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Aug. 6th, 2003 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherRosa Parks.
Sorry, I'm being a history major here for a sec.
I just saw a thing about how Rosa Parks was so dynamic for her 1 night of refusing to move. But the thing is, she wasn't 'just a seamstress', as some like to portray her.
This is a woman who was a major member of the local NAACP and worked with the SCLC. She was a strong believer in social justice, and she'd made similar attempts at desegregating other areas. This just happened to be the one that caught major attention. She was paitent, and she stuck to her beliefs even as the worst happened to her and those around her.
So why do we minimalize this woman's life and her beliefs by calling her 'just a poor, tired seamstress' in so many recordings of what happened one evening in Birmingham Alabama?
Nobody should have to be 'just' anything. But this seems particularly annoying to me. Even if at the most uncharitable you called her an agent provocateur for her people, that's still recognizing that she's more than 'just' something. That she worked dillegently to achieve what she wanted.
Ah, well.
Sorry, I'm being a history major here for a sec.
I just saw a thing about how Rosa Parks was so dynamic for her 1 night of refusing to move. But the thing is, she wasn't 'just a seamstress', as some like to portray her.
This is a woman who was a major member of the local NAACP and worked with the SCLC. She was a strong believer in social justice, and she'd made similar attempts at desegregating other areas. This just happened to be the one that caught major attention. She was paitent, and she stuck to her beliefs even as the worst happened to her and those around her.
So why do we minimalize this woman's life and her beliefs by calling her 'just a poor, tired seamstress' in so many recordings of what happened one evening in Birmingham Alabama?
Nobody should have to be 'just' anything. But this seems particularly annoying to me. Even if at the most uncharitable you called her an agent provocateur for her people, that's still recognizing that she's more than 'just' something. That she worked dillegently to achieve what she wanted.
Ah, well.
