CE Week #5: “Racial hype trumping discussion”
Thomas Sowell
Hoover Institution
September 27, 2007
It is painful – and dangerous – how little we learn from history, even when it is recent history.
Just a year ago, “rape” charges spread lynch-mob hysteria on the campus of Duke University and in much of the liberal media, while professional race hustlers descended on the town of Durham, N.C., and mindless tribalism was stirred up by extremists in the local black community.
This year, we have all learned what a total fraud that case was, from beginning to end. Yet now we see a similar outburst of mindless tribalism and another attempt at mob rule, promoted by such veterans of last year’s hysteria as Jesse Jackson.
This time the scene is in Jena, La. The issue is the prosecution of a black high school student accused of stomping on an unconscious white student – and the lack of criminal prosecution of white students who hung a noose on a tree, who were disciplined by the school.
Liberals’ skills at moral equivalence have been so finely honed during the long years of the Cold War that they have turned this into a case of “unequal treatment,” based on race – as if putting a noose on a tree is equivalent to stomping somebody who is unconscious.
The black student was found guilty but the verdict was overturned on appeal – not on grounds that he was not guilty, but on grounds that the appellate court did not think he should have been tried as an adult.
The usual legal procedure would be to try the student again, this time not as an adult. However, the usual legal procedures are not good enough for those who have once again seized the opportunity to hype race – and to hell with questions of guilt or innocence or legal procedures.
The immediate demand of the mobs descending on Jena is that the young man found guilty of a serious crime of violence should be free on bail pending a second trial.
The legal question is whether letting someone accused of such a crime go free on bail is likely to mean that he will not be around long enough for a second trial. But no one is seriously debating that.
Racial hype has replaced all rational discussion. Moreover, the Jena episode has shown that two can play the racial hype game. Neo-Nazis have published the names and home addresses of all the young blacks involved in the school incident.
The slogan “No justice, no peace” has been used to justify settling legal issues in the streets, instead of in courts of law.
Neo-Nazis have now helped demonstrate what a dangerous slogan that is, since different people have opposite ideas of what “justice” is in a given situation.
Long after the imported demonstrators have left, and the national media have lost interest, the families of the black youngsters involved in the school altercation will have to live with the knowledge that their privacy and security have both been lost in a racially polarized community, with vengeful elements.
The last thing the South needs is a return to lynch-mob justice, whatever the color of whoever is promoting it.
Back in the 1950s, when the federal courts began striking down Jim Crow laws, one of the rising demands across the country was that the discriminators and segregationists obey “the law of the land.” But, somewhere along the way, the idea also arose and spread that not everybody was supposed to obey “the law of the land.”
Violations of law by people with approved victim status such as minorities, or self-righteous crusaders such as environmentalists, were to be met with minimal resistance – if any – and any punishment of them beyond a wrist-slap was “over-reacting.”
College campuses became bastions of the new and sanctified mob rule, provided that the mobs are from the list of groups approved as politically correct.
The politics of condoned law-breaking is part of the moral dry rot of our times. So is settling issues in the streets on the basis of race, instead of in courts on the basis of law.
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So, I actually just saw an article about this on Comcast (I’ll post it on here too) so I’m glad that this is up here, because I didn’t read the other one because it didn’t seem very interesting, but I see that’s not right.
I for one am really sick of the whole race issue. I know that there are always going to be racists out there, but I feel like people have to be so careful about what they say or run the risk of being labeled a racist. I am definitely not a racist, I really don’t care what color a person is, as long as they’re a good person, that’s fine with me. However, I really do feel that the whole ‘race issue’ is something the minorities sometimes exploit to put themselves above the law. (And now I feel like I being racist for even saying that.)
So, according the article, a black student stomped on an unconcious white student? And people are getting upset that he’s being prosecuted? Um, hello, he STOMPED on someone. That’s assalt. Since when is assalt, especially on someone who can’t defend themself okay? Skin color doesn’t put someone above the law, be you black, white, whatever, everyone needs to take responsibility for their own actions.
And putting a noose on a tree was a stupid and immature thing to do, but those students weren’t physically hurting anyone (and, according to our lessons, they could totally argue that that was protected under freedom of speech). Unequal treatment, yeah right, Sowell put it perfectly: “as if putting a noose on a tree is equivalent to stomping somebody who is unconscious.” The courts aren’t favoring any race, they’re dealing with the most severe crime.
Here’s that other article:
Jena 6 Teen Released on $45,000 Bail
By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago
JENA, La. – A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here walked out of a courthouse Thursday after a judge ordered him freed.
Mychal Bell’s release on $45,000 bail came hours after a prosecutor confirmed he would no longer seek an adult trial for the 17-year-old. Bell, one of the teenagers known as the Jena Six, still faces trial as a juvenile in the December beating in this small central Louisiana town.
