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It took a normal, ordinary, woman, filled with a citizen’s dignity, to open the door for a black man to sit in that same bus decades later as President of the United States… No president gave her that seat, she gave it to him.
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| By: David Seaton Monday April 23, 2012 2:07 am | |
It took a normal, ordinary, woman, filled with a citizen’s dignity, to open the door for a black man to sit in that same bus decades later as President of the United States… No president gave her that seat, she gave it to him.
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71 Comments
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obama-administration-withholds-home-foreclosure-aid-hardest-hit
“The Congressional Black caucus was shamelessly betrayed by O’Bomba.”
Keep digging, Dave.
Sure, and all the African-Americans are going to vote for Romney. ;^)
I’m just amazed that so many people back in 2008 believed that Obama was going to be a messiah. The American system is made of cast-iron… only the people themselves can change it… like Rosa Parks did… Go ye and do likewise, like the fella said.
I never believed him to be messiah. To me he was a black male version of Hillary Clinton.
What a wonderful example of American ahistoricism. You’ve really exceeded yourself. – Yes I’m being sarcastic.
Except she wasn’t. She was very far indeed from being “a normal ordinary woman”. She had already demonstrated a lot of courage, by her active participation for more than 12 years in the Montgomery Chapter of the NAACP. She’d studied the impact of previous bus boycotts such as the successful one in Montgomery itself more than 50 years prior to her taking her stand.
The year before she was arrested she’d attended the Highlander centre – a school for training civil rights activists.
She was able to take the stand she did because she was a very successful civil rights organiser who was keenly aware of what had worked in the past and was keenly aware that she had an organisation behind her.
She wasn’t even slightly ordinary and you do her and the other heroes and heroines who fought side by side with her a grave injustice by pretending she was.
markfromireland
As to Obama – he is a somewhat more effective (and therefore far more dangerous) version of his predecessor.
mfi
I’m thinking that mentioning Obama and Rosa Parks in the same sentence is cause for divine smiting. Would Rosa have kept her seat if she knew that Obama was what she was going to accomplish?
Boxturtle (At least she didn’t have to see the Obama presidency)
Plus there was Claudette Colvin and other women who took a stand before Rosa Parks.
Glen Ford calls him ‘The More Effective Evil’. Can’t argue with him.
You’re very brave, David. The Three Minutes Hate crowd has sunk their teeth into you because you’re reminding them that their views aren’t exactly shared by most Americans, especially African-Americans. (If they were, Obama would have been pelted with eggs and hounded away from Rosa Parks’ funeral. That didn’t happen, as we can see. ;-)
Oh, indeed. And it was because of that preparation that she and her colleagues succeeded.
That’s something that’s often overlooked — if not mocked — in these days: How the civil rights movement succeeded. It succeeded because it was very tightly organized and orchestrated.
So how are you doing these days, mfi? Haven’t seen you in ages.
I’m just grateful that there are 48 hours in the day, that the good Lord gave us two pairs of hands, and that with just the teensiest bit of effort being in three places simultaneously is entirely manageable.
Other than that I’m fine :-)
markfromireland
As is the case with every reform and counter-reform movement. A seemingly ever increasing number of people seem to believe that typing a posting – or not even that typing a comment, or a tweet, constitutes meaningful action.
Nope.
Being prepared to put in the often enervating (and sometimes depressing) slog work is what constitutes meaningful action. The American extreme to ultra right realised this at least a generation ago which is why they are successful and what passes for the American “left” spends most of its time fighting (and losing) rearguard actions.
markfromireland
Then she’d be in the distinct minority of African-Americans, like it or not. They have put up a united front, much as they did during the 1950s and 1960s as part of the civil rights movement, and criticism of him tends to make them dig in their heels. (See also: the Obama primary backers on Daily Kos and other sites. I was an Edwards backer in 2007 as were most Kossacks at the time, and then the Primary Wars started. Ugh.)
