In the alleyway between de jure and de facto, Jim Crow conceived a son. Even though the deed took place in broad daylight, everybody tried not to notice, and in time some would even try to pretend it hadn’t happened. For most of his long life, Jim Crow Sr. had been a powerful and respected man. His word was law, his laws were obeyed and those who transgressed were punished without mercy. But in his dotage these crude and brutal ways became a liability. Finally, and after some protest, he was banished. Some claimed he had died. But nobody found the body.
Junior, meanwhile, was adopted by a local family and raised with all the refinement and courtesy that his father never had. While the father had railed against the changes that ousted him, the son adapted to them. But he cultivated the same allies and pursued the same goals, and in time he too would become powerful and respected. With little use for curse words or ostentatious displays of authority, he was most effective when not drawing attention to himself.
Over the past year the small town of Jena, Louisiana, has vividly established the genealogical link between the two generations of Jim Crow. Paradoxically it has taken the symbolism of the old–complete with nooses and all-white juries–for the nation to engage with the substance of the new: the racial inequalities in America’s penal and judicial systems. For what is truly shocking about Jena is not that it has happened here but that the most egregious aspects of it are happening all across America every day. Go into any courthouse in any city and you will see it playing out. Like Rodney King, Hurricane Katrina or Sean Bell, it has revealed to the rest of the country what black America already knows. “If the media wasn’t watching what was going on then every last one of those kids would be in jail right now,” says Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, who was there when the recent round of trouble started.
Fittingly for a post-civil rights story, it began with the discrepancy between what you are allowed to do and what you can do. In August last year, Kenneth Purvis asked the principal at Jena High School if he could sit under the “white tree”–a place in the school courtyard where white students hung out during break. The principal said Purvis could sit where he liked. So the next day he went with his cousin Bryant and stood under the tree. The morning after that three nooses dangled from the tree.
The overwhelmingly white school board judged the nooses a youthful prank and punished the culprits with brief suspensions. Black parents and students were angry, and months of racial tension followed. Police were called to the school several times because of fights between black and white students.
The principal called an assembly at which the local district attorney, Reed Walters, warned, “See this pen? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen.” The black students say he was looking at them when he said it; Walters denies it.
In an unsolved arson case, a wing of the school was burned down. A few days later, Justin Sloan, a white man, attacked black students who tried to go to a white party in town. Sloan was charged with battery and put on probation. A few days after that a white boy pulled a gun on three black students in a convenience store. One of the black students wrestled the gun from him and took it home, only to find himself charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who produced the gun was not charged.
On December 4, in school, a group of black students attacked a white student, Justin Barker, after they heard him bragging about a racial assault his friend had made. Barker, 17, had a concussion and his eye was swollen shut. He spent a few hours in the hospital and on his release went to a party, where friends described him as “his usual smiling self.”
The six black students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder–a charge that requires the use of a deadly weapon. Walters argued that the sneakers used to kick Barker were indeed deadly weapons. Mychal Bell, 17, became the first of what are now known as the Jena Six to be convicted on reduced charges by an all-white jury, and he faced up to twenty-two years in jail. His black court-appointed attorney called no witnesses and offered no defense. Bell’s conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled that he shouldn’t have been tried as an adult. At the time of this writing he sits in jail waiting to hear his fate, and a huge civil rights march is set to descend on Jena.
These incidents have turned Jena into a national symbol of racial injustice. As such it is both a potent emblem and a convenient whipping boy. Potent because it shines a spotlight on how race and class conspire to deny black people equality before the law. According to the Justice Department, blacks are almost three times as likely as whites to have their cars searched when they are pulled over and more than twice as likely to be arrested. They are more than five times as likely as whites to be sent to jail and are sentenced to 20 percent longer jail time. This would not be a problem for the likes of Kobe Bryant, but in Jena’s “quarters” high-powered legal teams are hard to come by.
Convenient because it allows the rest of the nation to dismiss the incidents as the work of Southern redneck backwoodsmen without addressing the systemic national failures it showcases. According to the Sentencing Project, the ten states with the highest discrepancy between black and white incarceration rates include Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York and none from the South. What took place in Jena is not aberrant; it’s consistent. The details are a local disgrace. The broader themes are a national scandal. Jim Crow Jr. travels well–unencumbered by historical baggage.
“Jena is America,” says Alan Bean, executive director of Friends of Justice, who has been working with the Jena Six. “The new Jim Crow is the criminal justice system and its impact on poor people in general and people of color in particular. We don’t always get the exotic trimmings like the nooses.”
Gary Younge, the Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the New York correspondent for the Guardian and the author of No Place Like Home: A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South (Mississippi) and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (New Press).
© 2007 The Nation
Blacks were brought to North America and the Caribbean as slaves. That was what black people were for: slave labour. After slavery ended, as a society we collectively adopted the position that there was simply no longer any need for them to be here, and we have been consistently creative in devising ways to drive them out. That simple fact has not changed since 1865. Although governments since then have felt obliged to give Blacks technical citizenship, at the societal level we have always found ways to continue our war on the Blacks. First it was poll taxes, literacy tests and lynchings. Then came more sophisticated methods like suburbanization, the “war on drugs” and “three strikes” laws. Though the tactics have changed, the strategic goal is unchanged: to get rid of as many Blacks as possible. That basic rejection of the legitimacy of the presence of Blacks in our midst is a demon by which we are possessed as a society and which we must exorcise.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
Yes, but if you peruse comments in places like the wildly uneven trash-tabloid Huffington Post– http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ — you will discover that while everything you wrote is as may be, the important thing is that six black kids ganged up on a defenseless white kid and nearly beat him to death. That’s the figure, and everything else is background– distant background, at that.
