I noted the passing of Rosa Parks a few days back. Mrs. Parks was an unlikely heroine who became a focal point for a great movement in American history. I grew up in the era in which Rosa Parks gained her fame. I saw things as a Southern child that are totally alien and unfathomable today: segregated society down to even small things like water fountains and doctor’s waiting rooms.
The transition from that society to today was not without pain, anguish, anger and misunderstanding, and it’s a transition that is till not complete.
But I passed over to Curmudgeonly & Skeptical and saw this cartoon and it was so telling that I felt it worth stealing:
That’s the astounding thing to me: Black people came out of segregation at a great price, a price paid by Mizz Rosa and many others who defied authority at great risk of personal loss, and the generation today takes that gift and squanders it on the caricatures in that cartoon.
I work with many great people, some of whom are great and white, and some of whom are great and black. I have no doubt that if I were transported back in time fifty years, those great and capable black people would have been relegated to menial positions in almost every case. That was the way it was then. It’s not that way now. We as a country are richer for this, and I have to take time to reflect on Rosa Parks for the gift of her bravery. But one has to wonder what she thought of the way that her gift is dragged in the dirt by much of contemporary culture, promulgated by Blacks and fed upon by exploitive whites.
Yeah, I was reared in the south in the days of segregation-seperate ater fountains, bathrooms, whites only areas, and no dogs, negores, or military allowed. ( Sign in a bar just outside an airbase that I saw one time)
This will never be a truly free comutry until each of us rid ourselves of bias based on sex, color, religion, or race. Now can any of us be free until we are free of such prejudices.
Except for gay bikers-I guess it okay to not let them in the joint.
Yeah, I was reared in the south in the days of segregation-seperate ater fountains, bathrooms, whites only areas, and no dogs, negores, or military allowed. ( Sign in a bar just outside an airbase that I saw one time)
This will never be a truly free comutry until each of us rid ourselves of bias based on sex, color, religion, or race. Now can any of us be free until we are free of such prejudices.
Except for gay bikers-I guess its okay to not let them in the joint.
I’ve seen black folk get beat bloody red cause they didnt say”yessa” fast enuff, so dont expect me to celebrate too much over Rosa’s “accomplishments” .. I do send my regards to the family and thank Rosa for her efforts.. I do hope tho, that she gave credit to those that went before and after her..
Well said. I love C&S’s cartoon … sadly, it’s all too true. RIP, Miz Parks. You’ve earned it.
I guess my experience is a little different, especially coming from what could be called the heart of hard-nosed, racist hillbilly land. We never had separate anythings. The blacks had their own section of town, but it seemed to be by choice, certainly not forced. We played together as we grew up, everybody knew everybody. There just wasn’t any racial tension. Not to say there hadn’t been lynchings and things in earlier times, but when I grew up we just all formed a community. Maybe the Depression and WWII changed things…I really don’t know.
I was a freshman in high school when integration became law…outsiders were predicting riots, beatings and murder. Didn’t happen. We just welcomed old playmates to their new school. I think school officials and others were worried about how we younger folk would handle it, as there was a very discreet law-enforcement detail around the school. They should have known better.
Some of the more rural kids didn’t take to it too well, but they soon learned they weren’t in the main.
All in all, a very rewarding experience for all.
Rosa Parks was a very brave woman.
I noticed however, yesterday, that Ali was given some sort of a Medal of Honor by President Bush? How can that draft-dodger possibly be given anything other than a one-way ticket to Canada?
President Bush…..I’m so dissapointed!