The Human Race Learns Fuck-All From History, Part 2249: Rosa Parks
We’re a month and a handful of days away from the day that a middle-aged black woman refused to give up her seat to a white guy who demanded it. This happened in a society that was so unbelievably oppressive that she risked physical harm by doing this. Over the years, many people had a chance to ask her why she did that and, basically, the answer was that she did it because she was so unbelievably tired of being under someone else’s boot that her need for that shit to stop overrode everything else. She wasn’t trying to be a hero, she was just totally fucking fed up.
She died yesterday. link one link two wikipedia She lived an understated life, largely outside of public view, but her name will forever be synonymous with the drive for equal rights (and to a lesser extent, rebellion in general.)
I’m still not sure what to think of this. I probably can’t understand the real magnitude of it, since I am neither black nor from 1950’s Alabama. But it seems to me that as a society as a whole we’re no smarter than we were then. Earlier tonight I found myself browsing (what amounted to) a white supremacy message board (that’s SA for ya, don’t ask too many questions) and the whole experience was entirely too surreal - like walking through a parody, except that none of it was written for comedic or ironic purposes. It was all real people saying real things.
Some days I wonder if all the hate and stupidity just gets shuffled around - none of it actually goes away, and as we get collectively dumber it gets harder to keep in check. Our cup runneth over with hatemongers like Fred Phelps and people who believe that if you change the name of creationism it becomes science.
And we’re running out of brave, intelligent people like Rosa Parks.