Black power means more than a t-shirt: Jena 6
Posted Sep 27 2007
As an example, I'm the first in line to say that I'd like to diversify my school. Without getting into too much of a tangent about that, the first three years that I was at this school we've only had one African American teacher each school year, on a faculty of 13. On the first glance it's easy to say that our school was racist, especially since our principal was White and the neighborhood was predominately African American. Yet I was on many hiring committees and there just weren't many African-American candidates applying. It's not as if advertising wasn't being done in teacher circles. On a couple of occasions I asked every single one of my classes how many students wanted to be teachers. I never saw more than two hands out of more than 100 students go up. So, I asked my nearly exclusively Latino and African American students where were all of these teachers of color supposed to come from, especially since we're a college prep school? To add another layer, where were all of the teachers who were raised in Oakland supposed to come from? None of us teachers were Oakland natives. I was trying to highlight that it wasn't as simple as the school being racist. BTW, whenever I specifically asked if a teacher or the principal was racist, they said no; "the school" was. I told them that they needed to identify the problems and people responsible. It wasn't easy for them to do. In the case of the superintendent overturning the expulsion of the noose hangers, I also heard that the case was presented to the school board. Does that mean that there was a vote? Are there more people than the superintendent responsible? Give the people responsible a name and a face so they can be held accountable. Given a blanket statement about all White people does no one any good and probably works against the movement by pissing off people who otherwise might be clueless. This is about getting results, not just venting. I realize many activists are doing just that, but many concerned people aren't doing basic research.For the record, this year we have three African American teachers and three African American support staff, five of whom are Oakland natives. At least four of our graduating seniors have expressed interested in become teachers. We still have the same administration and Board of Directors….
I could cite several other examples, but my point is to highlight how easy it is to jump to conclusions without all of the facts. As the students in my class read through the material, they asked questions that I'm not always hearing adults asking. As mentioned above, students read varying accounts and our discussions and class work built on each other. Student opinions changed over the course of class periods. Everyone thinks that racism was involved but they raised interesting questions.
After reading the NAACP press release, one African-American student asked me if it was biased because it identified the superintendent who gave the noose hangers only three days suspension as being White, yet they neglect to say that the principal who recommended expulsion was also White. In response, another African-American student said it sounded like the NAACP was on a "White devils" kick. Other students asked why is it downplayed that the public defender and federal investigator were also African American. They don't argue that this disproves racism, but merely acknowledge that racism is more complicated and it's not fair to label all Whites as closet Klan members. Mind you, many of these students are very civic minded and active in the community. They're far from sellouts. Yet they also question EVERYTHING. They wondered if the NAACP's oversight was deliberate to stir up emotion. There's a line about the table being "reserved for White students," as if the administration hung up "White's only" signs, which came off as disingenuous as well.
Other issues such as the gun issue were confusing and basically labeled as "he said, she said." When they read that there was a "brawl" between Black and White students after White students taunted Black students "a few days" after the noose hanging, the students were furious. Then they read that the "fight" happened months later and that the victim was supposedly punched from behind, knocked to the ground and stomped. That changed the view of some. Most of these kids know the difference between a fight and getting stomped. Unsolicited, they told me about kids who would go around seeing how many people they could rob or knock out in an hour. My first year teaching in Oakland, I heard about "bank a chank day," during which some non-Asian kids would go around punching Asian kids. The students asked basic questions like, "was there proof that this event and others, were directly tied to the noose hanging?" Maybe there was some other beef. Some felt that if the White kid did say something racist that he deserved to get beat; maybe not at school though, where there were going to be consequences. When the students found out that Mychal Bell had priors for assault they became a little more skeptical of him. They didn't excuse the sentencing, but they wondered aloud if he was merely a hapless bystander or was he a trouble maker who got caught up. They were still angry about the case, but more thoughtful about how it was politicized.
One asked me why they had never heard of this case; "it was as if White people didn't want us to know." Of the nearly 70 students I asked, only eight or so had heard of "The Jena 6." Two thought they were a rap group, and one thought it was some kind of musical, like Jersey Boys. I told them that is was just on the front page of The Oakland Tribune and CNN was running an hour-long special. I said that if 106 and Park or local radio station Wild 94.9 were their source of news, they probably wouldn't have heard of it. The student asked "why not" since those outlets reach young people. Exactly; that's a question that continues to need to be pushed. I actually started receiving e-mails about Jena over the summer and it was acknowledged that without this grassroots effort that the mainstream might not have ever picked up the story.
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