When racism rears it’s ugly head in America…
People have to say and do something. If we don’t, we all are complicit. Down in Jena LA. there is such a case going on my dear reader. The Jena Six are black students from the local highschool who were charged with attempted murder. A CommonDreams writeup on this starts out with the following headline:
These are children. They are 16 and 17 years of age and somehow charging them with attempted murder smacks of a racist attitude to me,especially when you consider the school administrators and the local DA allowed the racist attitude to continue among the white students with their taunts and visible nooses swinging from the tree. A small blurb from the CommonDreams writeup:
In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial of a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by black students. The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites responded to black students sitting under the “white tree” at their school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The black defendant, 17 year old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the other. The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies - aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16 year old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other black youths wait similar trials on attempted second degree murder and conspiracy charges.
If the original ‘noose’ incident had been dealt with as a hate crime..perhaps none of this would of happened..but it wasn’t..and we are now at a cross road. The Jena high school principal found that the three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. “Adolescents play pranks,” the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune, “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”
Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the “white tree” at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging white students.
The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the black protesting students saying that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank… I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.” The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week.
It all escalated my dear reader and black and white kids were attacked and beaten. The bottom line is this: The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones - bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis - bail $70,000; 16 year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified minor.
What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto the high school campus and released on $5000 bond. The white man who beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses in the “white tree” were never charged.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Damn…
September 4th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
No one is saying these kids shouldn’t of been held accountable for beating up the white kid..but please…attempted murder..wtf is that shit?
September 4th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Do your homework on this story. There is MUCH more to it than meets the eye.
September 4th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Excuse me? I did my homework. The white folks at Jena LA also have a history of problems with their youth correctional facility sandy:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2000/September/523cr.htm
Also, charges have been reduced against two more of the Black youths:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/04/america/NA-GEN-US-Racial-School-Fight.php
September 4th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Man when I was in high school the black kids always ganged up on the white kids, They ruled the school even though they were outnumbered even the teachers were afraid of them especially the girls. They even beat up the boys.
I guess some people’s experiences are just differenent than others. Or maybe there are 2 sides to every story.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Tos..exactly wtf does your high school experiences have to do with this situation in LA?
September 4th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I am saying do you have the full story or are you merely running with the racism accusation?
I am just saying there are 2 sides to every story.
I would need to see how badly the white kid was beaten. Did he bring the rifle before or after he was beaten up.
I am also saying racism is not always against one par
ticular group.
Remember Reginald Denny?
September 4th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Tos, you do know how to google something don’t you? I report you decide.
Far be it for me to worry about your take on anything, considering your spin on anything you consider ‘librul’.
The latest news link I posted in the comments section, they have lowered the charges against most of the kids..my guess is due to all the press on this..and their history with the DoJ doesn’t help.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Of course I have a take on it. You have yours no? I am not saying raism doesn’t exist but you make it seem it is always one sided. I guess we have all experienced racism in one form or another.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Yeah, right..everyone experiences racism..give me an effin break tos.
There are still people in these United States who live in cities where NO people of color exist. They have no dealings with people of color. Even Craig stated he had no dealings with black individuals until he went to the seminary.
And fyi..people of color isn’t just black people.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I agree Dusty, one disturbing thing to come out of this incident is the number of whites who somehow believed racism to be gone…as if it vanished in the 60s…well its alive and well and not only in the south but in the north as well, as strong or stronger then it was in that time period. And affirmative action and quotas arent discrimination tos, if that is what you afre refering to, it was a very flawed attempt at giving blacks equal rights. And when i say it was flawed I mean that it was on purpose so that eventually they could get rid of it, which if you havent noticed they already have. you cant give one person in a race a 400 year head start then tell the other guy to catch up. We have to combat the disease not the symptoms and that disease is american racism, of which Jena is just a microcosm
September 5th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Okay maybe not everyone experienced racism but more than you know about.
Craig is one person he’s not reperesentative of all caucasions.
There are areas where racism is still prevelant I agree,but today more of us have interaction with “people of color” than in the 60’s.
There are also cities where no white people are either.
I know you probably think by what I wrote I am racist. I am not. I am merely stating the other side that you never get to hear about being fixated on only one view all the time.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I don’t think your racist, I think your ignorant about racism. There is a difference.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Well there is certainly nough ignorance to go around.:)
September 5th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Dusty,
I saw that CNN did an extensive report on this yesterday. Unfortunately, it was at a local restaurant and I was not near enough the tv to actually hear any of the reporting so I remain largely ignorant about this other than what I read in your links.
You say that the guys doing the beating should be held responsible but that attempted murder is too harsh a charge. I tend to agree with you. The beatee hardly seems to have come within a hair of loosing his life. Apparently the prosecutor agrees, at least with regard to one of the accused. According to this report, the prosecutor reduced the charge against one of the defendants “aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years, and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years.” It also says, “Aggravated second-degree battery involves use of a dangerous weapon, according to state statutes.
But attorneys on both sides, during questioning of jurors, indicated prosecutors will try to say that something not usually thought of as a weapon — such as a ring or an ink pen — could be considered a dangerous weapon during a fight.” I don’t know about the ring part but I certainly think that an ink pen could be as deadly as a knife in a fight. If stuck in an eye socket, in the neck or in the chest to the heart, it could be lethal. It says that it was (at least at the time of the report) unclear whether the prosecutor intended to reduce the charges for all the defendants or not.
Does that sound like a more appropriate charge to you?
September 5th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
There’s no doubt, though, if all that is reported at CommonDreams is true, that racism is alive and well, not only at the school — the “White” tree? That’s like the old “white” drinking fountains, “white” washroom facilities, and riding in the back of the bus. Hasn’t anyone here heard of the Civil Rights acts of the mid 60’s? — but in the justice system, as well.
Very, very distressing.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Apparently, one of the charges, the conspiracy charge, has been thrown out. See the reports here and here.