bamacre
Lifer
- Jul 1, 2004
- 21,029
- 2
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"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. " - MLK Jr.
IMO, the situation in Jena stems from ignorance on both sides. Too many white people stuck in thier old, ignorant, ways. And too many black people who don't know how to deal with it.
IMO, the situation in Jena stems from ignorance on both sides. Too many white people stuck in thier old, ignorant, ways. And too many black people who don't know how to deal with it.
Starbuck1975
Lifer
- Jan 6, 2005
- 14,698
- 1,909
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All it takes is one good kick to the head to cause life threatening injuries...IMO, the kid that got beat up was very lucky.
It is irrelevant that the victim attended a school function later that day...he faced assault at the hands of six attackers, which is unjustifiable no matter what provoked the attack...race shouldn't even be an issue given those facts alone.
Now granted, it is obvious that the local court systems were a bit heavy handed in their treatment of the "Jena 6." There is undoubtedly a bias in terms of how the system handled the white kids involved versus the "Jena 6." THAT situation needs immediate resolution...but from what I have heard, I have yet to hear Sharpton or Jackson admit that the "Jena 6" were WRONG for resorting to violence in the face of racism.
I did read the facts of the whole story, and I am well aware of the circumstances and timeline...I was commenting based on the media coverage I have seen thus far, and comments made to reporters by those attending the protest.
That Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are comparing this march to the pivotal protests of the 1960s Civil Rights movement is probably the most offensive component of this whole story.
Our society still suffers from examples of racism and prejudice, but I think at this point in our history, whites and blacks are equally guilty of it.
As a white person, there are certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles that I could not safely walk through once the sun goes down...and where I would become a target simply for being white. How is that any different than the centuries old attitudes and behaviors that continue to exist in remote parts of the deep South, like Jena?
Proves my point exactly.
jonks
Lifer
- Feb 7, 2005
- 13,918
- 20
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So your position is that if I had a sign behind me that said "Religion Sucks" and I burned a cross, that it would be reasonable for any black person who saw that to feel that I was attempting to intimidate them? I guess that's why Madonna was incarcerated after her "Like a Prayer" video, because clearly her burning crosses were meant to intimidate black people. Don't forget all the actors they locked up in movies where crosses were burned.
Oh, and by the way, in the case on point, Virginia v. Black, the SC reiterated it's 15 year holding that the KKK can burn crosses at rallies because it was an expression of shared ideology:
"As the history of cross burning indicates, a burning cross is not always intended to intimidate. Rather, sometimes the cross burning is a statement of ideology, a symbol of group solidarity. It is a ritual used at Klan gatherings, and it is used to represent the Klan itself. Thus, "burning a cross at a political rally would almost certainly be protected expression." R. A. V. v. St. Paul (1992)
The charges were harsh, but the conviction fit the crime perfectly. Is that or is that not what Bell did? Every one of the Jena 6 deserve to be held accountable for what they did.
At the same time, I'm completely disgusted with people's attitude towards race around here. An average white individual in my town could look at you with a straight face while telling you that they're not racist, it's just that blacks REALLY are inferior. They think that a predisposition for stealing and laziness is somehow integral to the makeup of the average black. They believe that interracial marriages are bad, but they couldn't tell you exactly why. The best argument that I've heard for this is that the mixed race children that are produced would have it harder than a member of either race. It should be clear why this idea holds no water. It begs the question of exactly "why" anyone should have a race related problem at all. Social unrest and problems of all sorts are often attributed to the basic inferiority or incompetence of blacks coupled with their prevalence in a particular area. What is most striking to me is how casual people are about it. For example: In certain circles a dog owned by a white might gain several marks of high esteem by virtue of how much it "hates n*****s". This is something that I've heard many times living here in Ferriday (which happens to be a scant 40 miles from Jena).
Yes racism is alive among whites in the south, but it is being propped up under a militant and mostly counterproductive movement in the black community. This case simply does not deserve the attention it's getting. I fully believe that those ignorant SOBs who think nooses are funny should have been expelled for what they did. I also think that the Jena 6 should be punished by the books in accordance to what they did, regardless of how lucky their victim was in being blessed with an unusually thick and damage-resistant skull. What do the protesters who marched in Jena today think? Do they care that the crime committed by the Jena 6 was indeed very serious? By their banners and protest sign I gather that they simply want them freed and cleared of all charges. Is that justice? I think not. It's just another kind of virulent stubbornness that rivals any sentiment the white community might have towards blacks, and ultimately serves to drive the wedge a little deeper between people who have no good reason to be separated.
