Knowledge Point #8

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

RICHARD AOKI Richard Aoki (1938-2009) Richard Aoki was a “sansei”, third-generation Japanese-American, who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Richard spent years as a child in a WWII Japanese American concentration camp. This experience led to much resentment with how people of color are treated in the United States. He grew up in West Oakland and served eight years in the U.S. military. The U.S. military attempted to enlist him for another eight years but he saw it as a trap. He came back to Oakland, attended Merritt College, and reconnected with old friends from his neighborhood. One of his friends was a BPP founding member, Bobby Seale. Richard became intimately involved in the founding of the Party and contributed the first two firearms. He was Minister of Field Operations and trained Black Panthers in tactics dealing with the police. His leadership made a significant impact on individuals and groups in the contemporary Asian American Movement. Richard's contributions to the groundbreaking organization Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) and its involvement in the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) student strike led to the formation of ethnic studies at U.C. Berkeley. Above all else, Richard Aoki's life demonstrates the incredible dedication to justice one man has had and how the lessons of solidarity, commitment, and discipline can carry on from one generation to the next. Click the play button to listen to a custom playlist for Knowledge Point 8! RELATED VIDEOS & READING DOCUMENTARY Richard Aoki speaks at Third World Liberation Aoki (95 min) Front conference in 1969 (90 secs) RADIO READING Don’t Believe the Hype | Hard Knock Radio Interview Aoki Supporters, Including Kathleen Cleaver, Call with Bobby Seale, by Davey D and Anita Johnson FBI Claims 'a Distortion' | Colorlines RELATED ACCOUNTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA Below are links to programs that serve the Black community here in the bay! Check them out! FOLLOW OR EMAIL US! GIVE US FEEDBACK ENTER TO WIN A RAFFLE SSOOUURRCCEESS Mary. “My Comrade, RICHARD AOKI.” San Francisco Bay View, 23 May 2019, sfbayview.com/2012/08/my-comrade-richard-aoki/. “Richard Aoki.” Asians Art Museum's Samurai Blog, asiansart.wordpress.com/tag/richard-aoki/. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Richard Aoki Memorial Committee the Life and Times of Richard Aoki
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RICHARD ords Richard Aoki Memorial Committee The Life and Times of Richard Aoki in his own words From Richard Aoki's interview with KPFA Apex Reporter, Wayie Ly Taped July 2006 Published by the Richard Aoki Memorial Committee © May 2009 2066 University Avenue Berkeley California 94704 [email protected] www.ramemorial.blogspot.com 1 their empire in the Far East. If one steps back and looks at a map of the Pacific, one can see that those two countries were on a collision course for When Elephants Fight, the Grass Suffers conflict. I'm Japanese American. I'm a third generation born citizen of this country. Now in 1941 when the war occurred, it became bad news for people of My grandparents, both maternal and paternal, were immigrants from Japan Japanese and Japanese American ancestry here in the US. There's an to the United States at the turn of the century. African proverb that goes like this, "when the elephants fight, the grass Both my parents were born here in this country and were American citizens suffers." The Japanese here were the grass in that case. A hundred and by birth. This may not seem like a big deal at this moment, but it becomes an twenty thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans were interned in ten interesting fact as we go further into the history of the Japanese in the concentration camps, euphemized as "relocation centers," during the period United States. of the war. My family was not an exception. My parents, grandparents and myself ended up in a concentration camp.
[Show full text]
The Richard Aoki Case: Was the Man Who Armed the Black Panther Party an FBI Informant?
THE RICHARD AOKI CASE: WAS THE MAN WHO ARMED THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY AN FBI INFORMANT? by Natalie Harrison A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Wilkes Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a Concentration in History Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Jupiter, Florida April 2013 THE RICHARD AOKI CASE: WAS THE MAN WHO ARMED THE BLACK PANTHERS AN FBI INFORMANT? by Natalie Harrison This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Christopher Strain, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ____________________________ Dr. Christopher Strain ___________________________ Dr. Mark Tunick ____________________________ Dr. Daniel White ____________________________ Dean Jeffrey Buller, Wilkes Honors College ____________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, Dr. Strain for being such a supportive, encouraging and enthusiastic thesis advisor – I could not have done any of this had he not introduced me to Richard Aoki. I would also like to thank Dr. Tunick and Dr. White for agreeing to be my second readers and for believing in me and this project, as well as Dr. Hess for being my temporary advisor when I needed it. And finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for all their support and for never stopping me as I rattled on and on about Richard Aoki and how much my thesis felt like a spy movie.
