The Jena Six

[xrayzebra]

all of america is racist, not just jena
jena is just more overtly racist

wonder why so many black people are in jail compared to white people, all over the us?

Could it be that they commit more crimes and sadly
against their own race.

It seems to be the case.

One thing most of you overlook. Racism and prejudice
is not an exclusively American thing. It exist all over
the world. Not just against blacks, but against
religion. Ugh, you know like Muslims against Christians.
Muslims against Jews. Other races against other races.
The same races against their own race but different
ethnic cleansing.

I know that this doesn't excuse any racism here in the
U.S. But it is a human frailty. I too suffer prejudice.
There are lots of folks I don't like. Not because of race,
because of the way they act. Some are black, some are
white and some are of other races.

One other point I would like to make. AP had a long
article in the Express-News this morning about Jena.
And has been stated there has been a lot of mis-reporting,
according to the article. The white shade tree wasn't
an exclusive white tree. All the students used it.
The noose thing was considered a joke among many
students, including some of the black students and the
school took them down because the students were
playing with them. They students who did the deed
were not just penalized for just three days, but were
put into alternative school for a month. Some whites
think they should have been suspended.
Any read it for yourself. Story follows:

Black and White Becomes Gray in La. Town

By TODD LEWAN – 16 hours ago

JENA, La. (AP) — It's got all the elements of a Delta blues ballad from the days of Jim Crow: hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree; a mysterious fire in the night; swift deliberations by a condemning, all-white jury.

And drawn by this story, which evokes the worst of a nightmarish past, they came by the thousands this past week to Jena, La. — to demand justice, to show strength, to beat back the forces of racism as did their parents and grandparents.

But there are many in Jena who say the tale of the "Jena Six" — the black teenagers who were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy for attacking a white classmate at Jena High School last December — is not as simple as all that.

Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as "latter-day Scottsboro Boys."

And they say that while their town's race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.

To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, "this whole thing ain't no downright, racial affair."

Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.

He doesn't buy it.

"You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, 'cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we're the ones who're going to have to live here."

Clearly, something bad occurred in Jena, population 2,971, an old sawmill town in LaSalle Parish that, once upon a time, was Ku Klux Klan country. And, as most white and black residents readily agree, there is no good reason for embracing what unfolded here.

But what happened, exactly?

The story goes that a year ago, a black student asked at an assembly if he could sit in the shade of a live oak, which, the story goes, was labeled "the white tree" because only white students hung out there. The next day, three nooses dangled from the oak — code for "KKK" — the handiwork of three white students, who were suspended for just three days.

Much of that is disputed. What happened next is not: Two months later, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. (The case remains unsolved.) Two fights between blacks and whites roiled the town that weekend, culminating in a school-yard brawl on Dec. 4 that led the district attorney to charge the Jena Six with attempted murder. The lethal weapon he cited to justify the charge: the boys' sneakers.

In July, the first to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two hours of deliberations by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it.

(It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record. Although he had a high grade-point average, he was, in fact, on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property. In any event, his conviction was overturned because an appeals court ruled he should not have been tried as an adult.)

There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.

Consider:

_The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.

_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.

_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.

_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.

_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.

About 225 miles and a world apart from racially mixed New Orleans, Jena (pronounced JEE-nuh) is a throwback.

Here, one refers to elders as "Sir," and "Ma'am." Children still pull catfish from creeks; couples court at Jena Giants football games; families rope goats and calves at weekend rodeos.

In a place where per capita income is $13,761, there aren't any swank, French restaurants, but rather, family eateries such as the Burger Barn, Ginny's and Maw & Paw's. Most of Jena's 14-odd churches stage Easter egg hunts. On summer afternoons, sweet tea and lemonade on a neighbor's front porch are obligatory.

And there are endearing figures, like the designated town sweeper who mountain bikes around town with a wagon full of rakes, brooms, dustpans and cleaning fluids, stopping only to sweep shopowners' parking lots or to distribute complimentary bubble gum to grade schoolers.

Not all vestiges of the past are beloved, or quaint, of course.

There are no black lawyers, no black doctors and one black employee in the town's half-dozen banks. (The employee is male, an accountant who works out of public view.)

Economics play a role in this; with the closure of the sawmills in the '50s, the town now relies heavily on the exploitation of oil and natural gas, offshore. There are relatively few good-paying jobs in what is gradually becoming a retirement community, and some point out that African Americans with higher educations tend to leave the parish.

"To a certain extent, that's true," says Anthony Jackson, one of Jena High's two black teachers. "But I know some people who tried to stay here and couldn't get good jobs. There was, for instance, a gentleman who graduated as a certified biology teacher, but he left because he didn't want to deal with what's going on here."

Cleveland Riser, 75, who began working in Jena as a teacher and then rose to become an assistant superintendent of schools in LaSalle Parish, says blacks have long had trouble getting ahead in Jena.

"In my experience, the opportunity for advancing in my profession was denied, in my opinion, because I was black — not because I was unprepared professionally, or because of my performance."

Here and across the "crossroads" of Louisiana, there are Klan supporters, to be sure; David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard, carried LaSalle Parish in his 1991 run for state governor. And Jacqueline Hatcher, a 59-year-old African American, remembers when, as a ninth grader in 1962, she saw a large cross burning out front of the all-black Good Pine High School.

"We heard the Klan was meeting in the woods because there was going to be desegregation in the schools and they didn't want that," says Hatcher. Still, no one recalls seeing any public lynchings or whites in robes and masks for a half century.

"If I could take you back to 60 years ago, and then fast forward to today, you'd have to say we've come a long way," says Billy Wayne Fowler, a white school-board member who is one of the few leaders with the school administration or local law enforcement who still talks to reporters.

