Brilliant post from my friend Mona Susan Power... Perhaps Im being unfair, unkind, but this article set my teeth on edge. I believe in redemption. I believe in transformation. But I found it obscene that on this one holiday which actually results in a trickle (trickle!) of pieces in the media on the Civil Rights Movement which so many in this country know very little about, an outlet with an extensive reach would publish this story. Do we focus on the woman of color who endured what she should NOT have been made to endure? No. A young white girl pelted her with vile verbal attacks for wanting to integrate a school. And the author asks this question: So how is it that 55 years later, it is this same white girl—even more than the black girl—who feels aggrieved, who considers herself the victim of intolerance, who has retreated into embittered sadness? How can it be that she, who was so prominent at the joyous 40th anniversary of the events in Little Rock, celebrated by President Bill Clinton among many others, was invisible at the 50th, and ever since? Im glad the young woman learned something, it seems, about her hateful behavior on that day and (if we believe her) came to regret it. Yet her grievance seems to be that she hasnt been lauded for her shifting values, no red carpets have been rolled out for her to stroll across. No one cheered her setting down a mantle of hate. I find this a repugnant example of how much the media still privileges the stories/grievances/perspective of white players in a story where people of color are the truly aggrieved party. slate/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2011/10/elizabeth_and_hazel_what_happened_to_the_two_girls_in_the_most_f.html
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:32:26 +0000
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