A reader responds to the Jena 6Â movement
by A. L.
Well, for the moment, it looks like the whole Jena Six fiasco is over. Half of me wants to breathe a sigh of relief, while the other half of me wants to slam my head into my desk in frustration.
I just learned that Mychal Bell, the ringleader of the circus down there in Jena, was released on bail. To most, this means the end of the Jena Six issue. It was proclaimed all across Facebook as a victory for the black race, and as a victory over the racist white system of justice.
Now I have been called all sorts of names for my stance on this issue. People assume that because I do not jump on the bandwagon (led by the powerful engine that is the media), I am obviously a ignorant, racist bigot who’s main goal in life is to see the suppression of colored people. I’ve never been verbally attacked so much for having an opinion, but I have a sinking feeling that this is going to happen all my life. I’m comfortable with that.
If we take race out of the issue entirely, what we have is six people beating up one person until he is bleeding, swollen and unconscious. In normal people, this would produce outrage and horror. And yes, it is entirely possible to remove race from this issue, because the noose incident happened months before the beating of Justin Barker.
It is the hordes of “Free the Jena Six” people that made this issue strictly a racial one, as opposed to an issue of justice and taking responsibility for one’s actions.
People argue how various whites in the town of Jena should be charged for their crimes: 1) the guy who produced a shotgun when approached by a group of black men, 2) the whites who rejected a black guy trying to force his way into an invite-only party, and 3) the people that hung the nooses from the tree.
This argument is solely a red herring. It distracts everyone from the very issue on the table: that of the Jena Six and their gang/thug-style beating of Justin Barker.
People try to excuse the actions of the Jena Six because of alleged mounting racial tensions in the town; the media portrays the beating of Barker as one incident in a long list of racially-charged incidents.
“Racially-charged.” That’s a hot buzzword these days.
It sounds like a plea for insanity when used in the context of justifying what the Six did.
“Oh, how could you blame them? The town was racially-charged!”
Like a battery? I don’t know, it’s a meaningless buzzword.
The next argument by some people was that they agreed with the charges of assault, but that the initial charge of attempted murder was so severe and unfounded that the Six should be released simply to make up for it. This ignores the fact that the black District Attorney said that he agreed with the initial charges. I’m sure he was dubbed a “race traitor” and scorned by his fellow blacks for “acting white.”
We could debate the semantics of the charges and the events in Jena all day. When one looks solely at the issue on the table, as a good jury and judge should, then the obvious conclusion is that the Jena Six deserved to be punished for their crimes.
They certainly should not be “freed.”
Then there is the despicable behavior by some members of the Six after they got their share of the Jena Six legal defense funds to which everyone who wants to be cool donated (including fruity ex-“rocker” David Bowie). Pictures on MySpace were posted of these members lying on their beds covered in hundred-dollar bills, and bills in their mouths and stuffed into their clothing, all the while wearing “Free the Jena Six” t-shirts.
Meanwhile, Justin Barker sits at home, not receiving a penny, having to pay continuing medical bills.
The current bottom line is that the entire nation has forgotten the real victim of the crime, and have instead made the criminals into heroes. There’s a word for that in Latin: Chiasmus. Look it up, dummies! We would have also accepted “irony.”
It is most certainly a sad time for democracy and justice. The broader American public has shown their ignorance in these past few weeks. My faith in them diminishes. In a nation without respect for justice and law and order, what is to become of them? A nation whose leaders and media crow about being colorblind has proven that race will always matter, and will triumph over common sense. This was not the modern-day civil rights movement, no matter how much the mobs at Jena on September 20th wanted it to be.