Homecoming had a completely different meaning to 17-year-old Mychal Bell this fall. Instead of attending pep rallies and football games with the rest of the Jena High School, Bell celebrated his release from a Louisiana jail last week.
Bell is one of six black high school students who were arrested last December after allegedly beating a white classmate, Justin Barker.
The fight came after a series of racially charged incidents in the
Jena area that began with the hanging of nooses from a “white tree” in the school’s courtyard earlier that fall.
“Free the Jena 6” is the slogan being purported by modern-day civil rights champions like the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, both of whom showed up at a rally held in Jena last month. It’s a shame to see how little progress has been made in equal justice since the 1960s, they’ve said.
The Jena 6 case has taken off like a middle school rumor in the past few months. The Associated Press even ran an article in late September, analyzing the twists and turns the story has taken since the initial reports surfaced. The article pointed out that some articles and media sources have claimed that there were three nooses hanging from the tree at Jena High School, a code for “KKK.” It also explained that while Bell was convicted by an all-white jury, only 10 percent of the population in the area is African American and none of the randomly selected black potential jurors who were summoned showed up.
Where I grew up, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, we like to believe that this kind of hate, this kind of racial injustice doesn’t exist in today’s America. When I hear “nooses hanging from a tree,” I have these images of burning crosses and guys in white hoods, images of a time we’d like to believe is behind us.
All around the country, Web sites have sprung up in support of the “Jena 6.” I’ve received e-mails and messages on Facebook with online petitions of support and advertisements for events like “Wear Green For the Jena 6 Day.” The main group, “FREE JENA 6” was started by a student at Howard University and now totals over 70,000 members nationwide. The narrative on the site for this group states that the white student who was attacked “had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students ‘nigger.’”
As a journalism student, I was a bit surprised by the bias in some of the recent coverage of the rallies and Bell’s eventual release. It’s hard to find any information out there that simply lays the facts out.
Like any good story, this one has a villain: District Attorney Reed Walters. His sound bites have ranged from topics of the media:
“This case has been portrayed by the news media as being about race. And the fact that it takes place in a small southern town lends itself to that portrayal. But it is not and never has been about race.”
The protestors on September 27:
“I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened.”
Justin Barker’s attack:
“With all the emphasis on the defendant, the injury done to [Barker] and the serious threat to his existence has become of footnote.”
And his reasons for not prosecuting the students who hung the nooses:
“I cannot overemphasize how abhorrent and stupid I find the placing of nooses on the school yard tree… but it broke no law.”
The story has a hero: the Jena 6 (often referred to as though they were one unit, and not 6 individuals, and generally the label is applied to events surrounding the incarceration and conviction of Mychal Bell). Supports of the Jena 6 have made demands ranging from a federal investigation of Walters, to a retrial for Bell in juvenile court, to the dropping of all charges against all six defendants.
The story even has a moral: that racial disparities and racial injustice still exist in our America today. I’m hopeful that someday this story will be included in the history books. I’m hopeful that our students of the future will know that forty years after the civil rights movement, when six high school students in Jena, Louisiana faced and fought racism, their story made a difference.
6 comments:
Personally, I like different cultures. Racist people are ignorant, uneducated people who are probably jealous for not having any culture themselves.
To add on, what are they contributing to society?!
It actually had to take an event of this exrtremity for people to start having somewhat of a serious discussion on race? Most people who live in small to midsize towns aren't even getting this in their media. Racism has to be on the national and international political consciousness if people of color are ever to have justice and equality. Most people of color, like myself, face racism to one degree or another on a daily basis. It should not have to go to the Jena 6 level for the powers that be to start doing something to acknowledge the inequalities that exists in this country because of the color of one's skin. I can only imagine what events have to take place before Asians, Mexicans, Middle Easterns, and other people of color will get their chance at forcing this country to recognize their struggles.
RACISM? it's everywhere and you can never run from it. I'm from St.Paul, MN and i don't see much racist stuff. But once you step out of the city to the rural areas, you feel like an outsider. People stare at you like you're an intruder. Even though in today's society, racism has gotten better there are still a lot that human has to learn to live together in peace and quiet. It's not just the White people that own this country, they stold it, conned the Native Americans to get what is called U.S.A today. So just cause they're in top position today, you'll never know what the future holds ahead for this country. No one should ever be given the right to take anothers right away from them. Racism shouldn't be taken and something should be done to the racits folks.
I have a theory about racism: I think the reason we're seeing a spike in overt racist incidents is that racism is actually starting to evaporate in the semi-civilized world. If that sounds counterintuitive, think about it: There will always be certain people who will harbor racist attitudes, but the general mainstream of America is growing out of racial hostility. If you're a die-hard bigot this would have to be a big problem, because nothing is more terrifying than seeing the whole of culture leaving you in the dust. That's why residual racists are getting more rabid - they're intellectual dinosaurs too daft to find their way into the nearest tar pit, and they're in a panic. Eventually they will take that plunge, but dinosaurs in their death-throes nevertheless have the ability to cause a lot of damage on their way out.
