Finding the Truth in Jena, La.

September 24, 2007

 

The Jena Six situation down in Louisiana is a classic example of mob manipulation. A few folks, namely race baiters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have whipped people up into a frenzy with misinformation, disinformation and downright lies. It's a shame, really. We have a whole generation of young black people who now believe civil rights includes beating the tar out of any white person who makes you mad.

 

Let's get some facts straight.

 

First of all, there was no “white tree” at Jena High School. There was a large tree but, according to the Associated Press, teachers and school administrators say that students of all races congregated under the tree.

 

There were two nooses found dangling from the tree, not three. These were certainly ugly symbols of a bygone era that we'd all rather move past. The perpetrators, contrary to Jackson and Sharpton, were punished for the stunt. They were sent to an alternative school for a month then given in-school suspension for two more weeks. The rabble rousers have cried that the prosecutor should've charged them with a hate crime. There first has to be a crime for there to be a hate crime. Hanging nooses, as reprehensible as that might be, is not a crime.

 

Six students at school blindsided a student coming through a gym door. Contrary to popular reports, there's no evidence he said anything racial to his attackers. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that he never saw his attackers. He was knocked out then kicked and pummeled by six guys as he lay unconscious. Mychal Bell, the only person tried so far for the beating, had four prior convictions for assault and battery and was on probation. That's why he's the only one who remained in jail. The others were allowed to await trial at home.

 

And, no, the boy who was beaten up didn't have a gun, as was widely rumored, nor did he have anything to do with the nooses. He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Notice that not one network reporter, not one mob agitator, has ever referred to the beating as a hate crime, yet it clearly is.

 

Jackson and his crowd love to point out that Bell was tried and convicted by “an all-white jury.” That much is true, but the rest of the story is that black citizens were summoned for jury duty but none showed up. It is kind of hard to put a black person on a jury when they don't show up.

 

I doubt very seriously if most of the people who were bussed all the way down to Jena from as far away as Philadelphia were given all the facts in the case. If they knew the truth perhaps many of them would not be holding this up as the new civil rights case for the 21 st Century. The sad part is, for some, the facts are inconsequential. For some, the case in Jena is just another excuse to blame whitey for all of society's ills. Make no mistake, those people are racists. Racism knows no particular race or economic status. Black people can hate just as viciously and fervently as white people and it's just as wrong.

 

There are, indeed, lessons to be learned from Jena. The first and foremost lesson is to get all the facts before you go off half-cocked. Another lesson is not to hitch your wagon to an ordinary beating and call it a civil rights event. In doing so, you sully the name of everyone who has truly struggled for equality.