“We still have mountains to climb, but at least this is closer to an even playing field,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize last week’s protest.
“He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him,” Sharpton said as Bell stood smiling next to him.
“There’s only one person who could have brought me through this and that’s the good Lord,” Bell told reporters later in front of his father’s house.
District Attorney Reed Walters’ decision to abandon adult charges means that Bell, who had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison on his aggravated second-degree battery conviction last month, instead could be held only until he turns 21 if he is found guilty in juvenile court.
The conviction in adult court was thrown out this month by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, which said Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that particular charge.
Walters had said he would appeal that decision. On Thursday, he said he still believes there was legal merit to trying Bell as an adult but decided it was in the best interest of the victim, Justin Barker, and his family to let the juvenile court handle the case.
“They are on board with what I decided,” Walters said at a news conference.
Bell faces juvenile court charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime.
He is among six black Jena High School students arrested in December after a beating that left Barker unconscious and bloody, though the victim was able to attend a school function later that day. Four of the defendants were 17 at the time, which made them adults under Louisiana law.
Those four and Bell, who was 16, all were initially charged with attempted murder. Walters has said he sought to have Bell tried as an adult because he already had a criminal record, and because he believed Bell instigated the attack.
The charges have been dropped to aggravated second-degree battery in four of the cases. One defendant has yet to be arraigned. The sixth defendant’s case is sealed in juvenile court.
Bell’s lawyer, Carol Powell Lexing, said his next hearing is set for Tuesday.
Critics accuse Walters, who is white, of prosecuting blacks more harshly than whites. They note that he filed no charges against three white teens suspended from the high school over allegations they hung nooses in a tree on campus not long before fights between blacks and whites, including the attack on Barker.
An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 protesters marched in Jena last week in a scene that evoked the early years of the civil rights movement.
Walters said the demonstration had no influence on his decision not to press the adult charges, and ended his news conference by saying that only God kept the protest peaceful.
“The only way _ let me stress that _ the only way that I believe that me or this community has been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community,” Walters said.
“I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that.”
The Rev. Donald Sibley, a black Jena pastor, called it a “shame” that Walters credited divine intervention for the protesters acting responsibly.
“What I’m saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly,” Walters responded.
After the news conference, Sibley told CNN that Walters had insulted the protesters by making a false separation between “his Christ and our Christ.”
“For him to use it in the sense that because his Christ, his Jesus, because he prayed, because of his police, that everything was peaceful and was decent and in order _ that’s not the truth,” Sibley said.
Walters has said repeatedly that Barker’s suffering has been lost in the furor over the case, and that what happened to the teen was much more severe than a schoolyard fight.
Walters also has defended his decision not to seek charges in the hanging of the nooses, which he said was “abhorrent and stupid” but not a crime.
I find it very disturbing to read about a student stomping on another’s head while they were unconscious, or students hanging a noose over a tree. I don’t see where the students were going with it and I don’t see how it could only one of the issues when to court, while the other only got school discipline. The black student gets tried, yet under conditions that are felt to be too severe and the while student never sets foot in the court. I agree with Sowell when he says, “Racial hype has replaced all rational discussion…” The publicity that trials like this become ridiculous as people take it as a direct racial issue. Once there becomes the parallel between, say what happened with the while student and the noose, and the black student and the stomping, there become immediate responses of whether one was disciplined poorly or one too much depending on the color of their skin. The hype of it all replaces any discussion one might have that is civilized because everything is portrayed as a direct hit on racial issues.
I think that this is so stupid. I think that the white boy should have been expelled right away after hanging the noose but I do not at all think that this court case should be overturned. I think that this is so stupid that people make this all about race. I don’t think that it is ok for there to be racial discrimination over something that was so insignificant. I think that this is just some way for the two communities to keep fighting I think that they both would be better off if they both would just come together as a whole and stop trying to blame the other half and try to get the community to unite. If there was one thing that would make this better it would have been some nice white kids telling that one white boy not to do thins and then some black kids breaking up the fights it just seems like everyone just doesn’t want to be one and if that’s the case I think that they need to have a major breaking down the walls at their school. Besides this is something that the whole world had to over come they need to get with the times and do it to.
