The Jena Six.

[Shishio]

I wish I could say shit like this shocks me.

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com...ent?oid=183064

Last week in Detroit, the NAACP held a mock funeral for the N-word. But a chilling case in Louisiana shows us how far we have to go to bury racism. This story begins in the small, central Louisiana town of Jena. Last September, a black high-school student requested the school's permission to sit beneath a broad, leafy tree in the hot schoolyard. Until then, only white students sat there.

The next morning, three nooses were hanging from the tree. The black students responded en masse. Justin Purvis, the kid who first sat under the tree, told filmmaker Jacquie Soohen: "They said, 'Y'all want to go stand under the tree?' We said, 'Yeah.' They said, 'If you go, I'll go. If you go, I'll go.' One person went, the next person went, everybody else just went."

Then the police and the district attorney showed up. Substitute teacher Michelle Rogers recounts: "District Attorney Reed Walters proceeded to tell those kids that 'I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.'"

It wouldn't happen for a few more months, but that is exactly what the district attorney is trying to do.

Jena, a community of 4,000, is about 85 percent white. While the black community gathered at a church to respond, others didn't see the significance. Soohen interviewed Jena town librarian Barbara Murphy, who reflected: "The nooses? I don't even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There's pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn't seem to be racist to me." Tensions rose.

Robert Bailey, a black student, was beaten up at a white party. Then, a few nights later, Robert and two others were threatened by a white man with a sawed-off shotgun, at a convenience store. They wrestled the gun away and fled. Robert's mother, Caseptla Bailey, said: "I know they were in fear of their lives. They were afraid that this man was going to shoot them, you know, especially in the back, running away from the scene."

The next day, Dec. 4, 2006, a fight broke out at the school. A white student was injured, taken to the hospital and released. Robert Bailey and five other black students were charged ... with second-degree attempted murder. They each faced 100 years in prison. The black community was reeling.

Independent journalist Jordan Flaherty was the first to break the story nationally. He explained: "I'm sure it was a serious fight, and I'm sure it deserved real discipline within the school system, but he [the white student] was out later that day. He was smiling. He was with friends ... it was a serious school problem that came on the heels of a long series of other events ... as soon as black students were involved, that's when the hammer came down."

The African-American community began to call them the Jena Six. The first to be tried was Mychal Bell, 17 years old and a talented football player, looking forward to a university scholarship. Bell was offered a plea deal, but refused. His father, Marcus Jones, took a few minutes off from work to talk to me: "Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That's a dead giveaway here in the South."

Right before the trial, the charges of second-degree attempted murder were lowered to aggravated battery, which under Louisiana law requires a dangerous weapon. The weapon? Tennis shoes.

Mychal Bell was convicted by an all-white jury. His court-appointed defense attorney called no witnesses. Bell will be sentenced on July 31, facing a possible 22 years. The remaining five teens, several of whom were jailed for months, unable to make bail, still face second-degree attempted murder charges and a hundred years each in prison.

Flaherty, who grew up in New Orleans, sums up the case of the Jena Six: "I don't think there is anyone around that would doubt that if this had been a fight between black students or a fight of white students beating up a black student, you would never be seeing this. It's completely about race. It's completely about two systems of justice."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gained national prominence during Hurricane Katrina. There's another hurricane that's devastating the lives of her constituents: racism. The families of the Jena Six are asking her to intervene. District Attorney Walters says he can end the boys' lives with his pen. But Gov. Blanco's pen is mightier. She should wield it, now, for justice for the Jena Six.

[42PETUNIAS]

Wow, that's just pathetic that such racism still exists today.

"The nooses? I don't even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There's pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn't seem to be racist to me."

Stuff like that is what really gets me. How people are so ignorant about such obvious racism.

[Sesshoumaru]

Originally Posted by From the Article

Right before the trial, the charges of second-degree attempted murder were lowered to aggravated battery, which under Louisiana law requires a dangerous weapon. The weapon? Tennis shoes.

To be fair, the law (Federally, and in all the states) reconizes that a shod human foot can cause serious injury. While racism appears to be evident from the article, I question its fairness. The article doesn't give enough informatuion about the 'fight between black and white students,' was it a fight between groups of students, or a group of black students ganging up on a white student in retailation for previous incidents? If its the later, then the charges seem approiate, they shouldn't be given a free pass simply because of past injustices (those past injustices, however, certainly do need to be addressed in an approiate manner). If its the former however...then ya, that seems more than a bit unfair.

