Jena Six Updates
Posted 2 August, 2007 at 2:26 pm by Kevin
Filed Under Uncategorized |
The Electronic Village has the low-down on the Jena Six trial, along with suggestions for action:
The AfroSpear encourages all villagers to realize the following:
- In light of the circumstances surrounding Mychal Bell’s case, we urge all villagers to support the call for a new trial.
- It is unacceptable to selectively enforce the law based on race. Prosecutorial discretion should be used in a fair and equitable manner.
- The Jena Six should be tried by juries that reflect the racial and ethnic demographics of Jena, LA.
- The hanging of nooses is not a “youthful stunt” or “prank.” It is a hate crime. Such hate crimes should not be tolerated at any school. Jena High School must establish a curriculum which promotes cultural sensitivity and understanding.
- The AfroSpear calls on Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti to thoroughly investigate and monitor the trials of Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey, Jr., Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and John Doe. The Governor and State Attorney General should do everything in their power to ensure that these young men’s constitutional rights are protected.
- All villagers should reach out to their own congressman and senators requesting a federal investigation of this racist behavior in Jena, LA.
- All villagers should sign the online petition as well
The now infamous “whites only” tree has been cut down.
Over 300 people drove into Jena, La, on July 31st to protest the treatment the Jena Six have received.
Don’t forget to support ColorOfChange’s continued efforts to bring justice to the Jena Six.
Other relevant email links:
Jena 6 Defense Fund
jena6defense@gmail.com
Louisiana Attorney General’s office
CivilInfo@ag.state.la.us Civil Division
Executive@ag.state.la.us Executive Division
I’ve created a Facebook group and cause for the Jena Six. There are also several other groups dedicated to spreading the word about the Jena Six. Join one, join them all, just help get the word out.
Friends of Justice also has information on how to get involved.
Sylvia, Elle, and Tom have also been all over this case. Check them out for more updates.
There are 11,171 signatures on the petition to the U.S. DoJ as of this writing.
There is also an international petition to the U.S. DoJ now, created by David & Nathalie Ryckaert-Declercq, that everyone can sign.
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52 Responses to “Jena Six Updates”
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TBD –> Asante sana for the link-love! I hope that we can put enough pressure on the politicians in Louisiana to make a difference for these six young brothers.
peace, Villager
This is a genocide attack on black male children and this needs to be adressed NOW!!. Too many of our black men are in JAIL. This must stop now. I’m tired people. This could be my 16yr old son or yours. This is a TRAVESTY!!! Do your part. We as PEOPLE need to be more proactive. Write an email sign the petition do Something. Are you not sick enough yet!!
People of all races should be appalled at this travesty! We are commited to this battle. It could
be your loved one next.
Americans should be outraged.
I as a african american father of a 17yr old young man iam appalled by the racial injustice that still exist in this country. it is extremely important that we do something about this situation a.s.a.p. or the slaughter of our children will continue.we must not let this racial genocide continue.Iam the founder of the
strictlystreetzproject.we focus on providing positve avenues and alternatives to the drugs,crime and gang violence in our communities.
Help make the streets of your community safe for all children.Get involved and Get results.Do it for the children. Our future depends on their survival.
This is it! We can no longer be shocked and surprised at the vile blatent racism,nor ignore the sinister subtle racism. It is past time for us to understand our true position on this earth and stop accepting the disrespect and disregard. How long are we going to beg for scraps from some creature sitting at the head of our table.
It is a shame that our society acts this way. But regardless when 6 young men attack another one regardless of race that is just unacceptable. The attention whores like Sharpton & Jackson that call themselves “community activist” are the ones who benefit from this, they get all the media attention they want, they’re faces all over media outlets. If this would have been 6 white males that attacked a black male everyone would be screaming hate crime! The problem with today’s youth is the so called “hip-hop” lifestyle which amounts to nothing more than thuggery, they have no respect for anyone, teachers, police, parents or anyone, but they demand “respect” themselves. Respect isn’t given, it’s earned. You tell me, any of you that are over 35 that if you acted the way these kids do these days your parents would have worn you behind out. I know my dad would have busted my behind if would have talked back or even worse cursed at a teacher. If you read the unbiased articles about this you would see that over 100 jury summons were issued, why were there no blacks on the jury? None showed up at the court house, they can only blame themselves for not giving this young man an opportunity to have a mixed race jury, a jury of his peers so to speak. His lawyer was also black and never called one witness from a list of over 40 people who made written complaints. Don’t blame the white for your own shortcomings, be responsible for your own actions, you reap what you sow. I know I’ll probably hit a nerve or two with this post, but I’m not a racist, yes I’m white but I also give respect to people who deserve it. Not some punks who wear shirts & pants 4 sizes too big with them hanging down over their butt cracks showing their underwear, hats on crooked and grabbing their crotch all the time. I live in a big city, Houston to be exact and I see plenty of it from all races, blacks, whites, mexican, asians you name it. Every race has it’s trash, what we need to do is clean up this mess across the board. And if you think I don’t know what I’m talking about your wrong, way wrong. I had a good life, got mixed up with the wrong crowd, did & sold dope, got caught, went to prison for 5 years when I was 24, lost everything I had. I came out with $50 and a bus ticket and had a friend who offered me a couch until I could get on my feet. Went to work for $5hr busting my hump doing hard labor now 10 years later I make $22hr have a house and a car. I didn’t blame anyone but myself, I did the crime, I did the time. I learned and grew from it and so should everyone else who thinks someone “owes” them something. Lifes not easy so you better figure out which road you want to go down.
Here is a must read on the issue
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510?forum_key=StoryComments&t opic_key=7170510&page_no=2
Texas Chris is one of the few people who seems to understand what this is truly about…accountability and personal responsibility. I am a Hispanic man in his 40’s. I grew up in the South Bronx and the Suburban white neighborhood of White Plains, NY. I have lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orlando, Oklahoma, Tucson, Germany and have traveled extensively. I have consumed drugs as well as distributed them. I have run with the bad crowd and carried a pistol at times. I have also been a respected member of “society”, I was a NYC firefighter. I have bounced at night clubs for over 15 years. That was just a little background to let you know I have life experience.
I think this is terrible. I live in a town almost like Jenna, but i couldent picture that ever happening. I feel bad for the parents and the family members of the Jenna 6!!! I live in a town called Caldwell Ohio. It’s almost like Jenna, but a little bit different. My prayors and thoughts go out to the family..
FREE THE JENNA 6!!!!
[...] Via Slant Truth. [...]
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THIS IS A DISCRACE TO INTELLIGENCE AS WELL AS COMMON SENSE.I CANT BRING MYSELF TO ACCEPT THAT SIX WHITE BOYS ANYWHERE BEATING ONE BLACK CHILD WOULD FACE SUCH UNFAIR CHARGES AS PUT FORTH BY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY FROM JENA. IF THERE WERE EVER A CASE OF OVER ZEALOUSNESS BY A DISTICT ATTORNEY THIS IS IT.THIS CASE HAS RECEIVED SO MUCH ATTENTION,THAT HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA THE DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS AND THEIR FAMILIES PLAN TO GET INVOLVED AND APPEAR IN JENA TO VOICE THEIR DISAPPROVAL OF THE HARSH ACTIONS OF THIS JENA DISTRICT ATTORNEY. BEING THAT THE D.A. IN THEIR CASE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO RAILROAD THEM,MR NIKON IS NO LONGER A D.A. IN DURHAM AND ACTUALLY LOST HIS LAW LICENSE IN THE STATE OF N.C. AFTER BEING DISBARRED. I FEEL SIMILAR REMEDIES SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH THIS D.A. FROM JENA. AND OH YEA CHRIS FROM TEXAS YOU ARE AN OBVIOUS RACIST ,JUST ADMIT IT TO YOURSELF ,MAYBE YOU DID COMMIT A CRIME AND DO THE TIME SO WHAT? BUT THESE YOUNG MEN SHOULD NOT GET ARE RECEIVING EXCESSIVELY HARSH TREATMENT , IF THESE KIDS DID INDEED ALL SIX BEAT UP THIS WHITE YOUTH THEN THEY SHOULD BE EXPELLED FROM THE SCHOOL NOT FACE 50 YEARS IN PRISON,ITS TIME JUSTICE STANDS FOR EVERYONE AND NOT BE (JUST US).
I don’t know about other states, but in California inciting a riot is a crime. What true punishment did the kids who started this mess get? A few days suspension for hanging nooses in a tree? Can we close our eyes to that? Surely we all know what those nooses represent! We arent’ that far removed from the forward, outward, cowardly actions of the Klu Klux Klan. Let’s open our eyes to the real HATE crime here!
