do you care about civil rights? (racism in Jena, LA)
This will not take much of your time and it is extremely important. Please watch this video.
Is this what America is? Have parts of our nation never progressed from the days when blacks were called 3/5’s of human beings and had no rights the white man was bound to respect?
This video shows that those 6 teens in Jena might as well have been tried by the supreme court 150 years ago where Chief Justice Roger B. Tawney made those chilling remarks. No one would get widespread creditability today for making the claims that Tawney made yet African Americas are still getting the very short end of the juridical stick.
Please try to make a difference by passing this information on and especially by taking 30 seconds to sign the petition telling the nation that you see this injustice and will not simply ignore it.
Click Here to add your name to the growing list of signatories.
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For the inclined our there, This is an incredible piece by Manning Marable about this topic and probably the reason that I connected this issue to the Dred Scott decision.
I would like to sincerely thank alternet for bringing this issue to my attention. I consider alternet a powerful ally against the corporate spin on information dissemination in this country.
Fighting the right with my cane 
I posted about this two days ago. I’d love to support it, and if it were in the context of these students should be punished but, I would. Unfortunately they did commit a heinoously cowardly crime and deserve to adjudicated.
what heinous crime are you talking about? Taking a gun from someone who was pointing it at them or fighting back when someone harassed them?
I don’t condone violence but I don’t accept injustice either. Do you think the students got appropriate charges? Should the whites be punished harsher as well or are the black kids inherently deserving of worse punishment?
I wish you’d explain your point a little bit.
i’m talking about using violence against someone that was using words, and then when that individual was unconscious on the ground kicking him until they tired of it.
Incidentally, you should read an actual news story about this. Most of what you seem to be reading is the psychotic ramblings of the masses, making it up as they go along.
a news story by who? Who owns the corporate bullshit that subscribe to? Who advertises with them?
I am ignorant about this subject, I need to read more, that is true. But you don’t know what I read or where I read it from. You get a tiny snapshot of my views on this site and that is not representative of the panoply of my views.
Thank you for you JUDGMENT. I appreciate all of your helpful feed back.
I see news stories about kicking while unconscious but that is not really telling about the brutality. There is no video or even picture evidence that I’ve seen and all I’ve heard about the severity is that he went out that night.
Was the kid kicked once before they knew he was unconscious?
Was he kicked repeatedly by multiple people after they knew he was unconscious?
You make grandiose statements acting like you know the whole context, and if you do then wonderful, but DEMONSTRATE THAT. Don’t make ambiguous, attacking statements without sourcing and backing up what you say.
Add to the discussion, don’t just attack me and the “psychotic masses”
wow, “attack” is a low threshhold with you. The press, those heinous scalawags sometimes get it close to right. There is a lot of hyperbole and grandstanding going on here, and rather than look to the hard facts people are buying into it.
Kicking an unconscious kid isn’t a “benchmark” for you? Does he need to be paralyzed or die before what these punks did is wrong? I am in absolute agreement that they are not the only ones that belong in front of a judge, but minimizing what they did because of what others did isn’t a viable approach. Anyone that has ever raised an intelligent law abiding child knows how to teach that two wrongs do not make a right.
as far as me adding to your discussin? Screw you. I took the time to come read what you had to say. I did my part. My opinion isn’t found wanting by those that read my blog oon this issue, and you my good man are a raving fire breathing do gooder who simply can’t take the time to be bothered with the facts.
How many times do I have to denounce their actions? I am calling for equality and I am not convinced that they deserve the charges they received.
I am still waiting on all these facts you throw at me, I see that he was unconscious but how vicious is the assault when the KID GOES OUT THAT NIGHT? From what I can tell, they had the opportunity to keep going and they didn’t. Do they deserve to be punished? yes. But you should be addressing the racist town that brought about this situation on not just the ones who reacted to it.
I’m not convinced the town is, or even can be racist. I always felt racism was an individual thing. It’s not about racism. It’s about parenting, and decency, and maturity. I’m not saying i think it rises to maximum sentencinig, but incarceration is definitely in order. Quit whining in defense of whats wrong. that’s what creates messes like these in the first place.
I put the facts on my blog. I left out everything open to conjecture
No, all you did was rant on about people should see themselves as the color of their skin (which may somewhat be possible in areas where I live, but impossible in Jena) and then left out the context, not the conjecture. Are facts inconvenient to your point? Don’t you hate it when that happens.
I saw a lot of fights in high school and after many of them the kid was in the hospital for more than a couple hours (although I’m not sure if any lost consciousness, but is that YOUR benchmark) do you think all of those kids should do to jail?
And what is with the ad hominem attacks? Weren’t you raised with the decency and maturity to discuss the subject without saying I’m whining (which how is an audible vocal inflection conveyed via the internet?) or saying things like ‘screw you’. It’s sad that you feel the need to attack people who disagree with you.
absolutely i think all those kids should go to jail. I did you use the facts. All the other stories are “alleged” to have happened. As is this charge for those not yet adjudicated. My point is simple. Each individual act stands alone. Be willing to face the consequences of your actions. These 6 and apparently or at least possibly others should be tried for crimes as well. Using one as an excuse for the other is insanity.
How many times do I have to say I’m not excusing anyone? Let me reiterate (second response where I used that word) that I think the violent offenders should be punished. You say that every act should be judged separately… judicially, yes.
Sociologically, analytically, THEY ARE RELATED… that’s why one happened after another, after another.
You can claim that these acts are independent but would the last one happen without the one preceding it? I don’t think so.
my apologies. I never intimated that they were unrelated, nor that the situation isn’t rife with racism. What I advocated was all parties committing violent crimes be punished, and that these particular individuals would’ve been better off had they risen above the race issue, and looked a t themselves as men, not black men. It is a tragedy that people allow themselves to be assimilated so completely into the group mentality. It’s unhealthy, and at least in this case, actionable.
When one side constantly defines them as black men and segregates them, the only chance of having community is banding together with others in the situation.
The Black Panthers had the slogan “Black is Beautiful” because constantly blacks were being treated horribly and considered physically, morally and intellectually inferior. To counter this, black national groups turned to self-determination and took pride in their heritage and race.
With your apparent short fuse, I can’t picture you going somewhere where you are a vilified minority and simply taking the abuse, or as you say, ‘rising above it’. Its pretty easy to simply condemn their actions from an outside perspective.
what you see as a short fuse is merely an overdeveloped response to typical kneejerk social engineering. I’ve lived ll over southeast asia, and I can assure caucasians are a somewhat vilified minority. I did fine, because I understood that I wasn’t my race, but that I could be made to pay for it.
the Jena 6 won’t get what they deserve, so you can probably quit mewling anytime you wish now. The drugaddicted left has ridden their white charger to the rescue, and they will learn nothing from their crime. Fortunately, when the radically ignorant get away with something, they almost always try it again. They can be hammered next time
I’m sure that you can assure caucasians are a somewhat vilified minority. I would never doubt that for one second. I just wish those vilifying us would know that not all of us are as cynical, judgmental, ignorant and uncivil as you have been throughout this brief exchange.
If you are so put off by my ‘mewling’, why do you keep coming back? You’re an intriguing fellow.