This past week brought us the first civil rights demonstrations in this country since the 60's. Yes Mildred, a fair and honest judicial system is a civil right and our justice system has systematically been stacked against African Americans since....well, since forever. Richard Pryor used to say he went down to the courthouse seeking justice and that's what he found, "just us".
CNN did a great story on the whole Jena situation. Three major incidents were mentioned: the hanging of nooses in a schoolyard tree that black students had the audacity to sit under, a white student stopping at a convenience store in a black part of town and pulling a shotgun on black folks when he felt "threatened" (the shotgun was taken from him by the folks who "threatened" him) and the beating of a white student by black students that resulted on the attempted murder charges being filed.
So the way that went was white students who hung nooses were suspended for a brief period of time cuz in was just a "schoolboy prank", no charges against the white student who pulled a shotgun in public and attempted murder charges against the black students who beat up the white student (he felt well enough to go to a school function later that day). Here's how, in a fair system, I would have seen these situations handled: noose boys - charged with inciting to riot or making terroristic threats (or at least expelled from school); shotgun boy - charged the crime of brandishing a weapon, a class A misdemeanor; beat boys -charged with assault.
But that's not how things like this play out, certainly not in that part of Louisiana. I have relatives who live a bit north of that area outside Monroe. The only frame of reference they have for African Americans is the "N" word. That's the primary reason I maintain no contact with those relatives and haven't visited in over a decade. If they think that about black folks, imagine how they feel about gay men.
Black folks have always had the deck stacked against them in the criminal justice system in a form of very unspoken racism. It's long since time that changed. If a white teen had to get beat up and a black teen had be excessively prosecuted in order to get people focused on this, well, so be it.
It's time for this to change. Really.
CNN did a great story on the whole Jena situation. Three major incidents were mentioned: the hanging of nooses in a schoolyard tree that black students had the audacity to sit under, a white student stopping at a convenience store in a black part of town and pulling a shotgun on black folks when he felt "threatened" (the shotgun was taken from him by the folks who "threatened" him) and the beating of a white student by black students that resulted on the attempted murder charges being filed.
So the way that went was white students who hung nooses were suspended for a brief period of time cuz in was just a "schoolboy prank", no charges against the white student who pulled a shotgun in public and attempted murder charges against the black students who beat up the white student (he felt well enough to go to a school function later that day). Here's how, in a fair system, I would have seen these situations handled: noose boys - charged with inciting to riot or making terroristic threats (or at least expelled from school); shotgun boy - charged the crime of brandishing a weapon, a class A misdemeanor; beat boys -charged with assault.
But that's not how things like this play out, certainly not in that part of Louisiana. I have relatives who live a bit north of that area outside Monroe. The only frame of reference they have for African Americans is the "N" word. That's the primary reason I maintain no contact with those relatives and haven't visited in over a decade. If they think that about black folks, imagine how they feel about gay men.
Black folks have always had the deck stacked against them in the criminal justice system in a form of very unspoken racism. It's long since time that changed. If a white teen had to get beat up and a black teen had be excessively prosecuted in order to get people focused on this, well, so be it.
It's time for this to change. Really.
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