Two Wrongs Make a Right

[Shrapnel12]

In the last year, word has spread of a racial controversy that shook the small town of Jena, La. Yesterday, Duke students joined the process of doing something about it.

Last fall, after asking their assistant principal for permission, black students at Jena High School sat under a tree traditionally reserved for white students. The next day, nooses were found hanging from the tree. The students responsible were suspended for three days.

Black students returned and sat under the tree in protest when the school's superintendent dismissed the incident as "a prank."

"With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear," LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters reportedly said during a school-wide assembly Sept. 6, 2006, in response to the event.

The statement was followed by a series of fights over the following months and lasted until six black students were charged with attempted murder for beating up a white student, Dec. 4, 2006.

In the year since, the group has come to be known as the "Jena Six."

Yesterday marked the day one of the students, 16-year-old Mychal Bell, was to be sentenced for the crime, but due to legal complications the sentencing was postponed and Bell remains in jail.

More than 900 miles away from Jena, a coalition consisting of members of the Black Student Alliance, the Center for Race Relations, Duke's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Duke Democrats, Duke Student Government, Duke's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Pan-Hellenic Council spent much of yesterday on the West Campus Plaza spreading awareness of the situation in Jena.

Dressed in black T-shirts in support of the convicted students, the tablers handed out fliers and asked passersby to sign a banner and petition.

"With the stroke of a pen, we reject this and all forms of racial intimidation," the banner read. "With this action, further, we condemn the grossly disproportionate charges levied against the 'Jena Six' and call for, in Jena, a resurrected legal system-cleansed of bias and prejudice. With one voice, we demand change and urge, for ourselves and others, the continued and unabridged pursuit of equality and fairness and justice."

Senior Albert Osueke, co-president of the CRR, said the event's goal was to drive the issue home for students on Duke's campus.

"It's almost shocking, almost saddening," Osueke said of the events in Jena. "We saw the issue and thought we had to do something about it."

Junior Samson Mesele, co-president of ACLU, said he and other student leaders talked about the issue as it developed and decided that such a stand "would be a tremendous sign of support" for the "Jena Six."

"Student groups on campus realized that we needed to stand in support of the 'Jena Six' because of the excessive and selective charges that they faced," Mesele said.

The main mission of the students who came out yesterday was to spread awareness of the issue, not to protest anything or rile anybody up, said senior Simone Randolph, BSA president.

Randolph added that the groups plan to organize an open dialogue in the next week or two to discuss the issue and the root of controversies like the "Jena Six" in today's world.

"The fact that [racism] is still going on is frankly depressing," said junior Daniel Agarwal. "I thought that we got rid of this in the '60s."

Agarwal added that he was "glad that people are speaking up about this."

This is just a sad story as a whole. First of all how does a university get away with reserving a tree for white students only!? WTF? Jim Crow in the 21st Century?

Horrible as this is, how can this bunch of morons stick up for these six thugs? If the races were reveresed, this would be a hate crime. Moral of the story?
White racists
Black racists

[Pekka]

I think they key here is to do damage control, no need to escalate it any further.

Possible folks to investigate, the school administration and the whole process where these black kids gets much harsher treatment than the white kids did.

I think the key is to not go around blaming everyone but look for the guilty ones. So, the kids who ganged up on that one kid are still guilty. They are both guilty and perhaps victims of the system as well. There's a danger of making them heroes, which in contrast makes the whole town be the bad guy and I just don't see how ganging up on someone and beating them is a reason to be a hero, that would be very screwed up.

So. Review how they're getting penalized and if it's fair, and review why these white kids got off so easy before. There's obviously not balance here so there is a problem but it needs to be solved, there's no need to start making heroes out of thugs or vigilant justice as the way to go. There's also no need to accept the behavior of these white kids. They're also guilty.

[Shrapnel12]

I do need to find the facts to determine if they punishment meets the crime for the "Jenna Six", but as for the white kids who hung nooses from the tree, as racist as it was, it wasn't criminal, and it falls under free speech like burning a flag, so that's why I presume they got off so light (If I was in their class, I'd move to the far side of them however).

[Patroklos]

It is not that they got harsher treatment at all.

The studenst who hung the nooses deserve expulsion, sure, but the 6 guys who beat up the white kid commited a crime that is on such another level there is no comparison.

What most of the "lets go have a good time, like, spirt YEAR!!! Do you think this can get laid?" tag along protester crowd fail to realize is that the crime people are actually comparing is a white guy who started a fight with some black kids trying to crash a private party. He recieved assault.

And to act like the two (nooses/6 thugs) are connected is stupid, they happened three months apart.

[Pekka]

Hmhh, I was under the impression that one of the black kids was assaulted by bunch of white guys earlier and so it was more like a comeback.

If that's the case, I just don't see how the fighters on both sides should be sentences much differently.

Then again if this isn't the case... well... it is an assault, period.

For me that makes the case different if it should be that. For me personally it seems harsh if you go to jail for years and years for basically what is a rival group and you're fighting in and out, where nothing very serious happened, as in people got knocked out sure, but that's about it.

Then again, for _random_ assault? I don't care how long people have to rot, I have no tolerance for random attackers or violence.

