Suppose that someone accused you of doing something and you didn't think the accusation was fair. How would you respond?
Well, we know how the Tea Party responds. This past week the NAACP passed a resolution aimed at the Tea Party, specifically for not confronting racist comments, signs and other displays from within its ranks (for example, Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul suggesting that we go back to segregated lunch counters.)
So how does the Tea Party handle this? By the official spokesman of the Tea Party Express, Mark Williams, proving the NAACP's point by writing a hypothetical letter from the NAACP President to Abraham Lincoln, not only full of racist language but even telling him that he should not have ended slavery.
And then they follow that up by listening to a video from David Duke, the former Klan Imperial Wizard who a few years ago ran for Governor of Louisiana and then later for President.
This isn't how you prove you aren't racist!
I think, having listened to all the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity I could stomach, that this is the result of the 'alternative media' coming to full fruition. They keep preaching about how the First Amendment guarantees the right to use 'politically incorrect speech' and they make a big deal out of doing it on air. So this kind of comes natural to them and their followers by now.
The issue of politically incorrect speech of course is NOT a first amendment issue. Nobody disputes that the first amendment gives you the legal right to call anyone any name you want to. You won't be prosecuted in a criminal court for it.
But that's not to say that you won't be held accountable for the consequences of your speech. Just as someone whose Constitutional right to free speech can be sued in civil court for slander or libel if they say or write falsehoods about people, so too if you insult someone using racist language you have to accept the consequence, which is that you will be judged a racist and an ignoramus for using it. You can't have it both ways. Go on all the racist rants you want, and listen to speeches by all the bigots you can find, but don't then be upset when someone calls you a racist. Because by your words and the associations you keep, so will you be judged.
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, October 03, 2009
A hate crime in Phoenix this morning
A homeless woman was murdered today in Phoenix in what appears to be a hate crime.
A gunman opened fire on a 39-year-old woman and her friend early Saturday morning in what Phoenix police are calling a possible hate crime.
The woman, whose name wasn't released, was shot dead. Her friend, Jeffrey Wellmaker, 48, told police he and the woman were walking in Palma Park, on 12th Street and Dunlap Avenue around 1:30 a.m. when a heavily tattooed, bald White man confronted them.
Wellmaker, who is Black, said the tattooed man yelled, "What are you doing with that White woman," said Detective James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman. The friends, who are homeless, didn't respond and kept walking, Holmes said. Investigators don't know why the couple was in the park, police said.
The tattooed man followed the pair for a couple blocks. By the time the couple reached 4th Street and Puget Avenue, Wellmaker saw a white four-door newer model sedan with tinted windows drive past them, Holmes said. In the passenger seat was the tattooed man.
That's when Wellmaker said the passenger pulled out a shotgun and shot two blasts at the couple, Holmes said.
For some reason, probably a weird mix of racism, misogyny and misplaced jealousy, nothing seems to set off white racists like a white woman with a black man. Although these folks are against all interracial dating the reverse doesn't seem to set them off as quickly. Whether it is because of our President or what, they seem to be coming more out into the open lately.
Clearly this is a hate crime, and clearly this murderer is a menace as he tries to enforce his own views of marriage on everyone else by means of murder. Let's hope he gets caught quickly.
A gunman opened fire on a 39-year-old woman and her friend early Saturday morning in what Phoenix police are calling a possible hate crime.
The woman, whose name wasn't released, was shot dead. Her friend, Jeffrey Wellmaker, 48, told police he and the woman were walking in Palma Park, on 12th Street and Dunlap Avenue around 1:30 a.m. when a heavily tattooed, bald White man confronted them.
Wellmaker, who is Black, said the tattooed man yelled, "What are you doing with that White woman," said Detective James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman. The friends, who are homeless, didn't respond and kept walking, Holmes said. Investigators don't know why the couple was in the park, police said.
The tattooed man followed the pair for a couple blocks. By the time the couple reached 4th Street and Puget Avenue, Wellmaker saw a white four-door newer model sedan with tinted windows drive past them, Holmes said. In the passenger seat was the tattooed man.
