To state the obvious, we have a problem with racism in this country. We don’t fully understand its complexity and we struggle to talk about it. Adding to the problem is the fact that conservatives are notorious for calling out everything and anything as racist—except actual racism itself.
In today’s lesson on “what is not and will never be actual racism,” conservatives have compared protestors blocking the entrance of Betsy DeVos from a school in Washington, DC to the experience of Ruby Bridges, the first black child to desegregate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
You have likely seen Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With, inspired by how then 6-year-old Bridges was escorted to and from school by US marshals due to threats of violence from angry white mobs. It is one of the most famous images from the Civil Rights Movement.
To give some context, the crowd that surrounded the school on a daily basis were a group of pro-segregationist white mothers called the “Cheerleaders.” They threw things, shouted obscenities and even put a black baby doll in a coffin and protested with it outside of the school. They kept this up for the entire school year.
Walter Cronkite reported the incident in 1960 for the evening news so the national coverage gave the American people, including Rockwell, all the horrible details. Including eggs being thrown by segregationalist housewifes, words that were so bad that the sensors had to muffle the crowd noise and blot these hurtful, horrible words out of their coverage.
Historian Kevin M. Kruse gives a great breakdown on Twitter of this history. Apparently, Rockwell was so disturbed by the scenes from New Orleans, that he couldn’t bring himself to paint the crowds. John Steinbeck who happened to be in New Orleans at the time and saw the crowds in person had this to say about them:
“No newspaper had printed the words these women shouted. It was indicated that they were indelicate, some even said obscene. On television the soundtrack was made to blur or had crown noises cut to occur. But, I heard the words, bestial and filthy and degenerate.”
But apparently last week while the rest of us saw a group of protesters blocking the very unqualified DeVos from entering into a public school in DC, conservatives saw this:
No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This is an actual political cartoon by artist Glenn McCoy.
The right is actually comparing the experience of a 6-year-old black child whose family risked her life to participate in the integration of the New Orleans school system to a spoiled white billionaire who got the education secretary gig by buying her way in. It’s worth noting that Bridges’ family suffered greatly for their decision to participate in the desegregation effort. Ruby started seeing a child psychologist to cope with the stress. Her father lost his job and her grandparents who were sharecroppers were forced off their land.
But again, conservatives want you to believe that’s the same as this:
Astonishing, isn’t it? What an insult to Ruby Bridges and to civil rights activists who have encountered actual racism. Oh, and of course, DeVos actually did make it into the school later (unharmed, by the way) and still remains our secretary of education. But who knows? Maybe she will need to see a psychologist for the “trauma” that was inflicted on that day. And maybe that therapist, if they are any good, can finally help her figure out the difference between proficiency and growth.