Oh, exactly. So many people want instant change; the problem is the people who most want instant change are the people least equipped to bring about even gradual change, because they can’t even get along with each other, much less the people whose minds they must change in order to make change possible. (I ought to know — I’m about as antisocial as someone can get.)
A big problem with progressives organizing in rural America is that they are used to a rather rough, elbow-throwing style that doesn’t work in rural areas where people of different faiths and beliefs must rely on one another far more than is required in a big city:
For my part, I’ve come to think, more and more, that the key is to somehow persuade the people currently pushing the latest batch of resource wars that they (and their children, should they care about them) would be better off pursuing other actions — such as, for instance, this project which, if it only had a fraction of the funding our government gives each year to oil companies, would power even an incredibly energy-hungry nation like the US three times over. (Even with a bare minimum of government support, it’s inching closer to fruition.)
That’s good — I hope! :-)
By the way, this is likely unnecessary, as anything mechanical that I can devise has likely already been bested by something currently in use, but anyway —
I have an idea for a hand-cranked battery charger that would (through reductive gearing) allow for multiple small devices (cellphones, etc.) to be charged at once, and achieve the requisite 120 RPM for charging with far fewer revolutions per minute by the person doing the cranking. (It would essentially take a hand-powered whipped-cream maker like this one and hook it up to a hand-crank charger.)
I happen to own a hand-powered whipped-cream maker and I can send you pictures of the gearing if you think someone could put it to good use. My e-mail is womanphoenix AT yahoo DOT com (typed this way to foil spambots).
Obama has done multiple things to curtail civil disobedience and has attacked people and groups simply for disagreeing with the government. Phoenix Woman, did you not know this? So many people get manipulated by campaign photos and speeches like this. It’s sad to watch but for the people who buy into it, ignorance is bliss.
That’s pretty close. Personally I think that both are interesting, rather enigmatic figures, who tell us a lot about what it takes to get ahead in the USA.
An ordinary person can transform themselves into an extraordinary person, which is what Rosa Parks did. And millions of ordinary people changed the USA more than anyone, who wasn’t around before Rosa Parks did what she did, can even imagine. The bottom line is that Americans are the only ones who can change America… not the president.
Which is why people who want change shouldn’t vote for the president.
What is screamingly funny is that I am catching all this shoit from the same people that were howling for my blood back in 2008, then it was because I predicted that they were going to be disappointed by “The One”. Ask anyone who used to hang out at the old TPM Cafe.
I am having a ball!
Well all we have is speculation as to where Rosa’s heart would be with respect to bo. She could be like Jesse Jackson and blow off Civil Rights era principles and support bo anyway regardless of the price most black folks will pay. She could be like Glen Ford and I believe Harry Belafonte as well, who cannot support bo for all the reasons we’ve discussed here.
Personally, I have no beef with this one, since you didn’t try to use her courageous heroism as bookends to shill for Obama’s re-election.
So people were howling for your blood 2008? I missed that one. You weren’t the only one wary of Obama. Some of us from the left. Maybe you were from the right? I’m guessing you were probably shilling for Hillary at the same time you were dissing Obama?
Please don’t count me in that group; I didn’t write there until after the primary in any event, and only Rutabaga Ridgepole got Obama right at first. He was outraged within three months, while most of us gave him longer, and issue by issue, peeled away after witnessing his extreme immorality.
I took issue with almost all your blogs, if you remember, and no one on this thread wrote or commented at the Cafe.
But I do remember vividly you and your Assange hatred at Dagblog, and your confusion about a certain cultural group.
Your other post re: Rosa and ‘Not-the-One’ seems to be off the reader list, so I’ll bring these items I’d added to it over here for Phoenix Woman, et.al.:
In response to Phoenix Woman @ 24
Boyce Watkins, 3/14/2012
“So, effectively, we have a world in which millions of African Americans have no secure place to put their vote. Racism serves as a cap of political opportunity, keeping black people from being able to vote in their interests. Black conservatives who are unhappy with the policies of the Obama Administration can’t vote for openly racist Republicans. Black progressives seeking solutions to racial inequality and the prison industrial complex can’t support Democrats who don’t seem to realize that these problems even exist.