That's when Wellmaker said the passenger pulled out a shotgun and shot two blasts at the couple, Holmes said.
For some reason, probably a weird mix of racism, misogyny and misplaced jealousy, nothing seems to set off white racists like a white woman with a black man. Although these folks are against all interracial dating the reverse doesn't seem to set them off as quickly. Whether it is because of our President or what, they seem to be coming more out into the open lately.
Clearly this is a hate crime, and clearly this murderer is a menace as he tries to enforce his own views of marriage on everyone else by means of murder. Let's hope he gets caught quickly.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
They don't call it, 'Cracker Barrel' for nothing.
Tasha Hill, a black woman and an army reservist was leaving a Cracker Barrel restaurant in suburban Atlanta when Troy Dale West almost smacked her seven year old daughter with a door.
She told him that she did not appreciate his action, and he responded by beating her badly, using the 'n' word and the 'b' word repeatedly as he pounded her with closed fists.
What is amazing is that there were a fairly large number of customers outside but not one bothered to intervene (though they did tell the police what they saw.)
What is even more amazing and disturbing was the tenor of the interview that Hill and her lawyer got from CNN. They were repeatedly asked whether she 'provoked' the attack.
Provoked??!
Excuse me, but how the heck could she have 'provoked' this attack? Although Hill says that all she did was tell him bluntly that she did not appreciate the way he nearly slammed the door on her daughter, it really doesn't matter what she said. Nothing she COULD have said (though witnesses said she didn't say or do anything 'provocative') could possibly justify a brutal assault that still has her nursing bruises a week after the attack. It's that simple. He has no right to physically assault her no matter what she said to him. what is disgusting is that she and her lawyer were even asked if she 'provoked' him. I guess since the victim is a black woman and the perpetrator is a white man the white men doing the interview simply assume that he must have been 'provoked.' It's an outrage that anyone even has to ask about this. I'm not sure that we shouldn't just retire the term, at least when talking about human beings (yeah, you can 'provoke' an animal to attack but humans are supposed to be more highly evolved than animals, though maybe not in Mr. West's case.)
Beyond this, there is something more that is troubling about this as well. It's that the restaurant where this happened was a Cracker Barrel. In this case the restaurant clearly bears no responsibility for Mr. West's actions although the people who failed to intervene were presumably customers on their way in or out. But Cracker Barrel does have a disturbing recent history of racism. Even into the twenty-first century they have practiced de facto segregation such as forcing black customers to sit in the smoking section (including those black customers who don't smoke.) Even Chris Rock's mother has experienced racist treatment at a Cracker Barrel, only three years ago.
So it may well be that there is an undercurrent to this attack: Troy West represents exactly the demographic that Cracker Barrel seeks to attract. Keep in mind that even the name is vaguely racist. "Crackers" (derived from 'whip-crackers,' a term that hearkens back to the worst memories of slavery) were the young southern men who during the worst of the Jim Crow days would keep blacks 'in their place.'
She told him that she did not appreciate his action, and he responded by beating her badly, using the 'n' word and the 'b' word repeatedly as he pounded her with closed fists.
What is amazing is that there were a fairly large number of customers outside but not one bothered to intervene (though they did tell the police what they saw.)
What is even more amazing and disturbing was the tenor of the interview that Hill and her lawyer got from CNN. They were repeatedly asked whether she 'provoked' the attack.
Provoked??!
Excuse me, but how the heck could she have 'provoked' this attack? Although Hill says that all she did was tell him bluntly that she did not appreciate the way he nearly slammed the door on her daughter, it really doesn't matter what she said. Nothing she COULD have said (though witnesses said she didn't say or do anything 'provocative') could possibly justify a brutal assault that still has her nursing bruises a week after the attack. It's that simple. He has no right to physically assault her no matter what she said to him. what is disgusting is that she and her lawyer were even asked if she 'provoked' him. I guess since the victim is a black woman and the perpetrator is a white man the white men doing the interview simply assume that he must have been 'provoked.' It's an outrage that anyone even has to ask about this. I'm not sure that we shouldn't just retire the term, at least when talking about human beings (yeah, you can 'provoke' an animal to attack but humans are supposed to be more highly evolved than animals, though maybe not in Mr. West's case.)
