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This story is all over the news, and I'll swear I've never heard anything about this before.But this rally, in a town of 3,500, looks like it has the potential for trouble. Big trouble. The first speaker this morning was from the Nation of Islam.
Edit: Wikipedia article on the whole imbroglio here.
29 comments:
I noticed this story about a month ago. I think what started this unfortunate chain of events was some black students sitting under a tree that was for whites only.
There is still county owned property in Newark that was built and dedicated for usage by "Whites Only".
And some in city government still don't get it. Just because you took the sign down its still a symbol of racism.
NPR did a story on the Jena 6 in July. If you look at the facts/the timeline it's hard to believe that this stuff is happening in 2007.
Funny. Let some white boy beat up a black and see what happens. Blacks would be screaming to give that white boy the worst penalty possible.
Now the shoe is on the other foot and we have hundreds of black people who want to protest against their kind getting into trouble for beating up a white boy. Typical Blacks.
In Eddie Murphy's famous line from SNL---Silly Negroes!
The school administrators allowed the tension to go unabated because of...
Fricking FOOTBALL!
They had a winning football team and they didn't want to chance losing. They could have and should have stopped the tension on that first day.
Expect a Reginald Denny-like trial and verdict.
All Things Considered, July 30, 2007 · As at hundreds of other high schools across America, black and white students at Jena High School in Jena, La., rarely sit together. The white students gather under a big shade tree in the courtyard, while black students congregate near the auditorium.
But last year, a few days into the first semester, a new student, a freshman African American, asked the principal at an assembly, if he, too, could sit under the tree. He was told he could sit anywhere he liked.
Three white boys on the rodeo team apparently disagreed. The next morning, there were three nooses hanging from the shade tree in the courtyard.
Anthony Jackson is one of two black teachers at Jena High School. He laughs ruefully, as he recalls watching the nooses swaying in the tree.
"I jokingly said to another teacher, 'One's for you, one's for me. Who's the other one for?'"
Many in Jena's black community wanted the three white students expelled. But when the white superintendent and other school administrators investigated, they decided the nooses were a prank. Instead of expulsion or arrest, the three received in-school suspension.
Blacks called the punishment a double standard.
"White students can do things and receive a slap on the hand," Jackson says. But authorities "want to throw the book at blacks," he adds.
An Incident Escalates
A few of the black athletes, the stars of the football team, took the lead in resisting. The day after the nooses were hung, they reportedly organized a silent protest under the tree.
The school called an assembly and summoned the police and the district attorney. Black students sat on one side, whites on the other. District Attorney Reed Walters warned the students he could be their friend or their worst enemy. He lifted his fountain pen and said, "With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear."
That evening, black students told their parents that the DA was looking right at them. Walters denies that. Billy Fowler, a member of the school board, doesn't believe it, either.
"He said some pretty strong things," says Fowler, "but I don't think he was directing it to anyone in particular. I think he just wanted people to calm it down."
But things didn't calm down. Some whites felt triumphant; some blacks were resentful. Fights began to break out at the high school. But that year, the football team was having an unusually good season and the black athletes were a major reason why. So while there were fights throughout the fall, nobody wanted to take any action that would hurt the team.
When the season was over, so was the truce. On Nov. 30, somebody burned down Jena High. Whites thought blacks were responsible, blacks thought the opposite.
Charges and Public Outrage
The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.
After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.
The following Monday, Dec.4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.
Six black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. But District Attorney Reed Walters increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder. That provoked a storm of black outrage.
"Jena has always been a racist town," says Bailey's mother, Caseptla Bailey. "We've understood that….It has been that way since I've lived here."
But school board member Billy Fowler disagrees.
As far as racial problems, our community is no different than any other community," Fowler says.
Fowler is one of the few leaders with the school administration or local law enforcement willing to talk to the media. The principal, the school superintendent and the district attorney all declined repeated calls for comment.
Fowler says he is appalled at reports by outside media outlets that he claims portray Jena as a racist community. But he and many other white leaders agree that the charges are unfair.
"I think it's safe to say some punishment has not been passed out fairly and evenly," Fowler says. "I think probably blacks may have gotten a little tougher discipline through the years.
"Our town is not a bunch of bigots. They're Christian, law-abiding citizens that wouldn't mistreat anybody."