Personally, I regard this perspective as very much a case of refusing to see the forest for the white tree.
OH please, they did not nearly beat him to death drama queen…he had a black eye and went to a party a few hours later, doesn’t sound to me like he was on death’s doorstep. He also STARTED the confrontation. That’s the problem in this country, when somebody begs for a good old ass beating anyone that obliges them gets arrested. Thus you have assholes running around like this “poor defenseless victim” who will undoubtably continue with his assholedom..He’s lucky it wasn’t me he shot his mouth off to like he did to these six kids. I’d have gone to his house and beat his Momma’s ass for raising a racist, bigoted little bastard such as he.
So many issues in one situation, I must choose;
As I am in a ‘fed up’ mood, to apparently too many folks in “Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York”, what’s your fucking problem?
If the kid was nearly beaten to death, why was he back at a party, hours later, feeling fine. In an atmosphere of heightened tension, the kid hurled a slur laden with 500 years of murderous oppression. It is you who cannot see this 500-year old forest for the tree of this single incident.
No one is suggesting the kids get off scot-free. They should have been charged with the same appropriate juvenile charges - certainly not jailed with 100K bail - that the violent white kids face. The only exception should be white kid with a shotgun - he should be tried as an adult with and attempted murder.
This is what even handed justice should look like.
The bigger point is the extreme uneven treatment blacks get at the hands of law enforcement and the courts everywhere in the US. I see this every day in my Pittsburgh neighborhood - white crack addicts and dealers get treated with kid gloves by the cops while a black person get arrested for merely wearing baggy shorts in white neighborhood.
If the white kid really did get a concussion, his assailants deserve several months to a couple years in jail. Twenty-two years is way, way over the line. And yes, that white guy with the gun in the convenience store should be in the next cell unless it was clearly a case of self-defense.
There is no discussion about the African-American boy, who was beaten up and hit with bottles by the European American youth in the “white party”??? There is no discussion about the European American boy who attacked the African American boy at the convenient store??? Why weren’t they charged??? Only African-American boys attacking an European American boy has become an offence deserving over 20 years jail sentence??? Doesn’t it manifest the COLOUR-BLINDED (IN)JUSTICE SYSTEM that is systematically pushing the minorities into a corner???
For a community that killed the native Americans, occupied their land and shamelessly called it “a city-on-a hill”, what happened in Jena to the African-American boys is nothing but a continuation of the shamelessness and hypocracy of the former.
i think a couple of posters are misreading what Little Brother intended.
Little Brother was not agreeing with, but was pointing out the stupidity of, certain contributors at Huffington Post blog, who are apparently focusing on the “defenseless white kid” who got beat up after mouthing off.
That’s why Little Brother’s final paragraph is “Personally, I regard this perspective as very much a case of refusing to see the forest for the white tree.”
#1 Why blame his “mama” and say she should be beat up (continuation of mindless violence) when men are more likely to be racist and pass it down from generation to generation.
#2 We need to address a lot of things in our country - one being mitochondrial DNA (look it up) and the genetic proof that we are ALL brothers and sisters genetically and it’s high time we started taking care of one another.
#3 Wait I have a third one. Also need to address testosterone and the violence it creates but that’s for another post.
Peace. And I mean it dammit.
Bless you, webwalk!
I already posted on this item, but I forgot to mention the simplest single thing we could do to alleviate the plight of the Blacks: legalize drugs. I mean everything: heroin, crack, crystal meth, everything. There is simply no rational (non-racist) reason for prohibition. Prohibition in this country has always been about controlling and jailing as many members as possible of “out-groups”. In the 1920’s it was alcohol, which was associated with Catholics, Italians, Jews and Irish. Now it’s what we call “drugs”, which we associate with Blacks. Prohibition has nothing to do with protecting public health, and everything to do with finding an excuse to imprison as many Blacks as possible.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
Juliann, you said “#1 Why blame his “mama” and say she should be beat up (continuation of mindless violence) when men are more likely to be racist and pass it down from generation to generation.”
I used to believe that myself but it’s simply not true. White women can be every bit as racist and ignorant as white men. Racism is so enmeshed in white society that most aren’t even aware they are. They simply continue to benefit from white skin privelage and are completely clueless that it’s even happening. Many don’t want to know or are so far in denial they can’t see it. I’ve heard just as many females flinging the n word around as males and I’ve had some pretty ignorant questions from females about my husband (he’s black), such as “what’s it like being with a black man?” or “is it really bigger?” as if they are some rare different species and not human at all…I had a female customer of mine lamenting one day “My daughter’s boyfriend is great, he makes good money, treats her like a queen, is polite and well dressed, the only problem is he’s black…Yeah, no racist females around here…
Yawn…..this country has been in existence for hundreds of years and still can’t get the race act together. To return racism for racism is wrong. I’ve seen racists of many colors.
These people in charge of law enforcement should be fired. They’ve brought this problem to Jena. Yes, the six black kids should not have resorted to violence and jumped on one lone kid. The law enforcement officials should not impose severe sentences on the black kids.
They’re both wrong.
militantliberal, most of the kids have already served many, many months in jail already. I believe the one kid has been in jail for over ten months and they just denied his bail yesterday.
