The picture was taken in South Central L.A. in front of the International Panther Headquarters in South Central Los Angeles. The fist salute means ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE. It was used a lot in the late 60's by the Black Panther Party. Los Angeles had some racial prejudice problems in the working class poor community that surfaced in the Los Angeles Riot/Rebellion in 1992. We thought it was a good idea to put a Black Revolutionary and a Korean Punk Rocker together on the cover to break down the stereotypes that are going on between Koreans and African Americans here in Los Angeles. This photo was taken in solidarity. Both people on the cover are local activists and have done benefit shows together and built a friendship. From 1997-98 according to Shareef Abdulah, J.Lee was the first non-black to join the New Panther Vanguard Movement.
We broke history when we were the first to have Punk bands play inside the headquarters with other political rap bands. In addition J. Lee wrote a couple of reviews and short articles in the new Black Panther newspaper. We also held numerous meetings, rallies and group studies together with the New Panther Vanguard Movement. J.Lee stopped being active in the organization when his close friend Taco from the Black Riders Liberation Party left. However Kwaku Duren and Neelam from the NPVM let us continue to use the space for fundraising, and to hold the Solidarity Festivals, International Women's Day and other events. We greatly respect and thank the New Panther Vanguard Movement.
About the insert on our 2nd EP cover:
Many people were shocked and disagreed with the insert article that was written by Joel (ex- Profane Existence writer). The title of his article "Abolish the White Punks" shocked a lot of people. Many people took that statement and article to be racist. We choose that article because it challenges the white anti-racist activist. The article talks about white skin privilege and giving self-criticism within the punk movement. This article is not anti-white people (Joel himself is white), it is about tearing down the system of white supremacy and the privilege that goes along with that.
How does Resist and Exist fight racism? To me fighting racism is not about going out and starting fights with people who are prejudice or who hate other races. It's not about just saying I'm against racism and wearing t-shirts, patches with slogans and protest buttons. Fighting racism goes much deeper than that. It's about studying and learning about different cultures and going into other communities and learning, questioning, exchanging ideas etc. If you don't study other cultures how can you plan to go into other communities to work together and learn? One thing I didn't like about a lot of peoples attitude was; yeah end racism but I won't go into the community where people of color are. Sometimes also it's a good idea to find out why people become racist, many people have different reasons. There have been times when I have talked with a racist in a one on one conversation to find out what their reason was. Some people have so much hatred and seem beyond help, but I believe some people can still change. We do not fight racism with racism. We fight racism through solidarity, education, unity, and peace.
SOLIDARITY