Wow, I’m slightly confused by this. It’s the year 2007, why is race still playing a big part in the law? The first thing I noticed is just how unfair it all seems. I mean two white kids leave a hang noose on a tree and all they get is slight school discipline, no expulsion no trouble from the law, hardly nothing, a slap on the hand if you may. Yet a black kid assaults a white kid (which is wrong in any color) and is not only apart of a polarizing racial court case but is also the target of angry towns people who seemed to have forgotten that its not the 1950’s anymore. Now shouldn’t it be the white kids, who hung a very widely offensive racial symbol on a tree, who get persecuted by their local townsfolk? And you know what I bet you a hundred dollars that more than likely the reason that black kid beat up the white kid was probably not race related at all, it was probably for the usual normal reason that the white kid was a jerk and simply pissed off the black kid… or the black kid was a sociopath, but that’s just my own speculation.
This Article deffinitly opened my eyes a little more. Its hard to things like this happend close to home because we live in the North West. I never even imagined that these things are still a huge part of the southern society. There are still bitter feelings between both the blacks and the White that still have yet to be fully resolved. I feel that the most shocking part of this article was the the 16th paragraph were it mentioned that there are people with ” aproved victim status” were basicaly they dont get into trouble for discreminating and doing worse things like mentioned above in the article. I feel that it wasn’t fair that only one of the students had to go to court. I understand that the first student horrible injured another but I can not see how the other got away with hanging a noose in a tree. That is such a horrible think to do especially in the south because it has so much hidden meaning in the south. The student that hung the noose just was provoking the whole incident and is part of the whole problem of racism. And I totaly agree with Cristine they do need to come to gether and stop blaming eachother. If they continue to live and interact they way they are now the problem will only continue to get worse.
I don’t understand how stuff like this happens all the time and yet never gets reported unless someone complains about race coming into the issue. Aren’t we past that yet? I lived in Arkansas for several years and the only racism I ever saw was from two or three parents. I thought that race factors would be gone, especially in court cases, by now. A black kid stomped on a white kid while he was laying face down in the dirt. So what? A white kid stomped on a black kid or a white kid stomped a white kid, or even a black a black. I’ll reiterate, so what? As far as I’m concerned a kid stomped on another kid and thats that.
The article never made a connection between the stomping and the noose hanging though? Did the noose hanging provoke the stomping? Still the fact that a court would dismiss adult charges on very brutal act of violence, and then go far enough to say that since the kid is African-American he shouldn’t be charged again. He should still be charged, even as just a child. Also, regardless of how angry anyone might be, I believe that (as well as get the idea that) being private information posting Neo-Nazi is illegal. (more the posting private info w/o consent part.)
The idea that that some one’s sentence is weakened because they cry “discrimination” is completely bogus in my opinion. Seriously, it just goes to so you how now a days it’s not the minorities who are treated unfair, it’s the majorities (which is in a failed attempt to make the minorities happy). Like for instance many people take pity on African Americans and feel that America owes them some debt (now don’t get me wrong slavery was a really awful thing and I don’t really think America can ever pay the African American community back for it, but give me a break). How about scholarships, and colleges, who give money only to minorities? People are constantly looking for diversity, and coming from an average Caucasian female trying to get into college, being of the majority sucks… People who bring race into the courts and get easier sentences because of it, seriously tick me off. It’s ridiculous that because some one is trying to be politically correct, they will give up what is right for what is wrong. Minorities have a lot more power than I think we even realize. Which was one of the fears of our founding father I think? So sorry guys….great constitution, and thanks for every thing, but were still letting you down!
This is the first time for a long while I have heard this serious of racism. Although I do remember last baseball season when our ace pitcher was suspended and not able to pitch at state because of a similar reason. But there is no reason for racism anymore, nor was there ever a legitimate reason. I do wonder what is wrong with these white kids though. When you mess with a noose and a couple black kids in the southeast, you have to know you are going to get your face slammed into the ground. The white boys are lucky they are still alive. I can not understand that the white kids hardly get any punishment and the black kids who are protecting themselves and their family are now part of a court case and hated among the town. This is when you know something is wrong with people today. How can you honestly put someone through all this when they are protecting themselves? If I was a black kid and some foolish white idiot did this to me, I would take the exact same action. These towns people are crazy for thinking that their little white kids deserve no harm and to be treated as angels. Racism is one thing that I did think actually settled down. But this certainly shows me that it has not. And has it not settled down but it has gotten out of hand. People need to realize that when someone provokes a person, especially in this manner, the person will take action. They can not be punished for protecting their values as a human being.
While McKenna’s article contained somewhat more factual information than the opinion piece Kautzman posted, we still cannot see the full story. Take a look at how Newsweek portrayed the Jena Six (I’ll post the article after I write my two cents). Particularly interesting is the differing opinions between black and white citizens of Jena.
I hope no one treats Sowell’s article as a factual document. He expresses nothing more than his personal opinion, using plenty of generalizations and inflammatory language. He may have a point, that “racial hype has replaced all rational discussion,” but if that is the state of Jena, Louisiana, then Sowell’s charged comments about liberals and “extremists within the black community” help nothing. Also without merit is his comparison of the tribulations of black and white high school students in Jena to a twisted misunderstanding between drunk, white, college athletes and a black stripper.