Christina40, you say that Juliann is wrong in her allegation that White women are less likely to be racist than White men. You support your position by giving examples from your personal experience in which White women have said racist things. But I think you have missed the point. Juliann said that White women are less LIKELY to be racist than White men. She did not say that the incidence of racism among White women was 0%. Of course that would be an absurd statement. It is a matter of percentage, of likelihood, of degree. I personally do not claim to know whether it is true or not that White women are less likely to be racist than White men, but considering the indisputable fact that White women vote Republican less than White men, I would not be surprised if it were true.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
For anyone who still thinks that the laws are color blind, my brother killed a women by beating her to death while drunk, he spent about 19 months in prison for murder. What do you think he would get if his skin was not white? There has always been two systems one for the “White Men” and then the rest of mankind gets to eat the real shit!
Linking “drugs” and “African Americans” is the creation of the European American media and society. Irrespective of skin colour all are involved in this business, including the US government.
Let me give few reports:
www.hindu.com, 21 December 2006:
“Los Angeles: Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop grown in the U.S., exceeding traditional harvests such as wheat, corn and soybeans, says a new report.
The study shows that 10,000 tonnes of marijuana worth $35.8 billion is grown each year; the street value would be even higher. This dwarfs the $23-billion worth of corn grown, $17.6-billion worth of soybeans and $12.2-billion worth of wheat. Marijuana is the biggest cash crop in 12 States, with the value of pot grown outstripping peanuts in Georgia and tobacco in North and South Carolina. In California, the biggest producer, it is worth $13.8 billion.
The report, Marijuana Production in the U.S., by DrugScience.org, which wants marijuana to be reclassified, says the drug is listed as a Schedule 1 drug, deemed to have no medicinal value and a likelihood of abuse. Other such drugs include heroin.
The author, Jon Gettman, says the figures show the war on drugs is not working: “Illicit marijuana cultivation provides considerable unreported revenue for growers without corresponding tax obligations to compensate the public for the social and fiscal costs related to [its] use.”
The report says the output in the U.S. has grown ten-fold in the last 25 years.”
Mark, point taken, but the notion that women are innocent in all of this is silly. Yes, men statistically are more prone to violence etc. but that doesn’t preclude women from the mix.
Chicago, I had a friend who’s niece was raped by a white guy, she was 2 years old! The guy got something like 18 months in jail…Mychal Bell has already been in jail for ten months and they just denied him bail again. He was SIXTEEN when the crime was committed…
Let me give a report on the increase of Opium production in Afghanistan after the US occupation:
“Is Washington profiting from Afghan Opium trade?”
“With profits from this spring’s opium crop hitting record high, Afghan authorities say they are considering a once unthinkable solution to end this scourge; i.e. spraying poppy fields with herbicide.
Opium cultivation in 2006 reached a 165,000 hectares compared with 104,000 in 2005 and 7,606 in 2001 under the ousted Taliban movement.
“This year, we’ll wait and see how it goes. Next year, the 2008 season, we will consider it,” said Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud Daoud on the sidelines of an anti-poppy gathering in Jalalabad, the ancient and verdant capital of Nangahar province, once the heart of Afghanistan’s poppy belt.
The UN anti-drugs chief warned last month against active opium trade in Afghanistan, urging the government to exert more effort to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police.
Afghanistan’s world-leading opium cultivation rose a “staggering” 60 percent this year, the UN anti-drugs chief warned.
The illicit trade soared despite the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to fight the drug over the past two years. And while many analysts and political experts attribute the increase in the cultivation and trade of opium to the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, the largest cultivator of opium poppy in the world, Western media blames the ousted Taliban regime and warlords for the illicit trade.
And while the Bush administration repeatedly claims that it is committed to curbing the Afghan drug trade, statistics prove that the U.S. occupation has served to restore rather than eradicate the drug trade.
Drugs production has nearly doubled since the U.S. occupied the country in 2001. 61,000 hectares of poppy had been cultivated during the crop season in 2003 compared with 30,750 in 2002, according to White House figures released in November 2003.
When Taliban, who ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, was in power, it managed to reduce opium production with a decree, religious exhortation and harsh enforcement. But under the rule of post-Taliban government, Afghanistan emerged as the world’s top producer of opium poppy, whose sap is the raw material for heroin.
But the UN report which warned against soaring opium profits in Afghanistan failed to acknowledge that the toppled Taliban regime was instrumental in carrying out a successful campaign, in coordination with the United Nations, to end this illicit trade.
Taliban campaign, implemented during the period between 2000-2001, led to a 94 percent decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan. In 2001, opium production in the country fell to 185 tons, according to UN figures. But shortly after the U.S. occupation, production surged once again, regaining and may be surpassing its historical levels.
According to Vienna based UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2006 harvest will be of the order of 6,100 tonnes, 33 times its production levels before the U.S. invasion (3200 % increase in 5 years).
The UN said that this year’s contribution of the drug trade to the Afghan economy is of the order of 2.7 billion, but avoided mentioning the stunning fact that over 95 percent of the revenues generated by this lucrative contraband accrues to business syndicates, organized crime and banking and financial institutions. A very small percentage accrues to farmers and traders in the producing country, according to Global Research website.
Based on wholesale and retail prices in Western markets, the earnings generated by the Afghan drug trade are colossal. In July 2006, street prices in Britain for heroin were of the order of Pound Sterling 54, or $102 a gram.”
“Afghan heroin sells on the international narcotics market for 100 times the price farmers get for their opium right out of the field”.(US State Department quoted by the Voice of America (VOA), 27 February 2004).
According to the structure of British retail prices for heroin, the total proceeds of the Afghan heroin trade would be of the order of 124.4 billion dollars, assuming a 50 percent purity ratio. Assuming an average purity ratio of 36 percent and the average British price, the cash value of Afghan heroin sales would be of the order of 194.4 billion dollars.
