Rosa Parks enshrined—the ultimate act of affirmative action

I had wondered briefly at the adulation given to Rosa Parks on her death—her body lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda? A statue of her to be erected in the Capitol Rotunda? What?—but I found these manifestations of black-worshipping America too depressing to think about, and, frankly, I blocked the whole matter out, just as I tend to block out things like the U.S. government allowing the NAACP to use the Great Hall of the Justice Department to inaugurate its presidents, as though the NAACP were part of the government. These wholly improper obeisances to blacks because they’re black are one of the signal features of our present multicultural, black-centric political order, and any sane politics should have near the top of its agenda the intention of putting an end to them.

However, I didn’t know how truly undeserving Rosa Parks was of such honors until I read Jared Taylor’s article on her at American Renaissance. Parks literally did nothing of note in her entire life other than get herself arrested in a single act of civil disobedience on a single afternoon, a role for which she had been selected by the NAACP because she was light-skinned and had a scandal-free background. Afterward, she never played any kind of leadership role in, or even participated actively in, the civil rights movement. She simply spent a half-hour getting herself arrested and booked for refusing to move from her seat. And in recognition for this “achievement,” an “achievement” shared by probably tens of thousands of people who have been arrested for civil disobedience over the course of American history, this utterly insignificant woman is going to be enshrined in the Capital Rotunda, along with the greats of our country. Oh, the shame of it.

A correspondent writes:

You’re so wrong-headed about this. She Is already a national symbol (even though she didn’t really do very much on her own). She was created as a symbol and it’s as a symbol the government has recognized her. There’s nothing really wrong in that.

My reply:

I have nothing against her being a national symbol; as you say, she’s been an icon for a long time. I never had any problem with her. What is totally unacceptable, and a national disgrace, is the casket and the statue in the Capital Rotunda.

I wrote to another correspondent to whom I had sent the original posted version of this entry:

I ended up deleted the latter half of that blog entry, it seemed overwrought, with the paraphrase from Julius Caesar and all, and it seemed too much that I was attacking her, rather than the insanity and dishonor of giving her this extraordinary honor.

I have no negative feelings toward Rosa Parks. I understand she’s been an icon for a long time. I don’t mind her being honored. I wouldn’t mind a statue of her somewhere. But the casket viewing in the Rotunda! A statue of her in the Rotunda! This is Orwellian.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 12, 2005 09:45 AM | Send