Black high school students in Louisiana threatened with lynching

[babylonsister]

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/black_high_school_students_louisiana_threatened_lynching?tx=3

Black high school students in Louisiana threatened with lynching

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on June 28, 2007 - 8:10am.

I supposed this is part of our ongoing "yes, you read that headline correctly" series here at the Big Con. Read ongoing coverage here (scroll past pic):
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree....

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles....

A while ago I invited my readers to send their favorite exposés of The Big Con from this blog to their conservative friends and relatives - a failed experiment. None of us are talking politics any more with our conservative friends and relatives. Please file this one away nonetheless. The "racism isn't a problem any more" trope is a perennial in America. Next time you hear it, send them the news from Jena, Louisiana.

:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Racial-School-Fight.php

[Ian David]

1. I do not understand the meaning of the phrase "conservative friends" in this article.

"Conservative Friends" sounds like an oxymornic phrase to me.

None of us are talking politics any more with our conservative friends and relatives.

[bryant69]

3. Yes no good hearted person would even be friends with a Conservative

I think that's generally understood. However some weak minded and immoral people (like myself) do have Conservative Friends. A real true-blue DUer wouldn't, but not everybody can live up to those standards.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Ian David]

5. I can understand having conservative friends if they're hot and you wanna get in their pants.

Conservatives are usually into the most exciting and freakiest sex.

[bryant69]

7. I can assure that my list of Conservative friends

does not include any that are hot.

Bryant

[Ian David]

8. I would guess not. I mean, just look at you.

I'm kidding!

:P

[gollygee]

2. I don't even know how to respond to that.

It's like reading something out of the news before the civil rights movement. A white-only tree? And I have no words to describe the behavior of the DA.

K&R

[babylonsister]

4. I saw this article yesterday, saw it again today, and found it

just as disturbing, so thought I'd share. We're going backwards! :crazy: :mad:

[Ian David]

6. And the school looked the other way on it for a long time, too. n/t

[mediawatch]

9. I have a hard time buying this story

sorry, but
Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles..

just don't buy it, sorry.

[marmar]

11. .....'cause we're so over racism in America, right?

:eyes:

[mediawatch]

14. I wish we were

sorry I don't buy this story. It is very one sided and just doesn't sound right.

[Samurai_Writer]

12. You've obviously never lived in the deep south

Believe me, I have NO problem believing this happened, after living 26 years in Texas and 3 years in Florida, and having family in Alabama and Tennessee. There are many people down there who would love for things to go back to the 1950s... where blacks were segregated, women knew 'their place', and other minorities were invisible.

Just this past year, a high school in Georgia held their FIRST integrated prom, instead of having one for blacks, and one for whites. Racism and segregation is still around, believe it.

[babylonsister]

13. What don't you 'buy'? That it even happened?

Here's another source FWIW:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena,_Louisiana

Racial tensions

Racial tensions surfaced in Jena on September 1, 2006, when hangman's nooses were discovered in a tree on the high school campus. Despite the school head recommending the noose-hangers be expelled, the board overruled him and the three white student perpetrators were suspended from school for three days, what some called a mere "slap on the wrist"<2>. On November 30, an arson fire destroyed the main academic building at the school. On December 4, a fight broke out on campus, after which six African-American students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. Law enforcement officers told the Alexandria Daily Town Talk they have found no links between the noose incident, the arson fire, and subsequent fights. The six accused of attempted second-degree murder are black and were fighting a white student after a week of intimidation by white students, including the one who was assaulted.<3>.

On June 26, the first day of trial for Bell, one of the defendants, the prosecutor agreed to reduce the charges for Bell to aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second degree battery.<4> As of june 26 there is no word as to whether the charges of the other 5 (for which the trial date is later) will be reduced.


Hence, the town has gained international notoriety as an example of the alleged "new 'stealth' racism" that lives on in America.<5>

[gollygee]

15. Here are two other articles:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6738454,00.html

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.html

[alphafemale]

20. For one thing, 18 yr olds ARE adults. How could they be tried as anything else?

Charging them with attempted murder for a black eye was a stretch. But by following the link that was apparently reduced to 2nd degree aggravated assault, which sounds more realistic.

You don't get to beat the living snot out of someone. Not even if they're a racist asshole that truly deserves it.

[porphyrian]

10. What the fuck?

I guess I'm not as surprised as disgusted. Here in Tallahassee, I've seen some people come in from "out of the woods" who don't seem to realize it's no longer 1960.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. The lessons of Katrina.

Racism is safe again.

Southern blacks are fair game, again.

[rurallib]

17. Well if the current Supreme Court ever had to rule on this

The verdict would be 5-4 that the nooses constituted free speech. Has the world been spinning backwards for 7 years?

[marmar]

18. Or that whites-only public spaces are perfectly legal....

This Supreme Court is an absolute nightmare.

[knitter4democracy]

19. Hard to close my mouth.

The DA threatened to kill them?! The nooses?! Oh. My. God.

It's not like I think racism or even the KKK is dead. I know well that they're still alive and well. Still. This whole thing is pretty darn public, which just boggles my mind.

I taught in a high school with race issues. I had students tell me that blacks shouldn't be there, that they were "ruining" the school, but I can guarandamntee if there'd been nooses, there would've been hell to pay for the white kids involved.