White policemen patrol black neighborhoods, less as guardians of public safety than troops subduing occupied territory. They hassle young black men, subjecting them to “random” searches. Sometimes–too often–they shoot them. All-white juries acquit them, validating tall tales of squirt guns and wallets and shadows that look like guns.
Our prisons look like America–the part of America that’s downtown and predominantly African-American. Being born black means you’ll probably attend substandard, poorly funded schools, that you’ll earn less than if you’d been born another race. You’ll get sick more often and die sooner. Why aren’t these life-shattering, soul-crushing injustices, rather than the overzealous prosecution of the schoolyard thugs known as the “Jena 6,” attracting thousands of marchers?
I used to live on a street next to a strip of park created to separate my neighborhood–which was white–from Harlem. On my side of the park the New York ritual called “alternate side of the street parking” required motorists to move their cars daily. This cleared the way for street sweepers and garbage pickup. It was clean and safe. My morning walk down the park’s stairs to the subway illustrated the nature of systemic racism.
Each step was crumblier, more trash-strewn. On the east side of the park, where every face was brown, the garbagemen came once a week. Bags of refuse broke open, their contents whipped around in those little wind vortexes that spring up in urban spaces. When the light in a lamppost blew out on the Harlem side, it stayed out for months. Many of the buildings had been abandoned.
African-Americans live lives whose despair is amplified by petty nonsense. At our post office, the clerk always demanded that my black roommate show an ID to pick up his packages. She never asked me. (Racism is complicated. She was black.) Boutiques on Madison Avenue buzzed me in wearing ripped jeans and a Dead Kennedys T-shirt; they ignored him in a suit and tie. I’m not surprised that blacks are pissed off. The shock is that they haven’t burned down the whole country.
The Jena 6 hype is bizarre, while countless innocent African-American men rot in prison–some on death row–unjustly convicted because they couldn’t afford decent lawyers.
According to a website set up for their legal defense fund, “The Jena Six are a group of black students who are being charged with attempted murder for beating up a white student who was taunting them with racial slurs, and continued to support other white students who hung three nooses from the high school’s ‘white tree’ which sits in the front yard.” (The charges have since been reduced to aggravated assault.) The implication is obvious: “hate speech” justifies physical assault.
Justin Barker, 17, was beaten unconscious and then kicked repeatedly. A sturdy sort, he spent three hours in the emergency room before attending the school’s Ring Ceremony later the same day. The accused, members of the school football team, claim that Barker had made fun of one of them for having himself been beaten up by a group of white students at an earlier event, one of a string of racially-charged incidents in the small town. Barker denies it.
“Young white males involved in the racial incidents received slaps on the wrist, at most, while young blacks received school expulsions or criminal charges,” wrote Clarence Page in The Chicago Tribune. One of the Jena 6 remains in jail despite having had his conviction overturned. That’s wrong. But, said Justice Department attorney Donald Washington, “There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack [on Barker].” Furthermore, reports the Associated Press, “the three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days–they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.”
“They haven’t always been fair in the courthouse with us. If you’re black, they go overboard sometimes,” says Jena High School janitor Braxton Hatcher, 62, who is black. That’s easy to believe. Then he repeats the standard talking point: “I think this was just a fight between boys. I don’t think it was attempted murder.”
Six against one isn’t a schoolyard fight. I’ve been in more than my fair share of schoolyard fights, so I know. Fights are one on one. Six on one is attempted murder. Kicking someone after they’ve passed out is attempted murder. Nothing Barker said, no matter how foul, can justify such a vicious assault by bullying jocks. This is the stuff of Columbine.
Symbolic hate speech, even as vile as nooses in the context of the recent history of the Deep South, pales next to actual physical violence. The real problem is that there’s a perception that attempted murder charges wouldn’t have been filed had the races of the students involved in the Barker beatdown been reversed.
Indeed, the Urban League finds that the average black man convicted of aggravated assault–the charge pending against five of the Jena 6–faces 48 months in prison if convicted, a term about one-third longer than if he’d been white. And the Justice Department says black men who get arrested are three times more likely than whites to end up in prison.
What white apologists call the legacy of racism–does a continuing phenomenon leave a legacy?–wrecks the lives of millions of Americans. Consider the following:
“Statistically,” reports The Los Angeles Times, “black males in America are at increased risk for just about every health problem known. African Americans have a shorter life expectancy than any other racial group in America except Native Americans, and black men fare even worse than black women…It is possible, [researchers now] believe, that the ill health and premature deaths can be laid–at least in part–at the feet of continuous assaults of discrimination, real or perceived…The reaction contributes to a chain of biological events known as the stress response, which can put people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and infectious disease, says Namdi Barnes, a [UCLA] researcher…for many African Americans, these responses may occur so frequently that they eventually result in a breakdown of the physiological system.”
