I read two different blogs about the Jena 6 incident in Lousiana...
The blog posted on Slate by Michael Weiss seemed to take a more factual rather than opinionated approach. Weiss attempted to maintain an objective view on the subject by mostly stating facts about the situation and posting quotes and views of other people. Weiss states in his Friday post: "Thousands of protesters turned out in Jena, La., Thursday to denounce what they call the too-severe prosecution of six black students accused of beating a white student to the point of unconsciousness." Notice he uses "they", trying to be objective in how he feels about the punishment faced by the six black students. Weiss does this through the entire post talking about others' reactions to what went on in Jena, Louisiana.
The post by HymitownPrez on Bill Maher's webpage did not attempt to take an objective view at all. He did not really state any facts about the situation. He just briefly told what he thought about what happened. Whoever this guy is apparently thinks that because the nooses were hung only about 5 feet high, that makes the incident less serious. He also calls the 6 students "6 black hoodlums" and thinks "This shit is so funny. . ." That's the jist of his blog.
I, myself, am in great support of the Jena 6 and feel like a noose being hung in a tree is far from a prank. This incident puts us so many years behind as far as overcoming racial barriers. I mean, the noose itself represents so much and brings back so many bad images of blacks being hung in trees so long ago. If those white students did not like the fact that those black students were sitting under "their" tree for any reason other than simply the fact they were black, why would they choose the nooses? It was obviously a racial attack. I do not necessarily support the fact that the Jena 6 jumped on that one person, but I do think that the charges placed against them were all too harsh. Attempted murder??? That shouldn't have ever even come up. They beat the guy up and did not use any weapons. And I also think that the action taken against the students who hung the nooses was all too lenient. It was a hate crime as far as I am concerned and deserves a little more than a few days suspension. It seems totally out of balance for me that the kids who hung the nooses were dealt with by school officials and not even charged, but the punishment for the black kids who retaliated went straight to the police. Students get into fights all the time and never get charged with attempted murder---and they don't even have to be provoked much. The entire situation is just ludicrous to me, and I can understand why so many people showed up to protest the charges. And whoever that guy HymitownPrez is on Bill Maher's site obviously does not understand the significance of what happened and how the nooses symbolize something all to serious. And no, this shit is not so funny. . .
3 comments:
I agree with you that the white students hanging the nooses was absolutely horrible and incredibly offensive and i think that the black students had a pretty good reason for reataliating in that way. I think that the reason school officials handled the white students and not the black students is because the white students did not beat a student to the point of unconsciousness. I do however, feel that the white students should have been much more harshly punished and that the black students should be charged less harshly. At least the charges have now been dropped to second-degree battery instead of attempted murder. I hope the charges will be further lowered soon though.
Excellent post, Monique. It's crazy that this stuff is still going on.
To be honest, I thought we were past all this oh like 40 years ago. I guess not. Historically, slavery was such a big part of the country's early history that treating "colored" people wrongly is still accepted in some places.
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