The first figure shows that the cash value of these sales, once they reach Western retail markets are in excess of 120 billion dollars a year.
There are powerful business and financial interests depending on narcotics, and that’s why geopolitical and military control over the drug cultivation is as strategic as oil.
A big share of this multi-billion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system.
But an important point is that this “illicit” trade cannot survive unless the main actors involved in narcotics have “political friends in high places.”
Revenues from the CIA sponsored Afghan drug trade are huge. The Afghan trade in opiates constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics. (Douglas Keh, Drug Money in a Changing World, Technical document No. 4, 1998, Vienna UNDCP, p. 4. See also United Nations Drug Control Program, Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 1999, E/INCB/1999/1 United Nations, Vienna 1999, p. 49-51, and Richard Lapper, UN Fears Growth of Heroin Trade, Financial Times, 24 February 2000).
According to IMF estimates, global money laundering is between 590 billion and 1.5 trillion dollars a year, representing 2-5 percent of global GDP, a big share of global money laundering is linked to the trade in narcotics.
According to 2003 figures, drug trafficking constitutes “the third biggest global commodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade.” (The Independent, 29 February 2004).
Hence, the above figures show that most of the revenues linked to the global trade in narcotics are not appropriated by “terrorist” organisations and warlords, as claimed by the U.S. officials and the American President George W. Bush.”
My earlier comment was intended to underscore the extent to which people are quick to rebut or deny the plain truth Mr. Younge ably expresses. The issue of race is before us always, and my sense is that over time people are imbued by guilt or frustration and become soreheaded on the issue. So defense mechanisms kick in to assuage the intolerable stimulus by discounting it. One popular variation is the use of two-tier logic: 1) Racism is wrong; 2) But this incident isn’t the egregious racial wrong it’s made out to be.
This strikes me as an ancient, almost instinctive urge to generally decry, but specifically deny, ubiquitous social injustice. Except for a few with intellect and character capable of seeing and understanding disagreeable truths, the blundering masses are always ready to declare that a given travesty is much ado about nothing. I suspect that this reaction has persisted over centuries.
For instance: if blogs had existed in 17th-Century Massachusetts, there would be abundant comments like this:
__________________________________________________________________________
“I am against witch-hunting but I feel that this case is blown out of proportion and will hurt not help the situation. Dont make marteyrs out of these women. Witchcraft is a serious crime and should be punished. I dont agree with letting off others who cast spells if thats what happened but thats no reason to let true witches off the hook and call them victims. Mary Walcott sassed Sarah Goode on the high street and a week later the child caught the croup and died at the witching hour while the doctors were bleeding her for all they were worth. And Goody Good cursed Minister Nicholas Noyes at her trial in front of the whole villeage so shes no angel. Get it together people your backing the wrong hores here.
– Markus Aurelius, Boxford”
Deepa, thank you for all that information about “drugs”, but you seem to have misunderstood me. I am not “accusing” Black people of using and/or selling “drugs” more than any other sector of society. I don’t know whether it is true or not and frankly I don’t care. My point is that “drugs” are ASSOCIATED with Blacks in the (White) public mind, and that’s why they’re illegal. And because of the general societal assumption that “drugs” are a Black thing, naturally the police focus their “drug” enforcement efforts on Blacks. Add to that the fact that Blacks are more likely to live in urban apartments rather than suburban areas with big houses, garages, basements and extensive backyards to provide privacy, which means that drug deals by Blacks are more likely to take place in public places where the police can make arrests without warrants, and you have a fairly good explanation why the “drug” laws are so much more devastating for Blacks than they are for Whites. (and of course that’s without even mentioning the differential sentencing for crack cocaine as opposed to powder)
Mark Marshall
Toronto
I am gratified to see so many people looking beyond what is the MSM’s spin on this case which is typically to focus on the ‘evil black assailant’ and not on the causes of the entire incident.
In too many other blogs the focus is on the appearance of Sharpton and Jackson, and how images are mostly of blacks protesting and besieging a poor mostly white town. As long as things like this keep happening:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200709210005
the Jena 6 will never see true justice. If ALL crimes are not addressed then NO JUSTICE will ever occur. Can you imagine how the Civil Rights movement would have gone if the MSM told it from Bull Conner’s point of view?
I will believe in the justice system when a vast majority of whites say, “If those white kids never hung the nooses, this whole incident would never have happened.” the massive silence over what lit this powderkeg is what breaks my heart about the future of this country.
Just let the Jena 6 go already. Jesus. I’m so sick of reading this. All cases like these do is stir up demons. Black people start demonizing whites, whites start demonizing blacks. It’s a joke. We’re all at each other’s throats here.
Yeah if these incidents happened between only whites or only blacks, I don’t think you’d see any uproar. White people do something to blacks or blacks do something to whites, and all of a sudden people want to march and raise hell. I know it’s not everyone or maybe even most people, but God is race a sore spot for people.
White people are all racist. Black people are all criminals, blah, blah, blah…
Just fix the damn system already.
Is it set up that way? Is it that the judges and cops are racist? Are the black judges and cops being biased against blacks also?
If someone commits a crime, especially a heinous one such as rape or murder, I DO want the book to be thrown at them. I don’t want white rapists walking free or merely getting short sentences anymore than I do black rapists getting off.
Even whites I know with bigoted attitudes don’t want a guy getting off easy for murdering someone simply because he’s white.
