Injustice in Jena: The ‘White Tree’, A White Judge, White Jury, and White Prosecutor Calling White Witnesses Leads To Conviction of Black Youth
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
await similar trials on attempted second degree murder and conspiracy charges.
Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is just as chilling.
The trouble started under “the white tree” in front of Jena High School. The “white tree” is where the white students, 80% of the student body, would always sit during school breaks.
In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked permission from school administrators to sit under the “white tree.” School officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.
The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the “white tree.” The message was clear. “Those nooses meant the KKK, they meant ‘Niggers, we’re going to kill you, we’re going to hang you till you die,’” Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London Observer.
The Jena high school principal found that 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.”
The African-American community was hurt and upset. “Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple,” according to Tracy Bowens, mother of students at Jena High.
But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The ten person all-male government of the parish has one African-American member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one “colored” member of the board). There is one black police officer in Jena and two black public school teachers.
Jena, with a population of less than 3000, is the largest town in and parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350 African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 14,000 people - 12% African-American.
This is solid Bush and David Duke Country - GWB won LaSalle Parish 4 to 1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote when he ran for Governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60% of the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10% of the businesses in LaSalle Parish are black owned.
Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking of juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to commit suicide.
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.
Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.
On the night of Thursday November 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.
On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.
On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student - who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students “niggers” while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party - was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.
Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were expelled from school.
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.
Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.
Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.
The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined “Racial Demons Rear Heads.” The London Observer wrote: “Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new ’stealth’ racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America’s Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.” The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV special report “Race Hate in Louisiana 2007.”
The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not plead guilty to a felony.
When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was represented by an appointed public defender.
On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon used by “the gang of black boys” who beat the white victim.
Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared - every single one white.
The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all white group to the Alexandria Louisiana Town Talk newspaper saying that the jury pool was selected by computer. “The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is color blind. The idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial makeup of the community, but the system does not take race into factor.” Officials said they had summoned 150 people, but these were the only people who showed up.
The all-white jury which was finally chosen included two people friendly with the District Attorney, a relative of one of the witnesses and several others who were friends of prosecution witnesses.
Bell’s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed to attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed as potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was allowed to stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely quoted in the media as critics of the process, were also told they could no longer speak to the media as long as the trial was in session. Marcus Jones had told the media “It’s all about those nooses” and declared the charges racially motivated.
Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the judge would see them.
The prosecutor called 17 witnesses - eleven white students, three white teachers, and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the victim, others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim testified that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.
The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The public defender told the Alexandria Town talk after resting his case without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed by many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not guilty. “I don’t believe race is an issue in this trial…I think I have a fair and impartial jury…”
The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.
The public defender told the press afterwards, “I feel I put on the best defense that I could.” Responding to criticism of not putting on any witnesses, the attorney said “why open the door for further accusations? I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell.”
At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said “I have seen a lot of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday.” Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial as a “modern day lynching.”
Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents for months. “People know if they don’t demand equal treatment now, they will never get it. People’s jobs and livelihoods have been threatened for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are willing to risk that. One person told me: ‘We have to convince more people to come rally with us…..What’s the worst that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn’t happen to us again, or our children will never be safe.’”
Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. “We don’t have a problem,” according to one. Other locals told the media “We all get along,” and “most blacks are happy with the way things are.” One person even said “We don’t have many problems with our blacks.”
Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in LaSalle Parish said it all could have been avoided. “There’s no doubt about it,” he told the Chicago Tribune, “whites and blacks are treated differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided.”
Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the end of the rally when he said “You better get out of your houses. You better come out and defend your children…because they are incarcerating them by the thousands. Jena’s not the beginning, but Jena has crossed the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I believe in accepting the punishment if I’m guilty. If I’m guilty, convict me and punishment, but if I’m innocent, no justice…” and the crowd joined with him and shouted “no peace!”
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.