[...] Via Slant Truth. [...]
Here in california we face many acts of violence on a daily basis. There is no where on earth that a crime should go un punished, especially a violent crime. No matter the circumstance it’s not right for six of anyone to assult one of anyone else. I do believe that act of violence should be punished. The kids involved in this act, should be tried against the accusor of the crime, not the D.A. If someone slaps you in the face, is the D.A. going to pick up your assult case? Not by any means, its up to you to press charges. Okay, the kid came out with bruises and a cuncussion; That means 22 years in Prison? Why was noose situation disregarded as a Prank? Thats like carrying a fake gun and trying to pass through customs at an airport, your asking for trouble. We aren’t in the 50’s or 60’s any more, there is no room in modern society for any racial bias. Here we have six “black” teens being sentinced for beating up a “white” boy, if u want to punish them, site them and give them probation and community service, and maybe even expell them. but do not rob them of their chances of being a functional member of society. If there is any severe punishment that should be issued, it should be to their D.A. for being a racist prick, and the prinicpal of the school for ignoring this issue and letting it get out of hand.
Free Jenna 6
Well thanks for your input there RICH FROM NC. Yes, point your finger and play the racist card on me. I seem to recall one of the young men that did the beating was already on probation for 2 assault charges, and a couple other miscues as well, guess there is no pattern of violence here is there? When a dog bites, it’s not will he bite again, it’s when he will bite again. There was a 6 on 1 assault, I don’t care if there were 6 green people beating on 1 green person. It’s totally unacceptable, it’s a mob mentallity. If you have a problem with a person be a MAN and handle it one on one, not with all you buddies helping kick and stomp someone while their down, that’s just weak! You want to see a racist RICH FROM NC? Go look in the mirror, don’t point your finger in my face and make allegations you can’t back up. Have a nice day.
The issue surrounding this case is very simple, those involved have a slave mentality. SOme of the individuals leaving comments on here have slave metnalites too. None of us were in the court rooms to witness whether or not any african americans showed up. But I know someone who did and she was dismissed. The prosecuting attorney found a reason to dismiss her. This is how the criminal justice system works during jury selection. Each side gets to choose jurors that they want to discharge, and seeing that this town is 85% white, the chances of that many blacks were randomly chosen for jury duty is slim. One cannot just show up at a court house and demand to be put on a jury, so MR Texas, Know your facts! The fact remains that a hate crime has been committed. I not that concerned about the nooses, the tree, the fights or any of the other superficial stuff. But the fact that the district attorney feels that he can openly threaten an entire room of people and know that he will have no reprocussions from it. The fact that he can talk to the town newspaper and make statements that he is going to bend the law to his own will because he feels that he can. Because the sheriffs department arrested the three young boys for theft of a gun after a gun had been turned on them. These young men were arrested and not given due process. Charged with crimes that they could not have committed, because the charge did not fit the crime. How can a fight be contrued and called second degree attempted murder? These are the real issues that need to be addressed. They are trying to put and keep as many balck men in prison as they can. To build and and populate another Angola Prison
I’m the father of 3 adult children and a retired Deputy Sheriff in central Florida. I entered law enforcement at a time when I was the only Afro-American in uniform, working out of that particular substation. I saw from within how white police officers view and respond to our people. I believe that during my 20 years of service, I made a positive difference regarding their perceptions. I’m truly dismayed at what’s coming out of Jena. It appears that the white folks in power are is using the police and it’s authority to keep black folks “in their place”. This stinks of “Jim Crowism”. If we forget our past struggles for equality within this 200+ year old American dream, the nightmares of those dark periods in our history shall reappear as a “Jena 6″ in this case anywhere. As a child, I went through court ordered school intergrations and saw how whites used their positions of power to hinder this federal court action. As a people, we can not accept this abuse of power in Jena. I saw the racism of the 50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s and now in the 21st century. Bush sent troops to Iraq to free those people but he has remained silent regarding the freedom of the “Jena 6″. THE WORLD IS WATCHING. Thank you for your time.
Please could everyone STOP IT!! STOP IT!! Music, movies, games, and nothing else besides parents are the blame for the way kids are raised I listen to rap, R&B, blues, gospel, even pop. But none has made me want to kill, sell drugs, steal, or worst. People you do things because you want to, you make your own choice. Racism is out there it’s alive it will not go away. Because we live with ignorate people who can’t love one another like in the bible it says. To began with every race have people that do stupid things the only problem is that when a black person do something wrong it’s all over the news. How many times have you seen on the news about what any other race got pulled over for drugs, black cops killing white people for no reason. Or how many cops do you see pulling over white people because the windows are too dark, playing music too loud, etc. And if it does happen they get off easy. Whites stick together blacks don’t. I have something that everyone should read even whites because everyone has a little racism in them no matter what race you are. And the guy from TX look rap doesn’t make you do anything that you didn’t already plan to do. What about the stuff you did we can easily say that Heavy Metal, Hard Rock with them smashing there guitars on the ground, oh and lets remember the guy who wrote a song about suicide and some white kid did exactly what the song was saying. Oh how about beavis and butt-head, oh yeah jack-ass, ok ok scarred. Please don’t just put everything on rap and hip-hop. I’m black but I know about these things I’ve had friends call me white girl because I would listen to Heavy Metal.
From a woman in NYC “A WHITE WOMAN”
BLACK PEOPLE, PLEASE, READ & HEED. POIGNANT.
The sad thing about this article is that the essence of it is true. The
truth hurts. I just hope this sets more Black people in motion towards making real progress. Chris Rock, a Black comedian, even joked that Blacks don’t read.
Help prove them wrong! Read and pass on. Please Note:
For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading
this morning on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn’t hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece a id a Caucasian wrote it.
Dee Lee, CFP
Harvard Financial Educators
Dee Lee
THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.” We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).
Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.
They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a
business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them
“Status” or that they have achieved their Dream.
They are fools! The vast majority of their people are
still in poverty
because their greed holds them back from
collectively making better
communities.
With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often
broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.
SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A “Talented Tenth” he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some “form” of success.
However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the “Talented Tenth” was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner.
They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.
They are content to sit in conferences and
conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)
They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.
Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are “helping” their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, THEY DON’T READ!!!!
(Prove them wrong. Please pass this on! After Reading it.)
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Nell - I appreciate your input here, but the article you posted is OLD as hell and quite suspect. I’ve seen this posted all over the place and no two articles ever seem to be the same. Some claim that the author is Dee Lee, CFP (her site says that she has never even read the article in question); some claim that Dee Lee, the DJ, read this on a NYC radio station (none of them ever name the radio station, of course; and some claim that it was written by a white man, others that it was written by a white women. Nobody can seem to get the facts straight and almost everybody seems to have “gotten this in an email.”
I gotta call bullshit.
This is nothing but another one of those internet urban legends. Sure someone wrote it, but it definitely wasn’t a CFP writing to Harvard Financial Educators. With all the internet press this has gotten, if there were any validity to it, it would have made the national news by now.
Passing this on as fact is a waste of time. Oh wait, passing this on, period, is a waste of time.
[...] Jena Six updates: Slant Truth 2.0 [...]
Black people need to rediscover their history, and realize that they are not full citizens in the USA.As long as they cannot claim a nationality they will continue to be treated and mis represented. Black, negroe, colored, afro american, african american are not nationalities they are brands and lables, Chattle. Nations only recognize nations.Read the Dred scott case. That decision was never overturned. Your ignorance is what holdsyouin such apitiful state. You have to have knowledge of self.Keep in mind that you cant get it through consumption, stature, automobiles homes and lastly money. Even oprah with all her wealth is still void of a true nationality. Oprah is just a black woman with a lot of money. Bill cosby where are you bill, puts blacks down but he made a fortune out of his cartoon buffunory. for forty years Eligah muhammad diligently told black people to do for self and had solid methods how to ,. called it nation building. Marcus Garvey said rise upyou mighty nation not rise up mighty black people. WAKE UP!
my comment is that if the black boys got prison time but the white boys got off wit a mistamena charge that is wronge and i think it should be fair so i think the white boys should get some prison time just like the black boys
Where are the hate crime charges? If three white guys had attacked a black there would be hate crimes bs.
