The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Crash Course Black American History #35
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1) Parks was not just a tired old lady who decided in the moment to give up her seat, the way we were taught in school. She was a member of the NAACP, who was working strategically and bravely to help get the bus boycott started. US History has infantilized her and diminished her power as an activist, to make it seem as though Black folks weren't actively doing anything to stop segregation, while white folks didn't even notice it was a bad thing, until this poor little old lady got sent to jail. This is not true. POC have always fought against white supremacy, and the ones who created it (wealthy white landowners) have always known it was wrong, but did it anyway.
2) Claudette Colvin was not seen as the right candidate to start the boycott because she was young, got pregnant out of wedlock, and was dark-skinned. A lot of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement believed that change could only be affected if they could present the -best- possible front to white folks. That meant unthreatening, older, well-dressed, well-spoken/educated, and light-skinned. So they wore their Sunday Best to marches, and denounced violence of any kind, and always spoke kindly about white folks. So, even within the BIPOC communities, there's always been a battle between making real justice happen and pleasing white folks (Ibrim X. Kendi calls the latter -Assimilationism-. If we just present ourselves as respectable, we'll finally be able to earn/gain the rights that white folks have always had, regardless of -their- respectability. This mindset, in my opinion and that of others, has worked to slow down the kind of progress that would not only have benefitted BIPOC, but women, low income folks, immigrants, and all the folks who have been put down through the history of the US.
Dr. Kendi's book -Stamped From The Beginning- is really good if you want to learn more about the battle between Anti-Racism versus both Segregationist Racism and Assimilationism. It's a big read, but a super informative one.
Edited to correct myself.
Date: 2022-04-04
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