Also:

Originally Posted by Article

Last week in Detroit, the NAACP held a mock funeral for the N-word.

Does that mean that hundreds (probably thousands) of Rap and Hip-Hop artists suddenly decided to quit using it dozens of times per song? Because I don't see that as likely.

[Roy_D_Mylote]

This is why I hate the Goddamn South. "Oh, it's great, we're all hospitable 'n shit, unless you're black or gay or something, then you get killed or beaten! And then YOU go to jail for it ha ha ha. It is a game we play."

Oh, you can confront them about it. "No, that stuff doesn't happen."

Then you point out the story like this one.

"Oh, that's just liberal media bias."

I fucking hate the Goddamn South. So fucking much.

And if that governor doesn't step in and do something smart for once, every citizen in that state who isn't a total fucking moron (that means the people who migrated there from somewhere not the South*) should demand a recall election for someone with some brains.

*The South does or doesn't include Florida, based on my mood, and stretches up to Virginia and across to whateverthehell state borders Texas on the East

[Arlia Janet]

Originally Posted by Roy_D_Mylote

This is why I hate the Goddamn South.

Yeah! Fuck people who judge a large mass of people with indiscriminate hate because of preconceived notions and by projecting the ignorance of a few onto millions. Seriously, how do you not see the irony in that statement?

I grew up in Chicago but I've spent the past couple of years of school in the south and I've encountered more racism back home in the Blue States. Most people I've met (especially younger people) in the south are so sensitive to the stupid country-bumpkin stereotype that they have no tolerance for anything that could be construed as racist. They are so tired of ignorant people condemning them for something as arbitrary as geography.

The story in the article is a damned travesty. It's something that- although rare- still should not have happened. What you should take away from this article is that there still are places all over this country- all over this world- where behavior like this still exists and it is our responsibility as humans to confront it when we see it. It simply astounds me that someone could read this article and respond with the mindset that probably lead to the debacle in the first place.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Arlia Janet

Yeah! Fuck people who judge a large mass of people with indiscriminate hate because of preconceived notions and by projecting the ignorance of a few onto millions. Seriously, how do you not see the irony in that statement?

He said he hated the South, not southerners, which seems like an important distinction. I mean, I figure a person can hate the South because there are crazy racists there, without necessarily believing that all Southerners are crazy racists. Or at least that's how I took the statement.

[Roy_D_Mylote]

Originally Posted by ¡El Diablo Quinto!

He said he hated the South, not southerners, which seems like an important distinction. I mean, I figure a person can hate the South because there are crazy racists there, without necessarily believing that all Southerners are crazy racists. Or at least that's how I took the statement.

Yes, exactly.

[ArlanKels]

First off:

"Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That's a dead giveaway here in the South."

Racism isn't just from whites, it's sometimes from blacks.



As for what's happening, I have to say that I'd need to know more about the fight involved. Were they brutalizing the kid? Beating him to the point of bones breaking and face becoming nothing but a pulpy mass of ouch?
If so then they deserve attempted murder.

If it was just a schoolyard scuffle then I don't even get the whole "Lets call in the cops" thing, because those happen all across the country all the time.

[Roy_D_Mylote]

Originally Posted by ArlanKels

First off:


Racism isn't just from whites, it's sometimes from blacks.

Well, not in this case.

EDIT: And seriously. They hung nooses from the trees. That's not serious? That's not absolutely horrible? I mean, what, that's at least, if you want to get criminal, terroristic threat. Which is a criminal offense.

[Azisien]

I have a hard time believing the white kid was getting beaten to an utter, bloody, pulpy mass if he was out of the hospital the same day of the fight. Even if bones were broken, I wouldn't call that attempted murder.

Also: free pass? Free pass?! They're up for 100 years of prison time each for gang beating one white kid, non-lethally. Maybe if the kid had died, and they had raped the dead body, perhaps then they would have deserved a possible 100 year prison sentence.

Racism aside, that charge is pretty bullshit. I'd hate to sneeze accidentally in Louisiana, I might go down for 10 to 15, disturbing the peace.