Friday, February 02, 2007

In Black History Month: A Rosa Resolution

Some of you, writing to me privately, have made the connection between the documentary "A Girl Like Me" and the upcoming PBS Documentary on "Hip Hop."

For me, there's a direct line between those little African American children choosing the Caucasian dolls as "better" and "nice" and "what I want to be" and the violence and misogyny in some Hip Hop music.

It's not rocket science to figure out that if a child grows up thinking that human worth is determined by skin color, that the behavior of those same children, as adults, without having had the benefit of any positive intervention for change, would reflect that early learning.

"Children will listen."

Here's a brilliant comment on that given by none other than Rev'd Al Sharpton. He was in rare form as he eulogized Rosa Parks at her funeral.

There are some wonderful gems in that speech - I especially like his commentary on "James Crow, Jr., Esquire" and "Keepin' it real" - but the best is at the end. Sharpton urged everyone leaving Park's funeral to make a "Rosa Resolution."

He said, "I'm going to make a Rosa Resolution that whenever I see injustice I'm going to stand up. And, if I can't stand up, I'm going to speak out. And, if I can't speak out, I'm going to do what Rosa did and just get me a chair and sit in the way."

Your politics don't have to be that of Sharpton's, and your skin doesn't have to be of any particular color in order to say to that, "Amen."

You can find that video of Sharpton's eulogy here.

If that link isn't 'hot', paste this into your browser: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/default.cdnx/id/9899088/displaymode/1157
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