Slog
News & ArtsFriday, April 20, 2012
History The Arc of the Moral Universe
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 6:00 AM
- The White House / Pete Souza
- President Obama on Wednesday on the Rosa Parks Bus at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
1
The title of this post juxtaposed with the photo is great. Fireworks went off in my head connecting memories, feelings, and thoughts.
Congratulations again on the Pulitzer.
Congratulations again on the Pulitzer.
2
Well, the moral universe exists solely within our heads, and to a lesser extent our gut-brains, and it bends exactly where the vector sum of our ability to persuade people with power (great and small---this is a sum) will bend it.
No disrespect is intended: Truth, Beauty, Justice, Love also live in our heads...and for all I know, people have to be told that they'll be on the winning side in order to have a chance of winning. That can't work for some of us, for whom the idea that a state were desirable doesn't make it seem more likely, but we don't seem to be a voting bloc.
No disrespect is intended: Truth, Beauty, Justice, Love also live in our heads...and for all I know, people have to be told that they'll be on the winning side in order to have a chance of winning. That can't work for some of us, for whom the idea that a state were desirable doesn't make it seem more likely, but we don't seem to be a voting bloc.
3
After all that fuss, look at any bus and see where the black folks sit right now. In the back, of course.
5
The universe isn't moral, but luckily most of the enhanced apes on this weird, wet, floating rock are.
9
@6 Nope. The opposition just doesn't think he should automatically get a seat at the front. First come, first serve. A true meritocracy and no more racial preferences. If you listen to Obama carefully, he has the same moderate position.
12
@7 What can I do to keep the corporations happy during my second term beyond what I already have?
13
Good Morning Eli,
Indeed, a poignant photo. Nary a doubt that Rosa Parks remains an icon in American history. Her fortitude does speak volumes. What many people don't know is that Ms. Parks was an upstanding & active member of the local (Montgomery, AL) chapter of the NAACP. According to Hugh Pierson in his fine biography of Huey Newton, Ms. Parks wasn't first the person to defy the Montgomery ordinance prohibiting African-Americans from sitting anywhere but in the back of a city bus. That belongs to an unnamed black woman. Alas, she was pregnant and single and the local NAACP chapter wanted no other issues to upstage the incident which started the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and ignited the modern Civil Rights era.
I believe Ms. Parks died in Detroit. Hence, the bus is in the museum in Dearborn, MI.
Indeed, a poignant photo. Nary a doubt that Rosa Parks remains an icon in American history. Her fortitude does speak volumes. What many people don't know is that Ms. Parks was an upstanding & active member of the local (Montgomery, AL) chapter of the NAACP. According to Hugh Pierson in his fine biography of Huey Newton, Ms. Parks wasn't first the person to defy the Montgomery ordinance prohibiting African-Americans from sitting anywhere but in the back of a city bus. That belongs to an unnamed black woman. Alas, she was pregnant and single and the local NAACP chapter wanted no other issues to upstage the incident which started the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and ignited the modern Civil Rights era.
I believe Ms. Parks died in Detroit. Hence, the bus is in the museum in Dearborn, MI.
20
Is that really the bus she sat in? It's beautiful. The seats are tiny, though; he barely fits, and he's a slim man.
21
@13--The young woman in Montgomery is not "unnamed" She is Claudette Colvin. There's a good book (for young readers) about her, "Twice Toward Justice."
Your main point is correct. Many people were arrested over the years in Montgomery, and probably any other southern city with transit, for not yielding to whites on buses. The Montgomery NAACP was looking for a test case, and were going to use Colvin's case until it turned out she was pregnant. Rosa Parks was above reproach, and also deemed strong enough to withstand the storm the case would cause.
Your main point is correct. Many people were arrested over the years in Montgomery, and probably any other southern city with transit, for not yielding to whites on buses. The Montgomery NAACP was looking for a test case, and were going to use Colvin's case until it turned out she was pregnant. Rosa Parks was above reproach, and also deemed strong enough to withstand the storm the case would cause.
22
With reference to comment #3:
These days, no matter where they might choose to sit in a bus with vacant seats, if a black person were very tired or found it very painful to stand, and there were an empty seat at the front of the bus, they'd be allowed to sit there without being arrested.
For that matter, if (white [enough]) I were seated at the front of the bus, I would be permitted to give my seat to the one who needed it more, rather than face the choice of knuckling-under to moral evil in the face of physical and economic threat, or being a shit-heel by not standing for a pained or frail person.
And if they should run out of space a the front, the black people all at the back (assuming you were right about this) would now not be told (on pain of arrest and battery) to clear a row at the front of the back for the white folks.
These days, no matter where they might choose to sit in a bus with vacant seats, if a black person were very tired or found it very painful to stand, and there were an empty seat at the front of the bus, they'd be allowed to sit there without being arrested.
For that matter, if (white [enough]) I were seated at the front of the bus, I would be permitted to give my seat to the one who needed it more, rather than face the choice of knuckling-under to moral evil in the face of physical and economic threat, or being a shit-heel by not standing for a pained or frail person.
And if they should run out of space a the front, the black people all at the back (assuming you were right about this) would now not be told (on pain of arrest and battery) to clear a row at the front of the back for the white folks.
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