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The short version of the story is this - a few white boys hung a noose in front of school and made racially insensitive (and stupid) comments. One of those white boys got beat up by 6 black boys. Except they weren’t boys, they were men or at least were tried as men in the courts of Jena, LA.
The white boys got suspended from school, the black guys go to jail. And in the middle of this, Al Sharpton (who has never rejected any kind of press coverage in his life) shows up and claims that it is the return of 1963.
Excuse me if I don’t immediately come down and join the protest.
First, let’s be honest - if the roles were reversed would the treatment be different? In Louisiana? You better believe it would have been different. That part of the outrage, I get. Roles reversed, the black guys would have been expelled from school, possibly charged with something. If the white guys beat up the black guys, they would not have gotten near the severity of the punishment that the black guys did get. It’s home-cookin, Deep South Racism at its core.
And anyone who has ever grown up in small town south knows that.
But it is an insult to the Civil Rights Movement and the Little Rock 9 to equate the Jena 6 to that level. I don’t think any of the Little Rock 9 or MLK, Jr ever beat anyone within an inch of their life. I don’t think the Jena 6 are completely innocent and just trying to go to school.
I’m okay with calling for an investigation. I’m okay with the people in that community doing a peaceful protest. Just don’t insult my intelligence with the comparisons.
4 responses so far ↓
1 kurt // Sep 21, 2007 at 6:43 am
What happened in Jena was not good…but it does seem that certain individuals are trying to use it as some sort of new civil rights movement.
People who do mean and cruel things ought to be punished accordingly. I hope those morons in West Virginia who tortured the black woman get it good. It’s not about race…it’s about humanity.
A native Californian, I spent a couple months in the south, and was blown away by the undercurrent of racism at all levels of life. Really made me sick…
2 Grant // Sep 21, 2007 at 7:57 am
Well…hate to admit it but you’re right. We lived in Little Rock after being out of the South for 15 years and it was quite the eye-opener for us as well.
It is about humanity…good call, Kurt
3 wayne // Sep 21, 2007 at 8:48 am
I tend to disagree that racism is anymore prevalent in the south than it is anywhere else. It may be more open and public, but definitely not more prevalent. I grew up in a small town the deep south (Louisiana to be exact) and have lived in the midwest and mid atlantic and spent PLENTY of time in the Northeast (my father was from Brooklyn). You want to see racism, go spend some time in NYC. Racism is as old as the world and is prevalent anywhere you go. There are plenty of non-racist people in Jena, LA and across the southern U.S. AND there are plenty of racists in NYC, Denver, L.A., Seattle — the world. It’s not a deep south phenomena.
4 kurt // Sep 22, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Racism certainly isn’t contained by regions, but I was truly struck by what I heard while in Atlanta. Talk about yankees (not the baseball team), the civil war, etc was not uncommon. Also heard a lot of “those people do such and such because…” followed by some inane stereotypical comment that I hadn’t heard since the 70’s. I was there for a few months of corporate training and much of this came from white collar folk…professionals. It was quite an adjustment for a guy from a sleepy little beach town!
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