[Show full text]
R Chou Dissertation
ASIAN AMERICAN SEXUAL POLITICS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY A Dissertation by ROSALIND SUE CHOU Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2010 Major Subject: Sociology ASIAN AMERICAN SEXUAL POLITICS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY A Dissertation by ROSALIND SUE CHOU Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Joe R. Feagin Committee Members, Wendy Leo Moore William A. McIntosh Marian Eide Head of Department, Mark Fossett May 2010 Major Subject: Sociology iii ABSTRACT Asian American Sexual Politics: The Construction of Race, Gender, and Sexuality. (May 2010) Rosalind Sue Chou, B.S., Florida State University; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Joe R. Feagin Why study Asian American sexual politics? There is a major lack of critical analysis of Asian Americans and their issues surrounding their place in the United States as racialized, gendered, and sexualized bodies. There are three key elements to my methodological approach for this project: standpoint epistemology, extended case method, and narrative analysis. In my research, fifty-five Asian American respondents detail how Asian American masculinity and femininity are constructed and how they operate in a racial hierarchy. These accounts will explicitly illuminate the gendered and sexualized racism faced by Asian Americans. The male respondents share experiences that highlight how “racial castration” occurs in the socialization of Asian American men.
[Show full text]
Faces of the Asian American Civil Rights Movement
Faces of the Asian American Civil Rights Movement Teacher Note It is important to note that social movements are about unifying groups of people to create change and progress for all. Frequently we isolate particular individuals to spotlight within movements, turning them into heroes and role models for children to emulate. With increasing emphasis on citizenship education, it is sometimes easier to give students specific examples of people who have overcome adversity and achieved greatness rather than talk in general terms about large groups of individuals fighting for a common cause; students can relate more directly to individuals and identify character traits, a common learning standard. This document provides some biographical information about some of the most prominent people within the Asian American Movement while acknowledging the roles of countless others who worked in the past and continue to fight in the present. What is particularly significant about the following historical figures is their fierce determination to fight for justice across racial lines. Each figure was tutored in resistance by other activists involved in the Black Power movement, the Socialist Workers Party, and other groups. Their stories offer a glimpse of the interracial alliances that existed during the height of the civil rights movement but are rarely discussed. Such alliances are vital in today’s environment where people of color continue to face racial profiling, discrimination, and violence, among other injustices. These interracial alliances have existed for a long time in American history. In 1903, Japanese and Mexican agricultural workers joined together to strike against local landowners. In the early 1900s, many men from the Punjab region of Pakistan/India married Mexican women in California.
[Show full text]
Grassroots Leadership and Afro-Asian Solidarities: Yuri Kochiyama’S Humanizing Radicalism Chapter Author(S): Diane C
NYU Press Chapter Title: Grassroots Leadership and Afro-Asian Solidarities: Yuri Kochiyama’s Humanizing Radicalism Chapter Author(s): Diane C. Fujino Book Title: Want to Start a Revolution? Book Subtitle: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle Book Editor(s): Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard Published by: NYU Press. (2009) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgjjp.17 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms NYU Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Want to Start a Revolution? This content downloaded from 140.103.49.228 on Mon, 14 Jan 2019 21:22:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 13 Grassroots Leadership and Afro-Asian Solidarities Yuri Kochiyama’s Humanizing Radicalism Diane C. Fujino Life magazine’s coverage of the assassination of Malcolm X bore a striking photograph of the slain Black leader lying prone, his head resting gently on the lap of a middle-aged Asian woman.1 The visibility of Malcolm’s gigantic impact juxtaposed with the invisibility of this woman is symbolic of the erasure of Asian American activism. That the woman in the photo is Yuri Kochiyama, one of the most prominent Asian American activists, though obscure to all but certain activist and Asian American circles, speaks to the continuing invisibility of Asian American struggles.
[Show full text]
It's About Time…
It’s About Time… Volume 5 Number 3 Summer 2001 OUR SAN FRANCISCO KID News Briefs PASSES ON Houston - Shaka Sankofa’s son, Gary Lee Hawkins, convicted of Black Panther Captain Warren Wells murder - gets life. He was accused of robbing and killing a friend, but Remembered as the People’s Defender maintains his innocence. York, PA - A new autopsy has been performed on the exhumed body By Ida McCray and Kiilu Nyasha of a white police officer shot to death during the city’s 1969 riots. The Warren William Wells was born in San Francisco’s Alice Griffith body of Henry C. Schaad was exhumed Tuesday morning, looking for projects (Double Rock) on Nov. 13, 1947. His first struggle in a predomi- metallic remnants and a few were found. Prosecutors are reinvestigating nately Black community was to over- the killings of Schaad and Lillie Belle Allen, an African American woman, come the stigma attached to his green both shot during 10 days of riots in July 1969. Nine white men, including eyes and light skin. Nicknamed York Mayor Charlie Robertson, were recently charged with homicide in “Dub”, Warren got his first taste of the Allen shooting. prison in 1963, when at the tender age Oklahoma City - Police took blood from 200 men and compared of 16, he was sentenced as an adult to their DNA to the semen left behind in a murdered woman’s car in a “sweep” Soledad State Prison. It was there that for DNA. There were no matches. Police plan to test 200 more men who he met brothers like George Jackson, either lived near the victim and have a criminal record or resemble the Eldridge Cleaver, Alprentice Bunchy police sketch.
