Head in the clouds

A stroll to Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo this evening has unveiled a pretty decent shaming of fellow bloggers on the 'left', in regards to the Jena Six story.

I admit, I saw maybe one tagline for it, thought 'interesting name', and never looked further. The fact that there was a significant protest with such small coverage is actually shocking, especially with the topic of latter day Jim Crow tactics.

Comments

[Jeff]

Seriously, MTV has "news"? That is hilarious!!!!!
What next, the Left will support the U.S.?
Craziness I tell you!

[Xero]

First of all, hanging of a rope in a tree is no more offensive than hang a cross (a sign of punishment and torture that many people faced at the hands of the romans) or standing a pole (a sign of death faced by many during the period of the inquisition), never mind the fact than many europeans faced lynching long before the United States was founded. So tell me would it be acceptable to assault anyone who openly wears a cross, say around their neck, or burn churches because of their representation? This would be considered absurd, and rightly so. Being offended is no excuse for violence.

Beyond that there is one other important issue here. Unless I am missing something in the reports, and please correct me if I am wrong, there has never been a reported statement that the boy that was attacked had anything to do with the nooses in the tree.

The fact their are people that would find joy in beating another human being is the problem here, not their race. I'm going to say it again, read the reports, the retractions and correction and you will see that this is straight out sensationalism. This case compares unequal incidents and tries to claim unfair treatment. Fist fights between willing participants or in case where non-viloent means were attempted first do not compare to a case where a child was attacked unknowingly (witnesses state he was hit from behind), knocked unconscious and beaten.

[Bob]

Xero, "beating of an unconscious victim who's only provocation was mockery."

Sorry, I don't believe a Noose is mockery - it's a symbol of death and domination, effectively oppression, but only if someone allows themselves to be oppressed.

Were I black, I'd be pissed as hell. I'd probably be stupid enough to get in to a fight. I wouldn't beat an unconscious dude tho, coz... well, there's not much fun in that :)

[Xero]

Before telling others to read the MTV News report I suggest that you read the MTVs clarification and correction of their misinformation:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1570444/20070924/id_0.jhtml
Even more information can be found on wikipedia and it's references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_six

When viewing this incident without sensationalism you see that this is normal youthful activities up until the beating of an unconscious victim who's only provocation was mockery. Prior to the actually case at hand, you have jokes, pranks and some minor altercations (which includes the case where a firearm was exposed but never used).

The racial tension in this town has been blown completely out of proportion so that the racist organization known as the NAACP can raise funds to keep 6 attempted murders, who among them have numerous criminal records for violent crimes, from receiving their just punishment. This is really a case of people looking for racism and if they can't find it they will make it up.

[Tamsen]

While I think it's noble to want people to react with the strength of Guatama, if people are placed within a warzone- whether here, Detroit, L.A., etc- they are always going to do what they think they need to in order to survive.
The violent way they reacted should be addressed- but as a part of a stream of events, not as an isolated, unprovoked attack.

One wonders how the report may have been exaggerated to begin with, considering it wasn't enough to make him stay home from partying the very same day.

[Jeff]

MTV has "news"?

[skippy]

the white kids, who beat up a black kid for showing up to a party, and were not given any legal ramifications for that, were "pretty stupid"?

the white da, who never pressed charges on any of the white kids who were involved in the fight, or the white kid who pulled a shot gun on the black kids (tho he did press charges on the black kids who wrestled the gun away from the white kid), the same da who refused the school board access to the school report about the fight before the board suspended the black kids...he's a "fucktard" that deserves to be fired?

it goes deeper than that, folks, it's racism ingrained in the town and the system, and to dismiss it as a few bad decisions is to turn a blind eye to the oppression that still is the main operating procedure in a lot, if not most, of america.

read the mtv news report.

[Xero]

I had never heard of this incident before so decided to do a little research. Personally I don't care what people decide to put on there blogs since they are just a place for people to post their personal opinions, no mater how much they want to present it as legitimate news. But this particular incident deserves someone taking notice, and what I mean is notice by someone who thinks that we shouldn't go lightly on members of a mob that repeatedly assaulted another human. It's despicable to a see people banding together to support people to weak to handle their conflicts without resorting to violence and who instead need to organize in a group to beat another person in a way that could have easily lead to lose of life.

I'll just mark this up as one more incident to back my recent conversion to a stance of total non-violence.

[bob]

Also, I am ignorant. What is a "latter day Jim Crow tactics"?

[bob]

Honestly, I think the article is full of bullpucky.

1. Yes, the noose does qualify as a threat (my understanding is that the threat is legally assault, but I may be mistaken).

2. Yes, the white kids were fucking stupid and deserve to be singled out for being fucking stupid.

3. Yes, the school admins, teachers and white parents are either a bunch of racist fucktards or deserve to be fired.

4. Yes, the 6 black kids shouldn't have needed to band together and let mob mentality run their lives

5. Yes, it's a shame that this incident was allowed to escalate to the point where one black guy has ruined his life on a bad decision.

In short, that one teenager's life is fucked because of our stupid racial history and no one else appears the wiser.

And, just because the "blogasphere" didn't report (or whine about) this, doesn't mean that people didn't know about this so-called "historic" march, which, in my opinion, was not historic. It's just another sad speed bump in our history of racial tensions.

I honestly do not believe banding together to support six kids' willingness to assault others is something ANY group should do, let alone complain that the event wasn't covered.

I'm a pretty liberal white guy, and I don't understand the black community's desire to stand up for violent kids.