I haven't seen a thread on this so I will start one. The thing about this incident is that it doesn't surprise me at all. It sucks that they black people got much harsher penalties than white that had committed similar acts and really sucks that these kids in this town felt they needed to ask permission to hang out under a tree which later had nooses hung on it but this sort of thing is pretty standard in a community only 20 miles from my home. In Marshall County here in Western Kentucky the only thing that keeps incidents like this from happening is that black people don't even try to move there. It is almost completely white and it is a unwritten rule that black people can't move there and in situations they have it led to vandalism, harassment, and physical assault and battery. Now nobody even tries. I would say that as bad a Jena is there are some places black people can't even live safely. Then there is this new news this morning.

Two arrested in noose incident near Jena, Louisiana - CNN.com

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I saw that this morning.

People like this really don't help the poor image of the South that the rest of the country has.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

I heard about this case just yesterday, even though I am currently in the US

Well, actually I saw Demonstrators on CNN already before but I could not make much sense out of it...


My question would principally be, how controversial is this issue among partisan lines and is there significant difference between how south vs north or black vs white see it?

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When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

I really couldn't say. Most people that complain about reverse racism and such are pretty silent on this issue. I think they wish it would go away. Many whites do try and pretend racism is a thing of the past. I have heard some in my community say that they are trying to get out of any punishment because they are black and nobody is really calling for that at all. It's just a matter of them getting similar punishments as whites in similar cases.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Apparently, this story is only news NOW in the mainstream press because Jesse Jackson has publicly critisized Barak Obama in colorful language regarding the issue.

Nexus checks this morning indicate that over 90% of all Jena-story references in the national media in the last few days have been about this political angle - alone.

The actual incident occured over a year ago.

Apparently there are many in the national news media that would like to pretend that this story either didn't happen or was some obscure and isolated incident, not worthy of comment.

I had not heard of it until it got coverage on Talk of the Nation on NPR last week.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Unfortunately, perceptions are fairly split, especially on racial lines. This event also reinforces perceptions by non-Southerners on how backwards and racist the South is, even though the majority of Southerners don't fit into that stereotype.

It's a difficult thing to be a nation that is diverse in thought as the US is.

__________________
When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Yes, the USA is very diverse culturally speaking.

Pity about the monoculture media elites burying their heads in the sand.

I see two problems - first, the way the charges were handled seems to be very unequal and therefore a violation of the Constitutional rights of the accused.

but

The folks supporting the Jena 6 are not helping their cause by claiming a 17 year old who kicked and beat someone until they lost consciousness was unable to appreciate the nature of that act and should therefore be tried as a juvenile.

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Last week on NPR they had a guy from the school board in Jena on and he said that the nooses where a harmless prank and that the legal conviction of attempted murder where justified and that the media is out to give there community a bad name. At one point is also tried to say that the students probably didn't even know the nooses had any racial meaning. That will not sit well with most listeners I don't think especially since this is a guy that was put on the board there and he is saying these things on national radio.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Or, we realize that this has nothing to DO with so called "racism" any more.

This has to do with stupid people.

There will always BE stupid people.

They just WON'T "go away".

Go see the movie Idiocracy to see where I think we're headed :-)

Racism largely IS a "thing of the past".

Stupidity isn't and never WILL be.

Stupidity comes in all colors of the rainbow BTW so don't start with me :-)

Racism has nothing to do with the inconstancy of punishment based on race and the hanging of nooses which is obviously symbolic of a racist time when people had been murdered based on race? That's a pretty tough sell.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

They'll try selling it no matter what. They have too much at stake not to try.

Some of the points as I understand them:

DA is seeking Attempted Murder charge. But, cannot without the use of a weapon. DA wants walking shoes to be considered weapons in this case.

DA was cited as saying he can put someone behind bars with the swipe of a pen. In a press conference, a reporter asked if he said this, and his response was that the conference is getting out of hand. He then stops the conference and walks away.

Before the assault, a white boy got in a scuffle with some black kids. He went to his car to get a rifle. He was then stopped by the black kids. The black kids got in trouble. Nothing happened to the white boy.

I'm sure there are many more points. But, it is clear to me, Jena has a racism problem and the DA has public relations problem and should be fired.

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If the "white boy" here is Justin Barker, he did get the crap beaten out of him. I'd call that "something".

But more generally, I'd definately say there are some serious racist issues involved there. The kids who did the whole noose thing to begin with should have either been expelled or put on extended probation, probably with some sort of therapy. Charging the six black kids with "attempted murder" seems idiotic since, if they wanted to kill Barker, they certainly had the opportunity when he was on the ground unconscious. They should be charged with some sort of battery and given whatever the standard sentence in such cases is. And, finally, the racist bigots in Jena should grow up. That's my two cents.