The Jena Six issue goes way beyond three nooses and an alleged assault. Racism runs so deep in that community that neighborhoods are essentially segregated, and certain barbershops cater to white customers only. If Kenneth Purvis and his friends standing under an oak tree can divide a high school and send the entire town into chaos, then much more is at work than “racial hype,” as Sowell puts it. It took months for the town to attract the national attention it now receives, making it vividly apparent that prejudice was present in Jena long before Al Sharpton or the ACLU showed up.
As relatively privileged students in the Northwest, we must remember that the circumstances of the Jena Six are almost beyond our comprehension. It is also paramount we acknowledge that race issues are inseparable from Bell’s assault charge, the “theft of a firearm” charge against another Jena Six who wrestled a gun away from the white student who pointed it at him, the three nooses, or the heightened school violence. Notice that the D.A. in Jena is white, as was the entire jury who convicted Bell of aggravated second-degree battery, before the conviction was overturned. I would speculate that the majority of school board members and law enforcement officers in Jena are also white, but I doubt this issue needs much more speculation from outsiders.
One of the most telling points in the Newsweek article is the observation that accounts of the assault and other violence vary dramatically depending on the race of the witness. Sorting out the truth in Jena will be an arduous process for professionals. Three newspaper articles are certainly not going to show us the whole picture.
–grace
By Gretel C. Kovach and Arian Campo-Flores
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue – It began with a seemingly innocuous question. At an assembly during the first week of classes last fall at Jena High School in rural Louisiana, Kenneth Purvis, a junior, asked the vice principal if he could sit under the shady boughs of an oak tree in the campus courtyard. “You can sit anywhere you like,” the vice principal replied. Soon thereafter, Purvis and several black friends ventured over to the tree to hang out with some white classmates. According to the school’s unspoken racial codes, however, that area was reserved for white kids; Purvis is black. Some white students didn’t look kindly on the encroachment: the next day, three nooses hung from the oak’s branches.
That provocation, which conjured up the ugly history of lynch mobs and the Jim Crow South, unleashed a cycle of interracial strife that has roiled the tiny town of Jena. In the ensuing months, black and white students clashed violently, the school’s academic wing was destroyed by arson and six black kids were charged with attempted murder for beating a white peer. (The “deadly weapon”: tennis shoes they supposedly used to kick the white student knocked unconscious by the first punch.) One of those black students—Mychal Bell, the only one of the “Jena Six” to stand trial so far—was convicted by an all-white jury in June on lesser felony charges of aggravated second-degree battery and is awaiting sentencing. He could face 22 years in prison. In the wake of that judgment, a host of national figures—from the Rev. Al Sharpton to the Nation of Islam to the American Civil Liberties Union—have descended on the town to inveigh against racial injustice. Billy Fowler, a white school-board member, has pledged that when the new school year starts, “we’re not going to see black and white anymore. It’s going to be right or wrong.” But, says the Rev. Raymond Brown of Christians United, which has been working with parents of the Jena Six, “Jena does not want to come up to the 21st century. They are living deep in the past.”
Decades of suppressed racial hostility spilled forth at the appearance of those swaying nooses. Word spread quickly that day; before long, scores of black students congregated under the tree. “As black students, we didn’t call it a protest,” says Robert Bailey Jr., one of the Jena Six. “We just called it standing up for ourselves.” School officials convened an assembly in early September, where local District Attorney Reed Walters appeared, flanked by police officers. “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy,” he told students, warning them to settle down. “With a stroke of my pen, I can make your lives disappear.” A visit to the school, along with the fact that the three white boys who admitted to hanging the nooses were only dealt a few days’ suspension, further inflamed the African-American community. “It felt like they were saying, ‘We can do what we want to those n—–s’,” says Marcus Jones, Bell’s father.
Things reached a boil later in the semester. During the Thanksgiving holiday, someone set fire to the school, reducing the main academic wing to rubble (no one has been arrested, and though a link between what was ruled an arson and the racial discord hasn’t been proved, many suspect there is one). The following day, Bailey was punched and beaten with beer bottles when he tried to enter a mostly white party in town. The white kid who threw the first punch was later charged with simple battery and given probation. The next day, Bailey ran into a young white man who was at the party. Bailey and parents of the Jena Six say that when the man pulled a gun on him, he tangled with him and stripped it away. He was later charged with theft of a firearm.
