My brain and why it’s about to explode
Friday, September 14th, 2007This story is killing me and I’m quite surprised I’ve not blogged about it until now.
There’s a small town in Louisiana called Jena. In this small community, on a small high school campus there were some students. One of the students, a black kid, asked the principal if he could sit in the shade under a tree that was commonly used by the white students. The year? 2006. He ASKED PERMISSION TO SIT UNDER A TREE.
The town is segregated. Still, the principal told the student that he could sit where he liked, so the student enjoyed the shade that day with his friends. The next day there were three nooses hanging from it–school colors, mind you. The principal recommended expulsion but the superintendent overruled that saying that it was just ‘a youthful stunt’.
Yeah, a stunt that smacked of images of the Klan, a very real presence in the U.S. even in the northeast. Connecticut has a huge presence there. Betcha didn’t know that.
Well, the black students organized a sit in-right under that same tree. The ‘white’ tree. As you can imagine, racial tensions were high. In December of that year, a white student who had allegedly been taunting some black students got into a fight. He was defending the hilarious hijinx of his white classmates. He was subsequently taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries and released that same day. It’s reported that he attended a social gathering that evening.
Here’s the good part: six black students were charged with attempted second degree murder. That’s right. This was no ‘youthful stunt’. This was a murderous rage exhibited by savages. Yep. Murder.
They were expelled from school. The six kids charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior.Bail: $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones–bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis–bail $70,000; 16 year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an ADULT,mind you and for whom bail was set at $90,000.
Oh, it gets better: (this bit is from the NAACP website article)
“On the morning of the trial, the District Attorney reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon.
When the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared, all white. The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He originally faced a maximum of 22 years in prison.
On September 4, 2007, the District Court granted Bell’s Motion in Arrest of Judgement as to the Conspiracy charge. Now, Bell faces a maximum of 15 years in jail, instead of 22 years. The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw and Carwin Jones are scheduled for trial on January 28, 2007. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced on September 20, 2007.”
Unbelievable, isn’t it? In this day and age.
That a kid had to ask permission to sit under a tree. That the kids who hung three nooses were just given a slap on the wrist. That now, six kids will be railroaded just like the Scotsboro boys. Unbelievable. And here we are, watching the VMAs, commenting on Britney’s horrible performance.
Here we are, complaining about our lives. Here we are. Doing absofuckinglutely NOTHING.
I’m steamed, people. Those young men are YOUR sons, brothers, nephews. I don’t want that strange fruit hanging from any tree. Please sign the petition.
Please show that you have some humanity left at long last.
http://www.naacp.org/get-involved/activism/alerts/110aa-2007-7-20/index.htm