All Americans (of all so-called races) today owe their freedoms, prosperity, and opportunities to the efforts of Parks and her comrads. Racism, like all acts of evil, adversely affect everyone in society. White-on-black racism prevented white folks from fully realizing the benefits of civilization, as measured by various economic factors. Notice that whites in the South had a stagnated economy prior to the Civil War, then experianced a burst of growth during Reconstruction, when the rights of blacks expanded amazingl). When Reconstruction ended with the re-imposition of white racism, the economic prospects of whites in the South again collapsed and stagnated, reviving only with the success of the 1960s Civil Rights revolution.
I wish that history like this was not racially segregated. But all of history has now been racially segregated. Blacks seem to care only about "black" history, and whites seem to care only about "black" history as a means of "diversifying" themselves. I veiw these events as belonging to all of us, and as benefitting all of us. How sad that the national discussion seems to suggest that only blacks should identify with Parks, and only whites should identify with, say, James Madison.
I am sad that so many people today -- a big majority of blacks, the roughly half of whites who are liberals/leftists -- believe that the heroic efforts of Parks and her comrads did not result in a won war. Even the warriors themselves, like Parks, tend to have this view. What a shame for a victorious army to deny themselves a feeling of victory.
Six: You might find it interested to learn that Rosa didn't invent the sitin... she didn't even invent refusing to give up your seat to honkies on the Mongemery buses. The first sit-ins occurred in the '50s, some in Greensboro, SC, and I think maybe some in the Chicago area (yes, there were Jim Crow rules in "the north", though not nearly as often codified by law, though some certainly were). Prior to Rosa defying the Jim Crow bus rules in Mongomery, several other had, including MLK's predessessor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the unherolded hero, Vernon Johns.
You will really love how Dexter's board members responded to their PhD pastor getting arrested for upsetting the crackers: they got very mad at him. In deference to their anger, he did stop defying the bus rule, but only with a new action that upset them even more: he started walking, rather than riding the bus (either refusing to buy a car, or to drive his), and preaching that everybody else should follow him, with this truly scandelous proposal: if all blacks saved and pooled their bus money, the cracker-owned private bus line would belly-up, and have to sell their fleet... to, guess who? This idea was much more revolutionary than MLK's tamer proposal: boycott until the cracker bus company faces bankrupcy, then end the boycott (and save the cracker-owned line) if the crackers agree to end the Jim Crow seating rule. Imagine if the black folks instead of winning the right to sit where they pleased on a honkey-owned bus, they instead started owning the buses, which honkies had to ride!
A similar problem attended the Jackie Robinson "integration" of MLB. What the black folks really wanted was to have their black-owned and -managed teams absored into MBL as expansion teams, with black and white owners buying and selling each others' players. Instead, people like Jackie sold-out that plan, got themselves individually richer, at the expense the many more black players, managers, coaches, consessioneers, accountants, etc., who lost jobs when the Negro League collapse due to star players getting plucked into MLB.
I don't view the Mongomery Bus Boycott, or the Jackie Robinson story, as quite the victories that they should have been.
She's definately a deserved hero and icon. When she took her step, she had no assurance that she wouldn't be imprisoned, beaten, or lynched. She has even been quoted as saying something like, "Despite its problems, America is the best country on earth."
4 comments:
All Americans (of all so-called races) today owe their freedoms, prosperity, and opportunities to the efforts of Parks and her comrads. Racism, like all acts of evil, adversely affect everyone in society. White-on-black racism prevented white folks from fully realizing the benefits of civilization, as measured by various economic factors. Notice that whites in the South had a stagnated economy prior to the Civil War, then experianced a burst of growth during Reconstruction, when the rights of blacks expanded amazingl). When Reconstruction ended with the re-imposition of white racism, the economic prospects of whites in the South again collapsed and stagnated, reviving only with the success of the 1960s Civil Rights revolution.
I wish that history like this was not racially segregated. But all of history has now been racially segregated. Blacks seem to care only about "black" history, and whites seem to care only about "black" history as a means of "diversifying" themselves. I veiw these events as belonging to all of us, and as benefitting all of us. How sad that the national discussion seems to suggest that only blacks should identify with Parks, and only whites should identify with, say, James Madison.
I am sad that so many people today -- a big majority of blacks, the roughly half of whites who are liberals/leftists -- believe that the heroic efforts of Parks and her comrads did not result in a won war. Even the warriors themselves, like Parks, tend to have this view. What a shame for a victorious army to deny themselves a feeling of victory.
Six: You might find it interested to learn that Rosa didn't invent the sitin... she didn't even invent refusing to give up your seat to honkies on the Mongemery buses. The first sit-ins occurred in the '50s, some in Greensboro, SC, and I think maybe some in the Chicago area (yes, there were Jim Crow rules in "the north", though not nearly as often codified by law, though some certainly were). Prior to Rosa defying the Jim Crow bus rules in Mongomery, several other had, including MLK's predessessor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the unherolded hero, Vernon Johns.
You will really love how Dexter's board members responded to their PhD pastor getting arrested for upsetting the crackers: they got very mad at him. In deference to their anger, he did stop defying the bus rule, but only with a new action that upset them even more: he started walking, rather than riding the bus (either refusing to buy a car, or to drive his), and preaching that everybody else should follow him, with this truly scandelous proposal: if all blacks saved and pooled their bus money, the cracker-owned private bus line would belly-up, and have to sell their fleet... to, guess who? This idea was much more revolutionary than MLK's tamer proposal: boycott until the cracker bus company faces bankrupcy, then end the boycott (and save the cracker-owned line) if the crackers agree to end the Jim Crow seating rule. Imagine if the black folks instead of winning the right to sit where they pleased on a honkey-owned bus, they instead started owning the buses, which honkies had to ride!
A similar problem attended the Jackie Robinson "integration" of MLB. What the black folks really wanted was to have their black-owned and -managed teams absored into MBL as expansion teams, with black and white owners buying and selling each others' players. Instead, people like Jackie sold-out that plan, got themselves individually richer, at the expense the many more black players, managers, coaches, consessioneers, accountants, etc., who lost jobs when the Negro League collapse due to star players getting plucked into MLB.
I don't view the Mongomery Bus Boycott, or the Jackie Robinson story, as quite the victories that they should have been.
Okay, she made it famous then.
She's definately a deserved hero and icon. When she took her step, she had no assurance that she wouldn't be imprisoned, beaten, or lynched. She has even been quoted as saying something like, "Despite its problems, America is the best country on earth."
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