The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund - the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice. People interested in supporting can contact: the Jena 6 Defense Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342 jena6defense@gmail.com; Friends of Justice, 507 North Donley Avenue, Tulia, TX 79088 www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 56157, New Orleans, LA 70156 www.laaclu.org or 417.350.0536.
What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence he will not be out of prison until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the “white tree” outside Jena High sits quietly in the hot sun.
Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley@loyno.edu Audrey Stewart contributed to this article.
And they say racism is dead in the good ole US of A……This is just a one of many. Even in ‘enlightened society’ in the US,, racism is still practiced….
The good people of places like LaSalle Parish LA are the ones who support Republican scum like George W Bush. Without their “Southern Strategy” Republicans could not get elected dog catcher. They whisper “the nigras are your problem - vote for us and we’ll take care of them for you…” and the poor white trash, with no one to feel superior to but the poorer blacks, dutifully vote Republican in hopes of maintaining their tenuous place in society.
We shouldn’t worry, though. W will undoubtedly see the sufferings this black kid and his family have gone through and the excessive sentence this court has handed out and commute the jail time for this American. Don’t ya think?
it is not just the ‘nigras’ that are the problem, but mexicans and many others. anybody who is not white anglo saxon protestant. racism never died. it just went underground and now it shows the true colors of the citizens.
The really sad thing is that this has gotten less attention that Paris Hilton, and more jail time than Scoter Libbey.
Laws can’t stop racism. Racism comes from the culture and can only be stopped through education. Racist are stupid people who are afraid of something that doesn’t exist. Their fear is learned and reinforced culturally. The situation in Jena is typical in America and we shouldn’t be surprised.
Hoa binh
Makes me less likely to support the rebuilding of Louisiana. New Orleans, yes. Louisiana, no. Take all those young, strong, healthy, superior white kids and start cleaning up your state. Stop whining about your Katrina disaster, and roll up your shirtsleeves. Good ‘ol American hard work will get you where you wnat to go. You don’t need our money or our time. Clean up your own backyard, Louisiana. Maybe you can take time out to vote for Mitt and his dog. Good luck being ignored by the GOP in the next administration too.
Don’t you get it? The rest of the country doesn’t like you either. If California is the rich, gay uncle you don’t invite to reunions, but always call for money, then you are the redneck, ignorant, bigoted brother-in-law that we hate to sit next to when we DO get an invite (usually to cut a check, because after all, we’re family). So please stop asking for help: the rest of us are tired of hearing that you have learned nothing from your ordeal, except that your black citizenry gives you a black eye when they get “uppity” and try to move out of their place. If whites are truly superior, you should do just fine. After all, you have been amassing the greatest standard of living in the U.S., right? I mean, everyone wants to live there!
As someone who went to a poor, minority high school, I can honestly say, I have never seen this level of hate. Racism, yes. But not the open-in-your-face hate. I am not THAT old, but there has been a sea-change in the past few years. Racism is on the airwaves and out in the open. Turn on Glenn Beck, and he is talking about making Mexicans into fuel, and questioning a U.S. born Muslim’s patriotism, for Christ’s sake! Limbaugh jokes about the “magic negro”, and don’t even get me started on Savage.
This headline could have come out of the 1950’s. That’s progress for you, straight backwards.
what are the chances of the LA governor intervening in this case? the FBI or the DOJ civil rights division? or the white house?
slim to none, w/the shenanigans at the DOJ, etc. 20 years for a fucking shoe.
Most unfortunate title for this article because it mirrors the demonization of reporting crime by “black youth”.
What was wrong with this situation was not the race of the judge, jury, witnesses, etc. It was their bigotry and racism. Don’t paint all Caucasian peoples with the brush of bigotry and racism!
“DA reportedly threatened the black… students …. I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”
There you go, another classic example, prick DA, thinks he’s god… powertripper. Abuse of power.
“and the poor white trash, with no one to feel superior to but the poorer blacks, dutifully vote Republican in hopes of maintaining their tenuous place in society.”