The Jena six story must be told in oder to stop the infectus spread of rasim. We must all be remined that no mader how we look or where we are from that we are all humans. created diffrently yes, we have and r given chances that some people in this world are never given. I belive that this is an outrage for these young men to have their lives stolen from them by the leaders of this small town. My only hope is that by spreading the news abot these men we can stop the endless purptuation of rasim that is plauging this and many towns in America. We all have the right to a just and fair trial…. God bless the Jena six and their families
I think Texas Chris may be a moron (if not a racist). What he fails to recognize is the gross miscarriage of justice that is going on. He fails to understand what “equal protection under the law” means. It means one set of standards for ALL people. Not a system where some people (White people) are allowed to commit crimes and not be punished (e.g. felonius assault with a firearm, inciting a riot, assault, harassment, do you doubt there are others?) and others (Black people) get the book thrown at them when they respond to repeated segregation, discrimination, assault, and harassment. This is the game the racists establishment plays. Prod prod prod and then we’ll get you when you react. This is why racist cops love it if you “resist”. It gives them a right to “kill dem a negro”. If this is not the old south I don’t know what is. I was surprised that Black kids weren’t allowed to sit under the tree at all. Out here (west coast) we probably would’ve kicked the shit out of the kids too. And we would’ve been justified. While we would’ve been suspended, to some degree we would’ve been supported. For the most part people out here are true patriots. They beleive in equal protection. They beleive racism is wrong and ultimately bad for our country. I’m a patriot. This is supposed to be one America. When are our leaders in Washington D.C. going to start leading, showing some example, and providing direction for our country? By not taking action in this case they are basically saying that they do not support the Constitution of the U.S. and like Kanye West said “they don’t care about Black People”. If Kanye was right, as it appears, can you really blame the Jena Six for merely protecting themselves? Yes, the particular instant of this assault may not have been self-defense but it is self defense on a grander scale. Those kids are entitled to protection. If they don’t get it from the government they should be allowed to provide if for themselves. If that’s a problem the ones who should be punished should be the ones that failed to do their job (the school, the D.A., the police, the citizens). I trust that the jury and the Justice Department will be able to see this. If not, its one more step towards disintegration of our country. At this rate, I’ll be in Canada in no time.
To Rich from N.C.
As a Black man, I was outraged when I heard about the Duke Lacrosse case. At the same time, I thought it appropriate to wait before making a judgement. In retrospect, its terrible what happened to those guys b/c of an overzealous prosecutor and public pressure. The same can be said about this case (except in this case its obvious the D.A. is a racist). It would make me proud to be an American to see those boys stand up and support the Jena Six. It would show the world that people care about equality in this country and it would acknowledge once again the gross misjustice that occurs in our legal system.
In the absence of leadership from the White House it would provide an affirmation to what is right and what is wrong. These boys truly have an opportunity to make a diffence. I hope they do what they can.
Why is it, that when “black boys” get in trouble everybody on the planet wants to put them in the lime lite! why? Just let justice be what it is… White people are getting screwed in the justice system too, and why do you have to be African Americans? Can’t you just be Americans?
Eye for an eye!! wait that’s violence… MLK had taught us there is a better way than violence. Continue the DREAM!
Six against 1, now that white boy should have been able to defend himself with 6 brothers attacking him…..
Tired of the Crying, like many white americans, is ignorant. Its not by choice but it is what it is. If you’ve personally repeatedly witnessed double standards in the “injustice system” you would not feel the same way. Instead of trying to sweep this under the rug why can’t you investigate the issue for yourself. Scarred you might change your mind? You are correct that the justice system discriminates against poor people of all races. Let’s not trick ourselves into thinking that financial means is the ONLY thing that matters. I grew up in a middle class town of about 100k in Washington State. I had many black friends, white friends etc. Many of my friends got in fights, dealt drugs, and got into other kinds of trouble. I have personally witnessed my white friends commit crimes (e.g. possession of cocaine - a felony) where they were totally let off (as a “youthful indiscretion” similar to the “prank” in this case). While, had it be me or my black friends been in the same situation (some were) we would have been charged with a felony and hauled off to jail. This is institutional racism. It starts with the police who unfairly target black youth (see racial profiling / police harassment / unjustified homicides) and includes prosecutors who unfairly charge blacks with more severe crimes and seek maximum penalties (see charging teens as adults/maximum minimums / different sentencing guidlines between cocaine and crack [same drug]). Public defenders are also a part b/c they most often work to make a deal w/ the prosuctors regardless of the facts of the case. They are overloaded and more often choose efficiency over what is right. All of this is so ingrained in the injustice system that the perpetrators don’t even no they are part of the problem. Then the public looks to O.J. and say..”theres a black guy who killed his wife and he’s free ’cause he has money”. Yes, he’s free because he has money that’s a part of it. The other part is that he’s free b/c the cops tried to falsify evidence to convict a black man. You don’t think that fact weighed on the jurors minds? As for me personally, I have been charged with a crime by the cops and had to go to court 3 times b/c of it before finally having the trumped up charges thrown out. What a waste of time. This happens all the time. Fortunately, in my case the cop didn’t come to court to lie under oath (although I had about 30 witnesses). Wake up people! As for your comment about why we can’t all be Americans and why we can’t get rid of the hyphen. I agree with you. We are all Americans. As such, we should all be treated with the same dignity and be subject to the same standards. But its this institutional racism (and the ignorant majority) that perpetuate a dual system. The dual system promotes a division in American society and that drives the hypenating of America. It’s high time we acknowledge our country’s faults and do something about them. If we continue to ignore them our country will become more and more divided. At a time when we must pull together to compete globally this WILL be either our countries savior or its downfall. In either case, the people of America will decide. Unfortunately, a large number of these people are simply ignorant.
You know in this day and age this is an outrage. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was the Black kids that were beaten up, would the white kids have been thrown in jail. Where is the JUSTICE??? This just lets us know that racism will always be around. I guess those white boys should have known how ti knuckle up!!!! Now these boys will be scarred for the rest of their lives, thinking negatively about white people when everyone is not like that. What are we teaching our children????
I think it’s unfortunate the outcry isn’t over a DA that went too far, rather the outcry is about racism in general. The outcry needs to be about justice, and not about simply letting these six kids off.
What these kids did to one other kid was terrible. I think 12 months in juvenile detention is probably appropriate. They could’ve killed this kid.
A message needs to be sent that both behaviors, malicious prosecution and gangs of kids beating up some defenseless kid isn’t going to be tolerated.
I’m stunned to hear that if the races were reversed, this couldn’t happen. It can and does happen as the Duke rape case made clear. The difference in these cases are, the kids in the Duke case were innocent. The kids in Jena are simply charged with too high of an offense, MAYBE.
I’d like to know all the facts. How serious was the attack? Would they have gone further if someone didn’t break it up?
Giving them a complete pass is just as wrong and racist and prosecuting them too severely.
Hanging rope in a tree and physically assaulting someone are equal crimes I take it. Why don’t all the people in Jena march in Detroit where black men are killed regularly? Oh yeah it’s a 95% non-white city led by all blacks. And when will Mycheal Bell’s father be brought to justice for abandoning his son for all these years? No surprise a young man without a dad is on his 3rd assault charge by the age of 17. And how about basic spelling on this site? Never let Liberals educate your young. GO TEXAS CHRIS
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/28451 1.html
“Robert Bailey was implicated by ELEVEN witnesses. These are all individuals who saw each one of the Jena 6 kick or punch Justin Barker while he was unconscious.â€
“Me and Jessica Oliver was walking out of the gym when all of a sudden a tall black boy came running from the side and jumped Justin Barker and slammed his head on the concrete beam that people sometimes sit on. Theo Shaw and a group of other blacks were all standing there waiting (?) on Justin and after he was knocked out cold on the ground Carwin Jones and Robert Bailey started kicking his head for no reason at all. Me + Jessica looked over and there was blood pouring out of his ears and his hands were shaking because he was knocked out cold, then Mrs. Sharp made us go to class.â€
This is a student account of what happened. There was no link found between the incident where nooses were hung from a tree and this incident.
Everyone who “supports the Jena Six,†anyone who is marching or shouting about freeing the Jena Six really needs to think objectively and decide if you aren’t mindlessly taking some polarized point of view that only forwards ignorance and hate.
Sometimes it’s like all of the worst criminal white racists from the fifties have been reincarnated as black people and are trying to recreate every injustice in some kind of photo negative. Or maybe it’s just the same evil people, reincarnated over and over, committing the same crimes over and over. Always with the diabolical guise of some kind of perverted justice. Always as some other race or religion, to try and inspire hatred and violence among all people against all people.
One instance does not vindicate violence against someone else in another instance. If on Tuesday five black “men†rape and then murder a twelve year old white girl, it does not justify five white “men†raping and murdering a black girl the next day. No-one has the justification to do something brutal to another innocent person.
