Here are some interesting facts about him, though:

• He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”

• “Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”

• According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

• Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

blackinasia:

psychokandi:

blackinasia:

actofrebellion82:

blackinasia:

“Einstein, when he arrived in America, was shocked at how Black Americans were treated. “There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States,” he said. “That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. And, I do not intend to be quiet about it.” And, he wasn’t.

Although he had a fear of speaking in public, he made all the effort he could to spread the word of equality, denouncing racism and segregation and becoming a huge proponent of civil rights even before the term became fashionable. Einstein was a member of several civil rights groups (including the Princeton chapter of the NAACP).

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein!”

Source: Craig Lowery II for Last Words.

I wonder why I never learned this about Einstein in school…oh wait, I do know why.

Yeah, I mean how could you “tarnish” the legacy of one of the world’s greatest physicists by linking him to the fight for racial equality, especially since he openly calls out racism as a “disease” of the white oppressor. Of course this isn’t a bigger part of his historical narrative. 

Actually, considering the notion of white burden/shame/guilt, one would think that this would have been made a much bigger deal of o.O

Oh, but then there was the fact that he was German.

And I’m sure people would have been able to twist that into some kind of disgustingly stupid ‘nazi’ argument, even though he was Jewish (Believe me, I’ve had the talk about it, people astound me.)

People will always be full of shit in one way or another, what matters is that we eventually spread the truth. 

I think there is a difference between the narrative of white guilt though and openly saying that white people have a “disease” in their internalized racist attitudes. I think that’s a bit too real for most white people to handle, especially when they realize that is not just limited to the KKK types, but includes all white folks who don’t think critically about their own white privilege and how white supremacy figures prominently even in their own lives. 

leupagus:

robot-heart-politics:

yagazieemezi:

I guess Django was more interesting? Yeah, right.

Bass Reeves, one of the first African Americans to become a Deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River. He was born a slave, arrested 3,000 felons, killed 14 men and was never shot throughout his 32-year career as a federal lawman. Reeves  procured his own land in Van Buren, Arkansas, where he married his wife, Nellie Jennie, built an eight-room house with his bare hands, and raised ten children as the first black settler in the region.

Under President Ulysses S. Grant, Parker appointed Confederate Army General James Fagan a U.S. Marshal and ordered him to hire 200 deputies. Fagan knew of the former slave, his ability to negotiate Indian Territory and his ability to speak their languages, and so Reeves was named the first black Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi.

In that role he was authorized to arrest both black and white outlaws.

Reeves later became became an officer of the Muskogee, Oklahoma, police department at the age of 68. He died of Bright’s disease on January 12, 1910, at the age of 72.

‘Bass Reeves’, a fictionalized film of the lawman’s life and military career was produced and released by Ponderous Productions of San Antonio, Texas, in 2010.

Actor Morgan Freeman has spent more than five years attempting to get the story of Reeves to the big screen.

I want to watch a movie about this guy, and I want to watch a movie about Stagecoach Mary, and I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get movies made about badass people from the olden days other than, you know, racism.

I would like three competing biopics of this, please.

atopfourthwall:

royal-knights:

racketstory:

cumaeansibyl:

suicideblonde:

Today would have been Mr Rogers’ 84th birthday.  Thanks for showing me how to rock a cardigan and always been a kind neighbor.  

true story:

one time some dudes stole mr. rogers’s car, and it got into the news, like you’d expect

the next day the car was back where he’d left it with a note that said “we’re so sorry, we never would’ve taken it if we’d known it was yours”

I like to think they recognized this as a sign from god and turned their lives around

another true story: mr. rogers lobbied in favor of vcrs back when the tv and movie industries were against them, because he wanted families to be able to record shows and watch them together

he was always, always thinking about children, letting them know it’s okay to be sad or scared or mad and how to deal with it, letting them know there’s at least one person in the world who loves them just the way they are

and no matter who you were, no matter why you crossed his path, he wanted to know about your life and understand you and be your friend

I believe he is a for-real saint and I wish I could be more like him but it’s okay, I know he loves me just the way I am

Another true story: one time he received a letter from a blind girl who mentioned that she gets nervous sometimes that he’d forget to feed the fish.  From that moment on, he made some comment outloud about how he was feeding the fish so she and any other blind viewers would know that he hadn’t forgotten.

And you know he was a Presbyterian Minister. So what did he do when fundies would ask him to say horrible things about gay people?

He’d tell the victim of the fundies that “God loves you just the way you are,” and was even part of a Presbyterian ministry focused on WELCOMING members of the LGBT community to their churches.

Have some more reasons why Mr. Rogers is one of the best human beings who ever lived.

Have YOU ever grown anything in the garden of your mind?

afternoonsnoozebutton:

nprfreshair:

Boston.com:

Research scientist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Albert Lin gallops across the steppes of northern Mongolia as he searches for Genghis Khan’s tomb and other archaeological sites. (Photo by Mike Hennig)

Albert Lin is a major badass. He’s an archaeologist who uses groundbreaking technology to figure out what’s below the surface without ever actually breaking the soil.

On top of being incredibly cool, this new, noninvasive approach to archaeology is more culturally respectful and much less destructive.

Also, he’s a pretty good looking guy. Move over, Indiana Jones.

khaaaaaaan:

fuckyeahstartrek:

Neil deGrasse Tyson,  Brent Spiner, and LeVar Burton

Fuck. Yeah.

Jesus take the wheel.

wolfpax:

Twitter exchange of the day: Geordi La Forge and Captain Jean-Luc Picard at Christmas Time