The Jena Six

In my high school, there was a tree where only the black kids sat under.

There was a row of tables where only the black kids sat at during lunch.


Are they racist?


Why is action xxxxx racist only if you say "It was WHITE People doing action xxxx"?



I am not saying that people in a southern town are not racist. I am not saying that it is possible race was a factor which got the beer bottle fight off with lesser charges.

I am saying that it is completely unreasonable for Sharpton and company to argue that these violent criminals be left in a SCHOOL let alone on the streets free to continue to commit violent crimes.



Don't protest the punishment of the guilty.

If the NAACP was so sure race is motivating the justice system in Jena, they should fund a civil suit against the court, judges, state prosecuter... and anyone else they are so sure is racist and abusing their position.

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Originally posted by Wrent
In my high school, there was a tree where only the black kids sat under.

There was a row of tables where only the black kids sat at during lunch.


Are they racist?

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If they threatened white people that tried to sit at that table, they sure are.

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Originally posted by Wrent
Why is action xxxxx racist only if you say "It was WHITE People doing action xxxx"?

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It's not. White racism just draws more attention because in western society, white people tend to hold the power, and thus their racism can have far more negative effects(espcially when it becomes insitutionalized like it appears to be in Jena). There's no doubt in my mind we'd be having similar issues if black people were running the show, or Japanese, or even the Inuit.

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Originally posted by Wrent
I am saying that it is completely unreasonable for Sharpton and company to argue that these violent criminals be left in a SCHOOL let alone on the streets free to continue to commit violent crimes.

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Given that Sharpton is a racist douchebag himself, it's no surprise that he's being unreasonable.

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Originally posted by Wrent
Don't protest the punishment of the guilty.

If the NAACP was so sure race is motivating the justice system in Jena, they should fund a civil suit against the court, judges, state prosecuter... and anyone else they are so sure is racist and abusing their position.

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I actually agree with you on this. The students should recieve punishment appropriate to their actions(though I really don't think attempted murder is an appropriate charge). I do think this situation deserves alot of scrutiny though, even if it means we have to put up with Sharpton's bullshit.

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Originally posted by Malacasta
Your list is correct but misses out on some points. There were OTHER crimes that occurred between the noose hanging and the final assault that WEREN'T treated appropriately.

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Well, that's totally irrelevant to the punishment of this "Jena 6." Jesse and Sharpton are just teaching kids that your own actions don't matter if you can point to someone else's behavior and say it is just as bad or worse.

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Originally posted by Malacasta

When you say the noose hangers should have been mocked and what not. They weren't. That's a major part of the problem. The town authorities and school authorities (I have read that the principle resigned in protest after the expulsions of the white students was rescinded) said it was nothing but a prank and that the blacks should get over it.

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We were at Barnes and Noble tonight so I picked up a magazine to read about it a little more.

Apparently white and black kids both laughed at the nooses, and took pictures of themselves with their heads in the nooses.

So it would seem that the students themselves treated it like a prank.

Personally, I think it is still pretty disgusting. But regardless of what people think about it, it isn't a crime.

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Originally posted by Aristotle
Well, that's totally irrelevant to the punishment of this "Jena 6." Jesse and Sharpton are just teaching kids that your own actions don't matter if you can point to someone else's behavior and say it is just as bad or worse.

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I forgot to mention that the article said the protestors felt the "Jena 6" should get a 3 day suspension like the noose hangers got.

That is exactly why people shouldn't be allowed to compare their own crimes to those of others for the sake of reducing their punishment. They start drawing ridiculous equivalencies. A disgusting, racist prank and a physical beating are not comparable whatsoever.

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Originally posted by leira
If they threatened white people that tried to sit at that table, they sure are.

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What makes me most disgusted about the 'race card' is that if white people tried to sit there, they would likely be viewed as trying to antagonism racism. As trying to 'push around' the black students and push them out of their gathering area.

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Originally posted by Malacasta
It's racist because the prosecutor did not charge whites who beat up the black kid with a beer bottle a similar crime, the whites did not face jail. The prosecutor has been a total fuck throughout this. If you can't see why his overcharging the black youths and undercharging the white adults is unequal justice then I don't know what to say.

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From what I read, the beating of the black kid happened when he showed up at a party he was not invited to. Does that make it ok? Of course not. But this is why you don't compare cases. They have different facts. You can't just say "they were both battery, they should be treated the same."

It is also battery if you walk up to someone and *TOUCH* them against their will. Should that be prosecuted the same also?

From what I read, the town sounds totally racist and segregated. Most of the blacks live in one section that is outside city limits. They don't pay taxes and they don't get city benefits. The schools don't mix until high school.

It sounds like an ass backward, racist little shithole frankly. But that doesn't change the fact that Jesse/Sharpton are trying to justify the actions of the "Jena 6" and are doing more harm than good by doing so. Also, we all know they don't give a damn about these kids and are only here to get their own names in the media.

The interesting thing to me was the fact that on the football team, the racism apparently goes away. White and black students totally get along on the football team (according to the single article I read). Supposedly the ones who work together at the same Wal-Mart don't have problems with each other either. This just goes to show why extracurricular activities are even more important than people like to admit. Sports, music, art, after school jobs, etc. give kids a way to interact with diverse people by choice rather than force. When the interaction happens that way, the results tend to be a lot more positive.

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Originally posted by Wrent
What makes me most disgusted about the 'race card' is that if white people tried to sit there, they would likely be viewed as trying to antagonism racism. As trying to 'push around' the black students and push them out of their gathering area.

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Well, I think "likely" is stretching it a bit. Some people would see it as such. The Sharptons of the world definitely would. I really don't think the average black person would. I don't think the average liberal would either. The problem is, the media profits from contraversy, so they are happy to trot out extremist idiots and let them spew their bullshit all over the place.

I found this to be a pretty detailed account.
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.co...ld-have-known/

I don't know much about this website but I think the author must have gone to the trial from the way the article is written. It contradicts several points mentioned here (but almost everything I read contradicts something else) such as the stating the boys WERE invited to the party.
"On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later."

It states categorically that the prosecutor DID say that he could wipe out the students life with the stroke of his pen:
"In early September, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general-he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became
notorious."

That site seems to be pretty apologist for the "gifted student athlete" with "a bright future" who knocked a person unconscious and continued to stomp him with five friends.

Given, but I still think some of the information there is stuff I haven't read elsewhere, like the DA admitting that he had said that stuff to the kids protesting the nooses.

Also, he IS a gifted student athlete isn't he? Several websites mention his 3.2 GPA and that he had football scholarships across the USA.