Rants Log-in | Search Rants | Account Info

An Open Letter…

(NOTE: For several years, I have been tutoring in English a young lady from Venezuela who is a doctoral candidate at San Diego State University. Once in a while, she attempts to get through one of my postings, often encountering references that are obscure to her. It occurred to me that yesterday’s piece would require a bit more background for her. I thought it might be useful as an open communication.)

Rosa,

In order to understand my blog posting of yesterday, “Fate and Contemplation,” you will need the following background of the characters depicted in the sketch.

During the civil rights era, Governor Faubus of Arkansas and Governor Wallace of Alabama furiously fought against the integration of the schools of their respective states.

“Stepinfetchit”” was the name of an African American film actor in the 1940s who always played a grossly stereotyped “Negro” role. His character was a “comically” distorted depiction of racial inferiority and subservience: “Step (go) and fetch (get) it”.

In the case of both Arkansas and Alabama, after the courts had ruled against racial segregation of the schools, both the governors and the people resisted physically. It was necessary for the federal government to send soldiers to escort the banned students into the schools.

In Alabama, Wallace created an enduring icon of the period by standing in the schoolhouse door, while proclaiming, “Segregation yesterday; segregation today; and segregation forever!” – that was until the soldiers arrived.

Later, Wallace ran for the presidency on an independent ticket. During the campaign, he was shot, in an assassination attempt. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

In both states, rifles and bayonets were needed to separate the screaming crowds from the students who were being escorted into the schools. Cries of, “Nigger, Nigger…” and a host of other excoriating and abusive epithets were heaped upon the students as they passed through the gauntlet, on the way to the schoolhouse door.

What has been appearing on the television screen this month is somewhat reminiscent of those days. The language and vitriol are considerably more muted. The protests have little to do with their coded references -- and everything to do with the dark faces they see in the White House and other positions of power.

Since all three characters of the skit are long deceased, you would have missed the irony of my indicating the two governors to be “still very much alive.”

Curtis