The tension culminated back at school the following Monday. Justin Barker, a white student who says he is friends with the kids who hung the nooses, reportedly taunted Bailey at lunch (Barker denies this). A while later, an African-American student allegedly punched Barker from behind, knocking him unconscious. Then, say white witnesses, a group of black students that included Bailey continued to assault Barker, kicking and stomping on him. (Jena High student Justin Purvis and other black witnesses dispute this.) Barker, who was treated for injuries at a nearby hospital, was released later that day, apparently in strong enough shape to attend a class-ring ceremony that evening.
Walters, the D.A., responded swiftly and severely. He charged six black students—Bailey, Bell, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis (Justin and Kenneth’s cousin), Carwin Jones and an unidentified juvenile—with attempted second-degree murder. “Nobody tried to kill anybody,” says Tina Jones, Bryant’s mother. Their lethal weapon: the tennis shoes. (”You kick someone repeatedly in the head and that can be serious—deadly,” says Barker’s father, David.) So far, only Bell has been convicted on the lesser assault charges, for which he faces sentencing next month. No trial dates have been set for the other five, all of whom have been released—though three of the five spent months in jail until their families could raise enough money to pay the high bonds. Blacks in Jena seethed at what seemed to be flagrant inequities in the justice system: while Bailey’s white assailant at the party got off with battery charges and probation, the Jena Six were hit with attempted-murder charges. Barker “didn’t even stay in the hospital overnight,” says Jones, Bell’s father. “The D.A. is a racist. There’s just no other way to explain it.” (Walters declined to comment, but his supporters say he would not intentionally treat a black person unfairly.)
Racial enmity has deep roots in Jena, a former sawmill town in the central part of the state that struggles to live off the oil-and-gas industry. Like many parts of Louisiana and eastern T—s, Jena was “entirely bypassed by the civil-rights movement,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Though there is more of a racial mix now, African-Americans—who make up about 12 percent of the town’s 3,500 residents—are concentrated in an area called “the country,” a mix of tidy brick homes and rusted trailers. You won’t find many of them in the middle-class white neighborhood with tall pines and manicured lawns known by blacks and whites as “Snob Hill.”
Many whites in Jena deny that the town has a race problem. Frankie Morris, a barber at Doughty’s Westside Barbershop, says: “There’s a bunch of country boys around here. They’re not prejudiced.” But Morris’s boss, Billy Doughty, has never cut a black man’s hair because “the white customers, they might say something about cutting their hair with the same stuff,” he says. Few have experienced the racial strain more than Marci and Chris Johnson, one of Jena’s few interracial couples. When Marci, who is white, broke the news to a friend that she was dating a black man, the woman warned her that Marci would be ostracized. “It was true,” she says. “I don’t have one friend. They all stopped talking to me.” Chris, a cousin of one of the Jena Six, adds, “I’m glad people are going to see how Jena really is, how racist this town is.”
In this context, it is hardly surprising that views of the Jena Six controversy are skewed by race. Many whites claim that some of the black students had prior disciplinary problems. Or, whites say, the black kids were athletes who felt overly entitled. African-Americans argue that whites don’t grasp how fraught a symbol the noose is. “It sent a message of hate for your race of people,” says Caseptla Bailey, Robert’s mother. “It said, ‘Stay the hell away or you’ll be killed’.” Still, some blacks didn’t want to challenge the status quo. “They said, ‘Oh, you’re going to make them white folks mad’,” says Caseptla.
But she and other Jena Six parents began mobilizing. They reached out to the NAACP and formed a local chapter. They began meeting at Antioch Baptist Church, the only house of worship that offered them a gathering spot. And they sought to galvanize townspeople, eventually organizing a march on the parish courthouse that drew a few hundred supporters. But as recently as June, they still hadn’t managed to elicit much national attention. “No one would listen,” says Caseptla, now president of the local NAACP chapter.
That changed with Bell’s conviction in late June. The ACLU, which had been monitoring the case since March, coordinated volunteer organizations with legal expertise. So far, the civil-liberties group hasn’t taken legal action. If it determines that rights have been systematically violated, it may sue. Earlier this month Sharpton and other civil-rights leaders gathered in town. At a press conference, Sharpton said, “Six young black men … [face] an overly oppressive charge in a manner that speaks to a South we thought we left in the last century.”
Despite the sudden attention, the students face troubling outlooks. Now Bell has a team of private attorneys to handle his appeal—his court-appointed trial lawyer, Blane Williams, did not call a single witness to defend him. (Williams maintains that the prosecution did not prove its case.) And no matter how this ends up, he may never earn the college-scholarship offers that were likely headed his way as one of Louisiana’s top football prospects. For the remaining five, all they can do is wait for the D.A.’s next move. One of them, Bryant Purvis, is now staying in Texas with his uncle, Jason Hatcher, a Dallas Cowboys football player who grew up in Jena. Purvis sounds lethargic and withdrawn, says his mother, Tina Jones. The murder charges “will forever follow him wherever he goes.”