And then what’s really tragic is that many of them think that left is out to get them, even if they’re on their side. The right seduces them and then screws them.
Btw, I think that the term “white trash” needs to go the way of “nigra”. Then again, I’ve called people “white trash” myself in anger.
Reading articles like this make me wonder if working and poor people will ever truly find solidarity. We are all pitted against one another, and this is just another example. It just becomes a game of tit for tat. White people do things to black people, black people retaliate, vice versa, etc.
I dunno. I’m likely going to get rotten tomatoes thrown at me here, but there truly are times anymore, when it’s hard for me to blame people for why they hate and fear. I worry about these young people in Jena, white and black. I worry about them being racially scarred and traumatized. I worry about hate and the hate that it can create.
It seems as if all we do in this country, and the world at large for that matter, is toss firebombs at each other.
When the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 occurred, a valid question was asked, one which ruffled feathers for sure…
“Why do they hate us?”
No one seems to ask that question about race in America.
Which brings me to another reason why racism occurs. It’s not just taught. And even when it does, people rebel against it.
It’s experience. And when people’s race hatred is formed out of bad experiences, it’s hard to break them of it. It leaves wounds that are difficult to heal.
It’s easy for us to hate the skinhead, label him as an evildoer. But we never ask him of his experiences.
It’s easy to hate the NOI member. But no one asks why he joined.
It’s easy to hate the Islamic terrorist. Ask him why he felt he had to bomb an airport and be accused of treason.
I’m guilty of it too. I want to smash in the heads of racist whites I work with not only because I know that they’re wrong and that their views are heinous, but also because I feel they reflect badly on people such as myself. I’ve gotten angry at people in these very forums for slandering whites and Americans as well as men, not only because it hurts me personally but also because I find it counterproductive, serving into the hands of the elites we should all band against. Hell, I get angry at the terrorists not only harming innocent people both physically and mentally, but also for spreading Islamophobia.
There are times that I ashamedly want everyone who hates to be put on an island so that they can destroy one another and that the meek may truly inherit the Earth.
I truly fear for thr future of this world. If global warming doesn’t bring about the end of the human race, I think inequality might. If we aren’t careful, it’s going to be every race for themselves while those in power count their money and fan the flames.
iwarrior - you’re right about “white trash” - I shouldn’t have used it or at least put it in quotes - even as I was trying to make my writing parallel I realized I needed an equivalent noun for blacks, but “black trash” didn’t fly, and I just left it as “blacks”. Should have changed the other to plain “whites”…
Anyway, they’ve been told that the left is out to get them - to give minorities their jobs and their neighborhoods, to take away their guns and their flags. They’re uneducated, parochial, susceptible, and scared.
As for your self-flagellation, most of us feel it along the way. It is very difficult to be tolerant of the intolerant. When I saw those Muslim women cheering on TV right after 9/11 I personally wanted to be manning the gun that mowed them all down. I was angry. But I got over it - not over 9/11, but over the irrational hatred. Too bad more of us, especially those in power, didn’t.
Do we really think the South will vote for Obama for president–or anything?
I hear ya wcdevins. I didn’t mean to crap on you.
“Anyway, they’ve been told that the left is out to get them - to give minorities their jobs and their neighborhoods, to take away their guns and their flags. They’re uneducated, parochial, susceptible, and scared.”
Right. I think a lot of them also think black people hate them and blame them for all their problems. It’s as much fear as it is ignorance.
And let’s face it, a lot of people on the left side of the street delight in kicking those people around. Same with the blue-collar types, the ones stereotyped as Archie Bunkers. To me it’s tantamount to how conservatives portray inner-city black people. They think New York liberals make fun of them while sipping gourmet coffees. Then you see them being essentially “blackfaced” on tv anymore.
Part of me wants to knock every one of these white kids waving the nooses around on their back and stomp on their throat. But on the other hand, I feel as if they’re victims too. I’m also, quite frankly as a white person, embarassed. That alone makes me want to strangle one of these kids.