Like with Chicago’s brother, I don’t know anyone, white or black who wouldn’t be angry if they knew he only served 19 mos. in prison for murder.
Kristina40-You have said that you married a black man. I’m not trying to pick a fight here, but how did that happen? I ask because you keep making these negative generalizations about whites in these threads about Jena. Why are you different? And if white people are as you describe them, why would black people want to get involved with them?
I’m white, and people on this keep assuming that I am racist and horrid and everything. If that’s the case, then why would non-whites want anything to do with me?
Why would I want anything to do with them if they all supposedly resent me for supposedly purposely making their lives difficult by sitting on them, reaping handsome rewards as a result?
Btw, I read this story on Yahoo today…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_us/a_place_called_jena
“But what happened, exactly?
The story goes that a year ago, a black student asked at an assembly if he could sit in the shade of a live oak, which, the story goes, was labeled “the white tree” because only white students hung out there. The next day, three nooses dangled from the oak — code for “KKK” — the handiwork of three white students, who were suspended for just three days.
Much of that is disputed. What happened next is not: Two months later, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. (The case remains unsolved.) Two fights between blacks and whites roiled the town that weekend, culminating in a school-yard brawl on Dec. 4 that led the district attorney to charge the Jena Six with attempted murder. The lethal weapon he cited to justify the charge: the boys’ sneakers.
In July, the first to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two hours of deliberations by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it.
(It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record. Although he had a high grade-point average, he was, in fact, on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property. In any event, his conviction was overturned because an appeals court ruled he should not have been tried as an adult.)
There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.
Consider:
_The so-called “white tree” at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students “were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,” according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.”
I just wanted to throw that out there. I don’t know what it means. More MSM spin?
I have become somewhat ambivalent about this case. I still think the 6 kids should be freed. Their lives should not be ruined for doing something rash. Again, it’s a perfect example of what not to do when provoked. Not that I feel bad for the white kid who purposely stirred their anger. I relate to those 6 kids. You have no idea how many people I’ve wanted to flatten. And I’m glad I didn’t. No one’s worth screwing up your life for. And that’s more often than not, is what the person who is taunting you wants. He/she wants you to get fired, expelled, sued or tossed in the slammer.
I can also understand why people both black and white would feel as if their town was being “beseiged” and essentially singled out, as if racial incidents and discrimination don’t happen outside of Jena or the South for that matter.
But this is one case. If this is widespread, then is getting these kids off going to be more than a drop in the bucket?
Everyone wants someone freed from jail or justice for someone. Free Peltier! Free Mumia! Free Pollard! Justice For Anna Nicole Smith (since she was now supposedly murdered)!!!
I mean, if so many people are getting shafted by our justice system (and I’m not denying that) for being black, poor, female, male, etc. where to begin?
Again, I hope the Jena 6 gets off. I don’t think they did a good thing in beating up that white kids, but nonetheless, there’s a clear bias here and a history preceding the incident.
Would efforts best be spent trying to take down capitalism, and the classism and racism is wreaks?
People just seem to want to keep chipping away at the big rock. I think it should just be blown to bits.
Or they want to put out fires.
“Racism is so enmeshed in white society that most aren’t even aware they are. They simply continue to benefit from white skin privelage and are completely clueless that it’s even happening. Many don’t want to know or are so far in denial they can’t see it. ”
We whites ARE the links in the chains; we are an integral part of the human ghetto-wall. The cops don’t stop us, assault us, suspect us (unless, of course, we happen to be on the side with too many non-whites), so we are taught not to see it, not only in the streets, but in the classroms, where we’re taught that we live in a country which has always been dedicated to freedom, which has a few blots on its record, rather than that we live in a country which from its inception was devoted to land theft and eradication of the indigenous people — who had to be replaced with abductees from another continent because they made unwilling slaves.
Our national charter was designed to protect and enhance the positions of slaveholders & property owners. The Supreme Court protected that national charter through keeping slavery legal. The attempt to extend the Bill of Rights to cover non-whites and non-property owners was absolutely “un-Constituional”.
Until we whites divest ourselves of the fantasy that our forefathers & mothers stood for liberation, we will continue to be part of the invisible empire here at home, living in a fantasy that benefitted us in the past only because we were useful in keeping the disfranchised and the dispossessed in their places.
As a child, I remember seeing the race rights of 1968 on TV and magazine covers. I was disgusted and repulsed with what I saw. It effected me deeply.
I find it unconscionable that Americans continue to tolerate the symbols of lynchings and the Jim Crow laws.
I wonder if Americans would tolerate Islamic symbols (fully dressed mujahideen) in their midst.
Racism is terrorism.
“I wonder if Americans would tolerate Islamic symbols (fully dressed mujahideen) in their midst.”
Imagine if it had been swastikas. Would anyone even think of saying “Well, that’s just a little prank”?
MarkMarshal - your response to Kristina is appreciated. Judging by her 2nd post, however, she still doesn’t understand what I wrote. Kristina, I am sorry you find it necessary to be so defensive about your marriage. I believe women are LESS likely than men to be racist. I hold to that.
Peace. Out.
The politicans force them to go to school together then started bussing them all over town and country which turned out to be a disaster and cost millions of dollars.What forceing them to go to school together has done is deprive most white boys and girls to not have a chance to play sports look especially at the college teams they are 90 percent black if it was the other way aroung AL Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be leading the protest.Seperate schools could be the answer but I’m sure some of you will bring hell and brimstone down on me for saying what millions think.