Meanwhile, Jena is struggling to find its way forward. “Outsiders need to stay away,” says Fowler, the white school-board member. “Let local black and white people sit down and solve these problems.” He’s hoping the coming school year will be a fresh start. Students have endured a summer of racial conflict, but when they return, the charred remains of their school building will have been hauled away. The oak tree at the center of the storm is now gone; last month it was chopped down and converted into firewood by a timber company the school hired. “I watched that tree grow,” says Ray Hodges, who planted it about 20 years ago. “It was planted as a tree of knowledge. But guess what it became? It became a tree of ignorance.” Jena’s residents can only hope that something more promising grows in its place.
With Eve Conant
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc
To begin…
Some background info:
The reason that everyone has been focused on race in this case is because Jena, LA is known for racial tension, especially at the high school. The nooses hung from trees that the article mentioned were put up on August 31, 2006. Apparently the school has quite a bit of segregation. Black students (about 10% of the school) and white students (85%) sit in different areas during lunch. A freshman black student sat under a “white tree” that day, and then the nooses were hung.
That September, police patrolled the hallways of the high school after fights broke out, mostly interracial fights. There were reports of firearms brought to school. On November 30, 2006, an entire wing of the school was set on fire. It was so badly damaged it had to be demolished. Arson was confirmed as the cause. A later encounter between black and white students in front of a convenience store involved a gun.
So it makes sense to bring some element of race to reports of the case of the beating. I do agree with the article’s author, however, that things have escalated to ridiculous levels.
The Case of the “Jena Six”
This article doesn’t mention the degree to which the white student, Justin Barker, was injured. It also fails to report that it was not one black student that did the beating, but six. Mychal Bell was the only one tried as an adult, and he is the one the article refers to. The superintendent called the incident “a premeditated ambush and attack by six students against one. The victim attacked was beaten and kicked into a state of bloody unconsciousness.” This further shows that the media has been wrong to harp on race as the basis for punishment.
It is because there were six “attackers” that the issue of Bell’s trial as an adult is the main concern of the court. None of the other five were tried as adults, although they were in the same age group (excepting one 14-year-old). Normally, reporters would home in on this situation, because it is one that needs to be further examined. Why is Bell being treated differently from the others?
I think the author of this piece is not being realistic if he thinks that race can be dismissed in this case. It shouldn’t be hyped as much as it is, but racial tension is the reason this whole mess happened, and nothing will change if that core issue is set aside. I really was disappointed with the overall construction of this article, which seems to just moan about various things not presented in any particular order. He skips from the Duke case to liberals to legal procedures to bail to Neo-Nazis to mob rule. I recommend that anyone else who reads this article searches for better-presented arguments on this issue and complete reports of the scenario discussed.
-C.Rash
There is so much wrong with various aspects of this case that it is hard to begin. So it sounds like this whole state of affairs began with a white kid hanging a noose from a tree; which is completely uncalled for. As far as I know this kid probably had something bad coming his way if he is so horribly bold as to commit such a racist and truly disturbing act. It is pathetic that there are still groups of people in the United States who feel lynching is something to be used as a means of threatening a classmate of a different race. This student should have been charged right away on some matter of hate crime or something, but he was not; which says something about racial prejudice in the local law enforcement, seeing as this boy got away with such an act- unless you count “school discipline” which is what…an hour of detention? Such cruel and unusual punishment.
So things don’t just end there, the other classmate in question takes it upon himself to beat up said racist classmate, which only hurts the situation. I will admit that the assault was provoked, but in doing so the black student gave racists what they are looking for: more reason to dislike those of another race. This student was acting on pure anger and obviously did not think his actions through at all, but he did commit the crime and disserved to do the time. But, alas, he goes without punishment. The outpouring of the support for this student by the black community is ridiculous if you ask me. Yes, anything having to do with lynching is absolutely horrific, but the boy responded by assaulting his white peer. For this, the student should be reprimanded by the community, for he is playing to the kind of stereotype racists base their beliefs off of, and in essence this lets them “win”. Racial violence is absurd in itself and I blame both sides of the issue for its escalation in this specific scenario.
