This does work. The raced and gendered hostility. The empty seat next to her. The sense of tension. It works. In comparison to the sculpture yesterday.
This is a photo of the first Black girl to attend an all white school in the United States—Dorothy Counts—being jeered and taunted by her white, male peers. This photo encompasses a lot of things that I really hate: prejudice, ignorance, racism, sexism, inequality…
powerful picture.
I used to have the above photo, as well as this one of Elizabeth Eckford, taped up on the wall in my room, as part of a sort of “tough-hearted women and femmes” altar-like thing. Resistance isn’t always this graceful; it doesn’t always wear a neat dress and endure the slings and arrows of ignorant, mean-spirited enemies without spitting back in rage. But when it does appear in this way, my heart breaks wide open.
Here’s to Dorothy, and Elizabeth, and Rosa, and all those others who I could sit and name all day. Inside those dresses are quiet warriors - Dorothy’s eyes say it all.