February 22nd, 2007
I am an infrequent reader/contributor to this august forum. My net handle is Whorf23. First a little background. I am a BLACK American. Not an AFRICAN American or a "person of color". My family hails from northern Louisiana and I spent all my summers from birth to age 16 in the sleepy little town of Oak Ridge in Louisiana. (85 miles from Jena) I am over 40 years of age. I know this is a bit late but I recently read Kira Schiavone's article about "The Jena 6":. Let me begin by saying I felt it was a very well conceived and written piece and young Kira is a fine writer. My issue is that throughout this ordeal I have felt that white America lacks a certain frame of reference for the actions and attitudes of the Blacks in the Jena 6 case. I have heard many pundits cry foul at the anger/fears of Blacks when nooses are displayed. Perhaps these people do not really understand where the feelings come from? Perhaps most whites do not understand that for Blacks (especially in the South) a lynching could happen for the smallest of offenses. Look at a white person the wrong way or heaven forbid back-talk a white person and you could end up hanging in a tree covered with an accelerant while a group of HUNDREDS poked at you with sticks and eventually set you ablaze. Afterwards photos were taken and then those photos were made into POSTCARDS and sent though the US Mail! Blacks that were even SUSPECTED of crimes were often taken from the county lock-up and strung up…After HOURS OF TORTURE of course. Yes I said taken from the County lock up…How would that happen you ask? Well the sheriff was often a member of the mob and would open the jail doors for these angry mobs. In most of these cases NO CHARGES would be brought against the police or the mob of murderers. No trial with a jury of peers, just swift justice…Of a sort. Sometimes (as happens today) the wrong person gets accused and jailed for an offense. This wouldn't matter to these angry mobs In the rare event of actual charges being filed, the lynches were usually found NOT GUILTY. Now here is where some readers will be surprised…This kind of thing went on well into the 60's. There were even a few scattered cases well into modern times…Matthew Sheppard, and James Byrd Jr. come to mind. The difference in these two cases was that the perpetrators of the atrocities were tried and convicted. Now allow me to explain some of the attitudes of blacks. When I was a young boy in the 70's in rural Louisiana we had unwritten rules when it came to dealing with whites. We were not to look a white man in the eye. We were to always say yes sir/ma'am and no sir/ma'am to white folk. We were to get out of white folks' way when walking down the street. I recall one Saturday at the general store (Braham's) in Oak Ridge. The owner asked me how my dad was doing. I said "Fine". The man grabbed my arm and squeezed and said. "What was that BOY?" My grandmother who was standing right next to me poked me in my other arm…I corrected myself…"Fine, SIR." This was 1972. I was seven years old. My grandparents told me tales of lynched relatives and friends and warned me not to "get fresh" with whites for fear that the same would happen to me. I was taught to fear the white man back then. I know things are different now but sometimes I ask myself "How different?" My own brother was visiting family in northern Louisiana just a few years ago. A police officer stopped him for driving 5 miles over the speed limit. For most folk this is a 'ticket and release' event. For my brother it was a trip downtown to the pokey for a few hours, pay a $100.00 impound fine and then a mandatory court appearance to pay the ticket two weeks later. So in the modern age since lynching has pretty much been relegated to the past we have a different convention…Blacks receiving more harsh sentences that whites. Even in Jena we see that the Jena 6 were charged with attempted murder. Robert Bailey, a Black Jena student was beaten at a "whites-only" party; his assailants were only charged with simple battery and no jail time. So couple the historic overcharging blacks and the history of lynching violence over time this leads to a prevailing attitude of disenfranchisement among the black community. My dad used to say that "You go to Louisiana on vacation and leave on probation." Blacks in areas like that come to expect unfair treatment. So when nooses are displayed underneath a tree then known as THE WHITE TREE…One has to understand the fear and disgust that would engender amongst the blacks at the school and in the town. The noose hangers were punished…They got three days of in-school suspension. There is no law against hanging nooses. Nor do I think there should be. There is almost no real way to establish the intent of the noose hangers in most of these situations. If the Klan burns a cross in my yard I can pretty well understand the message…If a noose is hanging from a tree…That could be many things up to and including a message directed at me a black man… However the staff of Jena High School and the city fathers in Jena dropped the ball here. Perhaps the noose hangers in Jena had no malicious intent with their "prank". With all my heart I hope that is the case. But the staff at Jena High are supposed to be EDUCATORS. Perhaps a lesson to modern whites about the abject terror of lynching blacks and its history would be in order. I assure you that the blacks in Jena and all over the US know about lynching. I was taught by my parents and I will teach my children. Not as an instrument of perpetuating hate but as a cautionary warning of what can happen to you just because you are Black in America. Some may dismiss this attitude as one of paranoia but like my daddy always told me "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that the man ain't watching you." |
By
Jose Brown "Whorf23."