I really liked Kirk’s response. I think his thinking is fairly accurate considering the situation… it is the year 2007 and racial issues are still up front in regards to to the law. Now, I understand that in a diverse nation (the U.S. to name one) their will undoubtedly always be racial tensions and questionable matters of equality; however, I feel like their is so much hype about “race this” and “race that” that no one race will ever be content no matter if Jesus himself came down to settle things face to face with the leading officials in both the black and white communities. In reading the article McKenna posted, I gained a little more insight into the initial “stomping” charges. At first, I felt that this was just another matter of “Southern hospitality”; aka the black man gets charged and the white man gets a frown. The detail of the second article mentioned that the black student and some friends beat up the white student pretty badly… but then the details surrounding the actual cause of the fight were not mentioned. On the other hand, prior to the beating, some white students hung a noose in a tree in the same town. That is beyond disgusting. I mean, seriously. Sure, the black student should be tried (not as an adult though.) But if we want to make any progress in the “equality department,” I think that the court needs to call upon the “lynching mob” as well. Something of that sort exceeds a “stupid, immature joke.”
OK, so after carefully reading Christine’s argument I have to disagree on some level. I am not quite sure if you got the essence of the whole article. I believe, unless I completely missunderstood the article, that the white boys hanging a noose around a tree and the black boy stomping on an unconcious white boy were two seperate accounts. And where you said, “I don’t think that it is ok for there to be racial discrimination over something that was so insignificant,” I also disagree. I don’t think it’s ever OK for there to be racial discrimination, it just simply doesn’t belong here. It’s stupid that the black boy is trying to put himself above the law because of his race. I completely agree with the author when he says, ““as if putting a noose on a tree is equivalent to stomping somebody who is unconscious.” It has nothing to do with race, it has to deal with the crime. Putting a noose on a tree is an expression, now if the white boy had the noose around someones neck, that would be a different story. So, if we could all get over the seperating of races, I mean come on…we’re all human.
Yeah there is still racial tension in the United States. It’s much different from what it used to be. Nowadays it’s less that the white community is OPPRESSING the black community, nowadays, it’s more like some simply play favorites/politics/Oh my god! You’re racist cause you said this! That kind of thing. At least that’s what I think. I mean we hear racism and we’re like. Oh god. Not this again. Never even stopping to think for a moment how much people eat this stuff up. We’re taught that racism is bad. Well. Yes. Yes it is. But take the moment to realize that if we don’t stop focusing on it, it will continue to be a big issue now and for years to come. Despite said political equality.
As for the black kid who stomped the white kid, this damn article looses all significance if you take out those labels. Two little words.
Although I think the student did deserve to be tried for stomping on another student, I’m honestly appauled that the students who hung the nooses aren’t being tried for hate crimes. Obviously, the student who stomped on one of his peers is in the wrong and should be punished. However, despite that fact that I believe completely in people taking responsability for their own actions, hanging nooses from a tree black students were sitting under is a pretty good way of provoking a violent reaction. Both sides were in the wrong in some way, in a perfect world they would both face retribution for their own actions. I had no idea racial prejudice was still such a big issue in the south, I mean, I knew it was an issue, but not one big enough to merit blatantly ignoring hate crimes in the legal process.
I can agree with Kaitlynn’s post, that both of the students in this situation are buying into their own racial stereotypes. At the place where our country is now, as far as social equality, situations such as these, are unacceptable. It is stories like this that keep us in constant reminder of the racial battles we have to recognize. However, I think a more important reminder this article brings us is our need to prioritize our justice system. Kaitlynn said it best by saying “This student should have been charged right away on some matter of hate crime or something, but he was not; which says something about racial prejudice in the local law enforcement, seeing as this boy got away with such an act” and she is totally correct. The fact that this student did not face severe punishment makes me angry. Not, only will he not learn his lesson, but maybe people around him will inherit a similar mindset. Punishment for any crime such as this, should be just as harsh as physical violence, because it has the same/ more of an effect. Although racism can not be recognized as easy as it did in the past, we can still see it in our everyday lives, and the situation at Jena is a prime example of that.
Response to Jarek
Jarek, I have some major problems with some of the things you said. First, “When you mess with a noose and a couple black kids in the southeast, you have to know you are going to get your face slammed into the ground. The white boys are lucky they are still alive.” This statement is totally bogus; no one should ever have to resort to violence, and the fact that you take violence as a necessary and acceptable course of action surprises me. Second, “I can not understand that the white kids hardly get any punishment and the black kids who are protecting themselves and their family are now part of a court case and hated among the town.” I read the article and it never once says anything about the attackers defending either themselves or their families, and I find it hard to believe that it was in self defense because the other guy was laying UNCONCIOUS on the ground. Third, “If I was a black kid and some foolish white idiot did this to me, I would take the exact same action” I’m appalled by the fact that you would stomp on an unconscious persons face and possibly KILL them because they offended you. Finally, “They can not be punished for protecting their values as a human being.” I very strongly disagree with this statement. First of all, there is no evidence that it was in self defense, nor I defense of their “values as a human being”. Second, it seems to me that they invalidated not only the other persons but also their own values as a human being by stomping on someone else’s face.