What’s left is the symbolic value of having a black man in the White House. Symbolism is probably all you’re going to get from Obama or his cabinet, but symbolism may be all you need if you are part of the 86% of African Americans who are gainfully employed. Barack Obama’s success in securing re-election shows that whether you are conservative or liberal, ignoring black folks is the way to get elected. But in a nation that is so deeply committed to the preservation of racial inequality, it’s hardly a surprise that politicians are rewarded for succumbing to the demons of our past.”
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-ratings-among-blacks-falls/2011/09/21/gIQAqzJdlK_story.html“>Sept. 21, 2011:
“New cracks have begun to show in President Obama’s support amongst African Americans, who have been his strongest supporters. Five months ago, 83 percent of African Americans held “strongly favorable” views of Obama, but in a new Washington Post-ABC news poll that number has dropped to 58 percent. That drop is similar to slipping support for Obama among all groups.”
No, I wasn’t shilling for Hillary. At that time he was someone who hadn’t done anything except write a book about himself, and she was basically somebody’s wife. That has all changed and both have proven to be competent. They are both infinitely to be preferred to Romney and anyone who runs with him.
As to where I am in politics. Left-left… but I don’t think the US presidency is where that is played. There is no relevant left in US politics, only shades of right. The Democrats are a pretty sorry-assed crew, but preferable by far to today’s Republicans.
As to Assange, I think he is a frivolous man, someone who has caused many people to die in order to become a “rock star”.
And as to being “confused” about a certain cultural group, what’s there to be confused?
Come sit by me — I’m a former Edwards backer who by turns is called a PUMA (i.e., diehard Hillary backer still holding a grudge from the 2008 primaries) or a Obamabot by various groups of people. (My faves are the ones who are so convinced that Hillary would have much more progressive than Obama, when in fact it was the influence of Clinton friend Lanny Davis that kept SoS Clinton — and thus President Obama — from stepping in to stop the right-wing coup in Honduras.)
I don’t know where you get the idea that everyone now opposed to voting for Obama formerly expected him to be The One? People who comment here have said they voted for other people in the primaries and general election, or held their noses and voted for him, or knew with telecom immunity or the bank bailout that he was going to be bad news. I was somewhat bot-ish in 08, but my objection to Obama isn’t that he’s not The One. You don’t have to be totally The One to refrain, for example, from indefinite detention or dropping bombs on funerals and rescuers, Reasonably law-abiding and humane would take care of it.
Go ahead and make your case for voting or not voting for one or the other corporatists. If you think real change comes from the people (I agree) go ahead and write or do something about that too. We all should.
But these recent posts where you seem to dismiss evil as just business-as-usual and say you’re “having a ball” laughing at people who are concerned about “Guantanamo and drones and human rights” as if they were fretting over some vote on a wasteful little pork project, don’t make you seem very credible.
While Democrats may be preferable to Republicans (although it could be argued that Obama has passed more conservative policies than any republican in the past) voting for them in the Fall only legitimizes them. By voting for them you are endorsing them. I don’t need candidates to be exactly like me in order to vote for them, but they can’t be as crappy as the Democrats. I mean, they have done 10 times more than what was needed for me to say I won’t be voting for them. So when people say “the Democrats are bad but the Republicans are worse so I’ll vote for the Democrats,” I don’t get it because the thinking fails to include how bad the democrats have been and they’ve been pretty awful.
As for the Assange comments they’re way off and I think they speak for themselves. You really must not value the information Wikileaks gave the world and you must not be worried about our government doing so many terrible things without anyone’s knowledge.
You say both Obama and Hillary have proven to be competent. You endorse Obama. You say you are left-left. Sorry you have contradicted yourelf big-time.
It’s obvious you are being truthul about your feelings about Hillary and Obama, so it’s equally as obvious you are prevaricating, intentionally or not, about the latter.