[Show full text]
Qt03d7j97v Nosplash 30A7dd2
Acoustic Properties The FlashPoints series is devoted to books that consider literature beyond strictly national and disciplinary frameworks, and that are distinguished both by their historical grounding and by their theoretical and conceptual strength. Our books engage theory without losing touch with history and work historically without falling into uncritical positivism. FlashPoints aims for a broad audience within the humanities and the social sciences concerned with moments of cultural emergence and transformation. In a Benjaminian mode, FlashPoints is interested in how literature contributes to forming new constellations of culture and history and in how such formations function critically and politically in the present. Series titles are available online at http://escholarship.org/uc/flashpoints. series editors: Ali Behdad (Comparative Literature and English, UCLA), Founding Editor; Judith Butler (Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Michelle Clayton (Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown University); Edward Dimendberg (Film and Media Studies, Visual Studies, and European Languages and Studies, UC Irvine), Coordinator; Catherine Gallagher (English, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Nouri Gana (Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA); Susan Gillman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Jody Greene (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Richard Terdiman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz) A complete list of titles begins on page 314. Acoustic Properties Radio, Narrative, and the New Neighborhood of the Americas Tom McEnaney ❘ , this book is made possible by a collaborative grant from the andrew w. mellon foundation. Northwestern University Press www.nupress.northwestern.edu Copyright © 2017 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2017. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Support for the publication of this book was provided by the Hull Memorial Publication Fund of Cornell University.
[Show full text]
Robert F. Williams, Detroit, and the Bandung Era
Transnational Correspondence: Robert F. Williams, Detroit, and the Bandung Era Bill V. Mullen Can you imagine New York without police brutal- ity? Can you imagine Chicago without gangsters and Los Angeles without dirilects [sic] and winos? Can you imagine Birmingham without racial dis- crimination and Jackson, Mississippi without ter- ror? . Can you imagine cops and soldiers without firearms in conspicuous evidence of intimidation? Do you think this is a utopian dream? I can understand your disbelief. I believe that such a place exists on this wicked and cruel earth. —Robert F. Williams, “China: The Good of the Earth,” 19631 [A]ll genuine Bandung revolutionaries must unequivocally support the Revolutionary Afro- American Movement. The Black American radical is a redeemer who must resurrect a colonial peo- ple who suffered centuries of spiritual and psy- chological genocide, and who acknowledges but one history——-. slavery…. The Afro-American revolutionary is the humanistic antithesis of the inhuman West. —Revolutionary Action Movement, Black America, 19652 We learned from Detroit to go to the cities. —General Vo Nguyen Giap to Robert Williams, 19683 The September, 1963, special issue of Shijie Wenxue (World WORKS•AND•DAYS•39/40, Vol. 20, Nos. 1&2, 2002 190 WORKS•AND•DAYS Literature) published in Beijing was dedicated to W. E .B. Du Bois. The lyric poet to China, twice a visitor there, had died in August on the eve of the March on Washington. Working quickly, the editors had compiled an extraordinary gathering of writers and writings in his name. They included Du Bois’s own poem “Ghana Calls,” writ- ten to commemorate his final exile; Sie Ping-hsin’s “To Mourn for the Death of Dr.
[Show full text]
Black Against Empire: the History and Politics of The
Praise for Black against Empire “This is the book we’ve all been waiting for: the first complete history of the Black Panther Party, devoid of the hype, the nonsense, the one-dimensional heroes and villains, the myths, or the tunnel vision that has limited scholarly and popular treatments across the ideological spectrum. Bloom and Martin’s riveting, nuanced, and highly original account revises our understanding of the Party’s size, scope, ideology, and political complexity and offers the most compelling explanations for its ebbs and flows and ultimate demise. Moreover, they reveal with spectacular clarity that the Party’s primary target was not just police brutality or urban poverty or white supremacy but U.S. empire in all of its manifestations.” — Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination “As important as the Black Panthers were to the evolution of black power, the African American freedom struggle, and, indeed, the sixties as a whole, scholarship on the group has been surprisingly thin and all too often polemical. Certainly no definitive scholarly account of the Panthers has been produced to date or rather had been produced to date. Bloom and Martin can now lay claim to that honor. This is, by a wide margin, the most detailed, analytically sophisticated, and balanced account of the organiza- tion yet written. Anyone who hopes to understand the group and its impact on American culture and politics will need to read this book.” — Doug McAdam, author of Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970 “Bloom and Martin bring to light an important chapter in American history.
