Cover Controversy
The new issue of “The Socialist” magazine is out in the mail, and, to my utter befuddlement, its cover is provoking some controversy. Apparently, some comrades take exception to linking Rosa Parks’ image and legacy with a stupid teevee show, no matter the ironic effect intended. The party’s female Co-Chair thinks that linking Parks with “Desperate Housewives” is “historically inaccurate, belittling to her as an individual, and demeaning to the Civil Rights movement.” Our young, white male Co-Vice Chair denounces the cover as “controversial in the eyes of women or people of color,” and Wayne Rossi dismisses it as “a smarmy, self-satisfied pop-culture reference…that sets a bad tone for the enterprise.” I produce each issue of the magazine in collaboration with an Editorial Board, and I am always sure to direct their attention to items that I think might spur controversy (for example, I was awfully worried about the response […]