Thank goodness I'm not a "major blogger" (haha, that's sarcasm, people), so I don't have to defend my silence on the events in Jena, Louisiana.
Still, I haven't blogged about it, mainly because i thought a lot of people were doing a better job than I ever could getting to the issues in the case that matter. But I think it's time to add some thoughts.
RedStar first alerted me to the "Jena 6" in this post, one that prompted a fascinating discussion about race issues in the North and the South. One thing that animates this whole raising of awareness in Jena is a larger narrative that tends to bring the vestiges of northern activism in the south out when southern events like this occur, and we shouldn't ignore that, nor the reality that many northerners like to slip on a cloak of righteousness about other people's racial problems while ignoring our own.
Still, Jena is a pretty awful example of what lingers down South; and dealing with those remnants continues to be an ugly, difficult topic for all concerned.
For those who still don't know, this started with a high school in the small town of Jena. The population is 85% white, and has a long history of racial tension. At the school was a tree on the campus, where students - white students - would gather. It was called, informally, "The White Tree." To put it gently, black students were, um, "discouraged" from gathering there.
In the immediate events leading up to the Jena 6 case, a black student asked the school's administration if it was okay for them to gather at the tree. The Administration, having no real way to bar the students, said that they did, of course, have the right to assemble. After that question, and a brief sit-in under the tree by black students, some white students responded. While the tree, in the past, had been used for prank-ish school spirit activities (making fun of opposing schools prior to football games and the like), the appearance of two or three nooses on the tree had another message altogether, one that was not lost on the black community, reminding everyone of the lynchings of years past.
The students responsible for the nooses were expelled; the Parish [County] School Board reversed that decision, calling it excessive and the students were, ultimately, briefly suspended and sent for counseling (the Board, calling the expulsion "excessive," termed the noose hanging "a youthful stunt"). However, the tensions unleashed by the incidents led to an escalating series of confrontations around town - fights, attacks by groups of students on other students, and ultimately, six young black students (stars of the football team) attacking a white student which led to their arrests.
Though the student was well enough to attend a school function that evening, the young men were charged with attempted murder and a variety of other charges that would have resulted in significant imprisonment. They were charged as adults. The first student to go on trial was judged by an all white jury, a white judge, found guilty on all counts and sentenced to some 15 years in prison. He was defended, weakly, by a public defender who called no witnesses and made little real attempt to attack the prosecutor's case. The charges have been reduced on appeal, but the case remains highly charged and unresolved.
All of which led to the march in Jena this past week.
Let's be clear: no one should condone the attack by these students. There should be consequences for a mob attack. But let's also be clear that the gradual ratcheting up of violent incidents occurred in part because the police have not arrested any white person for fighting in these incidents. This tension that simmered and ultimately boiled over needed to be addressed sooner and better by people in a position of authority. And that's why the "Jena 6" case seems excessive and racially driven.
The school has cut down The White Tree. That, of course, is the perfectly American response - if we remove an object, it's like something never happened. It will never be that easy to solve race issues in this country. And further, the fact that many are calling the teen tribalism that exacerbated these tensions unresolvable are also missing the point: we can teach kids something better than that it's okay to separate by race, to see others as inferior, and to enforce territorial imperatives.
But perhaps most appalling this week is the limp defense many conservatives have offered in trying to suddenly understand what Jena is about - the notion that this is a "complicated", hard to understand story that cannot be researched quickly and efficiently on the web (and just as, if not more appalling coming from lefty blogs as well). As I said, I've known about Jena for some time; it made sense then, and it makes sense now. It's nt hard to find. What is hard is facing up to what Jena means... about our kids, about what hasn't changed in the South, and what still isn't talked about in American culture, a deep look at the divisions between black and white that still exist. As I've said on other blogs, I feel bad for Barack Obama; like him, I know that for a mixed race person, there's no good answer here, and for a mixed race politician in a serious bid for the Presidency, the pressures are enormous (and it's impressive, really, that John Edwards found a voice on this that addressed everything so clearly and so naturally). I don't blame Obama for feeling constrained about how to address Jena... but in this, he really has the opportunity to show what America really is, black and white. White trees, black hearts... and grey morals. Somebody, really, has to continue to lead us to do better, be better... and try harder.
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