Psychotherapist, Dr. Pam, shares provocative insights into today’s society from his new novel
Dr. Pam, a psychotherapist by trade, writes with a unique perspective on a subject matter that is both historical and ever so timely for today’s world. The book is informative, analytical, and enlightening – and sure to stir a debate both for its contents and its author
Several generations before the Black Lives Matter movement took hold, there was a bigger, more controversial group fighting for civil rights and equality in America. A new book, When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika, offers a unique look at the Black Panthers Party through the eyes of an author who marched in the south in the 1960s under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Though Dr.Pam’s book (that is how the author wants to be known) is historical fiction, it features mostly real figures from a tumultuous era, and meditates on race relations that offer insights into today’s society.
The book has stirred controversy because the author is not a young Black woman, but rather an older white guy. Dr. Pam is the last name of the author – not the first.
“Because of accusations of cultural misappropriation, I wasn’t able to get published under my real name,” says Pam. “We live in the time of a hyper-sensitive cancel culture that many people wonder if it is racist and sexist in itself.”
Dr. Pam is available to discuss in interviews the following:
• How history views the accomplishments of the Black Panther Party.
• What can be done to improve racial equality in the U.S.
• Why racial relations are still terse, half a century after the Black Panthers were dismantled.
• A new perspective on J. Edgar Hoover’s role in suppressing the Panthers.
• Why several publishers refused to publish Pam’s book.
• Who gets to tell the story of the Black Panthers.
Dr. Pam, a psychotherapist by trade, writes with a unique perspective on a subject matter that is both historical and ever so timely for today’s world. The book is informative, analytical, and enlightening – and sure to stir a debate both for its contents and its author
Dr. Pam, who has been a psychotherapist for over half a century, is the author of three books, including the historical novel, When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika.
In 1964, Dr. Pam joined a thousand college students to participate in the “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” under the aegis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Three civil-rights workers were lynched by the Klan right at the outset of the project. Following his life-changing experience down south, Dr.Pam returned north to lead a civil rights group in Buffalo.
Dr. Pam’s career as a clinical psychologist includes 34 years of service at Bronx Psychiatry Center, including a 10-year stint as the Director of Psychology Department. For the past 21 years, Pam has engaged in private practice.
As an adjunct assistant professor (psychology) at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Dr. Pam also taught at several colleges and graduate schools, including Fordham and Yeshiva Universities, the New School for social Research, and was an adjunct associate professor of psychology at Bronx Community College for 24 years.
A veteran of the United States Army, Pam has been an active member of the American Psychological Association, American Group Psychotherapy Association, and New York State Psychological Association.
Dr. Pam’s earlier two books addressed issues in therapy and science; in addition, he has published numerous articles in professional journals such as Psychiatric Quarterly, American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychological Reports, Archives of General Psychiatry, New Ideas in Psychology, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, American Journal of Psychotherapy, Journal of Mind and Behavior, and Professional Psychology, Research, and Practice.
Dr. Pam earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Pam’s M.A. in Psychology came from New School for Social Research. He also earned another M.A., in Modern European History, from New York University, and a B.A. in History from Brooklyn College.
Dr. Pam, raised in Brooklyn, New York, now resides in Westchester, New York.
Suggested Interview Questions For Dr. Pam
When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika
- What is your book about?
- What inspired you to write When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika?
- How hard was it, when penning your novel, to get back into the frame of mind of where our nation was 60 years ago, in terms of race relations and where we are today?
- You joined 1000 college students to participate in the Mississippi Freedom Summer protest back in 1964, under the spiritual guidance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in non-violent resistance. What did you learn from that?
- In looking back, 50 and 60 years after the Civil Rights Movement peaked, do you feel there is hope for our country to resolve its racial prejudices?
- Are things swinging too far the other way now, where we went from encouraging people to be color blind to only seeing color in everything?
- What does it mean to be an antiracist today?
- Did the Black Panthers serve an important purpose in the evolution of race relations at the time?
- Were the Black Panthers more like Malcolm X, who preached getting racial justice by any means necessary? How did that conflict with the peaceful teachings of Dr. King?
- Your book takes place in another era, a time when our nation was in turmoil. Vietnam was being waged. Women sought equal rights. Blacks fought against segregation, racism, and injustice. It was a tumultuous and violent moment in our country, wasn’t it?
- After MLK was assassinated in 1968, and violent riots and protests ensued, what did you think was going to happen to America?
- Have police relations with the Black community improved over time, especially since the death of George Floyd?
- What do you make of the Black Lives Matter movement?
- The United States may still have a color problem, but rather than it being black and white, it is blue and red. What can be done to bridge the polarizing gap in a nation that is terribly divided by politics, race, and identity?
- What challenges did you overcome in writing your book?
- You start each chapter with a quote from people in the 1960s that captures the anger, fear, suffering, and violence of those days. How did to come to select those quotes?
- Why does your book’s plot focus on Eldridge Cleaver and Huey P. Newton? Who were they in history? Is your portrait of them in the novel accurate?
- Did Black Panthers bring the races together – or deepen the separation?
- In your book, the main character, Nef, loves Newton and the Black Panther Party, but she also bears witness to how females, who were valiant activists and fighters for the cause, were often subjected to a demeaning male chauvinism. How does she reconcile the pursuit of justice while seeing the very movement to bring it about being compromised on other fronts?
- At the end of the book, in an author’s note, you issue a surprise. Can you now reveal what that secret is?
- Wait, so you are an older, white guy who tried passing himself off as a younger, Black woman to tell a story of racial injustice? Why?