Damn, I’m embarassed for the South. I’m a yankee. Now, I don’t mean to be glib, but there are a lot of things I like about The South. I grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard, Andy Griffith reruns, and pro wrestling on Superstation TBS. I like ZZ Top, Blackfoot, and Molly Hatchet.
These kinds of incidents blemish the South. Not that racism is strictly a Southern thing. People need to know that. I KNOW that. But still.
Thank God for The Souther Poverty Law Center. Thank God we’re not all Dukes, Farrakhans, and Bin Ladens.
Now part of me will get mad if a black person posts an angry diatribe towards whites in this forum, but then again, after reading this article, what the hell is a black person supposed to think and feel? And that’s not taking into account the kids that were victimized in this.
It all makes me throw my hands in the air. It amazes me that we all get along as well as we do and that people are big enough to forgive.
They should have stayed away from the white tree. If they are jumping people now then later they use guns on people, good job Jena for getting rid of the trash early. It is rediculous that noone makes a big deal when a white guy or girl gets jumped at school by latino or black people….you do not hear stupid stories such as this one, life just goes on, but I commend the town for making a stand against racism against the white man. This is the strongest racism alive today.
I wonder how much luck Mychal Bell would have in asking Bush to commute his sentence?
Yankee4Life: Oh poor YOU. I’ll cry a river for you, the poor, abused, always kept down white man.
That’s the new ‘tough’ isn’t it? Feeling sorry for yourself? You’re a tough guy now if you can cry and sniffle about how the blacks or the mexicans or the (insert any other group that has a noticeable difference) get all the opportunities.
How many of the top 1% of wealth holders are black again?
Oh.
Latino?
Oh. Well, there goes your “strongest racism alive today” pity party right out the window.
Yankee, it’s the rich people who keep taking the money that you apparently feel is rightfully yours. Not some black guy or some Mexican.
About the guns, re-read the article and tell me again who brought a gun to school. Them damn blacks…. Oh, wait a minute.
Looking back at your post, I notice this: “good job Jena for getting rid of the trash early” and that says it all right there. My final response to you is this: Go wash your sheet and go back to freerupublic with all the rest of the uber-egotistical (yet useless) scum who feel persecuted because black and brown people don’t bow down and call you ‘massa’ anymore. Too scared to make it in the world on your own without someone ‘lesser’ to stand on. Pathetic and weak, which seems to be the prime republican trait. Pathetic, weak, and scared.
neomunk…..you beat me to it!!! “white rasicm?!?!?” why i never honey, that poor thing!!!! (in best southern accent)
YANKEE 4 LIFE,
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not a troll chucking a grenade and reply to your rant. Hanging noose-tied lynching ropes from the tree painted in the school colors? Sorry, the school officials are at fault for this. Those kids SHOULD have been expelled, the school officials dropped the ball. Veiled death threats ARE grounds for expulsion, and defaming school pride isn’t much a help either in any other school I know of. And thats before I even touch the race issue on justifying expulsion.
Ok, yes there is racism towards white people. So lets say you lived somewhere like Oakland. You were in the park, and the nicest shady place was under something called the black tree. You stand under it, return to your car and find a big black X painted on it. Would you feel threatened? Would you be angry? Would you report it and demand something be done about it? And if the hoodlums got a slap on the wrist, you’d be ok with that? Because after all, there is racism towards black ppl, so its all relative correct?!
Down here in the trenches, the Klan, the neo-nazis and white supremacists have been recruiting youth like mad. (no pun intended)
Their recruiters have jobs in every jail and prison. They have people in high places here in this rural Minnezota county.
From what I can gather klan membership has tripled in the last few years.
Crosses have been burned in this small town, and the victims arrested.
Its a good thing BushCo Inc. is hot on the heels of this terrorist organization.
Thank you, Bill !