It is a black American epidemic that every time anything unfair happens to a black person, it is somehow an extension of some social sickness. Every time anything unfair happens to an African American it spawns some charlatan calling for a march as some extension of the civil rights movement. I WISH Martin Luther King was alive. Instead too many of the most ignorant black Americans have lined up behind imposters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
Black men need to start being MEN. And black women need to start being WOMEN. If so many people from every other race or creed or religion in America were as gutless and whiney about every injustice they suffered as a group, there would be one long constant march of whiney jerks in a big circle around the United States with everyone constantly complaining about how someone else is responsible for every problem. Why, that sounds like a circle-jerk!
Tell me about how African Americans have some eternal justification at being the only race that has any say about justice and injustice, which is the only race to have any understanding of suffering or oppression. Tell me. And tell the Jews, tell the Irish, tell the Germans, tell the Russians, in fact, tell every other race of people on the planet, you poor oppressed black Americans, about how no-one else has any understanding of anything. Tell me in your indignant, self righteous voices that no one should even DARE speak about things ONLY black Americans understand. BULLSHIT! That claim is the same claim made by every racist that ever breathed ignorance and hate. That’s just what the Nazis said. That’s just what terrorists are saying now.
1) There is no slavery today. If you are reading this, you were never a slave. You SHOULD talk about slavery, and learn from it but you shouldn’t make it your sole struggle. It wasn’t YOUR struggle. It was someone else’s struggle.
The biggest threat to equality and civil rights today isn’t some racial divide, it’s an economic divide and it’s a divide of intelligence. You’d know that if you ever actually read about Martin Luther King. You’d also know that if you weren’t on the other side of the intelligence divide… And that’s not some racial slur, you’re not on the same side of that divide as Martin Luther King and he was BLACK. George Bush doesn’t hate black people, almost everyone in Washington just doesn’t know that anyone who isn’t rich even exists. They might have some theoretical understanding that there are people that are doing the things they don’t have to do. But those people are only categorized by how much they “cost.†I mean, do you really think that all the politicians really LIKE poor Mexican illegal immigrants? NOOOOOOOOO. They and their only real constituents can just PAY them less. This means higher profits. This is the same reason why so many jobs have been outsourced to other countries. It’s just about money. Believe me, if black people were thought of as industrious and also cheap as Mexican immigrants are George Bush would have built a giant tower in the middle of New Orleans for everyone to wait out the storm. Of corse the mayor of New Orleans would have commandeered the top ten floors for rich people, and the Governor of LA would have lost the directions to the tower, but that’s YOUR fault. If it were really all about justice or injustice, black and white, there would be no welfare or social programs, everyone would have to work. We wouldn’t need any illegal aliens, because no politician would LET any immigrant take a job from a black or a Native American. But the truth is, just like the Irish, Chinese, Italians, everyone else before them, Mexicans are cheap NOW. So since it isn’t their money they are spending, better to pay black people welfare from taxes. If it were really about black and white, no WAY politicians would make middle class white people pay taxes to support lazy black people, RIGHT? But they will lay off white people and pay Indians in Bangladesh and Mexicans less. Because they LOVE Mexicans and Indians? NOOOOOOO. They just love money more than all poor people (which is anyone not rich.) So whoever works for the least amount of money is going to get the jobs. I could go on and on about this, but if you aren’t getting some clue you never will.
2) More white people died to end slavery than ever owned slaves. It’s a fact. Those ignorant racists who say that the “Civil War†was not about slavery are just that, ignorant racists. If the North was fine with slavery, there wouldn’t have been any cause for a war. There wouldn’t have been any need to fight to preserve the Union if the Union was unanimous in the point of view that slavery was just keen. So the mindless argument that “white people owned slaves†justifying every cruelty and injustice and ignorant thought of any black person that so indulges is less true than the statement that “white people freed the slaves.†(In my book, a million gallons of blood spent by one race to end an injustice wipes away any “racial sin†by that race. It has to. Because if such a sacrifice does not cleanse some “inherited guilt†then you are as guilty as anyone for all the sins of your entire race too. But more to the point - )
3) No one can inherit guilt; no race can possess a racial guilt. Any argument to the contrary is the argument of every ignorant racist who ever lived. Whites aren’t guilty by association or race or heritage. (For that matter, if that WERE a valid argument, you would owe your freedom to the great-grandchildren of those who died to end slavery and never owned slaves. And there are a lot more of them than those whose ancestors owned slaves, so I’d just leave that bullshit alone.)
4) Al Sharpton isn’t Martin Luther King. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a great, intelligent, noble man. Al Sharpton, let’s just say he isn’t Martin Luther King.
5) Jesse Jackson is not Martin Luther King. Jesse Jackson is like the dumbest kid in the class who follows the smartest kid in the class around. Jesse Jackson’s true calling was to jump in front of Martin and take that bullet. If he had done that, I wouldn’t need to say any of this shit now.
6) A hurricane hit New Orleans. No, seriously, that was a big hurricane; it wasn’t a huge wet white guy. I don’t think George Bush is all that smart, but I KNOW the way he sucks up to the Hispanic vote he isn’t going to intentionally alienate a hundred million black voters. What does he care how much money is spent on New Orleans? After all, it isn’t George Bush’s money they used for New Orleans – it’s your and mine. Well, it’s mine and all the black people who have jobs so they can’t march to Hoboken Wisconsin if a black guy trips on a white sneaker and Al Sharpton makes it WWIII. Just a hint, the Mayor and the Governor are first and second in line for natural disaster planning. You might want to vote for people that are black or female AND smart.
7) White males are officially not the predominant workers in the American work force anymore. Seriously! You need to find someone else to oppress you in your own heads or you are going to really start sounding foolish. But more to the point –
9) If you really think there is still a need, and you really want to address racial equality, pick a good leader. This is a difficult one because apparently no black person recognized as a leader anyone has heard of has an IQ above 80. And apparently neither do their followers. I’m going to be honest. White people don’t like Jesse Jackson. They don’t dislike him because he is black, they dislike him because he is stupid. White people don’t like Al Sharpton, they don’t dislike him because he is black, they dislike him because he is racist. White people like plenty of black people: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, young white people like tons of rappers, Denzel Washington, Stevie Wonder (everyone likes Stevie Wonder), Martin Luther King, Marian Anderson, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, I could go on and on. But why do white people like some black people in general and not others? Because those people aren’t either totally stupid and/or they don’t seem to hate white people. I mean it’s like the modern black civil rights movement tried to find the dumbest and most racist people possible to follow. Look, a leader is a leader. I don’t care who you are or what color you are, anyone with a soul can tell the difference between a leader and the head of a lynch mob. Martin Luther King was a leader. Malcolm X could have been a great leader, but other racist black people shot him. And those kinds of people are the ones “spearheading†the modern civil rights movement. Everyone knows that Jesse Jackson is only a “leader†because he knew Martin Luther. It’s OK to tell him he was the dumb one. It’s OK to pick a good leader and not just let the loudest, dumbest, racist in some random crowd just proclaim themselves your leader. Pick a good leader!
10) If you really think there is still a need, and you really want to address racial equality, don’t go about it like Nazis. You have to realize that unless your plan is just to kill all white people, you are going to have to appeal to them, like Martin Luther King did. He used his great powers of communication to convey truths illuminated by his great intelligence to shame those who hated him because of his color, and compel those who were not fully aware before. Championing every black person who commits a violent crime isn’t exactly going to endear you to anyone but the most racist black people, and the dumbest white people. Championing every black person who is maybe the victim of maybe white racism, maybe, isn’t going to make white people in general think you are just sticking up for what is right. I mean, if a black man who, without any REASONABLE doubt, murdered eight thousand white school children is sentenced in a court and ten thousand black people riot and kill hundreds of random white people making some claim of racial injustice, it’s kind of not helping… O.J. Simpson killed two white people and he got off. You know he did, he knows he did, I know he did. If you followed any of the facts it’s OBVIOUS he did. But black people everywhere let up a huge joyful cry. Look, we’re no more universally stupid than you are, we know why you cheered. We know it was wrong, you know it was wrong. Some crazy guy on PCP got his butt kicked by the cops and a whole city becomes a crucible, with racial murders all over the place. Look, white people get their butt’s kicked by the police too. There are bad cops everywhere. There are also good cops. But when you pick some fucktard on PCP as a reason to kill as many white people as you can in an entire city, white people can see that you’re being led by the craziest and dumbest among you. Normal human beings don’t delight in slaughtering innocent people. And SMART human beings don’t expect to convince anyone of the merit of their cause by picking the most nefarious criminals as their poster-children for justice. Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan and terrorists and general racist crazy people pick crazy instances that make no sense to rally people to their cause. Those black kids of the Jena Six stomped on the defenseless, bleeding, unconscious head of a teenager till his hands convulsed grotesquely like his brain was being traumatized (as it was) and blood poured out of his ears. It is a miracle that the kid actually lived. Just like it was a miracle that some random white trucker lived after being shot with a shotgun point blank and having a cinderblock repeatedly smashed down on his defenseless head. When you choose cases like that to become morally outraged, it just lets white people know that you are racists and that you can’t ever be trusted because you’re a bunch of sick animals. Because honestly, that’s what you are if you claim moral indignation in a case like that. Just like white racists or Muslim racists or any other racists that claim slaughtering an innocent person is justified. Normal, mentally healthy, fair minded, decent people that believe in truth and have a sense of justice don’t delight when innocent people are hurt. And they don’t champion the perpetrators. Sure, there are extenuating circumstances in this case. Sure, there are ALWAYS extenuating circumstances. But you might want to choose cases without such moral ambiguity or questionable circumstances if you want to convince anyone that you are not all just crazy and stupid and just racist against white people. Some crazy white comedian has a nervous breakdown on a comedy stage, a hurricane hits a city, some nut on PCP gets stomped by the police, a young girl gets horribly sexually assaulted and tortured by some white police officers – maybe – maybe by those cops – maybe assaulted – maybe by cops – maybe by someone white, a well known black celebrity brutally murders two white people, these aren’t rallying cries for racial equality for black people. If you think they are, then the next time a black man, or five or ten, commits a terrible brutal crime against a white person without any mitigating circumstances you have to ask yourself why if there is any outcry by whites in general its of justice and not “racial†justice.
