Monday, August 06, 2007

Jena 6 Update

From the Electronic Village:

The charges against the Jena Six -- the Black Louisana high school students charged with attempted murder for a school fight in which a white student was beaten up -- have not been dropped or overturned. However, the local school board did cut down the tree in the schoolyard.

Read the whole post, including action items here.

This is at least a bit of good news, but the ultimate goal is to have all of the charges dropped against the "defendants." We all know that this case is a bunch of nonsense, but apparently some folks need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. That's where the Afrosphere has burst on the scene.

The Jena 6 didn't registered even a blip on the national scene until Afrospear bloggers started spreading the word and highlighting the details of this travesty of justice, not to mention organizing caravans of people to rally in Jena in support of the accused. Suddenly, you now have a flurry of national attention around these events.

I've been saying to everyone I can that the Afrospear has the possibility of provoking change at an unimaginable level in regard to the condition of our people. This case, the Genarlow Wilson case, the Don Imus Situation, BET's Hot Ghetto Mess; all have been heavily influenced through the attention Afrospear bloggers have focused upon each. That's powerful y'all.

2 comments:

Francis Holland said...

White people threaten Blacks with nooses and the solution is to cut down a tree? I thought we were worrying about global warming. Now, there's one less tree in a schoolyard for Black people, and the planet and one school yard are a little bit warmer as a result.

A better solution would be for God to burn the white parts of Jena to the ground.

DP said...

Hey Francis,

I agree that the situation in Jena is beyond reproach but I can't go so far as wanting to see the town burned to the ground! The one thing we've been able to maintain through these centuries of oppression and benign neglect is our decency, and I'm not willing to trade it for a moment of revenge. I feel that our path, as difficult as it is and has been, is the right one, our calling is higher, and ultimately we'll be victorious.

DP