Photo by News One
Fifty-eight years ago today, Rosa Parks, then 43-years-old, became a lightening rod for the Civil Rights Movement when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Apparently, that singular act ended racism.
Yes, the Civil Rights Movement that followed Parks’ courageous act — which itself followed the courageous act of Claudette Colvin — ended racism, according to a tweet by the Republican National Committee:
Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in ending racism. pic.twitter.com/uxIj1QmtkU
— RNC (@GOP) December 1, 2013
The murders of Four Little Girls in Birmingham and Wharlest Jackson in Natchez, Mississippi weren’t racist. The assassinations of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Medgar Evers and El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) were apparently not race related, at all. The contemporary effects of slavery: School-to-Prison pipelines, disparities in prison sentencing, Stop-and-Frisk, just to name a few, have nothing to do with racism because racism is over, according to the GOP.
Maybe Black America didn’t get the memo.
The RNC tried to explain themselves in the following tweet:
Previous tweet should have read “Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in fighting to end racism.”
— RNC (@GOP) December 1, 2013
But it was too little, much too late.
In response to the GOP’s idiotic “tribute,” @FeministaJones created the scathing #RacismEndedWhen hashtag and the results are brilliant.
Read some of the best below:
1) GOP says Rosa Parks ended racism 2) @FeministaJones starts #RacismEndedWhen hashtag 3) Media ignores her + quotes white ppl using hashtag
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Arnold and Willis were adopted by Mr. Drummond
— A$AP Feminist (@FeministaJones) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Rick Santorum forced me to change my Twitter handle to @AngryBlahLady.
— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Marvin Gaye covered the Robin Thicke classic Gotta Give Blurred Lines
— Black Canseco (@BlackCanseco) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen 3 of the 11 states from the Old Confederacy DIDN’T pass restrictions to stop minorities from voting. https://t.co/XzEYQXIA3J
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen The first reaction of The Dept of Agriculture was to believe Breitbart over Shirley Sherrod
— Lizz Winstead (@lizzwinstead) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen John Boehner showed up to congress darker than Barack Obama.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen @GOP pointed to Herman Cain and said to Black people, “I have a Black friend, so we’re cool now, right?”
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen BARACK. OBAMA. DUH.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Run DMC joined Aerosmith on “Walk This Way”
— King of the Akatas (@OwlsAsylum) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Eminem won the rap battle in 8 Mile.
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Oprah started giving away cars on her show. OPRAH GAVE WHITE PEOPLE REPARATIONS!
— Elon James White (@elonjames) December 1, 2013
#RacismEndedWhen Hip-Hop culture was born not out of socioeconomic and racial oppression, but of White suburban middle-class ingenuity.
— A$AP Feminist (@FeministaJones) December 1, 2013
Of course, some racists have tried to take over the conversation to explain why a hashtag created to point out that racism is alive and well is, in fact, racist.
#RacismEndedWhen White tears were cried for all the Black children who are victims of police brutality, all the Black girls too afraid to report being sexually assaulted, all the Black professionals racially profiled in corporate America just as Trayvon Martin was racially profiled in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, instead of because “racist” Black people just don’t get it.
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