I mostly wish that people both white and black in the south could just wake up one morning and see each other not as pests or antagonists, but as equals with so few real differences as to be indistinguishable. Why is that so damn hard to do?
At the same time, I'm completely disgusted with people's attitude towards race around here. An average white individual in my town could look at you with a straight face while telling you that they're not racist, it's just that blacks REALLY are inferior. They think that a predisposition for stealing and laziness is somehow integral to the makeup of the average black. They believe that interracial marriages are bad, but they couldn't tell you exactly why. The best argument that I've heard for this is that the mixed race children that are produced would have it harder than a member of either race. It should be clear why this idea holds no water. It begs the question of exactly "why" anyone should have a race related problem at all. Social unrest and problems of all sorts are often attributed to the basic inferiority or incompetence of blacks coupled with their prevalence in a particular area. What is most striking to me is how casual people are about it. For example: In certain circles a dog owned by a white might gain several marks of high esteem by virtue of how much it "hates n*****s". This is something that I've heard many times living here in Ferriday (which happens to be a scant 40 miles from Jena).
Yes racism is alive among whites in the south, but it is being propped up under a militant and mostly counterproductive movement in the black community. This case simply does not deserve the attention it's getting. I fully believe that those ignorant SOBs who think nooses are funny should have been expelled for what they did. I also think that the Jena 6 should be punished by the books in accordance to what they did, regardless of how lucky their victim was in being blessed with an unusually thick and damage-resistant skull. What do the protesters who marched in Jena today think? Do they care that the crime committed by the Jena 6 was indeed very serious? By their banners and protest sign I gather that they simply want them freed and cleared of all charges. Is that justice? I think not. It's just another kind of virulent stubbornness that rivals any sentiment the white community might have towards blacks, and ultimately serves to drive the wedge a little deeper between people who have no good reason to be separated.
I mostly wish that people both white and black in the south could just wake up one morning and see each other not as pests or antagonists, but as equals with so few real differences as to be indistinguishable. Why is that so damn hard to do?
White kids did something really stupid at school and got suspended. Black kids nearly beat a kid to death and get sent to jail. I'm having a hard time seeing what there is to protest here.
The part about the white kids beating up a black kid and getting lesser punishment and the part about the DA threatening the black kids before the incident. It's called double-standard. Try to read the thread before commenting.
It was "In School Suspension" anyway. They whole thing stinks. It is mainly the fault of the Superintendent. They should not have over ruled the expulsion of the students who hung the noose. Then it was not the right thing to threaten to "End the victims lives with a stroke of the pen." In a small town they though they could just railroad these kids into jail for 60 years or whatever, but once it got out its time to backpedal. Both sides have been fighting for what seem like months after the first incident. There was even a gun involved. I know somebody is going to loose their job. Why do racist have so low self-esteem? I think its time for white folks to take the lead and end this Racism thing, we have been trying for almost 100 years and whatever we do we cannot make YOU change YOUR minds about US no matter what WE do. Every issue like his is always retaliatory. How do you expect people to act? People simply get fed up with acts of racism, hanging an noose on a tree in the south.....WTF. When will white leaders come out and condemn acts of hate and other racist practices today? And i still dont get it, what is the reason for white folks to hate blacks so much in the first place? What did we do to you in history? We have all the right.
Riiight, now you're accusing me of lying without providing any evidence. You must use the same intellectual algorithm that SlitherDee sees in the racists in the South.
jonks
Lifer
- Feb 7, 2005
- 13,918
- 20
- 81
You sig is inspiring.
How many of the 4000 dead and 30,000 wounded US Soldiers that Bush sent to Iraq were white? How many Iraqies have died in this war? Is the Secretary of State white? Is Colin Powell? Who appointed the first Hispanic Attorney General (incompetent idiot that he is)? You've been "trying for 100 years" to end racism? Yet here you are feeding the fire. Want to move towards racial harmony? Try changing your sig, there's a start.