Andrew Barnes
Response to Mallory & Mandy
To find out that some got there head STOMPED on while unconscious is very alarming. To find out that nooses are being hung from trees is unbelievable. What is this world coming to? I agree with Mandy. Discrimination can even be found within the trying of this “discriminating” case. One got the school discipline and the other got stuck with getting set to court. What is up with that?? I also agree with Mallory’s statement, “The idea that that some one’s sentence is weakened because they cry ‘discrimination’ is completely bogus in my opinion. Seriously, it just goes to so you how now a days it’s not the minorities who are treated unfair, it’s the majorities (which is in a failed attempt to make the minorities happy).” Can people honestly just pull the “discrimination” or “racial” card whenever they want to; especially to get them out of a sticky situation? That seems unjust to me. It’s true that the minorities are becoming the majorities.
feast
Funny to say I’m posting a response and yet I don’t know exactly who I agree with or disagree with. From what I read I agree that it’s pretty ridiculous how this all jumps to a racial debate after a white kid and a black kid have a little “dispute”. I mean it’s been 50 years since the actual time when racism was occurring. What did it matter what the kids skin colors where? I understand that the noose is a huge discriminatory symbol, but from what I understand they are not a direct link making my point on why the color of the kids skin mattered.
Like I said in this day in age I am not ignorant in believing that discrimination in completely gone and has died off. But what I don’t understand how people can jump to conclusions about things such as this and link this to discrimination. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me who wonders that. I guess what set this off was how violent it was, it wasn’t just a fight and a black eye. It was him stomping on another guy while he was unconscious which appeals to me as something more than, your being a jerk, for lack of better words. So at the same time I can kind of understand but still I think it’s a little ridiculous.
~Ryan Brannan
After reading what Grace had posted, I find the whole issue of the article a little more interesting than I did the first time I read it. With a little more background information, the story changes a bit and the position changes sometimes. When reading it all the second time, I have to agree with Kirk. We are in the year 2007. How is race still such a big problem? With a jury of white members accusing a black student of second-degree battery while a white student gets off free from hanging a noose around a tree, it all seems rather stupid. Why can’t we get away from the days of segregation and put it behind us? The fact that race shouldn’t be but completely does have a part in the way the trial went is beyond me. Like Grace said, three articles about the same incident and we still don’t have the full story. We never will. But with the information that we do have, it makes it very easy to say that it’s all very ridiculous. Maybe it’s because we live in an area where there is not a whole lot of racial tension and it’s easy to judge the areas that do. It just seems that after so long, why are we still back at square one?
I totaly agree with the first part of what grace said. It is so hard to fully and complety understand a topic by an acticle. Because the media never completly covers a topic. Not to mention the fact that they will try to slant the article to look one way and not the other just to get people to pay attention.
Also it is so hard for us to completly understand the situation when we live in the northwest. Racism is not even close to as big of a problem as it is in the south. Its hard for us to make a stand on the article when we don’t fully understand the motives of both of the sides. Obviously we can see that what happened was wrong but is hard for us to give our opinions on a solution on of how to punish then or how to prevent the problem in the future.
Also Grace mentioned that all the incidents were not connected was great because I just asuumed they were. And thats how the media wanted me to take it so I learn about it the way the want me to learn about it. So this acticle deffinitly has alot more substance to it reading it the second time.
I find it most interesting to see the reactions of us, pre-dominately surburban white kids, to this article and the several other relating articles others have posted.
Of everyone who posted I agree most with Grace that we have absolutely no idea what was going on after reading the op-ed piece and therefore can’t really judge either party on that basis. I further agree with her that it’s appauling that this sort of problem went on for months without national acknowledgment.
As far as the actual case I have mixed feelings. Since there were six African-American students involved (Jena Six) and only one was tried as an adult I assume that they thought he acted more like an “adult” than the others and therefore should be tried as one, it would make sense since that’s not how the rest were tried. The overturning of his verdict was unjustified but it seems like a step in the right direction for the town, justice is justice but when dealing with a situation such as this it’s best to try and make amends of the situation before it becomes far worse. I also think that it was highly, highly unjustified to hang nooses from the trees of the school. Obviously there’s going to be rifts between members of the Neo-Nazi party and African-American students, but it shouldn’t become a problem in a learning environment.
Stomping someone isn’t a good thing. Hanging nooses from trees, is not a good thing, it’s a hate crime and should be treated as such, even by white school board members and those still living in the past (which was part of someone’s article… I can’t remember who but I thought that it was a good inference for this situation).
This whole thing reminds me of American History X and it’s highly unfortunate.