[Show full text]
Download Download
IN MEMORIAM Afro-Asian People’s Warrior Richard Aoki, 1938–2009 Diane C. Fujino Based on my experience, I’ve seen where unity amongst the races has yielded positive results. I don’t see any other way for people to gain freedom, justice, and equality here except by being internationalist. —RICHARD AOKI1 ichard Masato Aoki’s memorial at the University of California, Berkeley, on May 3, 2009, began with a processional of former Black Panther Party R(BPP) members carrying a large painted banner proclaiming Richard Aoki a “People’s Warrior.”2 A large black panther leaped out from the center of the banner across a red star symbolizing revolution, with black lettering against a light blue background, the colors of the Black Panther uniform. The banner identified Aoki as a “Black Panther and TWLF member,” signaling his two most recognized affiliations. Though Aoki’s membership in the BPP is unknown to the public, in activist circles, Aoki is revered as the leading non-Black member of the BPP. He was also a visible leader and dynamic spokesperson for UC Berkeley’s Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) strike. The banner offered only one sign of Aoki’s involvement with the Asian American movement—a small button on his black beret with the Chinese character, or kanji in Japanese, for “East,” adopted by the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). As on the banner, Black militancy looms large in Aoki’s public image, but his own practice also demonstrated strong commitments to Asian American and Third World Diane C. Fujino is a professor of Asian American studies and the chair of the Center for Black Studies Research (CBSR) at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
[Show full text]
Richard Aoki (1938-2008): Toughest Oriental to Come out of West Oakland
Amerasia Journal 35:2 (2009): 223-232 Richard Aoki (1938-2008): Toughest Oriental to Come Out of West Oakland Harvey Dong Longtime Asian American movement activist and Black Panther Party (BPP) founder, Richard Aoki passed away Sunday morning on March 15, 2009. The day before his passing, Third World Lib- eration Front (TWLF) strike veterans and students were celebrat- ing the fortieth anniversary of the strike for Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Activities included an Asian American Pacific Islander student conference and an Asian American alumni dinner—fo- cused on the legacy of the Third World Strike of 1969. Although Richard was too ill to attend the dinner and other TWLF fortieth anniversary commemorative events, different speakers credited him for his past leadership contributions. Attendees at the Sat- urday dinner signed “get well” messages on an event poster that was brought over to Richard’s home. His body did not respond well to the previous week’s dialysis treatment. His heart had stopped and had to be revived by doctors. Exhausted from his stay in the hospital and not feeling improvement, he opted to return home to recover. Over the years, he had taken the route of going home for recovery from at least two strokes, except this time was different. The next morning, Richard was brought by ambulance to the hospital where he passed away. A number of Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) friends had scheduled to have coffee on that same Sunday morn- ing before leaving town in the afternoon. AAPA was the Asian American organization that worked with other student groups to form the TWLF in 1969.
[Show full text]
DOC513 Black Liberation the Freedom Archives Info
DOC513 Black Liberation Folder Title Author Organization or Issue Date/No Year No. Format Description Publisher Anarchist Panther Anarchist Panther October 1999 1 Periodical Anarchist Panther Anarchist Panther Spring 2004 1 Periodical Richard Aoki The Life and Times of Richard Aoki 2009 1 Ephemera Richard Aoki: in his own Memorial words Committee A Celebration of the Life Richard Aoki 2009 1 Transcript and Times of Richard Memorial Masato Aoki Committee Richard Aoki Day Oakland Public April 2 2011 2 Monograph Library African People's Party Black Star Afrikan People's 1978 1 Periodical Special Edition: APP Reports from Third Party Congress: Party Secretary General's Report to the Party Congress; Mass demonstration: March for Human Rights from US to South Africa!; Black Workers Fight Bureaucrats; APP Political Perspective; Malcolm X Program at Audobon!; Editorial; Afrikan People's Party Third National Congress Adopted Resolutions; The Freedom Archives [email protected] 1 DOC513 Black Liberation Folder Title Author Organization or Issue Date/No Year No. Format Description Publisher Black Star Afrikan People's Vol. 2‐2 March 1980 2 Periodical Hell No, We Won't Go!; Boston Sops Attack Black Women; Party ZANU ‐ PF Wins in Zimbabwe; Call for Black Human Rights Manifesto; Black People Protest Olympic Prison Site; African People's On Contradictions African People's February 1977 1 Monograph Socialist Party (ASPS) Between the People: Socialist Party Criticisms of the August 21st Coalition by the African People's Socialist Party and Burning Spear Committee The Burning Spear African People's February 1978 1 Periodical Socialist Party The Burning Spear African People's December 1978 1 Periodical Socialist Party The Burning Spear July/August 1985 1 Periodical Black August History is a Weapon! 1994 1 Monograph Resistance Black August Resistance The Freedom Archives [email protected] 2 DOC513 Black Liberation Folder Title Author Organization or Issue Date/No Year No.
[Show full text]