This “Little Brother” is one of those reason why “STUPID WHITE MEN” was written. he refuses to think. He refuses to read. he refuses to get teh facts. But he has an opinion and he believes his opinion is the fact. If they in teh South would send DUMB people to jail for 20 years - perhaps our Lil’ White Brother would get it.
Oh, I forgot.. the fascist judge is actually the only guilty party in this incident. he should be disbarred… perhaps Saddamized.
MarkMarshall, It’s taken me a long time to get past my own preconcieved notions of race and that’s mostly because I get to live through the eyes of a black person (my husband) and see first hand the preferential treatment that we as white people recieve. It’s systematic and so ingrained most don’t even notice. All white people are not racist but all white people do benefit from white skin privelage knowingly or unknowingly. Can white and black people get along on a person to person basis? Of course, but the playing field will always favor the white person. This is usually the point in the conversation Affirmative Action will get thrown out there so I’ll address it before it does.
White women by a vast percentage have benefited more from AA than any other group. They were seen as the “lesser of two evils” and hired to fill quotas. Black men were always seen as the last resort and still are and we wonder why so many are in the streets with no jobs. I’ve worked at companies that would flag black applicants resumes with a code word so the hiring supervisor would know they were black and not hire them. I’ve had my husband be told an apartment was not for lease and when I called back an hour later that very same apartment was amazingly ready to be seen! This is what black america faces on a daily basis and we wonder why they are bitter? Wouldn’t you be? Wouldn’t you grow weary of being told to “get over slavery it happened hundreds of years ago”, when it was your great grandmother, gutted hanging from a tree? Would you tire of being pulled over for merely DWB (driving while black)? Would you become angry when you are denied employment consistently at any jobs other than menial labor? Would you be offended every time some white women put a death grip on her purse and switched sides of the street when she saw you walking in her direction? I could go on all night with examples but I would hope you get my point.
Juliann, It would be great if I didn’t have to defend my marriage on a regular basis but being as I’ve been accused of “sinning against the book” for marrying a black man by customers at my job. Told by another customer that “fucking a black guy is ok so long as you don’t have kids with him”, told by my boss “get over hearing the n word at work, take it with a grain of salt” and basically stared at, glared at and made to actually fear for my husband and I’s safety in some instances, I doubt that I’ll be able to stop having to defend my marriage anytime soon.
If racism against blacks is so prevalent in this country, how did Condi Rice get the position she has? How about Oprah Winfry? She’s a billionaire. Not to mention many other rich and famous blacks.
This whole thing has become kind of boring. If you want to see racism, go to a Native-American reservation to see its effects. Caucasians don’t pick on blacks because there’s more of them. It’s not the same story for the fewer Native-Americans.
Gee sexism mustn’t exist either then. Does it really matter if you’re yellow, red, brown, or black? Now we need to grade racism as to who has it the worst? The point is it shouldn’t BE. Period. So if racism against one race or another bores you, maybe you are part of the problem.
Don’t worry about it so much. The 6 kids that ambushed the white kid have almost $200,000 for their legal defense donated to them. Try to relax. You’ll live longer. I’m glad for them.
“The white trash everywhere will not be able to shed their racist mentality until they change their skin color.”
My own quote
lillulu:
How does Lennon’s Working Class Hero go? “There’s plenty of room (at the top of the hill) they are telling you still, as long as you learn how to smile as you kill.”
Remember Powell’s smiles at the UN, and Condesending’s condesending smiles during any interview?
Rascism is replete in every sector of US society. The greatest horror is of course going on in Afghanistan and Iraq where a KKK like foreign policy is in effect; one espoused by Sen. Stevens, at the height of torture arrogance, when the Senator defended torture with his statement that there are 2 types of people in this world, “classified” and “unclassified” and that it was okay to finance and train one group of classifieds to massacre an entire village to “make a point” to surrounding villages - as in the massacre of El Moetz.
As in fomenting the sectarian violence in the middle east. As in , as already pointed out, the DAILY, as in every minute of every day, systemic abuse to the poor, with an emphasis on black poor, in the US.
My hope is that the forces of Justice for the Jena 6 will join with the forces of Justice for Impeachment, thus sending an undeniable message throughout this country and the world that imperial and KKK like behavior will not be tolerated, and that the behavior of human dignity within and without of oneself is the way to go - i.e. in the long run better for everybody involved.
I’m from Boston where everyone up here is angry and disappointed because the police DID NOT shoot and kill Star Simpson at Logan airport. I am 55 years old and I can’t remember so much all-consuming and generalized hate and divisiveness in the United States, ever! I don’t see how we can continue to exist as a nation behaving as we do. Is this really all because of 9/11, or did 9/11 just allow Pandora to come out of her box? When the people are this angry at the “other” even when the other may be their brother, fascisim is soon to follow. I’m gettin’ kinda scared. How ’bout you?
WNOONS: The epidemic of intolerance you relate is certainly coming from our dear leader, the great uniter, not divider who stated, “You’re either with us, or against us.” This imbecile’s authoritarian creed of unity is based on one way, his diabolical, deluded, pro-war, nonchalant murder-based policies. We already see what is happening to meaningful dissent.
This trigger happy subhuman cowboy at the great US wheel also sets a precedent for raw violence and greater liberated rage on the nation’s highways where 40,000 tend to die each year. The Chinese have an apt saying, “If you can control yourself in a moment of anger you save 1000 days of sorrow.” Sounds about right as per the metrics of car insurance, since the accident anger fuels will tend to drive rates up for at least 3 years.
