Jena 6 demonstration

[Guest Dj_Peace]

Just makes you wonder where are our priorities whne an alleged gay politician and dogfighting are the BIG STORY and this story is barely a blip on the national radar. ??? :-[ >

Racial demons rear heads

After months of unrest between blacks and whites in Louisiana town, some see racism and uneven justice

By Howard Witt | Tribune senior correspondent

May 20, 2007

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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Furl Google Reddit Spurl Yahoo Newsvine Print Single page view Reprints Text size: JENA, La. - The trouble in Jena started with the nooses. Then it rumbled along the town's jagged racial fault lines. Finally, it exploded into months of violence between blacks and whites.

Now the 3,000 residents of this small lumber and oil town deep in the heart of central Louisiana are confronting Old South racial demons many thought had long ago been put to rest.

One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman's nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.

The tree was on the side of the campus that, by long-standing tradition, had always been claimed by white students, who make up more than 80 percent of the 460 students. But a few of the school's 85 black students had decided to challenge the accepted state of things and asked school administrators if they, too, could sit beneath the tree's cooling shade.

"Sit wherever you want," school officials told them. The next day, the nooses were hanging from the branches.

African-American students and their parents were outraged and intimidated by the display, which instantly summoned memories of the mob lynchings that once terrorized blacks across the American South. Three white students were quickly identified as being responsible, and the high school principal recommended that they be expelled.

"Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple," said Tracy Bowens, a black mother of two students at the high school who protested the incident at a school board meeting.

But Jena's white school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, ruled that the nooses were just a youthful stunt and suspended the students for three days, angering blacks who felt harsher punishments were justified.

"Adolescents play pranks," said Breithaupt, the superintendent of the LaSalle Parish school system. "I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

Yet it was after the noose incident that the violent, racially charged events that are still convulsing Jena began.

[Guest Dj_Peace]

First, a series of fights between black and white students erupted at the high school over the nooses. Then, in late November, unknown arsonists set fire to the central wing of the school, which still sits in ruins. Off campus, a white youth beat up a black student who showed up at an all-white party. A few days later, another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store.

Finally, on Dec. 4, a group of black students at the high school allegedly jumped a white student on his way out of the gym, knocked him unconscious and kicked him after he hit the floor. The victim -- allegedly targeted because he was a friend of the students who hung the nooses and had been taunting blacks -- was not seriously injured and spent only a few hours in the hospital.

But the LaSalle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, opted to charge six black students with attempted second-degree murder and other offenses, for which they could face a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted. All six were expelled from school.

To the defendants, their families and civil rights groups that have examined the events, the attempted murder charges brought by a white prosecutor are excessive and part of a pattern of uneven justice in the town.

The critics note, for example, that the white youth who beat the black student at the party was charged only with simple battery, while the white man who pulled the shotgun at the convenience store wasn't charged with any crime at all. But the three black youths in that incident were arrested and accused of aggravated battery and theft after they wrestled the weapon from the man -- in self-defense, they said.

"There's been obvious racial discrimination in this case," said Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who described Jena as a "racial powder keg" primed to ignite. "It appears the black students were singled out and targeted in this case for some unusually harsh treatment."

That's how the mother of one of the defendants sees things as well.

"They are sending a message to the white kids, 'You have committed this hate crime, you were taunting these black children, and we are going to allow you to continue doing what you are doing,'" said Caseptla Bailey, mother of Robert Bailey Jr.

[Guest Dj_Peace]

Bailey, 17, is caught up in several of the Jena incidents, as both a victim and alleged perpetrator. He was the black student who was beaten at the party, and he was among the students arrested for allegedly grabbing the shotgun from the man at the convenience store. And he's one of the six students charged with attempted murder for the Dec. 4 attack.

The district attorney declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. But other white leaders insist there are no racial tensions in the community, which is 85 percent white and 12 percent black.

"Jena is a place that's moving in the right direction," said Mayor Murphy McMillan. "Race is not a major local issue. It's not a factor in the local people's lives."

Still others, however, acknowledge troubling racial undercurrents in a town where only 16 years ago white voters cast most of their ballots for David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor.

"I've lived here most of my life, and the one thing I can state with absolutely no fear of contradiction is that LaSalle Parish is awash in racism -- true racism," a white Pentecostal preacher, Eddie Thompson, wrote in an essay he posted on the Internet. "Here in the piney woods of central Louisiana ... racism and bigotry are such a part of life that most of the citizens do not even recognize it."

