Elaine Brown Character Analysis

Elaine Brown is the former head of the Black Panther Party and author of A Taste of Power. In her interview, Brown describes the senseless suicide of a young member of the party, Jonathan Jackson, to emphasize how important planning, organization, and foresight are to revolutions. She implicitly criticizes the riots, arguing that if their intent was to wage war against the U.S., they were a lost battle from the start—she insists that the U.S. has not only a surplus of weapons, but a decided eagerness to use force. She’s not critical of violence, arguing that it’s advisable for a person of color to have a gun in the U.S. But she sees Black America’s fight for justice as a long-term goal, and insists that it’s therefore more important that people who are committed to the cause make informed decisions that keep themselves alive, rather than rash actions that can get them killed.