But the black students and their families feel mistreated. The first to go to court was Mychal Bell, the team's star running and defensive back. Bell's court-appointed lawyer refused to mount any defense at all, instead resting his case immediately after two days of government presentation. An all-white jury found Bell guilty.
A talented athlete, Bell had a real shot at a Division I football scholarship. He now faces up to 22 years in prison. The other five black students await trial on attempted murder charges.
Over the weekend, Jena High School had the big shade tree in the courtyard chopped into firewood.
How do you know it's been all over the news if you've never heard of it?
In an age where our society thrives on overreaction,knee-jerk reaction and a lot of other silly things, this sounds like the black kids got a raw deal. I'm white, but I don't think there should be ANYTHING that is "for whites only", just as I oppose anything "for blacks only" or any other race. We're all AMERICANS, and we should all try to get along with each other. It's not the 1800s, not even the 1960s...The problem is, there is too much fame and fortune for those who would want to play the race card (Al Sharpton, et. al) who don't want race relations to be healed.
TxSheehan, so what do you have against football? I'll bet you're a soccer fan.
Remember, winning is not everything, it is the only thing!
If I wasn't wanted somewhere, I wouldn't go.
Black people protesting today are only continuing what they claim they want to put an end to.
Make them all slaves again and we won't have these problems .
I am knew to the story like Mr. B I guess. But in all that goes on in the world today I understand that true racism and discrimination still exists. Obviously not as bad or as in as many places as it use to but it is still there. I think being a middle class white man I have become numb to the issue because of people like Donovan McNabb and Al Sharpton. McNabb makes millions each year and is playing the race card because the fans are starting to ride him. I shake my head and realize it will never go away not in my lifetime or my children's. But then you have real issues like what is going on in Jena and then you really don't know what to believe or what is true or if the media is blowing things out of proportion.
I think the kids got a raw deal and this should have been stopped long before it got this far.
The mom said it right. The town has been racist since she has lived there. To stop racism you have to stop teaching it. A child does not see color untill someone teaches them too. They dont see someone of different color at 5 and say I dont like them because their skin isnt the same as mine all on their own. This isnt a bunch of black and white kids all the sudden being put together these kids have grown up together in the same town for years, some of them their entire lives. How can at least some of the white kid have black friends and some of the black kids have white friends?
I know there are racist people still, hell I live in wise county, but I dont understand how it can still be this out of controll.
Assuming everything in this article is true, these black kids are not being treated fairly. It amazes me that things like "the white tree" still happen. All that being said, people like Al Sharpton that play the race card all the time are responsible for keeping the racial tension in this country alive and well. We've made great strides concerning racism, but obviously we still have a very long way to go.
If the incident was as described, and the victim was hit in the back of the head and then, while on the ground, was repeatedly kicked by a group of young men and then left unconscious, how do you describe the crime? Attempted murder interruptus? Or just a bunch of kids letting off steam?
A group beating seems pretty severe to me, regardless of how much the victim may have deserved it -- if anyone (other than a Central Park jogger) ever "deserves" to be beaten and kicked.
good 'ol looserana.
guess what folks, sometimes, the issue REALLY IS racism.
My biggest regret in life was having sex with a black chick. Man, I was hammered.
it seems that the protestors are mad because the boys that beat the white kid that hung things around that offended them are getting the bok thrown at them in america no matter what the message is no matter racist ingorant or mean we still have a right to freedom of speech and expression and we must remember that while we might not like the others views we dont ave to pay any attention to them. as far as the proscuting of the boys that beat the kid it was a hate crime and the boys should be treated and punshied acordingly the law is black and white and must be followed
This is the only reason I would ever turn Pro Choice!
Denney Crane
So wordkyle, I'm assuming you read the whole article that 9:59 posted. And the only thing in it you respond to is the part about the white kid getting beaten?? UNBELIEVABLE... Why am I surprised, coming from you, but still I am.
There was so much injustice in that article, 90% of it directed towards the black kids.
It's appalling.
To txsharon: Your comment.....................
"The school administrators allowed the tension to go unabated because of...
Fricking FOOTBALL!"
