Thursday, September 13, 2007

Justice for Jena

The nonsense continues. As a person of color who blogs and writes and interacts with all sorts of people, I must help spread the word. Like the Paris, Texas incident (she is finally free now, by the way) and of course Imus, we see that racial disparity continues to rear its ugly head in a world where we should be more united by the fact that a lot of world would love to see us ALL demolished. But no, we still deal with places like Jena, Louisiana, which aggravates the heck out of me not just because my people of color are involved but because half of my blood relatives are Louisianians so I think of what they must sometimes face as residents there. A lot of this crap is taking place in my beloved South and that hurts too. This is life - still.

I've been listening to the buzz (and reading the mass emails) all week. Many supporters of the Jena 6 are going down there. Those of us who want to show solidarity are asked to wear black on Sept. 20th which is when one of the young men is supposed to go to court. It amazes me how many of the officials in Jena supposedly can't see how this is a racial issue. Maybe their hands and minds are tied by the offices they hold. Maybe in private they know the deal. But hanging nooses on a tree and claiming that tree (now cut down) to be "white only" should be enough to bring those private beliefs to light. The haters certainly have.

And oh, let me put it in perspective for you. These boys have the same bond (some higher!) as these 6 ignorant ********. Wonder what they'll get for torturing this woman? Wonder if she'll ever sleep again.

Only God can serve the true justice that in necessary in all these cases and I hope many of the family members get to be there when it happens, however it happens. But we stay tuned to hopefully hear these black boys with no records will not spend 22 years of their lives (down from the original 100 - not a misprint) in jail. Getting mad. Gotta go now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jena is simply an example of the depth of racial bigotry in main stream America. Actually, bigoted racism exists in all races worldwide.

All this is very sad. It is like the old days when women were discouraged from being educated and finding profitable employment. My grandmother told me how she was tracked down and beaten for trying to run away from her husband.

I am a 69 year old white man and my heart goes out to all persons suffering from discrimination.

Monica said...

So true, so true. And thank you for saying so. I'm 36 so I can only listen to my family about the Civil Rights era. Of course the fact that my parents can talk about it goes to show just how recent of a time we're talking. But despite not having been there the first time, it just feels like we're going backward. And it's strange to watch such great strides being taken by people like Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton and even Oprah being the commanding force she is and then to turn around and see blatant bigotry like this and people resigned to it.

As my girlfriend reminded me last night, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.