More Thoughts on Race Relations:  Jena, Louisiana

On occasion I write about racism and race relations in this column, and always provoke a reaction when I do.  The reaction is invariably from my conservative friends who either accuse me of fomenting racism by raising the topic, or who criticize me for bringing up a topic that is no longer relevant.  That latter belief, one that is shared by a good many political conservatives, is that racism in America is a thing of the past, it’s a social illness that has been cured, and that people should just leave it alone.

I think that sentiment clearly informed the majority opinion in the recent Supreme Court case that essentially ties the hands of any public school district seeking to eliminate racial imbalance and the achievement gaps that are a consequence of it.

Those who have convinced themselves that racism is dead in America are deluding themselves.  When their delusion influences public policy the nation is ill-served, and when it impacts education the future is compromised.

Perhaps the ugliest current episode of racism in school, and inappropriate adult reactions, is the story of the “Jena 6,” in Jena, Louisiana.

The story from Jena has been essentially ignored by the mainstream media, but it’s a blogosphere brush fire.  To summarize the history, there was a large shade tree on the grounds of Jena High School that was referred to as “the white tree.”  Only white students traditionally enjoyed the tree’s shade.  This is, unfortunately, not unusual on American high school campuses.  I visited a high school in Southern California where the campus grounds seemed balkanized by race, with certain student groups occupying certain areas.  That fact alone reminds us how far we have to go in race relations in this country.

Last fall, a black student at Jena High asked a vice principal if he and some of his friends could sit under the “white tree.”  The vice principal replied that the student could sit wherever he wanted, so the student and his friends enjoyed the shade of the “white tree.”  The next day, three nooses were found hanging from the tree.  Robert Bailey, one of the “Jena 6,” said he thought the Ku Klux Klan might have been behind it.  In fact, three white students at Jena High had placed the nooses in the tree.  After they were identified, the principal tried to expel them.

Then the story went horribly wrong.  A school district committee overruled the principal, wrote off the nooses as a “prank” and reduced the expulsions to three day suspensions.  As Bailey told the “Democracy Now” program, “Toilet paper, that's a prank, you know what I'm saying?"  Nooses hanging there -- nooses ain't no prank."  Not surprisingly, racial tension increased and fights broke out between black and white students.  Black students sat under the “white tree” in protest.  Things got so bad that the local chief of police and district attorney were called in to address the student body.  Several students reported the district attorney directed the black students to end their protest, adding, “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy.  I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”

The fights continued, but the district attorney took no action.  Then, on November 30, an arsonist struck the administration building at Jena High.  No suspects were identified, but the community believed the fire was related to the ongoing protests and fights inspired by the “white tree” and the district committee’s leniency.

Four days after the fire, several black students jumped a white student named Justin Barker.  One of them struck Justin on the back of the head, knocking him out.  As he lay on the ground, unconscious, several students kicked him.  As usual, numerous students gathered to watch the beating.  Justin spent three hours in a hospital emergency room and was released with minor injuries.

Six students – all black – were then charged, by the district attorney, with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.  One has been tried and was convicted of second-degree aggravated battery, a charge with a maximum punishment of 22.5 years in prison.  On September 4, a judge reduced the charges against the remaining defendants to the same level of violation.

The convicted student – Mychal Bell – was convicted by an all-white jury, with a white judge and prosecutor.  His public defender failed to call a single witness.  Consequently, the Mychal Bell case has been denounced as “Jim Crow justice,” another Emmet Till kind of aberration.  The Reverend Al Sharpton has spoken out against the case and several groups have created petitions to support the “Jena 6,” which refers to Bell and his co-defendants.

The petitioners downplay, or ignore, certain facts.  For example, Bell’s defense attorney was black.  And none of the potential jurors who responded to the jury questionnaire were black.  And Mychal Bell had previously been convicted of assault and was on probation. And he was guilty, based on the testimony of many witnesses, some black, some white.

But the episode did unleash a torrent of racism in Jena.  A white man pulled a shotgun on a group of black kids.  Townspeople divided among racial lines and even ministers can’t bring them together.  It will stay that way at least until after the “Jena 6” trials are over.

As is often the case with race-based conflicts, both sides are right and both sides are wrong.  The supporters of the “Jena 6” are appropriately angry at the lenient treatment given the three students who placed the nooses on the tree and started all the trouble.  And the prosecutor clearly overreacted when he charged the six with attempted murder.  I’ve seen worse school yard fights than this and nobody considered filing an attempted murder charge.  I also question the trial, not so much the all-white jury, but the choice of the defense attorney.  Whoever appointed him probably knew that he was not up to the job.

However, I’m not sure the case of the “Jena 6” rises to the level of “Jim Crow” justice.  And I’m certainly not sure that outside parties are helping the situation.  And, while I think the students were charged too harshly, the fact of their guilt does not seem to be in doubt.

Here is the sad reality of Jena, Louisiana, an aspect that even the bloggers don’t seem to get.  Jena High School became the dancing ground of adult-created demons, a proxy battle where generations of adult failures came down to poison a new generation.  The students at Jena High School will never see each other the same way.  Racist shadows will follow them all of their lives.  What might have been cured was concretized.

Racism exists whether we want to believe it or not.  We cannot wish it away any more than we can dismiss the placement of nooses on a racially-segregated tree as a “prank.”  The same mentality that downplays the impact of racism on American society downplayed the significance of the nooses.  That faceless school district committee didn’t want to admit the racism in its midst, and it left injuries, fights, and arson in its wake.

The nation has a lesson to learn from Jena.  Unfortunately, I think only the wrong lessons are being taught.

© September 7, 2007 by Mike Tully