Thread by @Media2070

#OTD Fred Hampton was murdered by the US government

Two weeks ahead, the @chicagotribune published "No Quarter for Wild Beasts." (This is a thread y'all.)

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The Tribune called the Panthers “murderous fanatics, who have been persuaded that they have a right to shoot and kill policemen” and said the Black Panthers “should be kept under constant surveillance.”

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“[The Black Panthers] have declared war on society. They therefore have forfeited the right to considerations ordinary violators of the law might claim.” -@chicagotribune

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We know that racism, anti-Blackness, and other forms of oppression are perpetuated by narrative and racial imagination. Journalism is one of the institutions that co-creates those narratives and fuels or dampens our public imagination.

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The @chicagotribune was a player in the narrative that killed Fred Hampton, a man who once said simply: “We have a right to live.”

How can news organizations instead become players in what it takes for Black people to live?

#media2070

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