In short, racism kills.
As one wag observed, the Jena 6 are no Rosa Parks. In the face of the intractable challenge of a nation so racist that it literally makes people ill, however, what passes for a civil rights movement finds that it’s easier to set its sights low.
(C) 2007 Ted Rall, All Rights Reserved.
23 Comments.
Good column on the whole incident. Sums up my frustrations with the "Free Jena 6" movement.
In this country its like the less something matters, the more attention we give it. The more something matters the less attention we give it. The insistence on the importance of the individual over the whole is why the US cannot compete in world basketball.
Is it a consequence of "rugged individualism" that a few people's problems matter more than millions of people's problems? Or could it be that we only accept the easy or convenient fight? It's like we do a cost to benefit analysis before deciding whether or not we are going to the right thing.
I grew up in South Philly in a mixed neighborhood. I am "White". There were shootings, gang violence, lots of drugs, whoring… This is the crap I had to put up with. I have been harassed by cops, chased through the neighborhood by black gang members because of the color of my skin, robbed, beaten up, etc. Never once did I start feeling sorry for myself. Never did I blame an entire ethnicity for the hand I was dealt. I knew that no one would give me a hand out and I didn't want one. Philadelphia public schools were horrible, so I got a job busing tables to pay for tuition to an Arch Diocesan private school. It cost me $3000 a year in the mid to late 90's. When it was time for college, I realized that my parents couldn't afford tuition, and I wasn't able to get the money I needed for the schools I wanted, so after struggling through two years of community college, I joined the Coast Guard (yeah, I know… We're all "stupid" in the military). In short, I refused to use a crutch by blaming anyone for my plight. I worked my ass off and pulled myself out of the dead end neighborhood I grew up in.
If anyone wants to say that blacks are perpetually in persecution mode because of what their ancestors went through, all I have to say is that my ancestors came to the United States from Ireland during post civil war America, on my father's side, and in the early 1900's on my Mother's side. Anyone who is well versed in American history (of the Howard Zinn type) knows just how welcome the Irish were in the States… Pardon me if I'm not crying in my beer over this latest column, Ted.
cab,
If it were 6 white students instead of six black students, they'd be convicted by the media before they ever went to trial. Look at the recent Duke "rape" case involving members of that schools lacrosse team. The second it was known that the accuser was black, everyone went nuts… Then the case was shown to be unfounded. I people want BS "hate crime" laws on the books, then it must be fair.
Is this a real Civil Rights matter? No, not really. Big CR issues tend to go to assessing the ability to change a recurring trend. Even if the Jena 6 are not "thugs" (to my mind, the best comparison is Bernard Goetz; that's in the negative and positive sense), the problem is it isn't going to recur. So, pragmatically, the excess of attention seems wasteful.
Angelo, I think you're half-right. Part of the reason we pick the trivial is that it's easy. But the reason we pick the easy is it makes us FEEL good. Imus says something bad? Kick him off the air! We won!
Blacks are underrepresented in Academy Awards! Woo! Hallie Berry and Denzel. Yet, getting job opportunities for blacks in production, broadcasting, and writing? Well that takes years and time and patience. So, screw that.
I think one of the central problems of government, business, and society is most of us are too short-term focussed to do anything of substance.
sds,
Almost everything in life comes down to hard work and perserverance. Someone is always trying to keep someone else down, or they are trying to keep someone from doing something they can't do themselves. I feel that people who constantly dwell on race as the cause of so many problems are using it as an excuse to not address other core problems.
shit, I had a "stress response" everyday I didnt get laid once I figured out what my boys were for. Guess that might have hurt my heart……..
oh yeah, i also have a "stress response" when i flip past the "news" channels on tv.
Come to mention it, i get that little "stress response" all the time…..eh well, wish my heart luck.
"in short I refused to use a crutch by blaming anyone for my plight"
This is a very realistic personal plan in America, but not a basis for the way things ought to be. Your story hi-lights exactly what is wrong with this country. The sad truth is that the life you describe would have been impossible in a real country.
Owen,
Perhaps that's true. But, a counter: society works poorly at all levels when entrenched discrimination has a foothold. At a government level, it leads to mistrust of the government and poorer decision making. At a business level, sub-optimal candidates are employed and promoted. At a social level, dangerous fissures form between people who would be better off with trust and in some cases, friendship.
To throw our hands up and say, "Life's a bitch" is not something I can comfortably do. First, it's pragmatically wrong. Second, it violates the stated objectives of our society – freedom and fairness. Yes, no individual life can ever see true "fairness". But, certainly we can envision a society that gets progressively fairer. As a non-African American minority, I can say emphatically that I am deeply grateful that African Americans did not say "life isn't fair" back in 1954 and earlier.