[Ninot]

In reply to the OP: It was a high school with a whites-only tree, not Duke

To Pekka: I don't love your new avatar

[asleepathewheel]

Duke students seem to have a real hard on for jumping into racial controversies, don't they? First the lacrosse fiasco, and now this. I guess the life of privilege just makes them fall all over themselves to find some "cause" or "action" to make their life meaningful, to be activists before cashing out and becoming stockbrokers.

attempted murder is a bizarre charge, though I haven't seen the photos or what have you of the victim.

the kid still in jail that they are protesting over has a horrible record as a juvie, a few battery adjudications.

"The fact that [racism] is still going on is frankly depressing," said junior Daniel Agarwal. "I thought that we got rid of this in the '60s."

Apparently you were in a coma for the past year, when your fellow protesters strung up those lacrosse kids.

[Shrapnel12]

Last fall, after asking their assistant principal for permission, black students at Jena High School sat under a tree traditionally reserved for white students. The next day, nooses were found hanging from the tree. The students responsible were suspended for three days.

I just came back from lunch and I was thinking about this paragraph. It kept bothering me and I think I know way. The author seems to want us to believe that there was some kind of "Whites Only" sign around this tree or that is was understood that blacks weren't allowed and then some black students meekly approached the principal to ask that he let them sit there out of the goodness of his heart. It's not that some white people attempted to do something like this that I find unbelievable, but the reaction of the black community. Does the author expect us to belive that blacks just accepted this rule? Any self respecting black person would have sat there rule or not and if the whites protested, their would be a lawsuit and Jackson, Sharpton, and the whole media would be all over their @ss. I'm sure an incident happened that increased racial tensions, but I wonder if the author of this article is sensationalizing the incident in order to create sympathy for the criminal "Jenna Six".

[Imran Siddiqui]

Does the author expect us to belive that blacks just accepted this rule? Any self respecting black person would have sat there rule or not and if the whites protested, their would be a lawsuit and Jackson, Sharpton, and the whole media would be all over their @ss.

From all I've read it wasn't attempted. It was a social division and blacks didn't try to overturn those things. Sometimes in the very rural South things like this CAN and DO happen, even in the present day.

Though the DA shares a lot of this blame for getting all pissed about the black students finally sitting under the "white tree" as a protest for the light punishment recieved for the noose hangers, saying he could make their live disappear with a stroke of his pen.

In addition, I think the DA created further problems when he increased what the Jena Six were charged with. Initially they got assault charges, but he increased it to attempted second degree murder. Which seems fairly wierd to me. But he dropped it after the protests, I believe. Though I think if the DA hadn't been such an ass earlier on, this wouldn't have been as big a deal as it has been.

[Agathon]

Um... what about the rest of it.

A white student threatened black students with a firearm, and then, when one of the black students wrestled the firearm away from the aggressor, he was charged with an armed offence. IIRC the white kid wasn't charged.

The alleged assault took place after a black student had been to a party and was assaulted by a bunch of white students. Some time after that, the victim of the assault was taunting him and his friends about how he had been beaten up by a white guy. That is what caused the alleged assault... an assault so grievous that the "victim" was able to attend a party that evening. The whole affair takes place against racist practices that would not have seemed out of place in the era of Jim Crow.

If you can't see how the black kids are the sole victims in this whole sorry affair, then you are a racist, plain and simple.

[Agathon]

And the outrage over the Duke Lacrosse thing is stupid.

Everyone knows that professional and college athletes are responsible for a tsunami of sexual crimes, including battery and rape, which they often get away with. Sure, the prosecutor was a dumbass, but the "victims" in that case need to look hard at the general culture of college athletics to understand why people get jumpy. And hiring hookers to a school building is not on.

[Shrapnel12]

Sorry Aggie, but calling me a racist won't scare me off. It is uses in so broad a sense today as to render it a pointless term. Kinda like calling simple assault torture. That's the problem with you lefties overdramatizing things. When something really bad does happen, it's like crying wolf, we just shrug it off.

Back to the point, Whether white commited racist acts or not, does not exonerate the criminal acts of blacks. Assault is illegal no matter what (except self defense), but thank you again for showing us how single-minded and hypocritical your politics are.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Agathon
And the outrage over the Duke Lacrosse thing is stupid.
And hiring hookers to a school building is not on.

They were just making the most of "higher" education.

[Patroklos]

A white student threatened black students with a firearm

After 6 black students aggressively confronted him according to every witness. Seems reasonable with 6 to one odds (especially since the reputation for at least one of the six to be violent was well known).

when one of the black students wrestled the firearm away from the aggressor

Nothing wrong with that in and of itself.

he was charged with an armed offence.

You missed something there, not surprising . After they disarmed the white kid, who is now facing 6 to one odds again, they beat him unconscious.

IIRC the white kid wasn't charged.

Correct, what should he be charged with?

The alleged assault took place after a black student had been to a party and was assaulted by a bunch of white students.

The black student never went to the party. A group of black students tried to get access to a private party in a barn, where ONE white guy started a fight when the black kids tried to force their way using the excuse some of the friends were in there already.

The white guy was probably racist, but it was a private party and those black kids were not invited. He was charged with assault.

Some time after that, the victim of the assault was taunting him and his friends about how he had been beaten up by a white guy.

There were no other white kids present. Why would a thug black kid "taunt" a suposed white racist by telling him how he got his ass kicked by a white guy? There is no report that says anything other than 6 black kids against 1 white kid, including the Jena 6 themselves.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Correct, what should he be charged with?

Pointing a gun at someone or threatening someone with a gun is a textbook case of assault.