything about that history. I assure you, unless we tell them and, if we don’t know, how can we tell them? If we prefer, ask me about my critique of Big Momma’s House or The Help. So, we love to laugh, we need to laugh. If we didn’t turn our horrific past into some form of hilarity, we wouldn’t survive. I’m not putting those films down, I’m wondering where the other films like this (Mixtape) are, particularly envisioned and directed by African Americans and other people of color.

Talk2SV: You use the words fresh eyes regarding the perspective of MIXTAPE; the person who made this documentary is Swedish.  Because he is not an American, as you’ve alluded to, coupled with the fact that many young people don’t know this unique history which is a critical part of American history, what do you think other fresh eyes will take away from seeing MIXTAPE, particularly those who are 25 years old and younger?

Huggins: Well, I’ve assigned this film to the students I teach at Laney Community College and Berkeley City College.  I’ve assigned it as extra credit; some of them have gone online to watch the trailer before seeing the film.  What the students of color have said about it is, ‘Well, thank goodness I get to know about this and not in a forum where I’m told how to watch what I’m watching.’  That was the what I loved about the film I saw. Nobody instructed me about what I was seeing. I knew what I was seeing. There was nobody saying, ‘as you watch the black people being knocked down by water hoses, understand what is happening here…’ that clip just simply says-- black people are being knocked down by water hoses and harmed for no reason. There is nothing of good reason about it (being hosed).

I am touched by the scene where Stokely (Carmichael, BPP prime minister) is interviewing his mother. Why am I touched by that scene? Because in his own gentle way he helped her extricate a truth that she needed to express and what other forum in the early ‘60’s would give her that? The relief of that expression of how racism operates in our communities and in our homes is beautiful.  I think at this point in the film is also where Talib Kweli (well known rap artist), Eryka Badu (R&B recording artist) and others make their comments about what they see in the footage.  I know young people will see them and go, ‘that’s right.’  When I first saw Mixtape, I was in a community setting (with many young people) at  The House of Music Cultural Center in downtown Oakland.

Talk2SV: Given the larger than life challenges and issues that the Black Panther Party fought for during its inception and throughout the organization’s pivotal and defining years, what still rings true today about the movement? 

Huggins: All of it is still ringing true. For instance, the 10-point platform and program of the Black Panther Party in summary, said-- we want land, bread, housing, food, clothing, the end of police brutality, justice and peace. There are people living in conditions of poverty today who do not have food, clothing and housing.  They don’t live in the sub Sahara in Africa, they may live in West Oakland or Hunter’s Point or the Bronx, or North Philadelphia or southeast Washington, DC, where I grew up.  I mean, you can just list the cities, they’re all over our country where people live in abject poverty including poor white people in the Appalachians. So, these challenges still exist today and the only way that they will change is if we unify. 

Talk2SV: Ericka, who were you back then as an 18-year-old, wide-eyed idealist and what has remained constant about that idealistic and determined young woman?

Huggins:   What has remained constant is the vow I made when I was 15, to serve humanity for the rest of my life.  That commitment is still there and my idealism is still there. The realities are so harsh that perhaps we won’t see the realization --of our ideas, our dreams-- in this lifetime and that’s OK, that’s alright. I worked for the generations then, the ones that followed.  I still work for today’s generation and the generations to come. I still believe and I have faith in humanity.