Dear Laura,Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."1
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the odds are stacked against them. Together, we can make sure their story is told, that this becomes an issue for the Governor of Louisiana, and that justice is provided for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please add your voice:
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2055-47851
Click Here to Read More...
And Here For the Latest
2 comments:
This is more of the same war on our young black boys and men. When we don't do it ourselves, law enforcement stands ready and trigger happy to take us out. Watch, think, act with wisdom, as well as pray.
(The first comment was an error, and was intended for the article about DeAuntae Farrow.)
But it reference to the "Jena Six," this is still another tragedy. But it is a systemic ongoing tragedy that we need to be aware of and get involved to change. Thank you again, Uncle Charles, for bringing relevant, poignant stories to our attention.
I went to the linked site and signed the letter and sent a message as at least some form of support. I encourage and hope everyone else will do the same. We need to understand that the justice system still has its own brand of justice for "just us." D.A.'s still have far too much power and discretion to destroy lives and pursue, ignore, or trump up cases based on their own whims, prejudices, political motivations, or sick minds. The least we can do is lend our support to these cases by going to the link and signing the message to the Governor Kathleen Blanco. Then spread send the message on to others to do the same (with at least the passion and effort that we would spread the word about a sale). This could easily be one of our children, or even one of us.
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