The lone black member of the school board agrees.

"There's no doubt about it -- whites and blacks are treated differently here," said Melvin Worthington, who was the only school board member to vote against expelling the six black students charged in the beating case. "The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided."

And the troubles at the high school are not over yet.

On May 10, police arrested Justin Barker, 17, the white victim of the Dec. 4 beating. He was alleged to have a rifle loaded with 13 bullets stashed behind the seat of his pickup truck parked in the school lot. Barker told police he had forgotten it was there and had no intention of using it.

[Guest Dj_Peace]

No opinions yet? That is strange for such strong opinioned folks that post in this forum. Is this too controversial a topic or does this hit too close to home? Does this make folks really uncomfortable?

[Guest pod]

It doesn't surprise me at all. We're in the 21st Century, but driving through the South, you expect to see Ned Beatty and those creepy Mountain Men at any moment.

Race vs race is still very alive and well throughout the South and the Bible Belt.

And even beyond. Sometimes I'm surprised at how much racism there is in the Latino community even, when it comes to Latin vs Latin.

[Guest Dj_Peace]

This is a first I think since I have been on this board. Ususally CJ'ers are very opinionated and simultaneously very passionate about their stance on certain topics, especially matters on politics, socioeconomics and religion. This is why I am so befuddled as to where are all of the pontificators and philosophers as it relates to this matter.

I posted this because as a person of African American and Caribbean descent, I found this story to be very disturbing and distressing that in 2007, in many parts of these yet to be truly United States, we are in many ways dealing with issues from 1867.

Is the problem of race in America due to our inability or unwillingness to have open, frank, honest discussion of this terrible scourge on our society? Is our failure to address the matter an indictment of or own hypocrisy because we demonize other "lesser" or developing antions as "third world dictatorships" that are in need of good ol' American democracy and freedom while all the while being painfully aware that our own citizens whose blood, sweat and tears ahelped to shape this nation into what it is today are not themselves afforded those very same freedoms and digintiy?

We can argue all day long about the right or the left but at the end of the day, we must at some point deal with the elephant that is in the middle of the room.

My two cents.

[Guest trancepriest]

Dude America is racist as fuck... schools are more segregated now than ever. I heard the statistics are if a neighborhood becomes 9% black... whites that can afford it move out. This shit doesn't surprise me one bit. Look at New Orleans... they wouldn't even give blacks safe passage through this one town. Our fucking America.. still grimy as ever.

[Guest drlogic]

Dude America is racist as fuck... schools are more segregated now than ever. I heard the statistics are if a neighborhood becomes 9% black... whites that can afford it move out. This shit doesn't surprise me one bit. Look at New Orleans... they wouldn't even give blacks safe passage through this one town. Our fucking America.. still grimy as ever.

so what's the problem? LOL.....J/K DUDE...

Try being a fag in Jamaica, a spic in Oklahoma, a cracker in Liberty City, a fat chic @ a health club

or Christian in many Arab states,,,,,or from a differnt tribe in Africa,,,,,or Muslim in France,,,,

That's just human nature.....humans have always hated one another from the beginning of time. I think if one only worries about themselves and works to better themselves,,,,,fuck the rest. We can all sit here and have our little PITY PARTY and cry foul, but how constructive is that? Really????

[Guest trancepriest]

Try being a fag in Jamaica, a spic in Oklahoma, a cracker in Liberty City, a fat chic @ a health club

or Christian in many Arab states,,,,,or from a differnt tribe in Africa,,,,,or Muslim in France,,,,

That's just human nature.....humans have always hated one another from the beginning of time. I think if one only worries about themselves and works to better themselves,,,,,fuck the rest. We can all sit here and have our little PITY PARTY and cry foul, but how constructive is that? Really????

Better yourself while accepting segregation, oppression and being a minority in which the entire system is against?

[Guest drlogic]

No, silly rabbit.

Life can be cruel sometimes. Utopia doesn't exist. Therefor, we should continue to better ourselves as a people and a nation as we have been. We've come a long, long way in a relatively short period of time regarding race & gender equality in this country. We're just so spoiled and so misguided in this country that we invent and exagerate our problems like when people compare the prosecution of a black criminal to the lynching of an inoccent slave. And that's just moronic, IMHO.

