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.

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

Race is always tossed into the mix. The unspoken idea is always that white people have a right to carry guns and bear arms.

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

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

Instead of feeling like there's two or three of us in this town of hostile crackers, I'm in a big church filled with people who believe the same thing I believe and the power of song is raising what we're trying to do, raising it up to the rafters.

I want to be able to tell black people something they don't know, something about our own lives.