If a white jury sentences a black man for a crime he didn’t commit, hey – call me because that’s wrong. But don’t call me if it’s a maybe, well, ok possibly, ok theoretically possible. And by the same token if two black guys and a black woman rape a white woman, kill her husband, pour Clorox down her throat and torture her some more and kill her, hey I expect YOU to be outraged too. But the defining clause for action of the so called contemporary civil rights movement isn’t decided by certainty or justice or fairness or reason, it’s decided solely by race. No matter what the details, irregardless of whatever ineffable atrocities are committed by exclusively black people on exclusively white people, it’s always a matter of even questionable circumstances or judgment but always black and white. That’s not a movement, that’s a racist mob.
Myself - Your another ignorant person. What the hell does Mr. Bell’s father have to do with his son being charged with ATTEMPTED MURDER for a street fight? Let’s stay on the subject shall we. It is relevant that Mr. Bell is on his third assault charge. But I ask you…how many white kids do you know that got into fights in school and got charged with a crime. I’d bet its zero. And its obviously not b/c white kids don’t get in fights. Its b/c there is a lot less of a chance that the police, the prosecutor, the school, etc. would pursue a legal action against those individuals. For them its easy to see it as a childhood prank (like the nooses in the tree). Conversly, if its a young black kid, whom they already have the preconcieved notion is destined for criminality, they are overwhelmingly anxious to pursue legal action. That is why so many young black kids have records. The injustice system wants to keep track of the from an early age. I thought not. This is obvious. You can read study after study that supports this. The information is out there. To ignore it is to remain ignorant. Go Texas Chris and take Myself with you! The U.S.A. doesn’t need any more ignorant uneducated people (we already have more than enough - white, black and whatever).
Michael, Michael, Michael…I appreciate your comments. I think your right on in many respects however I have the following comments.
Yes - The kids should be charged. But not attempted murder. Attempted murder is trying to kill someone. Don’t you think if these kids were TRYING to kill this kid, he’d be dead that night instead of going to a school event?
To say there is no “link” between the events is pretty hard to believe. Don’t you think it might have has even a little to do with the fact that this is a community where white kids feel its alright to disallow black kids from sitting under a certain tree AND where black kids feel that they are prohibited from sitting under the same? Kudos for cutting it down. Its nice to see positive leadership in the community (although I’m not sure who’s idea it was- probably not the prosecutor’s).
You’re absolutely right that “One instance does not vindicate violence against someone else”. Unfortunately, so many people are ignorant simpletons and beleive that it does (white, black, whomever).
As for your comments about “charlatans” and the “extension of the civil rights movement”. Do you think that black americans have reached equal social status? Do you deny that blacks are unfairly targeted in the injustice system? I have to say…here you’re quite wrong. The quest for a remedy of this injustice is just beginning. The new civil rights movement is upon us. The new leaders are not the Al Sharpton’s of the world. The new leaders are the same as the old leaders. The everyday people that speak up and positively impact young people. It doesn’t matter what race they are. It matters what they stand for. I gotta say I am not a Bush fan but I was immensely proud to see him stand up after 9/11 and condemn violent attacks on arab americans. I was extremely surprised, but immensely proud. It’s too bad this kind of leadership from government is few and far between. I mean would it be so hard to open an investigation into this case? Although I think the Bush Administration’s credibility is so “in the toilet” that it wouldn’t matter.
As for you comments that “Black men need to start being MEN. And black women need to start being WOMEN”….Are you implying that black men have never been men, black women never been women? See how unconsious racism shines through….
I agree that the youth of today need to grow up (I’m 34) but THAT is not a racial issue, its a cultural one.
As for your comments about the oppression suffered by the Jews, Irish, Germans, etc…this is clearly a joke. I’ve heard it many many times before. White people love to use this argument. Those groups never faced the kind of formalized oppression that blacks faced and those groups do not face the same kind of oppression today. Were their laws prohibiting Irish folks from reading, voting, marrying non-Irish lasses, living in certain neighborhoods, going to certain schools? I think not. All of those laws and institutional racist steps were taken to keep blacks from assimilating into full membership in society. This took generations to establish and will take generations to change. And let’s not forget, it wasn’t that long ago. This was my father’s generation for ch*ist’s sake. You don’t think that has any bearing on me? Rediculous!
As for your comments that “more white people died to end slavery than ever owned slaves”. This again is perposturous. Slavery existed in this country for 400 years. Or did you think that it was only the 1800s. 600,000 people died during the civil war. You’re telling me that over 400 years there weren’t more than 600,000 people that owned slaves or belonged to a family that owned slaves? As if this is even relevant to the issue.
As for your comment “a million gallons of blood spent by one race to end an injustice wipes away any “racial sin†by that race” - this again is rediculous. White people dying 150 years ago does not make up for racism today just as white peoples crimes 50 years ago doesn’t make all white people guilty today. The key is personal responsibility for one’s own behavior, one’s own actions. If you’re not a racist and have never engaged in racist behavior you shouldn’t feel guilty or be made to feel guilty. Its not your fault that your relatives arrested and beat a black man for no reason. It’s not your fault your relatives fired a black guy to make room for a white employee, It’s not your fault your relatives hung a black man and cut his nuts off for whistling at a white girl. None of these things are your fault. It is however, everyones responsibility as Americans to acknowledge the past and ensure that injustices such as these don’t happen to our citizens again, whether they are black, white, or whatever.
You’re right Al Sharpton isn’t Martin Luther King. MLK was murdered by a white man for doing the right thing. Fred Hampton, a Panther, was murdered while he slept by cops for the henous crime of providing healthy breakfasts to poor black children. Sharpton’s not MLK, but he does give a voice to those who don’t have one (or at least don’t have a loud one). You know it’s funny (not really) how the media loves to portray Sharpton and JJ as selfish demigogs when these two men have devoted their lives to helping others. What do you do for a living?
As for Hurricane Katrina…c’mon now! We all know Bush is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He could’ve sent troops in to help. He sent troops half way around the world to help psunami victims and he can’t send troops to a state in the middle of the country? Aren’t there military bases in Louisiana anyway? Whether or not this was b/c of race I do not know (although I have a hunch) but what I do know is that it was a big mistake. By the way, do you remember how fast Bush got aid to Florida (his brother’s state) after the hurricanes hit there? Hmmmm…food for thought.
As for your comment about whites being the minority, what does that matter. Whites were the minority in South Africa for years during apartheid. Need I remind you that whites were also the minority in the south during all the years of slavery! Numbers do not matter. Power is what matters. Power oppresses. Power and hate is what creates racism. So as for anyone “sounding foolish” you must listen closer to what comes out of your mouth.
Your comment on the the “biggest threat to equality and civil rights” is quite whitecentric. Your comment might more correctly say “the biggest threat to white equality and white civil rights” today is economics. Black people have been dealing with this forEVER. Now that the US is having to compete globally and the historically white manufacturing (union and nonunion) jobs are going overseas economics is becoming more and more relevant for white america. You know the saying….”what starts out as a problem in the black community invariably spreads to the larger community”. It’s soooo true. Look at all the white kids on meth in Wichita Kansas for example. Look at the recent school shootings (e.g. Columbine to VA Tech).