Beyond this, there is something more that is troubling about this as well. It's that the restaurant where this happened was a Cracker Barrel. In this case the restaurant clearly bears no responsibility for Mr. West's actions although the people who failed to intervene were presumably customers on their way in or out. But Cracker Barrel does have a disturbing recent history of racism. Even into the twenty-first century they have practiced de facto segregation such as forcing black customers to sit in the smoking section (including those black customers who don't smoke.) Even Chris Rock's mother has experienced racist treatment at a Cracker Barrel, only three years ago.
So it may well be that there is an undercurrent to this attack: Troy West represents exactly the demographic that Cracker Barrel seeks to attract. Keep in mind that even the name is vaguely racist. "Crackers" (derived from 'whip-crackers,' a term that hearkens back to the worst memories of slavery) were the young southern men who during the worst of the Jim Crow days would keep blacks 'in their place.'
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Rush needs a king-sized sheet. With eyeholes.
Rush Limbaugh today called Sonia Sotomayor a 'racist.'
Yeah, Limbaugh. I guess he would know a bit about racism if he could listen to his own show.
Let's look a bit at what Rush has said, shall we?
As we well know, in 2003 Limbaugh got himself kicked off 'Monday Night Football' for saying that the media 'overrated' Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb because 'they want to see a black quarterback succeed.' Never mind that this bit of idiocy came fifteen years after Doug Williams had led the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 rout over Denver in Super Bowl XXII and ended with an exclamation point any debate about whether black quarterbacks could succeed in the NFL, except apparently for racists like Limbaugh.
Rush apparently hadn't learned from the McNabb comment, because on Monday, February 5, 2007 (the day after Indianapolis beat Chicago in the Super Bowl) he made virtually identical comments, saying that the media had dumped all over Bears quarterback Rex Grossman the week before because 'they wanted a white quarterback to fail.' Never mind of course that the media had described Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning in glowing terms the week before, or the fact that Manning is every bit as white as Grossman, or that the performances of the two in the Super Bowl showed that the media was absolutely right, it's obvious that Rush looked at the media coverage of the bumbling Grossman and decided that they were singling him out for being white.
Last year during the campaign, Rush loved playing a song by satirist Paul Shanklin about Barack Obama called "Barack the Magic Negro." You may recall that Chip Saltsman was forced to withdraw his candidacy for head of the RNC not long after that because he sent out a CD with that very same song on it, and he got called on it's content. He continued to harp on the theme that Barack Obama would never have gotten where he was without being black (when did being black suddenly start to help you get elected to high office? There are still enough racists around that it's a definite handicap for many candidates, though fortunately their numbers have declined to the point where it is even possible for someone like Obama to get elected.) I am a liberal Democrat and I cast my vote very happily for Barack Obama last November, but I find it offensive that Rush is telling me that the only reason was because he was black (I guess presuming that if the Democrats had nominated someone else then all us liberals would suddenly have switched to vote for Republicans.) Dream on, Rush.
Then, when General Colin Powell, after weighing carefully the reactions of the two candidates to the economic crisis, endorsed Obama, Rush said it is all about race. This is a sad, sad commentary that he sees a black man endorse another black man and assumes that it is because of skin color (sorry, but according to the polls, the big reshuffle of the deck last election came right then, following the failure of Lehman Brothers bank and the events that followed; if Powell was convinced that week to pick Obama over McCain then he was just one of millions of Americans.) For that matter, one out of every eight Americans is black. So to assume that every time one black person does something for another black person the only reason is because the person is black is as ridiculous as it is insulting.
Those are Rush quotes that I remember.
