Compelling Similarities

Writes Qasim Rashid . . .

I cannot help but see the compelling similarities from these two pictures, exactly 70 years apart.

On the left, in 1956, a white male police officer fingerprints and arrests Rosa Parks for violating an anti-boycott law, blocking access to justice and equal access under the law.

On the right, in 2026, a white male police officer blocks Tennessee Representative Justin Pearson from accessing a committing meeting that guts the district he represents.

70 years later, fragile racist white male agents of the state with lethal force, hide behind a badge to deny racial justice. This is what we mean when we say the system isn't broken, it was built this way. And a system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect. Our country will not advance to a place of meaningful justice unless we dismantle these systems of injustice and replace them with systems of absolute justice.

History vindicated Rosa Parks. History will vindicate Justin Pearson. And that history begins now.

– Qasim Rashid
via social media
May 12, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Tennessee Passes New Congressional Map That Splits State's Only Majority-Black District – Hannah Demissie, Juhi Doshi, and Oren Oppenheim (ABC News, May 7, 2026).
Video Shows Tense Moment Between Rep. Pearson and State Troopers as Brother Detained at TN Capitol – Lydian Coombs (Action News 5, May 7, 2026).
“An Abomination:” TN House Expels Two Dems Over Gun Protest, Despite Removal Looking Temporary – Adam Friedman (Tennessee Lookout, April 3, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Rep. Justin J. Pearson: Quote of the Day – May 8, 2026
• Rep. Justin Jones: Quote of the Day – May 7, 2026
• “We Are Still Here, and We Will Never Quit”