Came across an article today with an update on that whole ‘Jena Six’ cause célèbre. Seems two of the suspects were recently part of the BET Hip Hop Awards where they were introduced as two students “involved in a case of ’systematic racism’.” Fair enough, I understand that feeling run deep about this alleged travesty of justice. However, its the next part I found utterly incomprehensible:
“By no means are we condoning a six-on-one beat-down,” Williams said during his introduction of the teens, one of whom is still facing attempted murder charges in connection with the attack on white student Justin Barker. “… But the injustice perpetrated on these young men is straight criminal.”
As I understand it the facts go like this, six black students beat up one white student – but since this came on the heels of an earlier incident where nooses were hung from a tree in the schoolyard the entire affair immediately became a racial issue. With Al Sharpton and everything!
From what I’ve gathered the alleged inequality is that the white students who hung the nooses were dealt with less harshly than the black students who put a kid in the hospital. Now I wasn’t around back when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching for equality, but I think it’s a safe bet that his response to finding a noose in the schoolyard wouldn’t have been to round up five of his buddies for some vigilante justice.
There simply was no justification for the violence, and nothing Al Sharpton says will convince me otherwise.