Some undated ones, but beauts are at this link.
The worst one is:
You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.
You know, for Rush to call anyone racist, I'd say it would be like the pot calling the kettle black, but in this case the pot is lily white, and could easily be covered by a sheet.
Yeah, Limbaugh. I guess he would know a bit about racism if he could listen to his own show.
Let's look a bit at what Rush has said, shall we?
As we well know, in 2003 Limbaugh got himself kicked off 'Monday Night Football' for saying that the media 'overrated' Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb because 'they want to see a black quarterback succeed.' Never mind that this bit of idiocy came fifteen years after Doug Williams had led the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 rout over Denver in Super Bowl XXII and ended with an exclamation point any debate about whether black quarterbacks could succeed in the NFL, except apparently for racists like Limbaugh.
Rush apparently hadn't learned from the McNabb comment, because on Monday, February 5, 2007 (the day after Indianapolis beat Chicago in the Super Bowl) he made virtually identical comments, saying that the media had dumped all over Bears quarterback Rex Grossman the week before because 'they wanted a white quarterback to fail.' Never mind of course that the media had described Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning in glowing terms the week before, or the fact that Manning is every bit as white as Grossman, or that the performances of the two in the Super Bowl showed that the media was absolutely right, it's obvious that Rush looked at the media coverage of the bumbling Grossman and decided that they were singling him out for being white.
Last year during the campaign, Rush loved playing a song by satirist Paul Shanklin about Barack Obama called "Barack the Magic Negro." You may recall that Chip Saltsman was forced to withdraw his candidacy for head of the RNC not long after that because he sent out a CD with that very same song on it, and he got called on it's content. He continued to harp on the theme that Barack Obama would never have gotten where he was without being black (when did being black suddenly start to help you get elected to high office? There are still enough racists around that it's a definite handicap for many candidates, though fortunately their numbers have declined to the point where it is even possible for someone like Obama to get elected.) I am a liberal Democrat and I cast my vote very happily for Barack Obama last November, but I find it offensive that Rush is telling me that the only reason was because he was black (I guess presuming that if the Democrats had nominated someone else then all us liberals would suddenly have switched to vote for Republicans.) Dream on, Rush.
Then, when General Colin Powell, after weighing carefully the reactions of the two candidates to the economic crisis, endorsed Obama, Rush said it is all about race. This is a sad, sad commentary that he sees a black man endorse another black man and assumes that it is because of skin color (sorry, but according to the polls, the big reshuffle of the deck last election came right then, following the failure of Lehman Brothers bank and the events that followed; if Powell was convinced that week to pick Obama over McCain then he was just one of millions of Americans.) For that matter, one out of every eight Americans is black. So to assume that every time one black person does something for another black person the only reason is because the person is black is as ridiculous as it is insulting.
Those are Rush quotes that I remember.
Some undated ones, but beauts are at this link.
The worst one is:
You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.
You know, for Rush to call anyone racist, I'd say it would be like the pot calling the kettle black, but in this case the pot is lily white, and could easily be covered by a sheet.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Cohen wins big-- to the disappointment of the right.
In attempting to justify their culture war, right-leaning pundits in America pointed to Nikki Tinker's racist and anti-Semitic ads against Congressman Steve Cohen in a primary election in Tennessee (and yes, this is the same Steve Cohen who I was critical of a couple of months back for making what I considered a sexist comment directed at Hillary Clinton.) Cohen is the only white congressman in America representing a majority black district, and by all accounts he has represented it well, doing everything he could to reflect the views and wishes of his constituents. It would be an understatement to simply call Tinker's campaign 'racist,' as she attacked Cohen in an ad in which she tied him to the Ku Klux Klan and another which targetted him for his Jewish religion. And those were only her official campaign ads. Even worse was a flyer mailed out by Memphis reverend George Brooks (a supporter of Tinker) that made an anti-Semitic attack on Cohen saying,
"Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus so Memphis Christians must unite and support ONE Black Christian to represent Memphis in the United States Congress in 2008. Simply because this congressional district is predominantly Black. And Christian, in terms of religion, who love and believe in Jesus while Jews do not." The flyer concludes by again calling Cohen "an opponent of Christ and Christianity." (you can click on the link if you really want to see this piece of garbage yourself.)