I didn’t say anything about Assange, but now that you bring him up, I think he is a hero. What you said about him sounds like something a hysterical right-wing dimwit would say. Please provide proof he “has caused many people to die” or that his motivation is to become a “rock star” or shut up.
I can’t answer your last question, I don’t know why you are asking me. Obviously, you are confused.
And sure enough, you’ve just been called a PUMA! Now you know you’ve arrived. ;-)
Oh, and just to show that we aren’t marching together in pre-programmed lockstep, as I know we will be accused of doing — I respectfully beg to differ (as does the US Department of State) on whether WikiLeaks has killed anyone:
Also, if DoS had any people they could prove (or even had a reasonable claim at proving) were killed by WikiLeaks leaks, their names and faces would be plastered all over the evening news with great frequency.
That’s an interesting pontification coming from someone who continuously uses the word “Naderite” as an epithet.
I’m not laughing about people who are concerned about “Guantanamo and drones and human rights”, I’m laughing at people that thought that Obama was going to fix that… The only ones who are going to fix all that are a new generation of “Rosa Parks” of all colors.
And yes, I think people should distinguish between different shades of corporatists… Imagine if Bush hadn’t been able to steal the election from corporatist Al Gore.
Silly me, now that I’ve clicked on the link, I see you were referring to me.
Unfortunately for your connection with the truth, I didn’t call David a “PUMA”. Your attempt at disinformation doesn’t surprise me, it seems to be one of your favorite tactics.
When I say that I am left-left, I mean that I am in favor of democratic socialism with a huge nanny state and a European style national health service and a dismantling of all the US military bases around the world.
However, none of that is on the menu in November.
And she seems to be ignoring these new poll numbers, after claiming AA’s gave O a 90-something% approval rating ‘back in February’. Three minites of googling isn’t much to ask, is it?
“Five months ago, 83 percent of African Americans held “strongly favorable” views of Obama, but in a new Washington Post-ABC news poll that number has dropped to 58 percent.”
Facts seems to be the first casualty in her attempts to shill for Obama.
So you infer that a large number of African-Americans are going to abstain or vote for Romney? LOL
Where did she infer that?
Are you giggling at your own imagination?
Dedicated to all the former Obamites.
http://frognotexpress.com/RhythmShakers/Al%20Green%20,%20%20Lyle%20Lovett%20-%20Funny%20How%20Time%20Slips%20Away.mp3
Gee, I feel left out. What about us Naderites?
For that matter, you may as well give yourself and all the other O-bots something to commiserate over.
Fair is fair.
Got a link? If you have a legitimate quote, you have a link.
Here’s what I found in the most recent Gallup poll I could find, released April 9: 89% of black persons approve of Obama, compared to 55% of Hispanics and 37% of whites.
So you’re saying that Wendy wasn’t trying to state (in her linkless comment) that Obama’s support among blacks is crumbling — and thus blacks will either sit out the election or vote for Romney?
(By the way, wherever she got that quote from, it doesn’t match up with Gallup’s April 9 poll, which has an 89% approval rating for Obama among blacks.)
She gave ya the link in David’s previous thread.
Not only that, but also as she said, it’s right there, top entry, in a web search.
I am stating that she was countering your assertion about approval ratings with more timely information.
Now, you tell me where she even hinted at predicting voting behavior in the upcoming election.
BTW, it’s humorous to see you clinging to a Gallup poll what with the way you’ve disparaged them in the past. You’re funny.
I did, a while back:
Remember when outgoing National Security Advisor Sandy Berger showed his soon-to-be-replacement Condi Rice a big fat file on Al-Qaeda and told her that she would be paying more attention to this than to anything else? And how Richard Clarke kept trying to get her to pay attention to what Al-Qaeda was doing? She blew both of them off, just like Bush blew off the CIA’s repeated efforts — one of which was done by frightened CIA agents visiting him in the flesh at his Potemkin ranch in Crawford, Texas — to get him to take the Al-Qaeda threat seriously.