As for your comments on Mexican cheap labor…you’re right on. Its about money. Ever heard of the prison industrial complex? You know how much money corporations are making of keeping black kids in jail? You know how much your government is spending keeping black kids in jail? Alot! You think they want to “rehabilitate”? It’s high time white america realize the money that’s wasted locking people up and start realizing that it costs a fraction of that amount to invest in our children (white, black, AND whatever) AND produces better results.
Your comment on black people not being industrious is rediculous. Black people work harder for less and have additional obstacles to overcome in order to make it. That’s what makes us tougher. I’ll give you an example…a buddy of mine is a cpa for a large public accounting firm. Out of 300 people in his office he is the only black person there. Most of the other employees are white with the exception of a few asians. In many cases he is the only black person that his coworkers know. Now you tell me…would you feel comfortable working as the only white person in an office of 300 black people? Hmmm. I thought not. Not many white people would. Even if it were an office of 300 Martin L. King’s. And surely if it was an office of 300 Malcolm X’s.
As for your comments on welfare…most people on welfare are white single parent mothers. Don’t beleive me check it out. I’d love for you to try and prove me wrong on this. The misconception that the majority of people on welfare are black is just another facet of the subtle racism that pervades our society.
As for your who’s who of black people..implying that b/c white people idolize black celebrities they can’t be racist. I got a kick out of reading it. Let’s not forget people loved Sammy Davis Junior also but they wouldn’t allow him to go to the same clubs as them. The same could be said for Jim Brown, Muhamed Ali, and many others. I got a question…How many black people do you like that are outwardly spoken about black civil rights issues? Or are these people just “racists” (like Sharpton) b/c they try to bring awareness to racial injustices. Sharpton’s not a racist. Wanting to end injustice is not racist.
I like your comment on Malcolm X. He was a great leader for the time he was around. But did you know that most white people in the 50’s and 60’s said the same things about him as you’re saying about Sharpton and JJ (he’s stupid, he’s racist, etc.)?
As for your comments on O.J. most black people know he did it too, and were outraged as well. Your comments show that you have little touch with how the average black person views issues. You obviously don’t know many black people, or at least not very well. Most black people want these “Jena Six” punished for what they did - but punished under a standard that applies to ALL people. Don’t mistake black defiance of injustice as support for lawlessness. Black people have kids too. Black people want the streets safe too. Black people don’t want to worry about cops harassing, “profiling” , and shooting their kids for no reason too. Oh wait, that last one is not such a part of white american life, now is it?
As for your comments on Rodney King and the LA riots. Were you not outraged when you saw the video of the police beating the crap out of him? Did you think that it was right? Did you think that it was a good display of leadership that the officers got to stay on paid leave pending the trial? I love it (not really) when you have these racist vigilante out-of-control cops beat or kill an innocent person and they always get a free vacation. Hmmm…seems like the wrong message to send. I actually have to work for my vacation time. As for the sense beating of Reginald Denny, let’s not forget that it was a black man that saved Reginald Denny’s life. Why do you think that is? Because he was tired of looting for the day? Because thats the image the media displays. All the black people in LA were looting and burning. How many black people are in LA versus how many were looting? C’mon now. But for Joe Blow white american what’s the picture that you get?
Lastly, you speak of racist this and racist that but your comments repeatedly refer to black people as “You” like we’re all one being sharing a single mind. That is the same kind of thinking that leads to racism. That is also telling that you know very few, if any, black people. Those you do know you probably don’t know very well. Before you point the finger at who is and isn’t a racist you’d better check yourself my friend.
This is ridiculous. Taking up for six thugs who ganged up on one student is WELL thought out. What the three white boys did with hanging a noose in a tree is appalling but was checked out and not found to be a hate crime and they were punished. What the six black boys did was a CRIMINAL act. These JENNA 6 beat a boy unconscious and the black community is going to bat for them. As I said previously “This is ridiculous!”
Benjamin in Seattle
I really appreciate that you took the time to attempt to address intelligently what I said. (Do not, please, infer I am saying you are not intelligent. One of the errors you made repeatedly is to take literally everything I said. Sometimes an argument uses specific words to characterize the response of OTHERS to illustrate for those who appear not to see, to illuminate another perspective. When I say attempt, it is like my attempt to likewise address intelligently, rather than make no attempt.) That said, you made some egregious errors in your reasoning. I would like to address the worst:
As for you comments that “Black men need to start being MEN. And black women need to start being WOMENâ€â€¦.Are you implying that black men have never been men, black women never been women? See how unconsious racism shines through….
For the sake of argument, let’s just say that every comment addressed broadly is not meant to literally refer to everyone. I hope you understand that I meant some black men and some black women have in fact never behaved as adults. In that regard, YES! If you think that all black men and women behave behave responsibly thn you are deluded to the extreme. I know you are not, however hopefully you will see how rushing to paint the most extreme possible inference is not necessarily correct. I have given you the credit of giving my full attention to the matter and my comments, please give me similar consideration…
As for your comments about the oppression suffered by the Jews, Irish, Germans, etc…this is clearly a joke. I’ve heard it many many times before. White people love to use this argument. Those groups never faced the kind of formalized oppression that blacks faced and those groups do not face the same kind of oppression today. Were their laws prohibiting Irish folks from reading, voting, marrying non-Irish lasses, living in certain neighborhoods, going to certain schools? I think not. All of those laws and institutional racist steps were taken to keep blacks from assimilating into full membership in society. This took generations to establish and will take generations to change. And let’s not forget, it wasn’t that long ago. This was my father’s generation for ch*ist’s sake. You don’t think that has any bearing on me? Rediculous!
OK, this is by far the worst error you made. It illustrates that there is, in fact, a supreme divorce in many black Americans from all reality. These groups have never faced formalized oppression?! This very clearly illuminates that you, and many other black people, have a serious complex and no grasp of any other human beings experience. Were there laws prohibiting Irish folks?! Oh my God, YES THERE WERE! There is no way I can adequately address your consummate blindness. In your mind, millions of Jews being rounded up and murdered DOESN’T COUNT! HOW DARE YOU! You have no business asking anyone to consider your point of view when you have absolutely no empathy or care for anyone else but yourself. Native Americans used to exist by some accounts in the tens of millions in the Americas, they were nearly wiped from the face of the earth! If you cannot even accept that any other human beings even ever existed on this planet then you have no business crying about your own problems. How dare YOU! THIS is EXACTLY what I was trying to address in the mindset of many black Americans. No-one of any intelligence or humanity denies or excuses the existance or effects of slavery or segregation or institutionalized racism on black people in America. But if you REFUSE to even aknowledge that other human beings exist on this planet in DELIBERATE ignorance then you do not deserve any else’s understanding or empathy. MY GOD! The utter self indulgant and juvenile audacity to instantly DISMISS all suffering and humanity of all other human beings on this planet instantly!!! You need to check YOURSELF, because this argument you make makes me question whether you are a human being at all.
Its not your fault that your relatives arrested and beat a black man for no reason. It’s not your fault your relatives fired a black guy to make room for a white employee, It’s not your fault your relatives hung a black man and cut his nuts off for whistling at a white girl.
It is astounding that you have actually managed to one-up yourself from one of the most racist arguments I ever heard or read. You denial of all other human beings on this planet who ever lived was the most extreme illustration of the kind of social mental illness that I was precicely trying to illustrate, but then you moved on to my family personally. Let’s get this straight. You do not know my family. But how Ironic that you make this statement as it sounds remarkably like a generalization of all black people by the most extreme white racist from the 1950s. My relatives never did any of the things you accuse them of. I will thank you to just keep your ignorant racist remarks about my family to yourself. If you want to accuse my family of anything without knowing them, you can accuse them of half of them not even being in the United States during slavery, and the other half fighting to free the slaves. If you don’t care to THANK my family for their sacrifices on your forfather’s behalf, then just keep your racist generalizations to yourself.
Again, you need to start being a human being. These two arguments are as revoltingly racist and ignorant as ANY from any race in any time. You made some good points, and seemed to make an honest attempt to use your brain, but unless you will think about these two items, frankly you disgust me. And don’t EVEN infer some racist remark in ANYTHING I said. I am talking to your thinking and your complete lack of thought for anyone NOT BLACK. I have lived in countries where I was the foreigner and it is obvious from your comments that you have gotten little even from the country you live in now. I remember every thing I ever did bad in my life and feel guilty about it to this day. Let me tell you though, it is a short list. I am sure you have no moral high ground to preech from to me. And with your absolute rejection of all human history and experience of all races NOT BLACK since the beginning of time, you illustrate that you have no moral basis at all. But then you have illuminated far better than I ever could the black self-institutionalized racism that I was trying to point out…
Your comment on the the “biggest threat to equality and civil rights†is quite whitecentric.
