Thursday, August 30, 2007

Blogging for Justice - The Jena 6

Bill Quigley wrote the following in his blog entry:
All White Jury sitting before White Judge agrees with White Prosecutor and All White Witnesses and Convicts Black Youth in Racially Charged High School Criminal Case
Catch up with me on this story:
  • A Black student asks for and is granted permission by school authorities to sit with white students under the "white tree" where a majority of the 80% white student body sits during lunch.
  • The next day, three nooses were hanging from the "white tree"... the message was pretty clear.
  • The principal found the 3 white students who were responsible for the nooses and had them expelled.
  • The white superintendent overruled the principal and gave the students a 3 day suspension, saying that the nooses were a "youthful stunt."
  • Black students organized a sit-in under the "white tree" to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging students
  • The white DA threatens the Black students by saying "I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."
  • Later that fall, a fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.
  • A few days later, a black student who showed up at a white student's party is beaten by whites.
  • The next day, a young white man pulled out a shotgun and threatened a group of Blacks at a local convenience store... they succeed in wrestling the gun from him. The Black men who took the shotgun away were arrested and no charges were filed against the white man.
  • A few days later at the high school, a white student - who had been making racial taunts (including the n-word) while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the Black student at the off-campus party - got the dogshit kicked out of him by Black students... he was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released.
  • Six Black Jena High School students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder!
  • All six students were expelled from Jena High School.
  • All six students remain in jail unable to raise the $90,000 bond money.


  • Please read Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang from the "White Tree" by Bill Quigley on The Smirking Chimp for all of the details of the case.



    plez sez: i tried my best to resist the urge to write a post about the injustice that occurs to this day in Jena, Louisiana: everything had already been written, i didn't know all of the facts, or this was just the "flavor of the month" in the victimology department. after being spurred on by August 30th being "Day of Blogging for Justice," i decided to do some reading and if need be, write my thoughts on this volatile situation.

    as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

    i cannot see or fathom why this case hasn't garnered more national ink or press. where are the reverends (al and jesse)? i would expect them to be camped out on the Jena Courthouse steps! instead of lending token support to michael vick, where is the NAACP? shouldn't they be down there with their lawyers getting these boys out of jail and getting those bogus charges dropped? i know alberto gonzalez has other things on his mind, but since this looks like a hate crime being perpetrated by the authorities in Jena, shouldn't the justice department be all over this? are our Black lives worth less than that of some stinking pit bulls? if not, why have i seen PETA protests for the past 3 weeks, but not a DAMN thing about this injustice?

    oh ok... i get it... even if you reduce yourself to a shucking and jiving, skinnin' and grinnin', yes massa, coonin' Black man, your life still ain't worth ___ YOUR FAVORITE EXPLETIVE HERE ___!

    use this MEDIA LINK to talk back to the media
    read the JENA 6 PRESS RELEASE

    5 comments:

    Unknown said...

    Plez - You've hit it out of the park with this post. Hopefully, our voices will make a difference.

    peace, Villager

    Yobachi said...

    Hey, you might want to add the media link, because the focus is to get people to contact them.

    http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

    Lisa Johnson said...

    This is a really good post. I wasn't aware of this. The NAACP has such messed up priorities. And the reverends? I can't begin to understand why they are not all over this.

    Lola Gets said...

    I sometimes listen to the Michael Baisden show when I leave work (yes, I know he sucks, lol). Apparently, he and a lot of other noteable Blacks, as well as everyday folks, are protesting in Jena sometime this month. Check out his website to get more info.
    L

    BronzeBuckaroo said...

    I don't know how much this means, but I understand Oprah is suppose to be devoting a program to the Jena 6.

    I hope this is true. Don't think your post isn't making a difference. IT IS!