Starbuck1975
Lifer
- Jan 6, 2005
- 14,698
- 1,909
- 126
I keep hearing these claims, but media reports are all over the map in terms of establishing the true sequence of events...many people are reacting to the misinformation and rumor mill blog campaign that fueled the Jena protest.
I think some are angry about the protest, because the resounding message is "Free the Jena 6." The message should be that those white kids who engaged in the same behaviors should face the same punishment.
We should hold both races and both groups of students EQUALLY accountable for their stupidity and ignorance...not play the race card and justify the violent act committed by the "Jena 6." What does it say about race relations in this country when current Civil Rights leaders are willing to excuse or attempt to justify violence in the face of racism.
squirrel dog
Diamond Member
- Oct 10, 1999
- 5,564
- 48
- 91
jonks
Lifer
- Feb 7, 2005
- 13,918
- 20
- 81
Wow, good find, and not just because the author is black, but because it's balanced. Recommend the whole thread read this one.
Back to web version Friday, Sep 21, 2007
Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
Lessons from Jena, La.
By JASON WHITLOCK
Now we love Mychal Bell, the star of the 2006 Jena (La.) High School football team, the teenage boy who has sat in jail since December for his role in a six-on-one beatdown of a fellow student.
Thursday, thousands of us, proud African-Americans, expressed our devotion to and desire to see justice for the ?Jena Six,? the half-dozen black students who knocked unconscious, kicked and stomped a white classmate.
Jesse Jackson compared Thursday?s rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday?s peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.
Jesse and Al, as they?re prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.
There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the ?Jena Six? rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.
But the reality is Thursday?s protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.
The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he?d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail.
Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn?t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.
Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?
That?s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn?t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.
There was no ?schoolyard fight? as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.
Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.
A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the ?Jena Six? case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker?s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the ?Jena Six? in reaction to Walters? extreme charges of attempted murder.
Much has been written about Bell?s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell?s public defender was black.
It?s almost never mentioned that Bell?s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son?s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell?s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison.
Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?
It?s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker?s attack. And it?s never mentioned that white people in the ?racist? town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell?s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.
You won?t hear about any of that because it doesn?t fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves.
We don?t practice preventive medicine. Mychal Bell needed us long before he was cuffed and jailed. Here is another undeniable, statistical fact: The best way for a black (or white) father to ensure that his son doesn?t fall victim to a racist prosecutor is by participating in his son?s life on a daily basis.
That fact needed to be shared Thursday in Jena. The constant preaching of that message would short-circuit more potential ?Jena Six? cases than attributing random acts of six-on-one violence to three-month-old nooses.
And I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should?ve been expelled. A few years after I?d graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.
The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.
But the kids responsible for Barker?s beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they?re in harm?s way.
I?ve been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It?s a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we?re lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.
You don?t want to see any more ?Jena Six? cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.
© 2007 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com
Ha, caught you again. Your implication that somebody black is defending the DA/town implies that race does play a part in this travesty. This wasn't just about "justice", it was a racist assault on the justice system. Your constant allusion to the skin color of the defenders of the DA says: "Look, this black guy supports what we're saying." Well, I guess that makes it all right then, let's just ignore all the facts of the series of events that shows how racist this DA/town is.
Starbuck1975
Lifer
- Jan 6, 2005
- 14,698
- 1,909
- 126
Did you even bother to read the article...that has to be the most balanced and well written piece I have seen on this whole Jena fiasco.
But the truth doesn't fit into your preconceived notion that Jena is this terribly racist southern town, and therefore you dismiss it...and this is why we cannot have a meaningful dialogue on race relations in this country...because it is taboo to criticize the black community for not taking a more active role in PREVENTING racism by fighting the very stereotypes and behaviors that fuel racism.
I did read it and it looks like the author spun things as he saw it. For example, criticizing the father for coming back into the son's life after he got charged with a serious crime is a negative? Come on, the author, in that instance as in others, saw the glass half-full. Sirjonk speaks about absolutes. Well, if that's the case, why does he need (or even mentions) black faces to justify the case against these young men?
EDIT: Get back to me when the law is applied blindly to all the youths, both black and white, equally.
The negative aspect if you bothered to read the article is where was his father before it got to this point? Not that he showed up, that he didnt show up until it was too late.
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