...........is correct but incomplete. This clufter stuck may have been born of an irrational obsession with football, but the fact that BSG, a professional and self avowed TV junkie knew nothing of it until now is also the result of HIS obsession with.... you guessed it .... football.(Check the last 3 weeks content on this blog.) Imagine how many Americans know more about football than relevant subjects like, say, current events, the state of health of the planet, the reality of impending worldwide economic collapse, or the plight of millet farmers in Rwanda. Our national distraction (foobal,((intentionally misspelled)) has contributed heavily toward one of the most apathetic, uninformed and non-participatory electorates in the history of democracy. Yes it's easy enough for many of you to sit and complain of the injustices laid on you by a few smart, active rich guys, but until you turn that TV off, get off your butts and participate, you are reaping what you sowed. I have no sympathy for you regardless of your race.
Amen 12:17
Yes, I've been watching it, too. Why hasn't it made national news before now. I mean, I know it's gone national, but this stuff is real, and shouldn't be. They ought to exploit the heck out of it, and shame all the discriminators out of town!
And, yes it's been in the media, if you've looked for it, just not in the forefront.
And, yes, 9:59's account is quite consistent with what I've also read.
1:15, you're a nut! I hope you don't live in Wise County, because that behavior is unwanted!
National news hadn't picked it up until the independent press took it and ran with it. Look at thd NYT website and read all about it!
5:41 - Actually, I did not read that post. However, I followed the links in BG's original post.
Does it make you feel better if I say that the racism shown by the white people was horrendous and stupid? That the previous actions by the white people called for harsher punishment than was shown? Consider it said. Feel better?
Now, back to the one point which I addressed. The assault by a gang on one victim was caused but was separate from the incidents previous to it. It could have been a simple ass-whuppin; or it could have been an assault with intent to commit grievous damage. We don't know. There are plenty of victims in this situation, but only one had to go to the hospital.
(I went back and read NPR's version of the incident. Concussion, eye swollen shut, injuries to ear, face and hand = "superficial" Good ol' NPR. You can't count on them, but you can count on them to be NPR.)
As for your "coming from you" comment -- once again you form an incorrect opinon without knowing what you're talking about. Find a single message I've ever posted here -- which contains the entire universe of your knowledge of me -- which would indicate that I am racist. There are none.
Your ignorant attempt at character assassination based on lack of knowledge and information was pitiable.
I have followed this story now for a few months. All of you who are just now forming an opinion stop to consider for a moment the following notions:
The main contention of the activist black community is that if hanging the nooses was not a hate crime, then it follows that the beating shouldn't be. This ignores the fact that one is a harmless, if distasteful expression of opinion while the other involved bodily injury to another citizen. that they fail to see the difference is alarming.
Under pressure from critics (presumably black activists), prosecution of the remaining black suspects has been halted. However they continue to call for prosecution of whites who broke no laws, that is the nooses.
The black activists prefer to characterize the incident as a "schoolyard fght" rather than attempted murder. Six men of one color taking down one of another color is not a fight. It is a lynching. The colors are just reversed. A fight is when two boys punch it out, get over it and get on with life.
One of the activists is quoted as saying that this happened "for our generation" If you wait for something like this as an excuse to riot while distorting the realities, you are in fact propogating, not fighting racism.
Now take this whole incident, reverse all the colors, and imagine what the two races' different approach might be:
1) whites don't march in support of white criminals. Why do blacks?
Whites routinely ignore the myriad insults hurled at them by the black (rap) community. If they feel unwelcome in a black setting they avoid it. What do blacks expect to achieve by forcible entry into white settings?
The only true crime I see committed here at the judicial level was that of Bell's lawyer who made no attempt at his defense. I failed to see mention of his race.
And the greatest affront to God's green earth here was the murder of an innocent tree. A living entity with more grace, value and sense than all the rest of the participants. Are we really this crappy of an excuse of a species that the best we could do was murder the tree? That's embarrassing.
12:52 You are spot-on and not near so wordy as I.
Wordkyle--- As usual you are succinct and logical; completely out of place in this liberal electronic rag. Only thing I can figure is you must be bangin MZ and TX both. Elsewise why do you hang around??
Blacks only want hate crime laws applied when they are the victims.
This is great for Bro. Al. This will set back race relations in America for another 20 years assuring him of having a job for the rest of his life.
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