Once your leaders get corrupted one way or another, it's hard to stop the organization from being corrupted.

As black people, we want our story to be this constant ascendance from slavery. But it's not like that. You push and it goes up. Then there's a backlash, and if folks stop pushing, it goes down. Let's face it, it's a lot more complicated.

You can't imagine hip-hop without the Black Panthers. Today, hopefully, the movement can be an inspiration to people. These were people who made mistakes but they were trying to change things.

Part of the problem with Occupy Wall Street was that folks were never really clear on what they were fighting for. If you don't know what you're fighting for, how do you know when you've got victory? In some ways, new media makes it easier for people to connect. It's hard, though, because we're much more seduced by the Internet, by big-screen TVs, by cell phones that can do everything.

People also don't understand how young the Panthers were - basically teenagers. And that they were over 50 percent women.

Cameras have really made people question the police. People, especially white people, are saying, 'Oh my God, we had no idea.'

There's a similarity in both being young people who are not about the politics of respectability.