I can't really say why I haven't written about the Jena 6; but, looking at the picture across, I get some idea. It's a painful reminder of how slow racial attitudes change. Not only that but the Jena 6 situation is nothing new. I've grown numb from discussing racial issues. From Sean Bell, to Diallo, to friends who consistently get pulled over for DWB, every day some black or person of color faces discrimination in some form or another.
Megan gives a pretty good run down of the situation here, but I actually wanted to post up a comment which was left under her post. It's long but it's worth the read:
"Woo! There has been a LOT of heat on this topic.
I have a very libertarian attitude towards most issues, and I am a strong proponent of the right of self defense.
So here comes the radical part of my opinion: it is POSSIBLE that those 6 black youths should be COMMENDED and THANKED for showing REMARKABLE RESTRAINT under the circumstances.
"What", you ask, "is this guy a NUTCASE?"
Well, my wife may think so, but let me give you a "devil's advocate" argument.
This is the SOUTH we are talking about. Blacks were held as slaves there for hundreds of years, and white-on-black lynchings were both prevalent and accepted for most of the 20th century. A noose is not only a symbol of grotesque and horrific oppression and murder, it is also a WEAPON. And it is a weapon that has been used to DEADLY effect against thousands of innocent blacks across the South, for decades, even centuries.
When those kids hung a noose fom that tree, it was no different than if a bunch of Nazi skinheads in Germany held up swastica flags, waved around full canisters of Zyclon-B gas, and threatened to release it into a Jewish Highschool.
The black students at the school waited patiently for the wheels of justice to turn, and for the white students involved to be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to PRISON time (3 to 5 years each?) for assault. The justice system failed them UTTERLY.
Now, they were faced with a situation where they had been credibly threatened with murder, in a jurisdiction where the murder of blacks by whites was a socially acceptable hobby within living memory, and the forces of law enforcement had refused to either offer them protection or prosecute the offenders.
Individuals have a right to be secure in their persons. If the police refuse to do the job, then the individual if morally obligated to protect himself BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
I say that white kid got of lightly. I am Jewish. I am married with 4 children. If a Neo-Nazi ever threatened my wife or one of my children, he'd be lucky if all I did was kill him."
I have a very libertarian attitude towards most issues, and I am a strong proponent of the right of self defense.
So here comes the radical part of my opinion: it is POSSIBLE that those 6 black youths should be COMMENDED and THANKED for showing REMARKABLE RESTRAINT under the circumstances.
"What", you ask, "is this guy a NUTCASE?"
Well, my wife may think so, but let me give you a "devil's advocate" argument.
This is the SOUTH we are talking about. Blacks were held as slaves there for hundreds of years, and white-on-black lynchings were both prevalent and accepted for most of the 20th century. A noose is not only a symbol of grotesque and horrific oppression and murder, it is also a WEAPON. And it is a weapon that has been used to DEADLY effect against thousands of innocent blacks across the South, for decades, even centuries.
When those kids hung a noose fom that tree, it was no different than if a bunch of Nazi skinheads in Germany held up swastica flags, waved around full canisters of Zyclon-B gas, and threatened to release it into a Jewish Highschool.
The black students at the school waited patiently for the wheels of justice to turn, and for the white students involved to be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to PRISON time (3 to 5 years each?) for assault. The justice system failed them UTTERLY.
Now, they were faced with a situation where they had been credibly threatened with murder, in a jurisdiction where the murder of blacks by whites was a socially acceptable hobby within living memory, and the forces of law enforcement had refused to either offer them protection or prosecute the offenders.
Individuals have a right to be secure in their persons. If the police refuse to do the job, then the individual if morally obligated to protect himself BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
I say that white kid got of lightly. I am Jewish. I am married with 4 children. If a Neo-Nazi ever threatened my wife or one of my children, he'd be lucky if all I did was kill him."
Of course, this dude took heat because many people said that at the moment that the 6 assaulted the white student they were "secure in their persons". This is right and wrong at the same time. There's something that most white Americans, and really Americans can't and don't want to understand, and that is that many, many, many blacks and people of color live under constant fear for their life. As a black man living in the most liberal city in America (and maybe on the planet), I live in constant fear for my life. I have a feeling, which I keep hidden, mostly to maintain my sanity, that if a police officer, or really any white person wishes to do me harm they can do so at their whim. Let me repeat that: I feel that any white person can kill me and get away with it like their name was Scooter Libby. It doesn't matter if it was done in front of a crowd, or caught on video tape, if they wanna kill me they will and then go home to their house and eat a wholesome dinner with their family. And why do I feel this? Because the law is not applied equally. Some people want to throw up there hands and be apathetic, others claim that the inequity doesn't exist, but it does, and when injustice comes for you it doesn't care whether you see it approaching or not.
Maybe that's the main reason I am why I am. Maybe that's the reason why I rail off at Bush and his administration, or go bonkers when war profiteers who swindle the American public get off scot free, and yes, even when the Newsom murders are ignored in the media. Because when every one of those crimes go unpunished and ignored I feel a little less safe, and I feel that we get a tiny bit closer to a state of anarchy. Yes, if all things were equal then one could say that the Jena 6 were "secure" before their assault, but when the law isn't equally dispersed then one must become a vigilante and take their defense in their own hands. If I, feeling the way I do in NY, lived down there, I probably would have done the same thing, driven out of my mind with fear and rage. Terror is a powerful force, and not all of it comes from the Middle East.
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