Jena got its wake-up call last week when thousands
converged on the small Louisiana town of about 3,000 in support
of the Jena 6. The case of the Jena 6 has taken the country
by storm and has struck a particular chord with black youth
across the U.S.
Sadly, the Jena 6 will take their rightful historic place alongside
the racist examples of judicial mistreatment for a new generation.
It was the Scottsboro Boys in the 1920s, Emmett Till in the
‘50s, the Central Park 5 in the ‘80s. Since the ‘80s, there
have been accelerated attacks on black youth via the so-called
justice system. The more recent victims bring up names like
Genarlow Wilson, Marcus Dixon and Shaquandra Cotton, whose cases
were fortunate to garner national media attention. The accumulative
weight of decades of injustices are taking its toll on our young
people and, subsequently, our communities. The prison system
is the resident address of far too many of them. But their energy
was clearly visible in the national mobilization leading up
to the September 20th event in the Republican town.
The US judicial system is one arena where racism
gets to reign supreme with immunity. Behind the sanitized curtain
of white justice lie the dead and decaying bodies of black souls,
the innocent often indistinguishable from the guilty.
Once again, white people seem to have slept through
their wake-up call. I was struck by the interviews with white
citizens of Jena who blamed the media and outsiders for the
national attention on an old problem. Most claimed they are
not racist nor is Jena.
To prove they know how to deal with such race
relations problems, Jenaians cut down the “white” tree, a beautiful
oak. They pulverized the stump to rid themselves of any vestige
of this horrible tree. The act was symbolic of white America’s
mode of behavior when dealing with racism. And I’m still waiting
for the white environmentalists to rise up and criticize the
murder of a tree, as dog-lovers did in the Michael Vick case.
The questions for the mainly white citizens of
Jena are:
- How did you allow a “white” tree to exist
for years at a public school?
- What did you do when nooses showed
up on the tree once the black students wanted to sit under
the shady oak?
- What did you do when Prosecutor Attorney,
Reed Walters, publicly threatened to take away lives of
black students with the stroke of his pen?
The entry points for standing up against an racist
injustice were many. They were all missed opportunities for
Jena to stand tall and strong, to prove that do not tolerate
such bigotry. When it comes to injustice, silence is agreement.
When one accepts the jacket of white supremacy and then wears
it, you are a club member, regardless of the level and intensity
of your participation.
This is not to say there weren’t white people
who took a stand. Jena’s school superintendent tried to overrule
the principal’s expulsion order for the black teens. Entertainer
David Bowie gave $10,000 to the Jena 6 defense fund. The collective
outrage by white American should be hitting the Richter scale.
It hasn’t.
Racism and white supremacy are creations to maintain
unearned privilege and control. Well intentions don’t have longevity
in this battle. It’s past time for white America to give leadership
to uprooting this ugly canker on the face of equal justice.
Perhaps Jena High School teacher, Ray Hodges,
said it best. "They have cast us a bunch of ignorant,
racist bumpkins...there is racism in Jena, but it's not only
in Jena…it's an American thing."
White America has failed another open book test.
Meanwhile, black youth have received another powerful lesson
about race and law in their country.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial
Board member Jamala Rogers is the leader of the Organization
for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black
Radical Congress National Organizer. Click
here to contact Ms. Rogers.