Kira Schiavone
tackles the difficult issues about racism that's been brought up in the "Jena 6"
incident and does what few have tried to do, look at the facts impartially...Kira Schiavone
tackles the difficult issues about racism that's been brought up in the "Jena 6"
incident and does what few have tried to do, look at the facts impartially...
September
26th, 2007Well, I’ve gotten into yet another argument about racial tensions. I’m trying to make the point that just because the white kids are getting off lightly (and I am by no means supporting that), it doesn’t mean the black kids are getting an undeserved punishment. The discussion in math class got so heated the teacher put a stop to it, because the cry of this warrior was alone, as it usually is. So I’m going to elucidate my thoughts for you right here.
The Jena 6 refers to an incident that took place over several days in the Louisiana town of Jena. What kicked this off was the small thing of a new black guy sitting under the white tree. The next day, three white boys hung nooses on the tree. They received an in-school suspension for this action as it was deemed a prank. Perhaps they should have received a little more, but this action taken, while definitely a veiled threat and worthy of more attention than being deemed a prank, endangered no one. Therefore, the avenues of punishment are limited, because it is freedom of expression until it interferes with someone else’s rights- and they were punished for it. They were given an in-school suspension.
The day after the nooses were hung, a silent protest was organized under the tree. The school called the police, and the next day the local D.A. addressed the school and stated that “With a stroke of this pen, I can make your life disappear.” Yes, this is clearly an overreaction on the part of the school. Yes, this is also a very clear veiled threat. But there are still no grounds for direct action. This was the last of the incident for a few months. However, the peace could not last. A wing of the high school burned down.
Whites blamed the blacks for this development, and the blacks blamed the
whites. Some black students then tried to go to a party attended mostly by
whites, and one of them got beaten up. This should have been reported to the
police so appropriate action could be taken. The next day at a convenience
store, the boy who was beaten talked to the person who had beaten him. The
white guy ran over to his pickup truck and pulled a gun. The black guy
immediately wrestled with the white guy for the gun. Legally, in such a
situation, if you can retreat, you have a duty to retreat rather than
escalate the violence. If you’re in a convenience store parking lot, it is
not that hard to run into the convenience store and thereby escape the guy
with a gun, and wrestling for it can always be tried from there if he
follows you. The black guys took the gun home with them. They were charged
with theft of a firearm, disturbing the peace, and second-degree robbery.
While I think the two robbery charges might infringe on the double-jeopardy
statue (there was only one theft), they did steal a firearm and the fight
probably did disturb the peace.
The white boy who pulled the gun was not charged, however, few details are
given about him. Was the gun owned with a permit? What were the
circumstances of the meeting? The exact words used in the source were that
the two guys “exchanged words,” but from what I can tell, the white boy was
alone and the black guy had a lot of friends. I can easily see him feeling
threatened enough to need to pull that gun. I can also see it being
completely unjustified. There isn’t enough information for me to make a
judgment on this one, although those defending the Jena 6 are eager to say
it was completely unjustified.
The next Monday, a white student was bragging to his friends about the black guy who had been beaten by a white guy on Friday night. This student was then attacked by black students. The first punch knocked him out; he was kicked several times in the head. Completely unjustified. People are using the fact that the injuries turned out to be superficial as a way of saying it wasn’t that bad. I don’t care how many racial epithets someone throws around, that does not give you the right to beat someone up. This kind of thing should under no circumstances be tolerated. Six black students (the Jena 6) were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. This was later upped to attempted second-degree murder, and was presented to me during a discussion as being actual murder charges, at which point I demanded to know how you could have a murder trial without a dead person. The person I was discussing it with was corrected by the teacher, who mentioned that that is an important distinction. I don’t think the attempted murder charge is the correct one, as I doubt the black guys intended to kill him. However, there needs to be a charge.
The white guys who hung the nooses were given an in-school suspension. The white guys who beat the black guy up initially were never charged, and I agree that that is wrong. Nor was the white guy with the gun charged, and I feel whether or not that deserves a charge depends on a lot more details than have made it into the news. But just because the white guys did something wrong and are going unpunished, that does not mean the black guys should go unpunished. There are people walking around with “Free the Jena 6” T-shirts. They should not be freed. They attacked a guy in a group. Go after the white guys, sure, and make sure they get appropriate punishment for their crimes. But don’t free the black guys from their crimes just because they’re black- they still committed it. Freeing them because there were others who committed a related crime is tantamount to freeing a drug dealer because we don’t have all the players in his operation. If this was a difference in something like socioeconomic class, we wouldn’t be having this discussion because it wouldn’t be news. It’s only when blacks are jailed and we start to cry “Racism!” that it becomes news. And that is the real problem with our society- this shouldn’t be national news either, because while justice may not be being served, it’s being served no less than it is in places where the football players get away with murder, and we don’t see that on the news either, because you can’t cry racism for that.
So that’s the end of my speech. If you’re wondering why none of these
people have names, it’s because I couldn’t find names for all the white boys
and if they’re going to be prevented from being seen as people by the lack
of a name, then so are the black ones, to keep everyone on an equal footing.
Come discuss this on the forum- I’m certainly not the last word on the
subject! But for now, I’m signing off. Until we meet again.
Kira Schiavone is a high school student who's working on becoming a
professional writer, and enjoys reading and writing rants for the
Fedora Chronicles.