Hey, I at least provided a link for my information. Where she got hers is unknown. But go ahead, pretend that black people are falling away from Obama in record numbers. In fact, why don’t you or Wendy act on that belief by walking into the nearest AME church and saying “Obama doesn’t deserve to win because he’s the same as Romney!” and tell us what happens?
I’m waiting for either AI or Wendy to walk into the nearest mainline AME church to test their blacks-are-fleeing-Obama theory by talking about Obama in much the same way they talk about him here.
Getting back to Obama: one thing very much in his favor is how hard the Israeli right wing and their American collaborators like Sheldon Adelson and Commentary Magazine are trying to keep the president from getting elected to a second term. He sure must be doing something really right to draw that kind of hostility in that quantity.
I wrote a long post about that awhile back:
http://my.firedoglake.com/seaton/2012/03/08/netanyahus-target-is-obama-not-iran/
This is one of the main reasons I favor his reelection strongly. When he is no longer ever going to run for office again, I think he just might want to do something to deserve that Nobel Peace Prize and getting Israel to comply with UN-242 would insure his legacy as the man who pacified the Middle East. I think that he is proud/vain enough to want to do something to go down in the history books beside being the first black president.
Yes Phoenix, that would be a treat.
The reason I mentioned the Gallup polling is that it provides results remarkably similar to the ABC-WaPo poll cited throughout February and March of this year. (Really, though, I’m surprised at you — I thought for sure you’d compare the 91% figure from the ABC-WaPo poll and the 89% figure from the Gallup poll and say something like “AHA! He dropped by two whole percent among black people! He’s finally losing them!”)
Why do you persist in making shit up and claiming other people “believe” it?
Wendy gave you the link in the previous thread. The info is also found with an effortless web search. Why you otherwise pretend that the information doesn’t exist is kinda doofus.
Obama doesn’t deserve to win because he is worse than Romney. Romney doesn’t deserve to win either. So what?
I’ll consider following your ridiculously childish suggestion after you you do the analogue at a Romney rally.
According to you, it would be filled with black people too.
Well I’m waiting too. I’m waiting for you to explain how citing a poll translates into any kind of theory or belief. Take a deep breath and go for it, it won’t hurt.
Still chirping that juvenile fantasy about going into an AME church? That’s some good slapstick thinking on your part. Like I said, the Romney rally awaits your badass self.
Really, how so?
Concentrate David, and use facts. Your fevered imagination doesn’t count.
So you use Gallup when it suits your propaganda and demonize Gallup when it doesn’t. I already knew you did that.
As to Obama’s support among blacks, I’ve never brought it up before. So I don’t know why you are surprised about anything. I’d be flattered that you spend time thinking about what you think I might be thinking, except that it’s really kinda creepy.
Imaginary Gore would have been better than Bush, and imaginary Romney will be worse than Obama, but you find it hilarious that the bots thought imaginary Obama would be better than Bush?
Can’t speak for all the bots, but I never thought Obama would fix everything. I also didn’t expect that he would double down on the worst of Bush and add a few worsts of his own, nor that the resulting misery and destruction would then be presented as “competence” that I should re-elect.
It’s not hard to understand why many black people still support Obama. It’s the same reason many Catholics kept JFK’s picture on their walls long after he was dead. The symbolism of his election was huge.
Many of them still really, really want to believe in this charlatan. Fools and suckers come in all races, all ethnicities, both genders and all gender-preferences.
Obama has done absolutely nothing for the majority of black people in this country, and those that continue to support him are every bit as foolish as those who say they are on the left, like David Seaton, who continue to support him.
No, I don’t think blacks or leftists should support Romney, either. I do think there will be quite a few who voted for Obama in 2008 who simply won’t vote in 2012, and I don’t blame anyone for making that choice.
Well, I haven’t walked into an AME church and said that, but I HAVE walked into bars where I was the only white face present and said that. Some people, mostly men in my very subjective experiences, got a little angry with me, but not too much. Most women actually backed me up.