Hannity and Colmes on right-leaning FOX News profiled the race in arguing that the Democratic party itself was racist. I guess they were hoping that Tinker would pull out a win so they could go at it even harder.
Well, in a race that was considered close (a rematch of the primary from two years ago in which Cohen had edged out Tinker in a race with fourteen candidates) the voters made it known exactly what they thought of Tinker's tactics (and also of Cohen's efforts to represent them.) Cohen won, by a 4-1 margin. He won overwhelmingly among black voters in particular.
I might also add that Barack Obama, EMILY's List (which had endorsed and provided some support for Tinker before she started running an anti-Semitic and anti-white campaign), and former Congressman Harold Ford (who had represented the district for years and had once hired Tinker), all came out with statements condemning Tinker's ads.
Clearly Black voters are not the racists that some on the right have tried to portray them as. So the Republican apologists for the kind of culture war that we see more often directed at Democrats will have to look someplace else for excuses.
"Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus so Memphis Christians must unite and support ONE Black Christian to represent Memphis in the United States Congress in 2008. Simply because this congressional district is predominantly Black. And Christian, in terms of religion, who love and believe in Jesus while Jews do not." The flyer concludes by again calling Cohen "an opponent of Christ and Christianity." (you can click on the link if you really want to see this piece of garbage yourself.)
Hannity and Colmes on right-leaning FOX News profiled the race in arguing that the Democratic party itself was racist. I guess they were hoping that Tinker would pull out a win so they could go at it even harder.
Well, in a race that was considered close (a rematch of the primary from two years ago in which Cohen had edged out Tinker in a race with fourteen candidates) the voters made it known exactly what they thought of Tinker's tactics (and also of Cohen's efforts to represent them.) Cohen won, by a 4-1 margin. He won overwhelmingly among black voters in particular.
I might also add that Barack Obama, EMILY's List (which had endorsed and provided some support for Tinker before she started running an anti-Semitic and anti-white campaign), and former Congressman Harold Ford (who had represented the district for years and had once hired Tinker), all came out with statements condemning Tinker's ads.
Clearly Black voters are not the racists that some on the right have tried to portray them as. So the Republican apologists for the kind of culture war that we see more often directed at Democrats will have to look someplace else for excuses.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Hate crimes up nationally, lowest in a surprising place.
The FBI released statistics showing that hate crimes rose nationally by 7% over the previous year.
Nationally, 7722 hate crimes were reported. Hate crimes are defined as crimes in which the motivation is the victim's race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
The majority of the hate crimes reported were racially motivated. Of these, 2/3 of them involved a black victim. 20% of them involved a white victim, and the remainder involved a victim who was targetted for being of some other race.
19% of hate crimes involved religion. Of these, nearly 2/3 involved attacks against Jews.
Approximately the same percentage as religion being the motivation were carried out against victims based on sexual orientation, with male homosexuals the most frequent targets.
There is one silver lining in all of this, and it is a most unexpected one. The states with the fewest reported hate crimes, in fact none in one and only one in the other for the whole year, were Mississippi with no hate crimes reported, and Alabama with one.
Yes, you read that right. Mississippi and Alabama.
Mississippi was the state whose racism was famously associated with the movie 'Mississippi Burning,' about the murders of three civil rights workers by the Klan in 1964. It was the home state of such notable racists as depression era Governor Theodore G. Bilbo, who liked to write books comparing blacks with monkeys.
Alabama has always been associated by most of us with racial intolerance, of the most violent and malignant variety. The home state of George Wallace was the state where marchers were brutally beaten at the Edmund Pettis bridge, the state where Bull Conner's police dogs attacked peaceful demonstrators, and the state where klansman murdered four black girls by bombing a Baptist church in 1964.