Oh man, oh man, oh man. Do you know that there was a guy named Martin Luther King Jr? You need to read my friend. You go read about him and tell me about this again. Maybe you can tell his ghost about how this is a whitecentric argument and educate him. Holy crap dude.
Man, I am embarrassed for you. You have to just own up on this one and claim brainfart.
“Now you tell me…would you feel comfortable working as the only white person in an office of 300 black people? Hmmm. I thought not. Not many white people would. Even if it were an office of 300 Martin L. King’s. And surely if it was an office of 300 Malcolm X’s.”
I’m sorry, but I keep rereading your reply to my message and finding more wrong with it.
Hmmm, as I have felt quite comfortable living in other countries I would have to say that your instant assessment of me based on a few paragraphs is pretty, well, racist.
I remember when I was about 12 and my father asked me if I would be comfortable moving to a place where everyone was a different color. I thought about it and in my head I pictured entering a resteraunt and everyone in the resteraunt being black and turning to look at me as I walked in. I remembered thinking I would smile, and they would smile and then telling my father, “Sure.” I can’t help but feel like I’m sounding like a broken record. Quit being so afro-centric in all your thinking to the exclusion of all other points of view on the planet.
I can’t think of the proper words to say to address these lines though: “Even if it were an office of 300 Martin L. King’s. And surely if it was an office of 300 Malcolm X’s.” Dude, your totally a racist. I mean, you should know better. I guess that’s why I keep trying although I wonder some time if there is any possibility for any other allowance that any other perspective even exists.
I would fucking PAY to work in a building with 300 Martin Luther Kings OR Malcom Xs. I would bust a friggen nutt to work in a building with 300 MLKs or Malcom Xs. All you even see is black, you don’t even SEE white, you just see the absense of black. Why you even call every other race on the planet “white.” I don’t give a rats ass if the 300 people I work with or the entire country I live in is populated with purple people that smell like cheese. I just don’t want to live in a country where half the population looks at me and says ignorant, racist and infuriatingly WRONG things like: “Its not your fault that your relatives arrested and beat a black man for no reason. It’s not your fault your relatives fired a black guy to make room for a white employee, It’s not your fault your relatives hung a black man and cut his nuts off for whistling at a white girl.” AND “Jews, Irish, Germans, etc…” “Those groups never faced the kind of formalized oppression that blacks faced” MAN, that statement just makes me literally sick to my stomach. That is the most ineffably ignorant statement any human being has ever uttered. I knew that many black people had blinders on, but seriously, I never really realized how deep that blind racism went. I mean, it’s one thing if a dumb man who happens to be black says all kinds of stupid racist things. But you can form a complete sentence. My God, man - as one HUMAN BEING to the next, do you REALLY think that no one else but black Americans ever suffered on this planet?
I swear, how can I explain to you how abysmally depressing it is to hear any human being say things like this? THIS is what I’ve been trying to convey with all my words. Any racism I have in me wasn’t taught to me by my parents, or taught to me by society or anything else. Any racism I have has grown out of observation of how black people behave and speak. I don’t look at a black person and say: “OH, yeah, must be like this.” BUT I DO wonder, when I see and hear and read such things if there isn’t some sickness that is destroying the soul of many of black America.
Why am I on this website taking the time to discuss this issue at all?
I just want two things.
That I could say something to help you understand that there are other people on this planet besides yourself.
That you could tell me you aren’t as full of hate and ignorance as your words and actions convey.
Man, I never owned slaves. No shit, really. I never did any of the things you presume my parents did, nor did they. You’re hating everyone else with such utter conviction that you have poisoned your soul and your mind. And it’s not just you. I have always suspected that black Americans are poisoning their own children’s minds and hearts. The reality that slavery existed cannot be erased from human consciousness, nor should it, but your poisoning yourselves with the knowledge. You should LEARN and GROW and be even more human and decent and empathetic with the knowledge of what ALL humanity has been through (DAMNIT - NOT JUST YOUR OWN RACE TOO - ARRRG!)
You must understand, you just HAVE to understand that there are other people who suffered far worse than black people. Black people were treated like animals and bought and sold and whipped and denied all humanity, as much as any human being could deny another humanity. The Jews were nearly EXTERMINATED. They had no value whatsoever in the eyes of their oppressors, not even as animals. If they could, their oppressors would have killed every one of them off the face of the earth, AND THEY FUCKING TRIED. MAN, a few years ago Saddam Hussain tried to EXTERMINATE all the people of one race off the earth. If the British or the Romans could have managed to kill every single Irish or Scot THEY WOULD HAVE! Americans weren’t going to Africa and trying to kill all black people on earth. Man, throughout history other races have done all they could to try to wipe their neighbors from existance. The danger for many races wasn’t that their oppressors would enslave them and buy and sell them and treat them like animals, THEY WERE ENSLAVED AND BOUGHT AND SOLD AND TREATED LIKE ANIMALS!!! The danger for many races throughout history was that their oppressors would succeed in literally killing all of their kind that existed till there were no more of them. You have no exclusive claim to suffering, you don’t. You have no moral authority to expect deference to your cries to the exclusion of all other people’s cries, you don’t. You know what I hear when I hear a man living in America say that no other race knows? I hear a cowards whimpering… I hear a child that refuses to be a man. I hear ignorance. YOU WERE NEVER A SLAVE. You can be a multi-millionaire. You can be a scientist. You can be a general in the Army. You can be a world-renowned author. You can be anything you want to be in America because the same country that bought your great grandfather, set him free. The same country that you hate with such furious ignorance for all it did to your ancestors, has given you more than any man in any other nation ever could have.
Is there still racism in America? MAN THERE WILL ALWAYS BE RACISM IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!
There are black congressmen and women, there might be a black President soon. But their color hasn’t changed your lot, or mine. BECAUSE COLOR MEANS NOTHING. Someone else said this, but every time a white person bring this up a black person says they don’t understand…
I understand fine. And almost every day of my life I wonder if it would be better if I understood nothing
Whoa!
I haven’t paid much attention to this thread because I’ve been watching the more current posts I’ve written on the Jena Six. I didn’t realize that such a lengthy conversation was taking place here.
Damn. Guess I’m a bad blog moderator.
I haven’t read through the comments by Michael and Benjamin in full, but it seems as if both of you are behaving nicely (within the limits of debate), so I’ll let the conversation go on. You are both free to debate here as long as it doesn’t get too ugly.
But both of you should know that when I do read through your comments, if I find that you are just talking shit towards each other I am going to close this thread.
to be honest, this tragedy is one of the most hateful situations in this country. it is barbaric, that anyone should have such hate in his/her heart as to put up a noose, or beat up another. as a retired school teacher in a Wash DC burb, I always was an example of love to teach my students that in God’s site, they can fly high, they can be someone, noone has to hate. This Jenna HS principal needs to stand up and be an example for his students, teach them to do right not wrong, include something spiritual in the school, so he/she does not educate young men/women who want to go out and “beat up” or kill someone.
Hate is an emotion, it is the lack of respect and love. This happened a few years ago in WY when two thugs beat up and killed a gay kid Matt Shepherd and left him dead. This all stems from the “evil in people’s hearts”… God help us to see God’s Love for ALL (not a few) and then to put it into practice. Think about your own life, what does it teach and show to others? Peace!
I write a lot of lengthy comments on a lot of subjects on a lot of sites about things I find extremely important. Seldom does ayone actually seem to read any comment if it’s more than a few words. This is sad to me, and I think it illustrates how little real thought too many people put into things. I, personally, think people should read entire books on important subjects, so a few paragraphs is really not much to read to obtain another perspective. This being the case, I will write one more thing I believe may illuminate something that seems all objective observation seems to indicate.
It seems as if many black people have the idea that in America TODAY there is a lot of institutionalized racism. I would like to give a white person’s perspective on this.
I was born in 1968. From the earliest I can remember, in school, in movies, in books, in MY home, in all aspects of society there WAS some institutionalized message put forth. In the movie Roots that was broadcast to all of America, in movies and books about Martin Luther King and Malcom X, in movies and books and essays written in school, taught in classes and discussed in every forum that exists there WAS one message put forth. This message was the opposite of the one that is somehow perceived by many black Americans as being disseminated among whites. You are WRONG that there is institutionalized racism against blacks as some thread invisibly woven through all white culture. Maybe in the 1950s, I did not live in the 1950s. But today the overwhelming, the OVERWHELMING thread woven through the fabric of white America is of every lesson that any man or woman can speak or write against every aspect of inequality or racism that ever existed.
