What Price, Injustice?

In our writing group on Monday night, our topic was "Jena Tree." At first I found it hard to write about this, but as soon as pen hit paper, the outrage began to flow.

Perhaps you have never heard of the "Jena Tree." And you probably haven't heard of the Jena 6. I wouldn't be surprised. Most people have not heard about Jena, Louisiana. And up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't heard of it either. So let me inform you about Jena. This comes from The Post Chronicle article written by Mike Baron on September 4:

"In September of 2006, a black student asked permission from school administrators to seek the cool offering of solice under the shade of a tree that is commonly reserved for the enjoyment of the white students of the school.

School officials allegedly told the Black students that it was ok to sit wherever they wanted and they went ahead and did so. The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were found hanging from the same tree.

After an investigation, the Jena high school principal determined that three white students were responsible and it was recommended that they be expelled. The expulsions would subsequently be overturned by the white superintendent of schools and issued the students a three day suspension, saying that the nooses were simply "a youthful stunt."

As a result, black students organized a sit-in under the tree to protest the soft treatment given to the white students. African American parents tried to voice their opinoins and were repeatedly shot down.

The town's district attorney quickly arrived, flanked by police officers, and told the Black students to stop making such a big deal over the nooses. The school assembly, like the schoolyard where all of this had begun, was divided by race, with the Black students on one side and the white students on the other. Directing his remarks to the Black students, District Attorney Reed Walters said, "I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of a pen."

In November, tension was still high and the academic wing of the school burned in a fire. An attack ensued outside of school where the assailant, a white student, was charged with simple battery after an Black student was punched and beaten with beer bottles.

Hostilities grew.

On Monday, December 4 2006, a white student named Justin Barker got into a fight with Black students. Allegedly, the white student had been allegedly racially taunting the black students in support of the students who hung the nooses and was reportedly taken to the hospital treated and released.

Six Black Jena students (Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Beard) were subsequently arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were expelled from school. On the morning of the trial, the District Attorney reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy.

The all-white jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell, the only one charged as an adult, guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He awaits a Sept. 20 sentencing hearing. Mychal Bell faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison. The cases against the other five Black students are pending."

This is 2007 - not 1957. (Of course, if it were 1957, the boys probably would have been hanging from the tree.)

First, I am not condoning violence. But this was a lunchroom fight. Happens all the time, has happened since I was a child in school. The "victim", Justin Barker, was treated, released and was well enough to attend a party later that evening. And for this, these boys were charged with ATTEMPTED MURDER! SECOND DEGREE ASSAULT! They may be going to prison for years for a lunchroom fight?

What's also tragic is that has been going on for almost a year and the national media has all but ignored this story. I first heard about it a while back when Jesse Jackson came to my church, but I really didn't get it until I read Mary Mitchell's column in The Chicago Sun-Times that I fully understood what was going on. A subsequent email from Color of Change outlined all the legal details.

Where was the outrage? The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton have been working to ensure justice for these young men. Where was the national media? Why wasn't this front page news? Where were Anderson Cooper and Oprah and the boys from Fox and CNN and MSNBC? Oh yeah, they had "real" news to report - Anna Nicole and the custody fight for her money, er baby; the perils of Paris, Britney's breakdown, OJ, OJ, oh please, yada yada...

Why didn't the NAACP and other black organizations launch a major media campaign on behalf of these young men? All the hours devoted to the "injustice" of Michael Vick's conviction and relative silence about Jena? Michael Vick is an overpaid athlete who did a really dumb thing that cost him his career. The young men of Jena haven't even made it out of high school, much less realized their dreams.

In my own small way, I've tried to help. I've sent money to their defense fund, I wore black in solidarity with the marchers who made their way down to Louisiana yesterday. And I've followed this story in the news faithfully. Now the national media is getting involved. One of the young men convicted, Mychal Bell, had his conviction overturned and is finally - after a year - being given a bond hearing so he can get out of jail and be with his family. The Jena 6 have obtained real lawyers who are fighting for justice. D.A. Reed said that this isn't about race, but about an "innocent" victim. He said the noose incident was "despicable," but he couldn't find a law to use to prosecute those who put them out there.

What is despicable is the fact that D.A. Reed wouldn't use the hate crime laws to prosecute the criminals that started this mess. What's despicable is his desire to destroy the lives of these young men and have them tried by an all-white jury. What's despicable is the public defender's failure to mount a vigorous defense on behalf of his client. What's despicable is the media's failure to report on real news instead of what's now passing as journalism. What's despicable is that the only outrage from the folks in Jena is the fact that "outsiders" are coming in and "portraying" their town as racist - and that they can't see that for themselves.

What's despicable is that after 40 years, we're still fighting the same fights.

In Him,
Donna