A tribute* to Rosa Parks by Jim Leftwich:
-cvj
(*spotted on Boing Boing.)
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October 28th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
very cool!
October 28th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
It’s funny to see the iPod connection, because I think that iPods (and other gadgets that allow people to make a cocoon for themselves) contribute to a problem that is extremely common on public transportation — young, healthy, able-bodied, unencumbered people ignoring old, tired, ill, pregnant etc. people who don’t have seats. If I’m sitting I’ll give up my seat (well, actually, now that I’m 7 months pregnant I don’t), but only if I notice that someone else needs it. Like anyone else during a long commute, I can get engrossed in my book or my knitting or my music, and only realize belatedly that there’s a man carrying a sleeping toddler, or a woman who looks like she’s about to drop from exhaustion, standing right next to me. But people generally won’t ask for a seat, even if they really need it.
Here’s my clever solution: If you’re standing and see someone else who needs a seat, become that person’s advocate. For example, a few years ago, standing next to a visibly pregnant woman right in front of two young guys who were sitting down, I said loudly “So, neither of these two guys offered you a seat?” One of them looked up guiltily and gave her his seat; the other was listening to music and didn’t even seem to hear. Sometimes it takes more than a hint, but not often. Most of the time it’s not selfishness or insensitivity that’s the problem, but the understandable desire to make a little private space for oneself when cooped up in a crowd. Of course, some people are just jerks….
October 28th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
This is intended as a tribute? Putting someone who struggled to change an entire culture in a fake advertisement for an electronics corporation that brands itself as your friend? Is this what we’re reduced to?
October 28th, 2005 at 6:14 pm
The actual original photo of Rosa Parks has been on the front page of the Apple website for the past two or three days. This photoshopped iPod tribute is tacky and I can’t believe Apple would be so crass as to capitalise on it even before she’s buried. Can you confirm that it’s actually an Apple advert?
October 28th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Ah, sorry, I get it now. This is some sort of post-ironic dig at Apple for having used the photo in the first place.
October 28th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
“This is some sort of post-ironic dig at Apple for having used the photo in the first place.”
Excellent.
-cvj
October 28th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
One aspect of post-irony (or whatever is the noun form of post-ironic) is that you can’t tell what it’s supposed to mean.
October 29th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
There really is no limit to bad taste on the internet.