[Guest trancepriest]

So what you are saying is that blacks shouldn't cry about any acts of injustice? They should suck it up and deal with it by forgetting it ever happened. ;D

[BobbyTrendy]

I don't know how to posts urls and i'm too lazy to learn, but I agree with this article here from Jason Whitlock:

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510?MSNHPHMA

[Guest Dj_Peace]

I don't know how to posts urls and i'm too lazy to learn, but I agree with this article here from Jason Whitlock:

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510?MSNHPHMA

I read JW and found it interesting that he conveniently did not include the following uncontested summary of evidence that has been reported in the rest of the newspaper articles chronicling this incident. I do not believe that somehow JW is the only person that "gets it" and the rest of the folks covering this story are somehow all part of one great big conspiracy to "stick it to the man". And finally, the fact that one person had a checkered past (Bell) is irrelevant unless it came up in the court -which is illegal to bring up prior criminal acts UNLESS it has bearing and relevance to the case being prosecuted. JW does not give us any of the criminal history of the white youth involved in this fracas - so are we to then assume that all of the whites involved in these incidences "are as innocent and pure as the driven snow"?. I guess that is not important to this story. Anyway, omitted from JW column:

A few days later, another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store.

The critics note, for example, that the white youth who beat the black student at the party was charged only with simple battery, while the white man who pulled the shotgun at the convenience store wasn't charged with any crime at all. But the three black youths in that incident were arrested and accused of aggravated battery and theft after they wrestled the weapon from the man -- in self-defense, they said.

[Guest coach]

I hear ya, Peace. A 19 page thread about Paris getting off easy on a BS moving violation, but nothing about any real issues. And it's certainly not just CJ.

[Oni1414777741]

Does the title of this thread keep changing or is it me? ???

[BobbyTrendy]

what does opine mean?

[Guest Dj_Peace]

what does opine mean?

Pronunciation: O-'pIn

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): opined; opin·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French opiner, from Latin opinari to have an opinion

intransitive verb : to express opinions

transitive verb : to state as an opinion

[Guest slamminshaun]

So what you are saying is ......

I was waiting for this.

[BobbyTrendy]

what does opine mean?

Pronunciation: O-'pIn

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): opined; opin·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French opiner, from Latin opinari to have an opinion

intransitive verb : to express opinions

transitive verb : to state as an opinion

thank you sir

[Guest coach]

So what you are saying is ......

I was waiting for this.

Well, if anybody was ever clear...

[Guest Dj_Peace]

what does opine mean?

'tis my pleasure milady -cheerio!

Pronunciation: O-'pIn

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): opined; opin·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French opiner, from Latin opinari to have an opinion

intransitive verb : to express opinions

transitive verb : to state as an opinion

thank you sir

[Guest slamminshaun]

So what you are saying is ......

I was waiting for this.

Well, if anybody was ever clear...

Slammin' Shaun: I think gun control is a bad idea. I like the 2nd amendment.

Typical response: "So what you're saying is", you think its ok for children to have access to machine guns while the gun lobby uses cartoons to market to children, and, and, the Bush administration massacres the planet by making deals with Arab princes and gay senators, and, and, you just sit back and drive your SUV.....you're a Bush lovin' moron you jerk!!!!!

[Guest coach]

So what you are saying is ......

I was waiting for this.

Well' date=' if anybody was ever clear...

[/quote']

Slammin' Shaun: I think gun control is a bad idea. I like the 2nd amendment.

Typical response: "So what you're saying is", you think its ok for children to have access to machine guns while the gun lobby uses cartoons to market to children, and, and, the Bush administration massacres the planet by making deals with Arab princes and gay senators, and, and, you just sit back and drive your SUV.....you're a Bush lovin' moron you jerk!!!!!

Hard to defend your rational decisions when you are lumped in with a bunch of lunatics, eh?

[Guest Dj_Peace]

Now that the mainstream media has started to discuss this , I am curious to know how many people would say that race relations are better today than they were before Dr. King, worse than before Dr. King or about the same as they have always been.

[Guest JMT]

Now that the mainstream media has started to discuss this , I am curious to know how many people would say that race relations are better today than they were before Dr. King, worse than before Dr. King or about the same as they have always been.

no one on this board is old enough to answer that with an educated opinion.

my uneducated opinion is that i don't see how anyone with a brain can possibly think they aren't better. we have a black man making a legitimate run at the presidency. this town is a hair on a fly's ass.