Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
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Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
About Me
Name::Sharon Cullars
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RAINE'S BLUES 
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Credits |
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 What is the true civil rights legacy? In Salon’s tribute to Rosa Parks, Earl Ofari Hutchinson examines how the original civil rights movement lost its direction, becoming less a beacon for the disenfranchised and more a ballast used to knock down obstacles solely for the middle-class. This narrowing of the movement’s focus pushed the poor further to the fringe, creating a lost society that may never be salvaged. As Hutchinson points out, this lost society helped to create the young man who savagely beat Ms. Parks in 1994, reportedly looking for money to feed his drug habit. Hutchison writes that the civil rights agenda used to be about “battling poverty, reducing unemployment, securing quality education, promoting self-help and gaining greater political empowerment as the goals for all African-Americans.” Instead it became the standard bearer for “affirmative action, economic parity, professional advancement and busing.” Ironically, the loss of the original agenda no longer applies only to African-Americans. Society on the whole has lost its focus and has suffered economic, technological and political power in the global community because of it. America can no longer truly lay claim as a super-power when so many of our citizens are disenfranchised, are earning minimum wages that barely allow for subsistance, when our technologies are being imported because too many of our young people are woefully lacking in basic skills and can no longer compete in the burgeoning technological arena. The education disparity between the U. S. and other nations is widening, with many second-world and even some third-world countries surpassing us in educational measures. The problem has reached the point where companies are no longer the only outsourcers to other countries for services; American children are now reaching out to countries like India and Pakistan for basic math and science tutoring. Which, unfortunately, makes sense in the long run. Battling poverty, reducing unemployment, securing quality education, promoting self-help and gaining greater political empowerment may only now be a pipe dream for some African-Americans. In the end though, these should become a mantra, a rallying cry from all Americans if we are to go forward as a superpower into the remaining 21st century. If we are to truly provide civil rights to us all. This would be a legacy truly worthy of Ms. Parks.
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