Sister Rosa
The lead story in the business section of today's New York Times is a must-read for those who are interested in the proposal to name a Portland street or other public property for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks:
While the likenesses of historical and political figures, from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, are commonly plastered on all sorts of knickknacks, milking the image of Mrs. Parks offers a particularly resonant example of the fine line between good taste and bad, between memorialization and exploitation and between the positive and negative uses of hard-core business marketing.Read the whole thing here.
| Posted at 12:42 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (4)
Doesn't it seem odd that a state that once (actually, until a few years ago) constitutionally forbid negroes and mulattoes from living in the state can't find a single home-grown civil rights activist?
Posted by Garage Wine | October 8, 2006 3:24 PM
That entire NYT article was about the commercialization of Rosa Parks, making money off her image and likeness. While naming a street after her would be politcal capitalization, that's quite different than hawking Rosa Parks keychains for $6.95.
Posted by anahit | October 8, 2006 9:04 PM
I never said otherwise. I said people should read the aricle.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 8, 2006 9:06 PM
Don't think of it as commercialization.
Think of it as using municipal good deeds to make up for all the past inequities. If there were any truth in advertising, we could rename the Interstate, the "We're not Crackers" Bridge. That way the casual interstate traveler would not be troubled by how Lily White Portland looks from the perspective of a highway passerby.
Given the racial composition of Portland's elected officials, it's a small price to pay to curry favor with a large block of minority voters. How else to demonstrate how very progressive Portland has become?
You don't expect them to seek out a black Homer Williams, do you? We've already tried two African American police chiefs, and that didn't turn out so good. Maybe we should hire a woman next time....
Posted by Mister Tee | October 9, 2006 8:57 PM