Perhaps most importantly, social change is inherently iterative. To look back at almost any era of rabble-rousers, we can see intelligent people disagreeing on the nature of dissent and how to move up.
This is an old debate at its roots: Booker T. Washington accepted things that Du Bois could not condone. You may see this as apples and oranges, but I am certain that at the time of their debates, white reaction was often along the lines of, "Why can't they just accept things as they are?"
Facts are really facts. Healthy economies and governments demand participation from all and promotion of the best. The education system is the most significant tool we have of identifying and promoting talent for the ends of society. And this is where we are at a critical failing. Born black, you are less likely to have a shot of getting your talent identified. You are less likely to have a role of import in your community. Can individuals transcend this? Yes. But, a state and a society are designed for the needs of the many not just to allow for the CHANCE of a breakthrough. This distinction is important.
MLK was in the process of turning the civil right movement class-based rather than race-based when he was shot in the head.
Now the civil rights movement is something that its former opponents can live with.
And liberals wonder why republicans are racist … shit like this defies understanding
what strikes me is: WHY everyone just skims right over the fact that, um…
A BUNCH OF WHITE KIDS THINK IT'S OKAY TO HANG NOOSES AT THEIR SCHOOL!
What does that say about the parents of those little Klansmen-in-waiting?
That these white kids thought hanging a NOOSE at their school was "funny" shows that they've been taught to ridicule blacks, laugh at and even deny the existence of their plight BY THEIR PARENTS. It shows they were NEVER taught any kind of history. At best, they were woefully ignorant of the cultural shudders and horrid memories that HANGING A NOOSE FROM A TREE would generate in the black community.
I seriously doubt these little crackers were unaware of the historical significance of nooses in the South; if they were aware, I feel less sorry for the kid who a)hung the noose, b)beat up a black kid at a party, before having his ass handed to him by the black kid's angry friends
It was overkill, and it was wrong that those black kids kicked that kid's head. It bears investigating how much of what the WHITE policemen said, actually happened; the WHITE doctors said his injuries were, what facts the WHITE reporters blew up.
No one seemed to care that in 2007, little asshole white kids are trying to bring back lynching as a form of social control!
angelo,
Are you calling me a liar? You're saying that I made that whole thing up? I got a job and paid my way through highschool. When I realized that I didn't have te money for college, I joined the service in 2001. What's so far fetched about that? Oh, I forgot! In the United States, no one is supposed to take responsibility for their own lives! We're all supposed to gravel and beg for handouts. We're supposed to whine a cry all day about how some other ethnicity is keeping us down.
I will take this opportunity to remind everyone that people in this picture are still alive and voting. Their kids and grandkids are voting as well.
It was this picture alone that led me to predict that Kerry would not win.
The old south did not change their minds. They just stopped debating.
This case represents a much larger issue, the disparity in the justice system's treatment of people of color. This isn't about Michael Bell per se but the fact that a 17 year old kid's life was basically ended over a fight. We do get it, I would have gone myself if not for a prior committment.
I am surprised by the number of racist comments right here in the comments section. One writer asserts that Irish people had the same level of harassment as Black people? Get real. It is not about "hard work" or striving because both of my parents were hard working people who put my sister and I through school and we are both very successful but that does not change the fact that racism, often subtle, permeats this society. While someone may be of Irish descent the only thing that matters in this country is whether they are white or not.
I don't think that the kids who hung nooses were ignorant of anything. But since the WHITE policemen and the WHITE doctors and the WHITE reporters were biased against the Jena 6 and supportive of little asshole white kids surely this situation calls for a radical solution.
We've tried education, we've tried teaching tolerance, now what we need is a final solution to the white kids problem.
I mean, if this virus of WHITEness is as prevalent as you make it out to be, going well beyond regular racism into the area where any judgment that a WHITE person, whether they be doctors or what have you, makes with regards to a black person is automatically biased, surely there's only one way to solve this problem, since they obviously won't listen to reason.
Maybe "Work Shall make them Free".
So we're going to judge, out of context, that 6 against 1 is always attempted murder? How does the story go? How exactly did 6 "thugs" fail to murder their victim if that was what they were attempting to do? And Barker, the white victim of the beating in question denies having made fun of one of the black kids for being beat up by a group of white students at an earlier event. He doesn't deny that the kid was beat up by a 'group' of white students earlier. Was this group below the magic number 6 and therefore closer to a "schoolyard fight."
No context relating this timeline:
"On a Friday night, Robert Bailey, a 17-year-old Black student and football player, was invited to a dance at a hall considered to be "white." When he walked in, without warning he was punched in the face, knocked on the ground and attacked by a group of white youth. Only one of the white youth was arrested-he was ultimately given probation and asked to apologize.
