Black power means more than a t-shirt: Jena 6
Posted Sep 27 2007
Some students did their own research and learned that the victim of the beating was later expelled for bringing a gun to school. They wondered was it to get revenge or because he was scared? Again, being out in California, how would we know? Yeah, it was an all-White jury, but what percentage of Jena is White (over 80%)? They read that none of the potential African Americans jurors that were summoned showed up. We discussed larger issues of our own political activism. We discussed immigrant rights, those with prior felonies, and people who simply didn't participate.
Again, no one was dismissing structural inequity. We discussed personal responsibility and the desire to move out of victim role. Some of these articles make it sound like all the Black folks are still picking cotton and sharecropping, waiting for help from the enlightened North. Racism is deep, but are we that powerless? Students wondered about upwards of 20,000 people coming to a town of 3,000. Were they there purely to support or to dictate an agenda? The point was raised that if they were White they'd be leery of talking to the media too since all White people were branded as racists. At mention of White supremacists getting involved, of course the students had an angry reaction. I asked if the six should be pardoned and not one student said "yes." They felt that the charges were excessive and the law wasn't being applied fairly, but the six should have some consequences if they were found guilty.
We talked about how things were worded, and how leaving out info can be just as manipulative as lying. A great deal is made about the kid who got beat, being out at a public that night. We discussed if anyone asked his condition, how long he stayed, and what did this public even entail? After getting shot several times, Tupac Shakur left the hospital the next day. Never mind that he was bandaged up and wheeled out in a chair. Regardless, he was "out in public" too. I guess he wasn't that hurt. That's not the perfect comparison, but you get the point. It's not hard to paint a particular picture. On the flip side, what were the circumstances surrounding Mychal Bell's priors? Was he defending himself, as his mother argued, or out jacking people? It's easy to label him as a violent repeat offender, but many of my students have also experienced the less savory side of law enforcement so they wondered if this was continuation of racist treatment. They're leery of everyone; liberal and conservative.
Some accounts said that a Black kid got beat up for trying to enter an "all-White" party. Other accounts said that the party was mostly, but not exclusively White. Furthermore, it was "invite-only" and he didn't have an invite and tried to force his way in. A key thing was that the White person who hit him in the head was only charged with a misdemeanor VS the higher charges of the Jena 6. That garnered anger from my students.
One article said that after the Black kids sat at the "White table," White students hung nooses. That makes it sound like all the White kids met up at some secret Klan meeting to plan this. I'm not making light of the actions of the three noose hangers, but to paint this is as simply a Black community under siege is a bit much without more evidence. Not because it never happens, but it's easy to get caught up in the emotion. Working with people over the years I see how often it happens, and how easy it is to start, when you tap into emotions. Not much stirs up more emotion than race. Considering the history of this country, that makes sense, but we still need to be honest about what's happening. I've traveled enough to see the best and worst in places, neither of have matched other people's descriptions.
In terms of the "White table," some articles said that it was a table where Whites usually sat, but it wasn't exclusively White students all of the time. The African-American freshman (or was it the junior?) who asked the principal if he could sit there supposedly said it as a joke. One articles say that the Black student in Jena "asked for and received permission" to sit at the "white table" which is heavily weighted sentence. Another article said that different races rarely sat together.
If you've ever spent time at a school, in any part of the country, is this really that strange? I've attended or worked at schools and universities in states including Michigan, Alabama, Illinois, and California. There's always a "White" table, a "Black" table, a "Mexican" table, etc. based on who's in the minority. Books have been written on this issue. At my current school there was a "Black" table for a couple of years, although now there's more of a "Black area," depending on where the majority congregate during lunch. Not all of the Black kids kick it there and sometimes other kids of other races sit there. It even happens in class. Yet with the students I teach, there isn't racial tension between the majority of students. There are plenty of interracial friendships and more. I've been working with them for nearly four years so I'm not just being naïve. In the past I've made jokes "asking permission" to sit in the "Black section" since I don't pass the reverse "paper bag test." One running joke is one girl keeps asking if we can watch Roots and I keep telling her that February isn't for a few more months. Yes I'm being facetious and yes I joke with kids of other ethnic backgrounds. We often use humor to address societal issues and the elephant in the room. Taken out of context, I'm super racist and the Black kids are being segregated. Again, if the table at Jena High was truly a "White table," I understand the anger.
But as noted above, I wonder if things get taken out of context or blown out of proportion to support an agenda. Once we had an activist group find students at our school to support their contentions that schools in Oakland push African American students out (many do unfortunately), yet one particular student had a lot of issues going on at home and wasn't doing well. He rarely took personal responsibility so he loved to blame the school. The collective GPA of the other Black students in his graduating glass was above a 3.0 and among other things they've toured historically Black colleges and met the likes of Danny Glover and Elaine Brown. Their experiences seemed to be ignored. We need to improve, but I'm saying we can find kids that ran the gamut, not just the ones who serve our needs. Just be honest. I realize that racists and others manipulate information for their own purposes, but I think if we're being disingenuous, we end up become what we say we despise.
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