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Rosa Parks
Oct. 28th, 2005 08:39 pmEveryone is weighing in with thoughts on this Great American Citizen so I might as well throw my two cents in as well.
I think Rosa Parks was ripped off. I think the conventional portrait of her as "that black lady on the bus who, fatigued, said 'No More' and began a New American Revolution’” reduces her to someone who unwittingly stumbled upon her moment and this does her a great disservice.
Growing up in the late 60s and 70s, the concept of killing a person strictly because of race was as distant to me as 45s are to kids today. It was some horrific, evil chapter in American history. I say this because a woman, doing what Rosa Parks did would have marked herself as a KKK target. What commands even more of my respect is that this was no impulsive decision on her part. No, Ms Parks arrest was a planned and executed military action. It is true that she was a peaceful warrior, but warrior she was nonetheless.
So why do I feel she was ripped off? By portraying her as tired black women who refused to relinquish her seat on the bus in the heat of a moment; reduces Ms Parks, and others involved with this incident, to passive reactors. This is in direct opposition to their real roles as urban guerrillas who planned and executed a peaceful attack on a vile way of life. This incident was planned by people who were smart, organized and deeply committed to their cause, even if it meant their injury or death.
These people were not tired angry sheep; they were cunning foxes setting a trap for the racist white capos of the South. The pigs ate the bait and a bright light was shone into the darkest crevices of our national shame.
Rosa Parks was actively involved in the civil rights struggle long before the incident on the bus. She was, in fact, the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. When she agreed or volunteered, (I apologize for not knowing which) to commit this act of defiance against an immoral law, she knowingly agreed to have the entire weight of an oppressive, coercive, violent regime breathing inches away from her face.
This is no literary exaggeration. This was a time when lynching and murder was not uncommon and black women were not exempt from harsh treatment. For all Rosa Parks knew, an angry mob could have decided to break into the jail and carry her off to murder her.
But, she did it anyway. Damn.
Would you be willing to take that kind of chance with your life to challenge an immoral law? I’m not talking about just going to jail, I mean facing the very real prospect of someone trying to kill you because of what you believe to be right. Wait. Don’t answer so quickly, really think about it for a minute or two.
Would you?
While Rosa Parks lies in state, I will take a personal moment of silence, bow my head and raise my fist in tribute to her courageous act of defiance.
Some day I will open a book and point to a picture of Rosa Parks and I will tell my niece that women warriors still walk this earth. Fierce Amazons thirsty for social justice, not blood. And I will encourage her to join them.
I think Rosa Parks was ripped off. I think the conventional portrait of her as "that black lady on the bus who, fatigued, said 'No More' and began a New American Revolution’” reduces her to someone who unwittingly stumbled upon her moment and this does her a great disservice.
Growing up in the late 60s and 70s, the concept of killing a person strictly because of race was as distant to me as 45s are to kids today. It was some horrific, evil chapter in American history. I say this because a woman, doing what Rosa Parks did would have marked herself as a KKK target. What commands even more of my respect is that this was no impulsive decision on her part. No, Ms Parks arrest was a planned and executed military action. It is true that she was a peaceful warrior, but warrior she was nonetheless.
So why do I feel she was ripped off? By portraying her as tired black women who refused to relinquish her seat on the bus in the heat of a moment; reduces Ms Parks, and others involved with this incident, to passive reactors. This is in direct opposition to their real roles as urban guerrillas who planned and executed a peaceful attack on a vile way of life. This incident was planned by people who were smart, organized and deeply committed to their cause, even if it meant their injury or death.
These people were not tired angry sheep; they were cunning foxes setting a trap for the racist white capos of the South. The pigs ate the bait and a bright light was shone into the darkest crevices of our national shame.
Rosa Parks was actively involved in the civil rights struggle long before the incident on the bus. She was, in fact, the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. When she agreed or volunteered, (I apologize for not knowing which) to commit this act of defiance against an immoral law, she knowingly agreed to have the entire weight of an oppressive, coercive, violent regime breathing inches away from her face.
This is no literary exaggeration. This was a time when lynching and murder was not uncommon and black women were not exempt from harsh treatment. For all Rosa Parks knew, an angry mob could have decided to break into the jail and carry her off to murder her.
But, she did it anyway. Damn.
Would you be willing to take that kind of chance with your life to challenge an immoral law? I’m not talking about just going to jail, I mean facing the very real prospect of someone trying to kill you because of what you believe to be right. Wait. Don’t answer so quickly, really think about it for a minute or two.
Would you?
While Rosa Parks lies in state, I will take a personal moment of silence, bow my head and raise my fist in tribute to her courageous act of defiance.
Some day I will open a book and point to a picture of Rosa Parks and I will tell my niece that women warriors still walk this earth. Fierce Amazons thirsty for social justice, not blood. And I will encourage her to join them.