What I find most interesting is that the black people in my area are more class-conscious than whites generally are. They have no problem seeing me and mine as being in the same boat that they are in, and are willing to accept me as just another working class human being.
Which is more than I can say for certain white ethnic groups. Again, I do not say this is a national phenomenon; it’s just my own limited experience, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was pretty widespread.
Well, my goodness; I gave you the link at #24 on this thread, plus over yonder on Dave’s OP, plus a piece by Boyce Atkins,. That poll is from Nov., and disagreed with the 93% (I believe) approval for blacks you’d seen from last Feb.
Why do you think you and Dave know what is/was in my head about conclusions I’ve drawn? It’s just not right to create, then mock, a position you’ve imagined outta thin air. Bad form.
No, she didn’t infer they were going to vote for Romney. But I’ll bet you a lot less of them vote in 2012 than they did in 2008, for good reason.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Romney carried Michigan. The simple fact is that Obama needs a huge turnout in Detroit to win, and he may not get it. Romney may actually have a tougher time in Ohio, even with reduced black turnout if the Teabaggers succeed in getting a Right-to-Work amendment on the ballot and the pot folks get a marijuana legalization initiative on the same ballot. One will energize the unions, the other a whole lot of folks who normally don’t vote, and both will probably help Obama.
You believe in regulated capitalism, therefore you are NOT “left-left.” Hell, you’re a DEMOCRAT, therefore you are not “left-left.”
Please stop insulting our intelligence.
Well said. Thank you!
LOL! Nearest AME church to me would probably be a thousand miles away, and sorry, I can’t really walk much any more. But I will tell you that for several decade my son was the only black resident of our valley, but….he moved away after college.
On the other thread on this subject, (will there be a third since he’s having such a ball?), I also said I could imagine voting for O’Bomba if I were black for many of the reasons Barbarian’s given.
Shoot, even major O’Bomba critic Cornell West seems to be having trouble calling him out the closer the election comes. We’ll see how that goes.
Interesting post and comments-
It would be really great if comments or challenges were made directly to the people in the same thread, rather than making them the subject in a comment to someone else, or trying to recruit clique members.
FDL is full of old people. Can we behave like it?
Fighting about who wins or won the Presidency is a distraction. Obama is a temporary figurehead of a corrupt hydra held up by a corrupt framework. A shiny object to project your two minutes of hate or your adoration.
Did anyone see EW’s post on the “gloves come off” Memorandum of Notification? It’s one of those times where she and her close crew find a nugget and they are able to put multiple pieces of the puzzle together. Scribe had an a ha! moment that’s worthy of note. See his comments at 24 and 34.
Vote every congressional incumbent out, and we need a purge of Harvard alums.
This is one of the main reasons I favor his reelection strongly. When he is no longer ever going to run for office again, I think he just might want to do something to deserve that Nobel Peace Prize and getting Israel to comply with UN-242 would insure his legacy as the man who pacified the Middle East. I think that he is proud/vain enough to want to do something to go down in the history books beside being the first black president.And yet you say that the people who voted for Obama in 2008 were delusionally optimistic?
Yes, Obama certainly does plan to do big things, starting with his Grand Bargain to slash the American social safety net. There are plenty more regulations to cut, a few civil rights left to attack, and maybe a tax cut in there, too. I am convinced that Romney will do else damage to Progressivism and Progressive causes than Obama will in a second term. Vote for him if you like but to be rosy-eyed at this point, after 3 years of contrary evidence, is truly bizarre.
Oops. That was supposed to be a block quote not a strike-through and I don’t know how to fix it.
I say David…you most certainly put a stick in the hornets nest this time, old man.
Exactly. Adelson’s thrown upwards of $30 million (that we know of) at Newt, even though Newt had no chance after Florida, just to send a message to the rest of the GOP. And he’s promised to fund Mitt even more lavishly in the general.
Fun, isn’t it?
Again, if Sheldon Adelson is ready to spend a fortune to keep him from being reelected, Barack Obama must be doing something right… something important.
When I heard that, I knew it was vital to see him reelected.