Originally Posted by
Method Man
You've got a choice to make, "DMoney."
I suspect that you created this post in earnest and, once things got too hot, you tried to cover yourself by saying, "oh haha, I wasn't serious. I was just trolling. Now YOU'RE the ones who should feel stupid!"
If you insist on standing by that, understand that you're going to be suspended for trolling. You can't have it both ways. Either this is a sincere post intended to learn more about an historical figure or it's a pitiful attempt to rile people up. I tend to think the former could be perceived is an attempt to cure ignorance, whereas the latter is a flagrant attempt to
demonstrate it. I'll let you decide.
As for Ms. Parks,
it required even more courage to serve as the "test case" for segregation than it did to defy the law itself. Rosa Parks was an activist in her own right, prior to and beyond the events of December 1st, 1955. She joined the NAACP's Montgomery chapter in 1943 and even served as their secretary. Yes, her case was
selected by the NAACP, but she made the ideal test case for a reason - and that's to her credit.
There's no denying that, if only for the sake of expedience, history is condensed into a simplistic narrative. The function of many people, events, and organizations are often attributed to individual torch-bearers. Most students learn about the Montgomery bus boycott, but not the Baton Rouge bus boycott of 1953, which was also successful and, in fact, paved the way for Montgomery. Similarly, very few people learn about A. Philip Randolph's 1941 March on Washington.
However, I have difficulty with the idea that we should PENALIZE the handful of people, organizations, and events that DO receive any recognition as opposed to the system that diminishes or ignores the instrumental roles played by others. How can you say that Rosa Parks receives MORE credit than she deserves when most people only know ONE thing about her? If anything, the way Rosa Parks is popularly portrayed reduces her to a single act rather than as a lifetime contributor to the cause of social justice. In that sense, she doesn't get ENOUGH credit for her life's work.
Rosa Parks gets two lousy lines in most American History textbooks. If that's unfair, it's unfair because people don't know ENOUGH about her and about her fellow activists - not because she gets "too much credit."
Wow. Couldn't have said it any better if I tried.
