As with everything I hear, I try to search out the real scoop, don't always know if I find it, as with most things we may never know. But, I'm living and learning. I think one should at least try to find out facts before jumping in their with strong opinions after reading one article by some paper miles away. I found the following article and thought it was based on fact and truth. I'm sharing again as it were :-) I've posted it elsewhere and I think it may have been over looked or worse, dismissed because it didn't support the readers theory.
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Jason Whitlock Says What Media Won't Regarding ‘Jena 6’
In the midst of the media's typically one-sided view of Thursday's civil rights protests in Jena, Louisiana, Jason Whitlock, the black sportswriter who called Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton terrorists during April's Don Imus controversy, penned an op-ed in the Kansas City Star that should be must-reading for all Americans.
Entitled "Lessons From Jena, LA," Whitlock's piece marvelously exposed a side of this story that mainstream media outlets, as well as folks like Jackson and Sharpton, want to desperately withhold from the public in order to provoke racial tension rather than reduce it.
After a wonderful introduction, Whitlock got down to business (emphasis added throughout, h/t NB reader Thomas Rosenbrook):
Jesse Jackson compared Thursday's rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday's peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.
Jesse and Al, as they're prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.
There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the "Jena Six" rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.
But the reality is Thursday's protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.
Fortunately, Whitlock was just getting warmed up:
There was no "schoolyard fight" as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.
Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.
As NewsBusters noted, media have almost universally ignored or downplayed this. But there's more:
A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the "Jena Six" case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker's assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the "Jena Six" in reaction to [Jena District Attorney Reed] Walters' extreme charges of attempted murder.
Didn't hear anybody report that last night, did you? But there's more that appears to have gone largely un- or under-reported:
Much has been written about Bell's trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell's public defender was black.
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It's rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker's attack. And it's never mentioned that white people in the "racist" town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell's father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.
Yet, Whitlock saved the really inconvenient truth for the end:
I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should've been expelled. A few years after I'd graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.
The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.
But the kids responsible for Barker's beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they're in harm's way.
I've been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It's a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we're lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.
You don't want to see any more "Jena Six" cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.
Sadly, this isn't how media or folks like Sharpton and Jackson work. After all, if cases like this were prevented, how would these entities foment racial tension for their own benefit?
Bravo, Jason. Bravo!
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I copied and pasted the above as it seems my links are not clear to readers of my blog. I've read almost every message board and forum on this matter. A lot of responses seem to be racsist by both black and white people on comments on the forums. It seems like they have read just certain mainstream news and based their entire opinion on it. I looked for interviews from the kid's parents etc. There are quite a few out there that suggest the parents of all seven kids are friendly and not full of hate like a lot of reports suggest. I wasn't there. I feel like the court systems pay attention to the greenbacks in your pocket more often then the color of your skin, although I've seen plenty of examples of biased judges. I know of a female judge who throws the book at black people and anyone who is fair/ isn't part of her small town circle for one example. I thought I'd share this article as I haven't seen a lot of reference to it. I hope my links work. People just need to leave their hands off people. All people.
I think his words are very powerful and really struck home. If you replace the word "black" with"all" it would solve a lot of issues with people not wanting to help before hand. When you get before a judge, especially in a juvenile setting, they don't want to hear "back stories" from anyone. The first question is always "did you press charges" the second "Did you win". They don't ask if you had the time, money, or hope to seek justice. It's that way for a child in trouble. When this man speaks of Big brothers and Sisters he is talking the truth. We all want credit but no one wants blame. We all could be helping. It reminds me of 9/11 and how sick I got when certain people lit their candles and sent their emails. It pissed me off. These were the same people who would not donate blood, time or money. Keep your candle. They wanted to gain glory but didn't want to spend sweat. I always think in terms of; what can we do to fix this instead of who can we blame or how loud we can bark. This man seems to be playing an active role in fixing, and I think that makes him an everyday hero.