Yankee4Life has obviously chosen the wrong name for his/her idiocy. More like “Klansman4life” We “real” Yankees fought in both the Civil War and the Civil Rights era AGAINST scumbag racists like Klansman4Life and we’ll keep right on fighting. And we’d kick ignorant jackasses like “Klansman4life” right out of our state….
iwarrior says: “Part of me wants to knock every one of these white kids waving the nooses around on their back and stomp on their throat. But on the other hand, I feel as if they’re victims too.”
This is another “shortcoming” of Progressives - in general we are able to empathize, see more than one side of an issue, appreciate that there are nuances to most problems, envision in the long term (both backward and forward), and realize that simple solutions aren’t always so simple.
This ability to analyze is viewed as weakness on the right. It’s much easier to think in conservative black and white (no pun intended), “with us or against us” sound bites, and the right cultivates the undereducated with such tactics. It is why left-wing squawk radio is an oxymoron and why we often seem to be all rowing in different directions. It’s tough to herd non-conformists, and the opposition takes advantage of our disarray to make its gains.
“Even in ‘enlightened society’ in the US”
Sorry to burst your bubble ahro but we are not an enlightened society. We are currently in the modern version of the ‘dark ages’ !!
why arent these corrupt locals busted for conspiracy to drum up baseless charges which that corrupt freak judge allowed. why are there no mechanisms in placeto deal with nepotism and denial of human rights why isnt the da busted for conspiring with others to subvert the course of justice.
When I heard about this story happening in 2007, I was very disturbed. I represent a large group of mothers and fathers in Georgia who are men of the Masonic craft. I was very upset to see that this type of thing could be happening in todays climate. To me its not fair and unjust. I think Master Masons all over the south should lend their support, funds, and time to this situation. I am the Grand Master of Masons in the State of Georgia and I call upon all masonic leaders and follower to stand up for what is right.
I can’t believe what I am reading. In 2007 racism is alive and well. What ever happened to being judged by a jury of your peers?????????????, that clearly didn’t happen. I am a sorry but the high school dropped the ball on this one 1st. The white kids should’ve been expelled,then charged with a hate crime!!!!Wake up america this stuff is really happening in small rural towns, and in big cities. I tell my girls all the time that the power of the pen is funny and that can go both ways…….Lets do somehing about this, we can’t let them get away with ruining the lives of our future leaders…..
This is outrageous. 22 years is the MAX. He’s not even 18. He shouldn’t even be tried as an adult. The kids should have been suspended or put on house arrest. Or go to Juvenile detention for one year at the most. If they give those 6 boys anything more then a year it needs to be taken to the supreme court. My sympathy goes out to anyone affected by this silly situation. I pray these boys get justice.
I am a 19 year old, african-american, female, college student, who would love to see justice take place in this situation. Those 6 boys, did what any white boy would do if they were being harrased!! THIS IS A RACE ISSUE and racism is very evident in today’s society. It’s so sad that my generation cannot learn from our elders and cannot learn from our past! I would love to see the youth of today come together and forget about RACE. Honestly, I can’t blame the youth of Jena, LA. I blame the ignorant(not knowing) families of those racist white BOYS. Not even men yet!! Yes let me remind you, I am 19! Those boys grew up thinking African Americans were inferior to them, because of what they were taught at home! Okay, you might add that they are old enough to start thinking on their own. I do agree with that, but at the same time, those boys are so set in their ways!! Just like I am set in my ways. My father is bi-racial who was once married to a white lady. My best friends are white. But wait, that does not excuse what these white MEN in Jena, La. Yes I did say white MEN. Okay those boys did have something to do with putting the nooses in the trees and harrasing those six black boys. But, those white boys did not put the black boys in jail. They are not the ones who the are trying Mychal Bell as an adult, when he is 16. It is the ADULTS. I dont excuse what the my generation did, but i do put most of the blame on the ADULTS. The adults of todays society is keeping racism alive because kids do not come into this world thinking another culture is inferior to them! THEY ARE TAUGHT TO HATE OTHERS. I am pissed off at this situation and I wish I could be apart of the thousands that are rallying around the 6 boys.