Mississippi and Alabama have always been considered backwards, racist and a hotbed of racial hatred. Hardly the kind of place you'd expect to see setting a national standard for tolerance.
But that's what we see. Let's recall the words of Dr. King in his 'I have a Dream' speech:
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice...
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I'm sure there are still some racists around in Mississippi and Alabama, as there are every place. I'm sure there are still a few klansmen there, just as for that matter there are some klansmen here in Arizona. But for whatever reason, they have become more tolerant, at least when it comes to resorting to violence, than the rest of the country.
And I call that a miracle. Maybe the rest of the country should see what has changed there.
Nationally, 7722 hate crimes were reported. Hate crimes are defined as crimes in which the motivation is the victim's race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
The majority of the hate crimes reported were racially motivated. Of these, 2/3 of them involved a black victim. 20% of them involved a white victim, and the remainder involved a victim who was targetted for being of some other race.
19% of hate crimes involved religion. Of these, nearly 2/3 involved attacks against Jews.
Approximately the same percentage as religion being the motivation were carried out against victims based on sexual orientation, with male homosexuals the most frequent targets.
There is one silver lining in all of this, and it is a most unexpected one. The states with the fewest reported hate crimes, in fact none in one and only one in the other for the whole year, were Mississippi with no hate crimes reported, and Alabama with one.
Yes, you read that right. Mississippi and Alabama.
Mississippi was the state whose racism was famously associated with the movie 'Mississippi Burning,' about the murders of three civil rights workers by the Klan in 1964. It was the home state of such notable racists as depression era Governor Theodore G. Bilbo, who liked to write books comparing blacks with monkeys.
Alabama has always been associated by most of us with racial intolerance, of the most violent and malignant variety. The home state of George Wallace was the state where marchers were brutally beaten at the Edmund Pettis bridge, the state where Bull Conner's police dogs attacked peaceful demonstrators, and the state where klansman murdered four black girls by bombing a Baptist church in 1964.
Mississippi and Alabama have always been considered backwards, racist and a hotbed of racial hatred. Hardly the kind of place you'd expect to see setting a national standard for tolerance.
But that's what we see. Let's recall the words of Dr. King in his 'I have a Dream' speech:
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice...
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I'm sure there are still some racists around in Mississippi and Alabama, as there are every place. I'm sure there are still a few klansmen there, just as for that matter there are some klansmen here in Arizona. But for whatever reason, they have become more tolerant, at least when it comes to resorting to violence, than the rest of the country.
And I call that a miracle. Maybe the rest of the country should see what has changed there.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Fifty years ago, still the same... or is it?
One side of a school yard has a shady tree. It is a segregated school yard, and only white kids have been allowed on the side with the shady tree. Black kids have their patch on the other side of the yard.
So a few black kids formally ask the school administration for permission to go to the other side of the yard and sit under the tree. It is granted.
So the next day black students arrived at school to see that the tree had been decorated for their arrival. With three hangman's nooses.
The school superintendent overrules the principal on punishment for the white students who put the nooses there and suspends the students for three days, calling the nooses "a prank."
After the slap on the wrist punishment is handed out, racial tensions quickly escalate, including fights and arson (no arrests yet in the arson which partially destroyed the school.) Then a black student is beaten when he shows up at an all-white party. No one was charged.
Three days later a white student confronted three black students in the parking lot of a convenience store and pointed a shotgun at them. The black students defended themselves by wrestling the shotgun away from the offender. Charges were filed-- against the three black youths for aggravated battery and theft for taking the gun away. The white man who pointed the gun at them was not arrested and was never charged with a crime.
Then a group of black youth beat a white kid senseless as he was leaving the gym on December 4. Remember that no charges were filed for the beating at the party. But this time charges are filed-- for attempted second degree murder, which is likely to land the kids who did the beating in prison for up to 100 years apiece. In other words, effectively a life sentence for doing exactly the same thing as resulted in no charges at all just a few days earlier when the victim was black and the perps were white. Of course the six black students who are accused of the beating should be charged with a serious felony-- without a doubt this is aggravated battery, but charges should be filed both proportionately (which attempted murder leading to life in prison is disproportionate) and against anyone who commits the same crime.
