GOP?s race problem: What?s really behind that bad tweet - Salon.com
Sad days for the party of Lincoln.
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: today we remember Rosa Parks bold stand and her role in ending racism. (emphasis added)
But while many have justifiably focused on the claim that racism has ended (which the RNC later clarified), another significant truth has gotten lost. If they really cared about Rosa Parks 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.
For example, if the party really wanted to take lessons from Rosa Parks 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.
GOP cronies and conservatives masquerading as moderates (Arne Duncan, heres 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.
Sad days for the party of Lincoln.