Clarifying Jena 6

Did you wear black yesterday to support the Jena 6? I bet I know why. You don't have all the facts about this case. And if you only read or listen to the news like I used to do, then my friends, you have been hoodwinked. As a former news writer, I was a bit miffed at the coverage of this case all year. Yesterday's reporting of the Jena 6 rally made my skin crawl. So here are the facts about the incidents, the case, and why you may want to support the Jena 6 in the future?

The incidents:
The Jena Times Newspaper has a succinct and concise timeline of all the incidents that happened surrounding this case.Why you should read it? It includes:

• August school assembly. Principal's racism free zone policy
  
• September noose hanging under tree and white student expulsion
  
• September 2006 sit-in protest of student expulsion turnover
  
• November arson of Principal's office
• December white students assault black students at party
  
• December retaliation assault on white students,
  
• Jena 6 charged for attempt of murder, whether they were involved or not.
  

Update: noose hanging from truck in Alexandria, VA. Two teenagers arrested for DUI and possibly intent to start a riot. CNN News 10:35 pm.
Update: Jena 6 news hearing within the hour.

The case
Mychal Bell's case hearing will be today. The hearing is determined whether he should be released on bail or grant the writ of habeas corpus. Since his charge has been reduced and he has already spent nine months in jail as well as the victim in this case was well enough to go to a school dance after the December 06 assault,seem as if he should be released despite his previous criminal record.

Why does the Jena 6 matter?
The dispense of justice should be equal for all citizens. Some members of the Jena 6 had no involvement in the assault, but were charged. The students who hung the noose in September were not expelled from school or charged with issuing a terrorist attack.

But most importantly, the Jena 6 case exemplifies the politics of our mass media. This mess should not have have went on this long. Not until BBC News reported about this case did our media jump on the bandwagon. Not until people from all over the country began to mobilize did the Louisian courts decide to lesser these student charges.

If we say we're Christian, then we can't be silent. I wonder what were we teaching Robert Bailey's friends and the Jena 6 prior to December about social nonviolent change, or more or less social violent change? We should have fought for those kids before this whole thing happened. We, as adults, should learn to step in and shield our children before something like this happens again. Robert Bailey should not have assaulted Mychal Bell; Mychal should not have assaulted Robert. Where were we? Worshiping God separately?

Jesus walks...

Friday Morning Quarterbacking: Jesse Jackson

Advisory:This post is off-topic and not about Christian Fiction. I was disappointed earlier this week when Jesse Jackson made a commenting negating Barack Obama's commitment to sound-boarding human rights issues. Christ died so that we could be free from our sins. Martin Luther King, Jr. died so that we may live free in this world. We are free. We don't need a spokesperson to declare our freedom. We are freedom. It's time that we start living a free life. No black person defines our thoughts, nor motivate us to act. Injustices does that. And that should be enough.

I understand Rev. Jacksons passion for the Jena 6, but stating that a black man is "acting white" belittles the Jena 6 case and the Civil Rights Movement( I will expound more in my next post.) Yesterday's protest wasn't about systemic racism against blacks, but injustice everywhere. Moreover, that comment--to me- stinks of prejudice. African-American people are not robots. We do not look, act, or think the same. Grant it, it is horrid that we do not know or understand American Immigration History, especially as it relates to the History of African-American Slavery, Native American Seminole dissidence,Creole Concubines, Sierra Leon Migration, Sugar Plantations and Caribbean Immigration of the 20th century and African exiles post 1990s.