The Jena 6 - does the town of Jena have a race problem?

Jeralyn Merritt has looked into the case and describes what she found. So far this is the best description of the set of problems in Jena, LA over time that I have seen.

Jeralyn - an attorney - first describes the six separate significant incidents over time that she has seen reported. Very importantly, she does this with a strong emphasis on what is publicly known and what it not. Then she applies her legal training and comes to the following conclusion.

Does Jena have a race problem? I'd say it does now. Did the DA unfairly overcharge the Jena Six? Yes. Was it due to race? I don't know. Knowing whether the D.A. directed his assembly remarks to all students or just the black ones, as they maintain, would go a long way in resolving this. But, there's no video and there's disagreement about it.

Should Matt Windham have been charged with pulling a gun on Bailey and friends? I think so. I see no justification for that act. Who are the supposed eyewitnesses to this incident who back up his version of events? If Windham should have been charged and wasn't, the only factor at play I can see is race. (And minor question: Is he related to then-school principal Scott Windham?)

Should those who attacked Justin Barker be tried for battery? Yes. Should they be charged with more serious offenses or as adults? No.

Right now, the two biggest flaws I see from a legal (not social) perspective are prosecutorial abuse in charging juveniles as adults and that a white kid who pulled a gun on black kids didn't get charged with any crime. That incident is particularly suspect to me.

So one question is whether the problems in Jena, LA are based on Racism or just plain stupidity?

Based just on Jeralyn's analysis, I would have to consider it a mix. The original "nooses in the tree" were both racist and teenage stupid, with an emphasis on the latter. Teenagers are stupid by their very nature. The school tried to handle the problem, but failed to consider that because Race was involved, a lot of people, both Black and White, were watching to see how it was handled. The three-day suspension under those circumstances were not enough to satisfy the African American community, and they looked to the White community as though the kids had skated without any real punishment.

Incident No 1 was when the DA came in and tried to threaten (everyone? Just the Blacks?) with dire legal consequences if the problems resulting from the nooses in the tree did not go away. That was really stupid, and the DA should have understood that he was speaking to two audiences, one White and the other Black. Each audience was going to hear his "tough law" message in the context of their very different histories. My bet is that the DA did not intend to deliver a Racist message, but he thought White and failed to understand how the African-American community - with its history of having the "justice" department used to control them while Whites get away with anything up to and including murder - would hear his message as more of the same.

This is the form modern White Racism most commonly takes. To exaggerate a little, it is the attitude that "I'm not Racist! I have not beaten a Black, kept them in chains, or called them N****r, so so why aren't you Blacks satisfied? I treat you just like you were White even if you persist in acting different!" It's an improvement over legally enforced segregation, but by ignoring the remaining social and historical differences there is still a major of Racism built in.

There is still steering in renting and real estate that maintains ghettos. There are still cases in which a Black man will be stopped for "Driving While Black" in non-Black neighborhoods, and schools and services in those Black living areas are not funded or staffed as well as in the White areas. Hiring and promoting in the business world is still more limited for Blacks than for Whites. Racist violence is more unusual than before, but not unknown. The result of all this and the history of violence against Blacks means that any Black person who steps outside their door and does not think automatically that they are a minority in a majority White world is taking their life in their own hands.

After that first announcement from the DA he was stuck in a situation where he felt committed to escalate his threat, and it sounds like he simply doesn't like Mychal Bell. Racism or Bell's history? Again, the DA is playing to two audiences but listening to only one of them. Bell's bail was set unreasonably high in comparison to that of others while he was arbitrarily chosen as a juvenile to be tried as an adult, again suggesting that as a Black teenager he was getting much harsher treatment than the White kids would have. Look at what Jerilyn said:

Is Ball a repeat violent criminal? Not in my view. His four prior convictions are two simple batteries, months apart and two misdemeanors for damage to property. Regardless of how the law in Louisiana technically categorizes him, I don't think he fits the bill of a violent offender.

So does the town of Jena have a Race problem?

It sure does now. And the escalation of the problem got out of hand from the kind of modern American Racism in which the Whites deny that they are Racist, but don't know any Blacks, don't trust them, don't listen to them and try their best to simply ignore them.

This is a case that could have been headed off at a number of points had the DA not tried to threaten everyone with his power. This just started as a stupid teenage stunt that the White power structure that runs Jena tried to bull their way though and bury it, instead of reaching out to the Black community and working with them to somehow resolve it.

Maybe America will get lucky and recognize the source of the problem and start working to resolve it instead of acting like Supreme Court Chief Justice said and simply consider any consideration of Racism to be itself Racist.

Oops. Got to go. Another pig just flew into my yard.