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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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May 17, 2003
Rosa Parks needs to get over her bad self
Rosa Parks really tries my patience. She's been set up as the greatest person in America, an untouchable icon. She's probably the number one living person about whom even almost joking is unacceptable. Indeed, she insists on this point. Negro, puh-lease. In this country, no one is sacrosanct. We're all equal, remember?
OK, fine. She did a fine thing fifty years ago by refusing to give up her seat on a bus, thus providing inspiration to the civil rights movement. She's not Jesus, however, and does not remotely rate deification. Rosa Parks just happened to be in the right place at the right time, getting a lot of publicity and a big court case because she was a secretary for the NAACP and knew MLK. Thousands of others commited similar minor acts of civil disobedience without recognition.
This was the point the screenwriters of Barbershop - the best movie of 2002- were making when wise old Eddie said, "Rosa Parks ain't do nothing but sit her black ass down."
Very specifically, Eddie made clear that Rosa Parks did a good thing, but just thought she should not be deified above all the other people who contributed to the movement.
Rosa Parks herself was so incensed by this "disrespect" that she absolutely boycotted the NAACP Image Awards show because it was being hosted by the actor who played Eddie in the movie- Cedric the Entertainer.
Oh, please, get over yourself. Most people would not have much patience for such behavior even from a war hero. Triple war amputee Max Cleland in Georgia didn't get a free ride for even these severe war injuries. Getting a minor ticket 50 years ago don't make you a saint.
Indeed, Ms. Parks has been quite fortunate. For her minor display of bravery, she has reaped fame and moral repute far beyond anything she ever did to earn it.
Of course, getting to be a public icon in America means you have made yourself a public person, open to be criticized, commented on or invoked as a symbol in open civil discourse.
Jebus Criminy, Rosa Parks is an ingrate. She did so little, yet has gotten so much in return. They make movies about her, make little children's books setting her up to every little kid in the land as a sainted figure. They name streets after her, and lavish every kind of praise on her. She's gotten more public recognition for less actual accomplishment than any person now living. She could stand to be just a little bit humble.
Yet here's Rosa Parks suing some poor schmuck hip hop group for invoking her name in their song. It's not even used in a derogatory manner. She apparently just didn't think the song made enough point of kissing her ass, so she's trying to have them destroyed in court. This ongoing attempt to supress Outkast's free speech cost her more credit with me than she had in her account. Guess that makes her approximately morally bankrupt.
LINK TO THIS STORY
HER MOMENT OF GLORY
SECOND THOUGHTS
Richard Pryor Is It Something I Said?
posted by Al at 5/17/2003 03:01:00 AM
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