Louisiana in 1957? No, Louisiana in 2007.
What amazes me most about this is how most of the townspeople (well, the white ones anyway) don't think they have a race problem.
The district attorney declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. But other white leaders insist there are no racial tensions in the community, which is 85 percent white and 12 percent black.
"Jena is a place that's moving in the right direction," said Mayor Murphy McMillan. "Race is not a major local issue. It's not a factor in the local people's lives. "
Still others, however, acknowledge troubling racial undercurrents in a town where only 16 years ago white voters cast most of their ballots for David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor.
I will say that a later quote in the article appears to only tell part of what Pentecostal Minister Eddie Thompson wrote in his essay so I will link the entirety of his original essay here: The Battle Against Racism in Jena, Louisiana he adds a note of explanation at the beginning in which he writes in part:
I have decided to keep the article here and add this explanation: I believe that racism, bigotry, and hatred exist in our community just as it does in villages, towns, and cities all across the United States, North and South. I reject the notion that our local law enforcement, governmental, and educational institutions perpetuate these fruits of wickedness. In fact, I believe those institutions in Jena have lead the way in correcting the imbalances caused by racism concerning equal rights for all. Opportunities exist for all people of all races in our community under the law. Personally, I have not found the local courts to be biased in judgment nor the school system to prevent advancement from anyone based on race. However, you cannot change the heart of anyone through legislation; education alone will not undo bigotry or hatred instilled from birth. Unless we deal with the spirit of our people, we will never learn the grace and mercy of God towards those less fortunate in life...
And then copy the quote taken from the linked Chicago Daily Herald article (one question arises, if the author of the Chicago Daily Herald article was publishing online, why not link directly to the online article quoted?)
I’ve lived here most of my life, and the one thing I can state with absolutely no fear of contradiction is that LaSalle Parish is awash in racism: True racism.
Thompson, obviously a conservative minister (who I would probably agree with on very little, but I commend how he handled this situation) then goes on to describe how he attended a healing meeting for the town in another article The Battle Against Racism in Jena Hijacked) and writes in part,
What an amazing sight it was! There was the United Pentecostal preacher standing with the Baptist pastor, seeking the hand of God for our children. There was the black minister lifting his voice with the white minister to sing praises to our King. The principal of Jena High School was thrilled to see us there on his campus, politically correct or not, calling on the Name of Jesus for mercy and for grace. The Superintendent of Schools caught the spirit and preached like a Bible-thumping evangelist from a rickety pulpit. The “congregation” of our city gathered together in one accord to fight the spiritual wickedness that has bound us for so long. Perhaps the most touching moment of all was when the students, black and white, suddenly joined together on the football field and sang the alma mater hand in hand, special emphasis given to the line that states, "God keep safe thy fame." All convention was set aside for the higher purpose of finding answers. We called on our Savior to set the captives, all of us, free. In all my years I never saw it such in Jena, Louisiana.
I hope that the citizens of this town solve their problem together. However, a little media spotlight, showing whether they are successful or not, won't hurt.
Because there is still racism in America, and what the citizens of Jena now (finally) appear to be doing (though we will see how this turns out).
So a few black kids formally ask the school administration for permission to go to the other side of the yard and sit under the tree. It is granted.
So the next day black students arrived at school to see that the tree had been decorated for their arrival. With three hangman's nooses.
The school superintendent overrules the principal on punishment for the white students who put the nooses there and suspends the students for three days, calling the nooses "a prank."
After the slap on the wrist punishment is handed out, racial tensions quickly escalate, including fights and arson (no arrests yet in the arson which partially destroyed the school.) Then a black student is beaten when he shows up at an all-white party. No one was charged.