Our nation is sick. It’s grown fat on a surfeit of the senses, it privatizes war through covert mercenary armed forces, it uses too much of the world’s fossil fuels, produces few products other than weapons and/or the Hollywood entertainment model that massages conscience to make violence palpable, part of “the new norm.”
Like you, I feel disgusted. Like other activists, I got behind all the important causes all of my adult life and did my best to educate people… only to see this undermining of every good and decent thing. But I take heart from the laws of nature, that this inversion of all things viable is equivalent to a wave. Ocean waves turn UNDER themselves to gather momentum for future progress. That explains the nation’s sinking so low right now. I hope.
wishfulthinker, they already HAVE served that much time waiting for trial. Mychal Bell has been in prison since December of ‘06.
First - this IS America in Jena. I abhor racism myself but here it is in all its glory. Red White & Blue - we are divided by color due to our ignorance. Our ignorance also brought us Bill Clinton & George Bush. Wisdom would elect Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel. Here is a little insight into why we never seem to make any headway with so called progressive or liberal issues.
“Like other activists, I got behind all the important causes all of my adult life and did my best to educate people… ”
Here is a thought - get in front of the issues and causes you support - in other words lead. You cannot lead if no one is following, nor can you lead from behind.
The reality is that when you assume a position of being better than or smarter than - other people - namely people who you believe are more ignorant and bigoted than you are - the people you are addressing pick up on that. Even if they only had a 3rd grade education. Until the progressives and liberals understand that they will never reach the people they want to reach. Simply espousing my point of view is not working to educate people. Living and being the changes you want to see in the world will draw people to you. Jesus, Ghandi, Buddha and many others more wise than myself have all said that we must live our lives as the example we want others to see.
The problem we have is that we only get lipservice to morals and courage from our so called leaders. Slice it anyway you want but Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Pearl, Wolfowitz and Cheney never served a day in the military yet not one of them had a compunction or second thought about sending our kids into Iraq or Afghanistan. They all had the opportunity to join the military but opted for other options instead. now they want you to be a patriot and sacrifice your children but theirs will not endure such hardships. Why?
Speaking of racism, let’s look at the right-wing racism directed at Iraqis: “We’re over there doing the Iraqis a favor.” Mmm, since when was committing genocide doing them a favor? “We should stop wringing our hands about what to do and just go in and bomb all of them to Hell” (haven’t they already done that?).
lillulu, that shouldn’t be surprising considering they won’t even show up to debate at minority venues. The message is clear, we don’t need your votes we have the evangelicals…
Racism: 1.2 million Iraquis dead, and counting….
Way to go, barbarians!
Racism in America has been directed against the Irish, the Native Americans, the Latin Americans, and the Asians, among others. Most of all it has centered on the African Americans, because it is a political question. Politics, it has been written, is the art of the class struggle. Nothing could be more artful than to use a myth to convince literally millions of people to do harm to themselves in the interests of the people they are struggling against. Yet this is precisely what has happened in our history. It happened because the American people became convinced that they were dealing with a biological rather than a political question.
“What is Freedom?” asked General William T. Sherman at a gathering with 20 freedmen in Savannah on January 12, 1865. “Placing us where we could reap the benefits of our labor “ replied Garrison Frazier. “And Slavery?” Sherman asked. “It is receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent,” Frazier answered.
Throughout the history of America, the laboring masses have dreamed of freedom from the domination of property over slave labor and free labor, and of the reconstruction of society to enjoy the full fruit of their labor.
One side benefits from keeping us divided, but as working class people, being divided keeps us from attaining our goals.
Racism is the tool of the capitalist bosses to keep minorities, women and working class whites divided. Don’t play into their hands!
Good post blessthebeasts. I wish certain people on the left would see that as well.
“White Trash” here, signing off.
iwarrior, many of us on the left realize this however; it’s hard to feel sorry for people that hate you and most of what you stand for. Working class whites are getting a raw deal just like any other group deemed “working class”. They only have to deal with one “ism” while minorities and women have to deal with multiple “ism”s while trying to get by. They’ve basically reduced us all to “crabs in a barrel” climbing over the top of anyone in our way of reaching that ever elusive brass ring. I’ve tried to reason with some of the less hateful ones but even they cannot or will not see or admit what’s going on. It’s as though the masses have been hypnotized into ignorance…
Whatever happened to “Common Sense”?
Instead of taking a picture of the tree in question and going to the national media with their justifiable outrage, these teens compounded the outrage by being thugs and thus placing themselves up against a racist system and offering an opportunity for “Redneck America” to find sympathy for the “victimized wittle white boy(s)”.
Did these teens not have a cell phone that doubles as a camera on their person? And don’t even try to sell me that they, being from the “po side of town” weren’t privileged enough to afford one. I’ve seen street corner beggars with cell phones!
This turned into a case of “Thugs on Rednecks” simply compounding the problem…net gain…nothing
But, then again, violence attracts media and diverts even more attention from the real thugs called The Bush Administration.
“Common Sense” (Experience combined with knowledge of consequence of action): It’s free, it works, and while being plentiful it is obviously in short supply.
I don’t think the Jena Six were calculating how to attract media attention when the incident occurred. I think they were reacting to a lifetime of racism and this was simply the last straw. I’m not excusing what they did, but it definitely reveals the inevitable consequences of the pervasive racism that still permeates our society. And charging them with attempted murder was ludicrous. If they had intended to kill the white boy, they would certainly have succeeded.
Kristina40-Well if black people all supposedly resent me, then why should I sympathize with them? Do you see my point? Classism is as crippling as racism and sexism and homophobia can be. It’s an “ism” that blankets people of all races and genders. And it doesn’t help when some people on the left fling racism and sexism at those working and poor whites. The very assumption that they’re all racist and sexist is in itself bigoted.