But the main reason why I am posting this comment, is to say something about George W. Bush. Yes, he has made some mistakes and yes he is still making them today. But, that man has nothing to do with situation in LA. You are trying to blame Bush for something that has been going on since slavery. Something that George W. Bush had nothing to do with!! I dont understand why we cant go down hard on the white men that put those boys in jail. No, people are still wimpering and crying about the election of 2000. Get over it. He is our President and he has nothing to do with this situation.
Jena 6, I am praying for you! Believe in God and He will get you through this. God Bless you all and keep believing in the youth of tomorrow!!
Thanks,
Goldie7
Become a 21rst century civil rights symbol. Beat down a white boy today!!!!!!!!
This ‘article’ seems to be pretty slanted. It minimilizes the beating that the white kid took (he was hit from behind and knocked out then the black kids kicked him in the head like it was a football). Second, it fails to mention that Mychal Bell had three previous convictions for battery and criminal damage and was on probation at the time of this incident, how can you leave that fact out? I’m not saying the white kids are right, they should have been expelled, but this one-sided view of the facts does not help anyone.
I think the whole thing is simple. A crime is a crime. Period. I am not racist. My Mom calls me United Nations, because I befriend everyone.
But lately I am tired of hearing Al Sharpton who was someone to be taken serious and now a joke jumping on any bandwagon for publicity. When he says the prison system is filled with mainly black males he is right, no dispute. But statistics show they commit more violent crimes. So he is stating a fact and instead of making excuses please for once take a stand. It is time to take “responsibility for actions and crimes committed”.
This is a simple story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/opinion/26walters.html?ref=opinion
In my area this week:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shooting25sep25,1,7572398.story
http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-gardenagrandma,0,3176672.story?coll=ktla-news-2
All I am saying is take responsibility. Those marchers didn’t even know the whole story. Sad thing is they don’t want to hear it. There is only one way there way.
Sean
This is rediculous!! all the charges being filed against these six teenagers is just straight up BS!! The trial that Mychal has already gone through was completely unfair and injuste, and for the boys that still have to face trial are going to recieve the same thing! they are not going to have a fair trial if the whole damn jury and judge are white and friends!! this is all being done unfairly just because these boys are black! well what about the boys that jumped one of the jena six a couple nights before the school fight??? huh….or what about the man who pulled out a shot gun against the the boy after he got jumped the night before?? these are easy basic questions that everyone should be asking. why havent any of these white people been charged with anything serious!!!??? this is fuckin bullshit!! these teens are not getting a fair trial simply because they are black. i encourage everyone to support the JENA 6 and their families to do everything possible to help them in getting lawyers to defend them and bail money for any of them who need it.students if you can at school raise money for them and send it to their PO BOX address that would be amazing.just put yourself in their position for a moment.wouldnt you want the help???
and most importantly wouldnt you want a fair trial and reasonable charges and justice for those who have threatened you??
marissa-cali
I am very outraged by the charges and the story as a whole in Jena
Louisiana. I am doing a report on this for my college speech class and will
be giving an informative speech to the students in my class. I have
been following this story for the last few months since hearing of this.
These children (for that matter anyone) certainly do not deserve these
charges and this type of treatment. A simple school fight and now
attempted murder charges what are these people thinking? Yes these boys’
need to be punished, but not in the manner they are, they are being put up
as examples and for what? Slavery is OVER stop the madness!! Love
yourself and the people around you !! STOP THE HATE!!! Let the charges fit
the crime. I am so tired of turning on the news and hearing of this
type of rhetoric.
Become a 21rst century civil rights symbol. Beat down a white boy today!!!!!!!!
And be cheered on by the social lepers who post here.
LOCK THE BOYS UP.
The beginning problem was not handled correctly. They should have punished the boys who hung the nooses, the white boy/s who beat the black boy/s should have been punished too. All and all anyone who beat anyone should be punished. Just because their were racial comments does not mean anyone should get away with physically harminng someone. Lock the boys up.