CHARLESTON, SC — A radical leader of an anti-American, racist, paramilitary organization told an enthusiastic crowd that they can “strap up” with weapons “for only a couple of hundred dollars” and received applause when she said she planned to establish a Charleston chapter of the group.
The remarks—delivered about a block from the church where white racist Dylann Roof allegedly murdered nine black churchgoers—came at the same Tuesday night New Black Panther Party (NBPP) rally where one speaker declared “this is war” and where NBPP leader Malik Zulu Shabazz told the all-black audience of about 250 that “we need to complete” the work of a former slave who wanted to kill as many white people as possible in a revolt.
The speaker was Nicey X, from a community organization called the Huey P. Newton Gun Club. The group describes itself on its Facebook Page (which has nearly 5,000 Likes) :
We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of the Black community by the police state. Our position dictates that by organizing Black Self-Defense groups dedicated to defending our Black Community from police repression and brutality we can find some semblance of peace; the 2nd amendment to the U.S . Constitution gives us a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black People should arm themselves for Self-Defense.
The irony of a leftist black Second Amendment group is obvious. The political faction in the United States that tries to scale back or nullify the Second Amendment are progressive Democrats, the same political group that black Americans vote for in overwhelming numbers.
But the Huey P. Newton Gun Club doesn’t mind irony, since they simultaneously support the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protections while despising the United States of America.
The group claims its only goal is self defense. “We need to arm ourselves, not to attack anybody, but in self-defense,” New Black Panther Party leader Darrin X told the Dallas Morning News after an open carry event. “We can’t let people just come into our community, whether they are law enforcement or not, and just gun our people down and there is no accountability.”
Despite the self-defense rhetoric, the political endgame of the group is explicit: leftist revolution. Vice described the group’s anti-American training sessions in Dallas:
On a warm fall day in South Dallas, ten revolutionaries dressed in kaffiyehs and ski masks jog the perimeter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park bellowing “No more pigs in our community!” Military discipline is in full effect as the joggers respond to two former Army Rangers in desert-camo brimmed hats with cries of “Sir, yes, sir!” The Huey P. Newton Gun Club is holding its regular Saturday fitness-training and self-defense class. Men in Che fatigues run with weight bags and roll around on the grass, knife-fighting one another with dull machetes. “I used to salute the fucking flag!” the cadets chant. “Now I use it for a rag!”
The speech given in Charleston held true to these same principles, combining stalwart pro-gun advocacy with anti-white racism and anti-Americanism.
Nicey X continued the rally’s theme of attacking the Christian forgiveness and racial unity that’s been evident in Charleston since the shooting, telling the crowd that “every single time we decide to forgive but not give retribution, we are stepping on our brothers and sisters.”
Ms. X claimed any criticism of the group is based on racism. “When you tell black people to arm themselves,” she said, “everybody gets scared. Everybody gets a little fearful because black people with guns is a problem.”
However, the danger of the group isn’t its pro-gun stance but in its distorted hatred of America, which it sees as racist to its core. Ms. X sees no distinction between an alleged killer like Dylann Roof and the United States. She told the approving crowd, “This is the very same country that gave birth to the ideals that allowed him to go into that church and kill those people.”
At one point—with toddlers playing only a few yards away in plain sight—Ms. X expressed her feeling bluntly: “I say fuck this system. Fuck the police that allowed this system to continue. I say fuck racism. I say fuck classism.”
Nicey X’s message to the audience: arm yourself.
So I say to you brothers and sisters: if you have not armed yourselves, you need to do so. Arms are very very cheap, actually, a lot of places and people think of it as…you know, it’s going to be a major investment. You can strap up for a couple of hundred dollars… the same couple of hundred dollars you used to put some Jordans on your feet.
She ended her talk by the telling the audience she planned to establish a Huey P. Newton Gun Club in Charleston. The crowd responded with sustained applause.