Indianapolis, IN

Fri 21 September 2007

So, I’m thinking about the Jena 6. IUPUI had a demonstration today in support of the Jena 6, a group of six (high school) black males from Jena, Louisiana, who are in jail on charges of attempted murder because they beat up a white student. What started the altercation is that there is a tree at the high school that some white students claimed as theirs, so they hung nooses in the tree to scare away the black students. The white students only got suspended, while the black students got arrested. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. I’m not condoning the actions of the black students in beating up the white guy, but I think it needs to be dealt with fairly. (The black students could’ve formed a sit-in and sat under the tree anyways, using a non-violent demonstration.) But why aren’t the white students charged with a felony hate crime? Who could possibly think that hanging nooses in trees is appropriate? And why would the school even condone it by slapping them on the wrist and letting them go? Don’t tell me about how they were suspended. That’s a bullshit move on the school’s part. (You know what this all comes down to: it sounds to me that all of the leaders are probably part of the
White Males with Money That Are Part of the Good Ol’ Boys Network.) And see, this is exactly what people are talking about: a lot of people have been talking about Louisiana’s (and the South’s) racism since Hurricane Katrina. They want to paint these black students as “well, that’s how they act, always fighting people.” But if they weren’t provoked by hanging nooses, then it wouldn’t have escalated to the degree that is did. You know this is all a bunch of crap. I feel like we’re back in the 1930s. This is completely unacceptable. And frankly, I’m ashamed that this is still going on in the United States in 2007.

: Jena 6, IUPUI, racial tensions, hate crimes, Louisiana