The most vital thing is first to do what nobody seems willing to do: identify what racism is. Under the rules of logical definition, racism is classified as a variant of the philosophy of Collectivism. Other major collectivist variants are: fascism, communism, socialism, multiculturalism, welfare statism, tribalism, sexism, egalitarianism, etc..
Collectivism, in turn, is any ideology that tries to subordinate the individual to some group - racial, ethnic, economic, gender, whatever. Collectivism is essentially "group-think on steroids." It rests on a logical contradiction: How can one assert the "supremacy" of a group over the individual, when groups themselves do not even exist, except as figures of speech to denote two or more individuals? In logic that's the fallacy of the Stolen Concept, which lies at the core of collectivist philosophy, inescapably.
Another way of looking at racism is to realize that one's race is literally no different than one's shoe size (which is why multiculturalism - the focus on one's race as one's sole identity - is itself racist.) One's race, like one's shoe size, is only a collection of measurements: an aggregate of facial/physical dimensions that bear a resemblance to those of certain others; the comparative wavelengths of light that are reflected by pigmentation, etc. To assert that a measurement can somehow be a badge of "honor" or "dishonor" is something that should be laughed out of public debate.
One's culture is a different issue, because that's chosen - or can be chosen - where one's race is an unchangeable accident of birth.
There is only one antidote to racism that has ever existed or can ever exist: Individualism. ...So of course individualism is the one word that nobody is even willing to say out loud - aarrrgh.
Sorry to drone on so long, but it's frustrating to me that something so idiotic can continue to cause so much trouble. Each of us can value ethnicity and cultural heritage, but only as a peripheral, not essential, element of who we are, or who others are.
Racism will always exist. Get used to it. It exists within every race. Look at North Korean's treatment in South Korea. Look at the Ainu's status in Japanese society. Jena 6 occurs in nearly every community every year. It's the media that sensationalizes an incident that makes individuals like you rise up. If you are dead serious about making a difference, then volunteer daily to a community service organization. Otherwise, your "higher calling" self-glorification shtick has gotten old.
Heroes! The Jena 6 are heroes? 6 black kids take a white kid, who had absolutely nothing to with the noose incident and hit him so hard that he passed out and they continued beating on his limp body and you call these kids Heroes? So violence is sometimes the answer?
“The Schoolyard Fight. The event on Dec. 4, 2006 was consistently labeled a "schoolyard fight." But witnesses described something much more horrific. Several black students, including those now known as the Jena 6, barricaded an exit to the school's gym as they lay in wait for Justin Barker to exit. (It remains unclear why Mr. Barker was specifically targeted.)
When Barker tried to leave through another exit, court testimony indicates, he was hit from behind by Mychal Bell. Multiple witnesses confirmed that Barker was immediately knocked unconscious and lay on the floor defenseless as several other black students joined together to kick and stomp him, with most of the blows striking his head.”
Full independent story here: www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.htm
Is it OK for 6 kids to beat another kid because of the color of his skin? I thought you said you hate racism. Do you hate it or not. Or is it your position that sometimes it is OK as long as it is white people like me getting hurt?
If we all say that we hate racism then we have to hate it in all its forms. This was a violent attack on one of us citizens and is never OK.
Also please stop with the prevailing wisdom that states only white people living in America can be racist. Do any of you read the news? Have you ever heard of the Black Panthers or Nation of Islam? Do you know how Christens are treated in Muslim countries. Do you know how blacks are treated in Mexico and South America. Do you know how non Japanese are treated in Japan? America is not perfect but compared to all other countries is the best melting pot the world has and those “White” Americans have faced their past and made real amends to righting our wrongs. But many countries in the world have not so why all the belly aching.
If you travel the world it is our America society that you will see so many different races and religions when you walk down the street. If you go to almost any nation in Africa you will see almost only black people. If you go to China you will see almost entirely Asian people, same in Indonesia, Thailand Laos and Japan. Go to almost any Arab or Muslim country and you will see a much higher majority of a single race and very little tolerance for people who are different.
As a white American and part of the society that opened our arms to people from all around the world to our shores I am shocked when I look around and see so many that have come here and prospered pointing an accusing finger at white society. Have we been wrong to welcome all these people here? Have we allowed so many here that they will now turn against us? It all seems so ungrateful.
Sure there are white racists but there are racists of all peoples all over the world, it is a human trait not a white trait. And I would argue that “white” American society is among the least racists, most tolerant when compared to so many others in the world. White American society has been the friend to the minority more than most others in the world. We Americans have benefited from our tolerance and openness – look at all the wonderful contributions we have enjoyed that never would have come to be if we were a closed society. We do need to improve and all my life have worked for equality and I have seen so many positive changes. When I see smart educated people like you calling the Jenna 6 Heroes while making a thinly veiled condemnation of white America, It really makes me shake my head in bewilderment….
Respectfully,
Scott
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