Where’s the Outrage, White America?

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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:

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.