Yesterday I told a friend that he could very easily turn social media posts into blog posts. This is something I’ve thought about doing for a long time and flirted with here and there. Looks like I’m flirting with it again! Let’s hope it lasts.

Ever since I bought this Black Panther Party medallion in Harlem 4 years ago I’ve thought about the Black Panther Party a lot. I, like many, dream about an organization like the BPP being alive today. An organization with the same impact and swag as the BPP.

At some point, while manic of course, I made a bunch of Facebook pages for the Black Panther Party like I’d magically will it back into existence. Right before this last manic episode… So maybe during it… 😝 I decided I was going to remix the Ten Point Program into something suitable for Taiwan.

A few weeks ago it dawned on me that trying to hold on to the Black Panther Party is EXTRA silly for me for two reasons. First, it’s from the past. It can’t, and shouldn’t, exist now the way it did then. Second, I’m in Taiwan! The problems the BPP were addressing don’t exist here (for me).

One magical thing that did happen in between getting that medallion and now was the creation of the Black Panther Bodhisattva. What people want when they reboot the party in their own way or spam a bunch of Facebook pages is the spirit of the Black Panther Party. They want the spirit of the Black Panther. The Black Panther Bodhisattva contains the spirit of the Black Panther Party for me. I’m going to retire my medallion to the temple. I’m going to put it around the Black Panther Bodhisattva, which is represented by Marvel’s Black Panther for now.

This image is a result of my first attempt to generate them (just realizing that people can choose the gender) using AI. I liked it enough that I never tried again. I did just make a hip-hop one, though, which looks pretty wild. 😁

Instagram didn’t get the Harlem photo and the hip hop version. 🙃 Bonus content!