The Jena Six Fix

By Paul S. Peete

All rights reserved

Today I read that Reverend Al Sharpton visited Jena, Louisiana to pray with Mychal Bell, who was recently convicted of second degree aggravated battery of Justin Barker, a white schoolmate, in the first of six cases against the black students arrested for what was originally charged as attempted murder. The case stems from an on campus assault by a group of black students on Barker, who was punched and, according to witnesses, pummeled and kicked while lying unconscious. Barker sustained several minor cuts and scrapes, a badly blackened eye resulting in blurred vision for a couple weeks. According to testimony offered by Barker during the trial, he also experiences headaches and memory loss. The same evening after the attack, he attended a school function after being treated and released from the hospital.

What sparked this attack was a decision by 3 black students to sit beneath a tree at the school in September, which previously was only used by white students. Three white students placed three nooses in the school’s colors on the tree and were subsequently suspended for a few days. Though the school head requested expulsion, the all white school board decided on the suspension. This was followed by a number of incidents of racial taunting and ultimately, an attack on a black student at a party by a group of whites. Later an adult threatened black students with a shotgun, which was taken from him and later recovered from a car on the property of one of the Jena Six.

On December 4, 2006, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones, Robert Bailey Jr and Jesse Beard were arrested and charged with attempted murder and conspiracy by the DA Reed Walters, who had earlier in an attempt to quell the unrest told an assembly of black students that he could end their live with the stroke of a pen. and one is still incarcerated unable to post the 90000.00 bond.

A controversial figure like Reverend Sharpton, always at the scene of racial incidents is a polarizing figure and in this case may even make matters worse. I’m not knocking Reverend Sharpton for his intent, he strengthened the reserve of the citizens there to stand against this treatment, but a solution from the people of the region is what is needed; a long-term solution to opening eyes to solving the problem. Neither are the school board and superintendent doing anything constructive to solve the problem; cutting down the tree that had the nooses solves nothing! The tree isn’t the one practicing racism.

Someone has to reach out to the students, both black and white to see if it is possible to bring them past this to a better understanding and appreciation of each other. Perhaps the adults are beyond help due to the legacy of Jim Crow some have embraced. I am a native of New Orleans and as a teen attended John McDonough High School in the first year of its integration. We had many racial flare ups that year and even all out battles on the campus grounds the day of Martin Luther King’s killing. This story makes me want to reach out and help these kids. The tragedy of the situation is that in this, the twenty first century we are still racially polarized in many rural communities and even in our large metropolitan areas the divides are apparent though economics are the tool of separation more than skin tone.

What can we do to improve the idiocy of this situation? The accused are possibly going to prison because the legacy of racism is visiting itself on them. The charges brought are more severe than warranted and the all white jury is predisposed to conviction as the tight knit white community of friends and relatives are serving as jurors and witnesses. Perhaps a sponsored showing of Hairspray followed by workshops on the film’s message of tolerance for racial difference would be a benefit to the youth of Jena and cities like it.

Young whites are as victimized by their beliefs as blacks believing that they are better than another human being simply because of their skin color. The town of Jena may be ok to live like that with its generations of segregation and population advantage of 5 to 1. But any of them hoping to enter the new world of globalization is in for some cruel truths that they will face. Global competition from people who don’t care that they are white, American, or think they are superior will challenge, overwhelm, or defeat them in the marketplace. Blacks who live under these conditions are either going to be motivated to do better, escape, or retaliate. We need not continue to believe these mindsets are inevitable!

It is imperative that we stand against this injustice and bring forth collective action to improve our nations’ racial relations. This is just the tip of the iceberg and may serve as a catalyst to spur us to face the vast divide that our country has yet to eliminate. In the year prior to the election of a new President, we see a woman and a black man as viable candidates and show the desire of America to move beyond our divisive past.

Its imperative to get the involvement of a corporation like Wal-Mart, located in so many of these communities, can show its leadership by sponsoring free showings of films like Hairspray, Amistad and other films that will be catalysts for change. By doing this, Wal-Mart can improve its Corporate Image perhaps reversing the tendency of larger communities to resist it’s presence there. Because the most prolific of Wal-Mart’s public philanthropy is through community grants, wherein they match the monies raised at a Wal-Mart site or a site where a Wal-Mart Associate is involved, the best approach initially is to interest some of the stores in communities like Jena of the need to have racial sensitivity exposure through a movie and a set of learning guides that use the movie as a vehicle for enlightenment.