The night after that, a 22-year-old white man, along with two friends, pulled a gun on Bailey and two of his friends at a local gas station. The Black youths wrestled the gun from him to prevent him from using it. They were arrested and charged with theft, and the white man went free."
(from article on counterpunch.com by Alice Woodward July 10th.)
Event we're all talking about happened the next Monday. Even this leaves out much context.
Black kid's shoe = deadly weapon. White kid's pistol = private property.
6 whites on 1 black also equals attempted murder, right? Of course, as one commentator says, "…6 white students instead of six black students, they'd be convicted by the media before they ever went to trial. Look at the recent Duke "rape" case involving members of that schools lacrosse team…"
Since we haven't heard of many cases of Whites ganging up on Blacks in the major media it must not be happening, right? Great to hilight one case of jumping to conclusions against white males and pretend that it's the norm. Best to sweep under the rug the culture of rape and racism in this country.
And all the White boys (I also happen to be white and male) who claim they never got anything handed to them because of their color or gender are full of shit.
Liberal law protects the power that operates prior to the law.
You can't simply declare one day that, "Okay, now the playing field is level. All of you women and people of color that didn't get a couple thousand years head start are going to have to compete in a civilization that only got where it is today by treating you as disposable property."
chris,
You sound like you are advocating one standard for Whites and another standard for minorities. That is completely ludicrous.
I was also very offended by your "full of shit" comment. Saying things like "White boys" (I'm a grown man) and "full of shit" makes you look immature and silly. I worked for every damn thiung I had, and I won't apologize for it even when bigots like you try to make me. Work for what you want in life and stop complaining.
You were offended? My apologies. I was almost thinking that the moderator would have not allowed my comment considering the profanity and although I regret the immature wording I stand by the idea behind it, namely that to my mind such a position is without merit.
The fact that you worked for everything you have doesn't negate the fact that you would have had to work harder as a black female to acquire the same quantity and quality of things.
The sentence, "Liberal law protects the power that operates prior to the law." is true.
There are already different standards in place regarding how people are treated with regard to race and gender. The Jena 6 case is hardly an example of "special" treatment or priveledge for African Americans. It very clearly illustrates the exact opposite. The vast majority of examples of special treatment in this country and most Western countries favor those of European descent with light skin and, more often than not, of male gender. Holding up infrequent examples of seeming bias favoring minorities doesn't negate the fact that the scales of justice are way out of balance with most of the weight on the side of those who established their power long before ceding the right to vote and/or the right not to be lynched to uppity reform minded minorities.
So I'm a bigot? By crying "B.S." I've shown intolerance for other opinions, politics, races, etc.?
I don't see anyone on the other side of the debate toning down their assertions of correctness and ultimate truths so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of those with whom they disagree.
I don't complain about my lot in life. I also work two jobs for money and am working at all times to make this world a better place with the means at my disposal… the dubious efficacy of arguing over the internet notwithstanding.
School Guards Break Child's Arm And Arrest Her For Dropping Cake
http://www.infowars.net/articles/september2007/280907Cake.htm
Owen,
I applaud your hard work in life. Good for you. I wonder, however, what things might have been like for you had you been a woman, or more specifically, as Chris said, a black woman. Do you believe things would be the same for you, your struggles, your successes, or your failures? The fact that you are white really hasn't made a difference in your life and privilages? If we can even begin to speculate that things would be different, doesn't this say something, anything, about equality?
How is it that we are so close to the the complete and utter dehumanization of blacks, not fifty years ago, to this 'get over it' attitude, as if the playing field is somehow even?
This privileged ignorance is racism, sir, whether you will admit it or not. This racism, while only a factor in the Jena 6 incidents, is certainly an important bit.
chris,
I re-read my post and perhaps I was a bit rash in calling you a bigot.
"…you would have had to work harder as a black female to acquire the same quantity and quality of things."
That can be neither proven nor disproven since you have not walked in my shoes and you hve not seen the world through my eyes.
The fact that we are having this argument proves just how unfair "hate crimes" legislation has made the judicial system. I will stand by my assertion that if the students who delivered the beating had been white instead of black, and the victim had been black instead of white, we would be taken back in time like it was 1965. The Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons would come out of the wood work to ensure that the assailants were convicted before a magistrate even heard the case in court. If they went as nuts as they did over Don Imus' silly comment, imagine what they would do over a white gang beating a black student. It's all rediculous.
Owen,
I want to thank you for your thoughtful discussion with me. Also, so as not to bore Mr. Rall's readers with more of my ranting I would like to invite you to write to me directly should you care to continue our dialogue and or begin new ones.
quasimodomouse@hotmail.com