Are there some racist white people TODAY? Sure there are. If you don’t KNOW that till the end of time there will be racists and dumbasss and idiots among all races in all countries then you have no idea about what has transpired since man had begun recording history. But is white racism against blacks institutionalized in our country TODAY?! No man, quite the opposite.
You know what makes white people, among other white people, shake their heads and question aspects of some who are black in society? What black people do and say in our society. Man, if someone is going to judge me on what I say and do I am friggen happy with that. Then I have no worries about how I am perceived by anyone else.
The entire point I have been trying to convey in all I have said is that objective observation indicates very strongly that many or most white people in America TODAY (not the fucking 50s or any other time) judge black Americans by what they do and say and NOT their color. Objective observation of many of the words and actions of many black Americans further strongly indicates that many black Americans perceive, and share among themselves, the notion that there is a thread of institutionalized racism running through the fabric of white America TODAY. I’m white, THERE ISN’T! It’s in your heads! White Americans in society TODAY are taught the same messages YOU are taught in movies and school and everywhere. We don’t have different books and movies for US.
I know, I know, I know: read THIS book, look at THESE movies, see THIS subtle message, note how THIS passage is phrased. You seem like an ok white guy, but you JUST don’t see what we see… I see. Again, don’t expect all racism to drop off the planet forever anytime, ever. Don’t expect perfection in just about anything manmade anytime, ever. Heck, I have been searching for the perfect blowjob for almost 39 years and I have YET to find THAT. And I think that’s very achievable…
White society is IN the same society YOU live in. Racism, sure yeah - always be. But woven through the fabric of all white America as an institutionalized root? THE OPPOSITE! If any black person farts indignantly 50 million white people, including most of California, rush to smell it so they can not be thought of as anything other than ignorant or racist.
READ what white people write everywhere about this subject. Nooses bad -SURE! Fair trial for everyone regardless of race -YES! What are “white people” angry about? Those six black kids stomped on the unconscious head of a white kid and they don’t think they are bastions of equality! But because of the thread of institutionalized racism running through the black community, some black people (led by people like Al Sharpton) RUSH to the site of any nefarious, questionable happening and claim it’s all part of the great white lie… People, it’s all part of the aspect of THIS life that says just as there will always be the opposite, there will always be racism. But is that institutionalized TODAY through all of white society? Only because you make it so.
Does the struggle for civil rights and equality and everything nice and flowery smelling need to continue? Sure! Forever men should strive for the BEST in mankind and struggle against the worst. But people like Al Sharpton make everything into ONE SINGLE BATTLE - black against white. No matter how questionable the circumstance…
According to many black people’s thinking: “Your comment on the the “biggest threat to equality and civil rights†is quite whitecentric. ” “As for your comments about the oppression suffered by the Jews, Irish, Germans, etc…this is clearly a joke.” “It’s not your fault your relatives hung a black man and cut his nuts off”
Martin Luther King Jr made this argument before me, this is YOUR lie, not mine.
No human being should dismiss the suffering of others as a joke, this is YOUR lie, not mine.
You don’t know my family, and what you said is YOUR lie, not mine.
Look, if there is something I’m not seeing, YOU tell me. I will listen and consider it. I devote an inordinate amount of time to thinking and considering as many aspects of any subject as I can. I could write a book right here and now on this page, and I am willing to and read a book of your thoughts back. I challenge you to devote even AS MUCH thought and attention to this subject as I am, consider what I have written as another perspective that I am not sure you have adequately considered. If you are unwilling, HERE, NOW, to devote as much of your mind as I am, then your short and unrepeated cries for my consideration are not worth any more of my consideration.
@ Michael -
Many WHITE people know that in America TODAY there is a lot of institutionalized racism. White people who deny the existence of institutionalized racism actually perpetuate it.
Many white people know that Elvis appeared to them on a burnt piece of toast. (I almost bought it on Ebay but it went up to $20. I settled for a grilled cheese sandwich with a very well endowed bust of the Virgin Mary.)
I made some very, I believe, compelling points. Please don’t appeal to me with the wisdom of the masses in general.
Every time you ask the audience a hard question on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” they get it wrong.
Boys with dad’s are less likely to be in trouble. I’m sure there’s a “study” or just common sense to back that up. That’s why Bell’s father is important. Institutionalized racism, is that in Detroit? Worst city in America is always in debate but the others would be D.C., East St. Louis and Oakland. All victims of institutionalize racism? One organization today has at it’s beginning in Institutional Racism - Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger’s racism and speaking at Klan meetings is well documented. Blacks are 16% the population and 30-40% abortion rate. There’s an institution for you. 90% of all black deaths are from —-black people. Probably from young men without fathers. African-Americans deserve to be treated as equals not little children who have to be taken care of by big strong white liberals. Mycheal Bell doesn’t deserve to be convicted of attempted murder but he also doesn’t deserve to grow up without a dad thanks to a government that rewards out of wedlock birth. He doesn’t deserve people like Al and Jesse making money off him by using this as a PR opportunity. When will the march in Detroit occur or the protest to stop the deaths of black man every day because of drugs and music that glorifies violence? Ok, now the guy from Seattle can dominate the discussion.
how many of you out there remember james bryd. For those who dont he was the blackman that was dragged onthe back of a truck until dead, by a small group of white men in Texas. This case could have used the noose for the murderers. Hey mike Black folks didnt write the Jim Crow laws of the early 1900s. It appears that the Jim Crow law is alive and well in the so called new south. Mike explain to me how a Blackman in Amerika earning 100k per year with good credit pay a higher interest rate than a white man earning 40k per year with good credit. Blacks should wake up and hold onto that 800,000,000,000 that they spend every year. Thats a lot of money that go’s into the GNP. 90 days off from spending that 800b would get better results than complaining. Id bet this would get white amerika’s attention.Maybe then they would put forth the effort to get rid of the hate groups and Amerikkkan terrorists, like they did to get rid of the Black Party (who set up programs to feed hungry children).
Black Panther Party was intended in the aforementioned comment.
look they were “baited” it to a fight , but at the same time they should have reported the noose incedent to the school staff and the police to log a complaint. fighting has done nothing but cause trouble. after everyone leaves jena they should go to Virginia were a white boy was beat by 5 black boys because he was white. his civil rights were abused just like the blacks in jena.
fair play is warrented
what is going on with the case in virginia, where a young black woman was brutally abused while being held captive by a group of white male and white women. my understanding is that she survived the brutality, and the accused are in custody. Any one with an update?
I can’t believe all the racist tripe and ignorance by most of the comments left here. Black this and black that…blah blah blah. People are sick about hearing the constant whining about perceived racial issues. First, the simple act of hanging rope from a tree is not a crime, nor should it be, in Louisiana or any other state. The prosecutor in Louisiana has stated this much. Secondly, these six should be punished for what they did and they will be by a judge or jury. It’s amazing how blinded by emotion people become when some race pimping spiritual maggot like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton cry foul. It’s my opinion that the people that demonstrated in Jena and many of the posters here are the true racists. Here’s fact: racism will always exist. Some blacks are racist and so are some whites and everything in between. Deal with it. I don’t have to like you because you’re white or because you’re black. It’s how we respond and deal with racism that will determine if it continues. Stop looking at skin color and look at your fellow human being. Don’t let your emotion rule you. Think and then act. Now we’ll see if my post is removed or how many people call me a racist. Look in the mirror.
I love it when you jackasses come to a site that you’ve obviously never been to before and, before anyone even responds to you, you declare how you just KNOW that you will be deleted because the truth you speak is just too hard for us poor misguided souls.
Sorry, Peter, but I prefer to let your comment stand so that all can read your bullshit and hopefully learn from it.
But I also hate to disappoint. So, I must add:
You’re a racist.
And while I’m at it, let me school you on a few things.
1) “People” are not “sick about hearing the constant whining about perceived racial issues.” White racist people are sick about hearing the constant complaints about actual racial issues.
2) Um, sorry, but hanging a noose is not a “simple act of hanging a rope from a tree.” It’s a threat, a threat that most black folks understand immediately.
3) No one has said that the Jena Six shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. What is being argued is that when white folks in Jena commit equal crimes, they get probation, while the black folks get charged with attempted murder. I’d ask you to explain why this is reasonable, but you won’t be able to answer me since I’m about to close comments on this thread.
4) Jackson and Sharpton were late to the game. They jumped on this months after the grassroots bloggers had made an impact. For you to bring them up shows that you have no idea about the activism behind the Jena Six Cause. You had no idea about any of this on 2 August, when I posted this. And now you come here, two months late to the game, and want to talk shit about how we’re all kowtowing to them? You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
5) In case you missed it; you’re a racist.
And with that, this thread is closed. I’m sick of it. You can go to your own blogs and write your racist bullshit there.