Three days later a white student confronted three black students in the parking lot of a convenience store and pointed a shotgun at them. The black students defended themselves by wrestling the shotgun away from the offender. Charges were filed-- against the three black youths for aggravated battery and theft for taking the gun away. The white man who pointed the gun at them was not arrested and was never charged with a crime.
Then a group of black youth beat a white kid senseless as he was leaving the gym on December 4. Remember that no charges were filed for the beating at the party. But this time charges are filed-- for attempted second degree murder, which is likely to land the kids who did the beating in prison for up to 100 years apiece. In other words, effectively a life sentence for doing exactly the same thing as resulted in no charges at all just a few days earlier when the victim was black and the perps were white. Of course the six black students who are accused of the beating should be charged with a serious felony-- without a doubt this is aggravated battery, but charges should be filed both proportionately (which attempted murder leading to life in prison is disproportionate) and against anyone who commits the same crime.
Louisiana in 1957? No, Louisiana in 2007.
What amazes me most about this is how most of the townspeople (well, the white ones anyway) don't think they have a race problem.
The district attorney declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. But other white leaders insist there are no racial tensions in the community, which is 85 percent white and 12 percent black.
"Jena is a place that's moving in the right direction," said Mayor Murphy McMillan. "Race is not a major local issue. It's not a factor in the local people's lives. "
Still others, however, acknowledge troubling racial undercurrents in a town where only 16 years ago white voters cast most of their ballots for David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor.
I will say that a later quote in the article appears to only tell part of what Pentecostal Minister Eddie Thompson wrote in his essay so I will link the entirety of his original essay here: The Battle Against Racism in Jena, Louisiana he adds a note of explanation at the beginning in which he writes in part:
I have decided to keep the article here and add this explanation: I believe that racism, bigotry, and hatred exist in our community just as it does in villages, towns, and cities all across the United States, North and South. I reject the notion that our local law enforcement, governmental, and educational institutions perpetuate these fruits of wickedness. In fact, I believe those institutions in Jena have lead the way in correcting the imbalances caused by racism concerning equal rights for all. Opportunities exist for all people of all races in our community under the law. Personally, I have not found the local courts to be biased in judgment nor the school system to prevent advancement from anyone based on race. However, you cannot change the heart of anyone through legislation; education alone will not undo bigotry or hatred instilled from birth. Unless we deal with the spirit of our people, we will never learn the grace and mercy of God towards those less fortunate in life...
And then copy the quote taken from the linked Chicago Daily Herald article (one question arises, if the author of the Chicago Daily Herald article was publishing online, why not link directly to the online article quoted?)
I’ve lived here most of my life, and the one thing I can state with absolutely no fear of contradiction is that LaSalle Parish is awash in racism: True racism.
Thompson, obviously a conservative minister (who I would probably agree with on very little, but I commend how he handled this situation) then goes on to describe how he attended a healing meeting for the town in another article The Battle Against Racism in Jena Hijacked) and writes in part,
What an amazing sight it was! There was the United Pentecostal preacher standing with the Baptist pastor, seeking the hand of God for our children. There was the black minister lifting his voice with the white minister to sing praises to our King. The principal of Jena High School was thrilled to see us there on his campus, politically correct or not, calling on the Name of Jesus for mercy and for grace. The Superintendent of Schools caught the spirit and preached like a Bible-thumping evangelist from a rickety pulpit. The “congregation” of our city gathered together in one accord to fight the spiritual wickedness that has bound us for so long. Perhaps the most touching moment of all was when the students, black and white, suddenly joined together on the football field and sang the alma mater hand in hand, special emphasis given to the line that states, "God keep safe thy fame." All convention was set aside for the higher purpose of finding answers. We called on our Savior to set the captives, all of us, free. In all my years I never saw it such in Jena, Louisiana.
I hope that the citizens of this town solve their problem together. However, a little media spotlight, showing whether they are successful or not, won't hurt.
Because there is still racism in America, and what the citizens of Jena now (finally) appear to be doing (though we will see how this turns out).
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