"White Backlash" to Jena Six & Vick

Over the weekend, I saw a story on the "white backlash" from the Jena Six protests. The report detailed how race and opinions (on the case) are related. Not surprisingly, a large percentage of White America did not understand last Thursday's protest. Why were they out there fighting for six thugs? Do they know Mychal Bell has priors and is headed for a life of crime? Oh, here we go, Jesse and Al showed up...time for the race card. I saw the comments on local and national news sites. As the shell of the story made its way to mainstream America, the entire purpose of the fight got lost. Once again, we were misunderstood. So let me state the following: The protests were not about approving violence--we were demanding equal treatment in the judicial system...something that is FAR from the reality in America.

I cannot say that any of this was surprising to me. Being me, I like to look at everything from all perspectives. This is one of the biggest "issues" my friends and family have with me. t takes FOREVER for me to form a concrete opinion on something. I actually asked myself the same questions--double-checking my beliefs. Forming an opinion is a major thing and I like taking the time to weigh all aspects and come to a conclusion which is in-line with the facts AND my personal beliefs. So, believe me when I say I did not "jump" on the Jena Six bandwagon blindly.

Nope, Al and Jesse did not hand me a few race cards to play. There is no single factor--not race, anger or hate--driving my opinion. There is no single part of this story that got me either. It is the sum total that caught my attention (see below for details). Us Black folk don't sit around waiting for something to jump on. I am American and, like the rest of you, I tend to be self-centered. But the more I read about the Jena Six, the more I thought of MY children and how this could easily be one of them.

Regardless of what you think of these guys or the crimes they are accused of, this story did not play out fairly...

- For whatever reason, a group of Black students believed a tree was off-limits because of their race. They asked a school official for "permission" to sit there and did just that one day

- The following day, three nooses were hanging from the tree. The responsible students were expelled from school, however that was over-turned by the school board, and replaced with in-school suspension because hanging a noose is "just a silly prank." Actually, it's a federal hate crime!

- The Black students held a protest after the noose hangers were given a slap on the hand

- In reaction to the protest, the DA visited the school to speak with the students. He has admitted to telling the Black athletes "I can erase your life with the stroke of a pen". The Jena Six were part of the Black athlete crew.

- Teachers and officials allegedly held the Black students in a different light because they protested--some of the protest leaders are now part of the "Jena Six"

- A few days before the fight with Justin, Robert Bailey attended a mostly-White party. When he walked in, he was greeted with a punches and beer bottles. Supposedly, people didn't realize he was INVITED to the party--just assumed he was there to get jumped. Robert's first attacker was a 22-year-old man. His charge? Assault His punishment? Probation

- A few of the "six" ran into one of the guys who beat up Robert. Words were exchanged and the guy pulled a shotgun on them. They wrestled it away and were later charged with assault and theft of the handgun!

- STUDENTS testified that Justin Barker made racial slurs and made fun of how Robert was jumped at the party. This happened over the lunch period preceding the fight.

- At least one of the six says he was not part of the fight, others testified to say it's impossible to pinpoint everyone that was involved. Also only one witness testified to the alleged kick after Justin was unconscious and he was one of the noose hangers!!!

- Attempted second degree murder?...charged as an adult? That doesn't jibe with anything I've seen before and apparently the courts agreed. The initial charges were lowered in court and the appeals court said Mychal Bell should not have been tried as adult

Where is the equality in this picture? Why shouldn't we all question the behavior of this DA? We all deserve equality, regardless of our skin color, priors or anything else.

This evening, we watched ESPN's The Vick Divide which, like the CNN story, detailed how race affects opinions in the Vick case. It was filmed in Atlanta, Ga., and included a fairly diverse audience. Panelists included former Falcons players and talk radio's Neal Boortz. I can sum it up with a few sentences...At one point, Neal Boortz said, "You're not doing Vick a favor by thinking he didn't commit a crime" and the show closed with several Black audience members chanting, "We love Vick! We love Vick" over and over again.