However,I agree with you that we are all “crabs in a barrel”. And that’s what the elites want. Which is why we can’t afford to be throwing darts at one another.
It try to reason with people too. It is frustrating and difficult as you say. While it is easy to be scarred, traumatized and jaded by our experiences with other groups of people, we can’t let it turn us into bigots either.
I mean, I went to a predominantly black high school, live in an urban area, and haven’t been isolated from black people at all. I had bad experiences with black kids too. It wasn’t most of them, but nonetheless I witnessed the underbelly of black culture firsthand.
I knew black kids that sold drugs.
I knew black kids that didn’t like whites, Asians, jews, gays, etc. and weren’t above making it known.
I remember black kids harassing other black kids who were doing well in school, taunting with the words “sell-out”.
Black kids were often materialistic. They were as obsessed with having the most expensive clothes as anyone if not moreseo.
And I’ve seen it extend into my adult life also.
On the other hand, I’ve known black people who were nothing like I described above. But I didn’t let my negative experiences define my experiences as a whole.
I’ve had more bad experiences with other white people than I have with anyone. Should I hate other white people? Should I marry a black woman? Why would a black woman want to marry me if they all supposedly resent me?
I don’t know what else to say. Maybe it’s just that I’ve grown weary of the bashing of Americans, Southerners, Christians, whites, men, etc. that I’ve seen here recently. I guess I just expect better from progressives. Too many of us are taking the bait.
Mychal Bell was on probation for battery at the time of this incident, does anyone take this into account? If true ‘justice’ was really desired, then there wouldn’t be any question that Bell should do some time in jail for this. Instead, you should be lobbying for stiffer penalties against the white kids who hung the noose in the tree. You can’t go around kicking unconscious people in the head, no matter what they say or do, without consequences.
pwrmac5 said: I will believe in the justice system when a vast majority of whites say, “If those white kids never hung the nooses, this whole incident would never have happened.”
That’s like saying ‘if she hadn’t worn that mini-skirt, she wouldn’t have been raped’.
There is no excuse.
Off topic…but…
Is there anyone besides myself that hates/despises/loathes the Cowboys with as much passion?
If these bastards played “The Osama bin Laden Desert Rats”…gimme Osama!
I couldn’t pull for the Dallas Cowboys against a mechanical failure at 30 thousand feet!
But…feel free to ask me how I really feel.
Dallas! The site for the Georgie Bush Library! Proof enough?
Lemme outta here!
Curtsie!
iwarrior asks: “if black people all supposedly resent me, then why should I sympathize with them?”
I don’t know about “sympathizing with them”, but I can think of a number of not necessarily altruistic reasons why it might be in your interest to seek justice for Blacks:
Because you want to live in a civilized country that does not discriminate on the basis of race?
Because you do not want to be ashamed to tell people what country you come from when you travel abroad?
Because you want to live in a peaceful and secure society, and if a large minority group feels aggrieved, public security is jeopardized in consequence?
Because you have studied the history of this country and you know that we owe a huge debt to the Blacks that has not been paid, and you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in fear of their anger?
Because, regardless of how you may personally feel about individual black people, you have a conscience?
Mark Marshall
Toronto
iwarrior, I understand where you are coming from. I also understand things as seen through “black eyes” if you will. It’s frustrating because there does not seem to be any answer until people can put aside their pre concieved notions and try to work together.
My husband grew up on the North side of St. Louis. For the better part of 30 years the “street life” was all he knew. He hated “whitey” and avoided whites at all costs as they generally meant trouble. He was “beat in” to a powerful street gang at age 12, there wasn’t a “choice” in this. You either joined or were a target the rest of your days. Cops wouldn’t even patrol in these neighborhoods, nevermind give a damn about some black kid being forced into a gang. THIS is the pervasive problem in this society and nobody seems to get it or care.
I met my husband when he was 25 and for reasons neither of us still understand we instantly clicked. We worked through our racial issues together and found, surprise, surprise, that we were not all that different! I’ve since worked with gang members and tried to counsel them to get out and improve their lots in life. It’s difficult when you have no jobs skills and limited education. Choices are generally limited to menial, minimum wage jobs as compared to lucrative drug dealing which for many of them is all they’ve known since their pre teen years. They are raised in war zones but nobody mentions PTSD with these kids. Why not? They suffer from it. My husband to this day will scope out anyplace we enter and is constantly on the alert watching exits and people that are acting out of the ordinary. He’s one of the lucky ones, his Mom got him enrolled in a military high school and he did finish his high school education. The gang was slowly pulling him back in when I met him and I curtailed that but it took several years for him to severe ties completely. Most of these kids don’t get the benefit of anyone looking out for them and they end up in the Prison Industrial Complex…
MarkMarshall-I never said that I don’t want justice for blacks. I was just trying to illustrate a point. I support reparations among other things. I think my other posts throughout CD bear out the fact that I am for social, economic, and global justice for many, many reasons.
Kristina40-I read your post too. I just wanted to know your story if you will.
“We worked through our racial issues together and found, surprise, surprise, that we were not all that different!”
I think that’s what people of all shades need to be doing. We can’t do that if we’re hurling snowballs at one another.
Pure nonsense, iwarrior!
Every time on this site there has been a thread about people with less than white skin–the president of Venezuela, for example–you and your ignorance have been here bashing full bore.
You may be a good example of a rightwing bigot, but you are not progressive–in any sense of the word.