GOP\u2019s race problem: What\u2019s really behind that bad tweet<\/a> by Brittney Cooper in Salon.<\/p>\nThe Text:<\/strong> With this week marking the 58th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, much has rightly been made of the Republican National Committee tweeting a picture of Rosa Parks this weekend, with a caption that said: \u201ctoday we remember Rosa Parks\u2019 bold stand and her role in ending racism.\u201d (emphasis added)<\/p>\nBut while many have justifiably focused on the claim that racism has \u201cended\u201d (which the RNC later \u201cclarified\u201c), another significant truth has gotten lost. If they really cared about Rosa Parks\u2019 memory, Republicans would attempt to emulate her courage in challenging the white male entitlement that demanded she give up the seat that she paid for. That kind of white male entitlement still dominates both the GOP and the American political scene today.<\/p>\n
For example, if the party really wanted to take lessons from Rosa Parks\u2019 story, it would think about the 90 percent of African-Americans who stayed off those buses and walked or carpooled to work in order to demand equal treatment and recognition of their dignity. In contemporary elections, it is routine that more than 90 percent of black America votes for anyone but the GOP.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
GOP cronies and conservatives masquerading as moderates (Arne Duncan, here\u2019s looking at you) would stop the kind of union busting in places like Chicago that continue to erode the school system and disadvantage the predominantly black and brown students that attend Chicago public schools. Old school civil rights figures would decry the school reform movement and see clearly that it places black children back in the very kinds of conditions that Brown v. Board of Education was meant to rectify. Companies like Wal-Mart would pay their workers a living wage and acknowledge that they could do so and still remain profitable each year to the tune of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Parks, who began attempting to register to vote and encouraged others to do so in Alabama in the 1940s, would balk at the brazen voter suppression efforts that the GOP continues to lead under the guise of implementing voter identification laws and gerrymandering voting districts to dilute the power of the black and Democratic vote.<\/p>\n
Most of all, if Republicans cared about Rosa Parks\u2019 legacy, they would stop their war on women. In her wonderful book \u201cAt the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance,\u201d Danielle McGuire demonstrates that Parks had a long history of activism before she ever refused to give up her seat on that bus. In the 1940s, she worked as an anti-rape activist, perhaps because she was raped herself, as some of her archival papers seem to indicate.<\/p>\n
Yet the GOP persists in passing draconian anti-choice legislation in locales around the country, and the blatantly right-wing Supreme Court is poised to hear yet another case, arguing for a religious exemption to businesses that don\u2019t want to provide free birth control to their employees under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n
Rosa Parks had the last laugh when black Twitter came out in full force to demonstrate the utter absurdity of declaring racism to be ended. Tweeting under the hashtag #racismendedwhen, the twitterati appended endings like \u201cwhen Mr. Drummond adopted Arnold and Willis,\u201d \u201cwhen Bill Clinton played the sax on Arsenio Hall\u201d and \u201cwhen the Fresh Prince moved to Bel-Air.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad we live in a culture that can respond to such political absurdity with humor. I\u2019m pretty sure we are all laughing to keep from crying.<\/p>\n
Affixed to the picture of Rosa Parks that the RNC tweeted is a quote that reads: \u201cYou must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this means that the GOP should be afraid. Very afraid. Continuing to support policies that redistribute wealth upward, continuing to gut public education, refusing to regulate guns, doubling down against healthcare reform, and policing the bodies of women is a potent and heady chemical mix that might just make the GOP implode from the inside out.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the GOP\u2019s refusal to grapple with the persistent and enduring problem of racism will find them on the wrong side of history just a couple of generations hence. For instance, though Marissa Alexander is now free on bond in Florida, awaiting a second trial for firing a warning shot at her abusive ex-husband, by all indications conservative prosecutor Angela Corey insists on using taxpayer money to try her again and to lock her up for 20 years based on Alexander\u2019s attempt to defend herself.<\/p>\n
A fierce champion of black women\u2019s right to safety, security and a society free from violence, Rosa Parks might be a part of the Free Marissa Now Campaign and actively aid in helping to free her.<\/p>\n
This Rosa Parks fiasco demonstrates that the GOP\u2019s intellectual and political gymnastics around racism and civil rights are so off-kilter that they couldn\u2019t even manage to stick the landing on an exercise with a minimal level of difficulty. They definitely need to come again. And this time, I hope they\u2019ll come correct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Article: GOP\u2019s race problem: What\u2019s really behind that bad tweet by Brittney Cooper in Salon. The Text: With this week marking the 58th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, much has rightly been made of the Republican National Committee tweeting a picture of Rosa Parks this weekend, with a caption that said: \u201ctoday we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
The GOP's Race Problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The GOP's Race Problem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-09T15:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-09T16:28:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/gop-race-problem.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/\",\"name\":\"The GOP's Race Problem\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-09T15:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-09T16:28:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The GOP’s Race Problem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The GOP's Race Problem","description":"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The GOP's Race Problem","og_description":"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2013-12-09T15:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-09T16:28:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/gop-race-problem.jpg"}],"author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/","name":"The GOP's Race Problem","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-09T15:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-09T16:28:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"The party's Rosa Parks fiasco only hints at its problems with civil rights -- here's why it should be afraid.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/09\/gops-race-problem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The GOP’s Race Problem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143082,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143080\/revisions\/143082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"GOP](\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/gop-race-problem.jpg\")
<\/p>\n