Most townsfolk, he says, interpreted the events of last year pretty much the same way — that a small minority of troublemakers, both black and white, got out of hand, and that the responses from authorities weren't always on the mark.

The boys who hung the nooses "probably should have been expelled," Fowler says, and the murder charges brought against the black teenagers were "too harsh, too severe."

Tommy Farris, 27, an oil driller, and his wife, Nikki, 29, a registered nurse, concur — to a point. "Those boys should have expelled," says Nikki, who is white. "It was no innocent prank. I think those boys knew what they were starting by hanging those nooses from a tree."

Tommy, who is black, agrees. But free the Jena Six?

"That's not going to happen," he says, adding that he thinks the black teenagers are being given a fair chance to defend themselves against the charges.

Johnny Wilkinson, 44, a platform officer on an oil rig, and his wife, Karen, a 47-year-old director of nurses at the local hospital, are, like many couples in town, wrestling with that question of fairness.

The noose hanging was wrong, say the Wilkinsons, who are white, and the boys who did it should have been more severely punished.

Still, "They knocked that boy out cold and were stomping on him," Johnny says. "They might have killed him. I believe punishment would have been measured the same way if it had been the opposite way around and six whites had attacked a black kid."

(The teenager who was beaten, Justin Barker, 17, was knocked out but walked out of a hospital after two hours of treatment for a concussion and an eye that was swollen shut. He attended a school ring ceremony later that night.)

Adds Karen: "A sentence of 15 years is fair, but I do think they should be eligible for parole. Who are we to say they can't be members of society?"

But to Braxter Hatcher, 62, a janitor at Jena High for 18 years, such punishment would be excessive, and would only serve to reinforce su ions in the black community that the worst kind of "Deep South justice" still exists here.

"They haven't always been fair in the courthouse with us," says Hatcher, who is black. "If you're black, they go overboard sometimes. I think this was just a fight between boys. I don't think it was attempted murder."

A number of other blacks — and whites — have raised similar questions about the Jena Six episode, particularly the manner in which authorities handled a series of racially charged incidents leading up to it.

Why, they ask, wasn't the noose incident ever reported to police? (A report might have triggered a hate-crime investigation, although federal authorities rarely go after juveniles in such cases.) And when whites and blacks tangled several times before the Jena Six episode, why did authorities charge the whites with misdemeanors — or not at all — while charging blacks with felonies?

Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish district attorney who is prosecuting the cases of the Jena Six, insisted the case "is not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions."

Huey Crockett, 50, lives with his wife, Carla, 45, in a heavily wooded, predominantly black district just beyond Jena's limits, an area known as "The Country." The Crocketts, who are black, have complained to police that Bell and other youngsters were causing trouble in their neighborhood — scratching cars with keys, breaking the windows of parked cars, spraying property with paint.

The authorities, Crockett says, were always slow to respond.

"But as soon as he had a run-in with a white boy, they came down on him like a hammer. That's not right. If I call the police for an incident here, it may take them an hour, an hour and half to get out here. But they'll be right out in an instant if a white person calls them."

What also rankles African Americans in Jena, says Riser, the former school superintendent, is that whites charged with the same crimes as blacks receive more lenient punishment. "What this boils down to is: Why is there a double standard?"

On a road into town, a brick portal welcomes visitors to Jena, touting it as "A Nice Place to Call Home." But when the national spotlight goes away, will it be that nice place?

A week ago, Eddie Thompson, a white pastor at the Sanctuary Family Worship Center, would have said no. But on Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators prepared to pour into tiny Jena, religious leaders held a unified church service, attended by blacks and whites.

"We prayed for one another, prayed for all of the boys involved in this," Thompson says. "We're not used to the glare, but something positive is going on here. I believe that we're maybe listening to our neighbors better, when we didn't listen before."
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Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


Here is the line for those that don't trust me.

[TLWisfoine]

Both of you prove my point. TLW especially, I have no
idea if he is really black or pretending to be one, and
really don't care. But obviously he is a racist, but would
call you one if you dared to state something about a
so called minority. Even if true.

And Dan, in San Antonio, I am the minority. But it
doesn't really bother me one way or the other. I have
had black neighbors several times, some of them were
great, others were not. Same with some of my white
neighbors. Some were great some weren't. I have worked
with blacks all my adult life, for them and had them
work for me. I had no problem with them one way or
the other. I felt extremely sorry for one, who had worked
and studied damn hard for a promotion and got it, only
to have a damn liberal paper make such a big deal
out of it that it appeared he got it because he was black
and filling a quota. I told him how I felt and that it
damn sure wasn't fair. He deserved the promotion
because he worked for it. So you two folks go suck a
lemon and TLW take the damn chip off your shoulder.
Folks may like you just a little bit more. Don't hunt
for trouble. Because I can guarantee you one thing,
you will find enough in life without seeking it out.


Someone ask about gtspur post, why I didn't respon
respond to what?

Added:

TLW if you are going to post stuff about people, at
least learn how to spell their race: It is "Caucasian"
and "Hispanic".

Also, TLW, I am posting a link to an interview with
Dr. Walter E. Williams, a person I admire very much.
Him and Dr. Sowell are two of the most down to earth
treachers I have ever had the pleasure of listening to
and reading. I hope you read the interview this link
points to. I wish the kids in Jenna had been pointed
in this direction. Anyhow, enjoy. I know I enjoyed
the interview. By the way both of these Gentlemen
are black.

http://www.objectivistcenter.org/ct-1750-.aspx

Oh so now I'm the racist. Why do people like you only think that the only racism in this country is the racism against whites? Oh how hard it must be being a white person in this country. The same party that you support have historically and to this day are still ignoring issues within the black community most recently by declining to go to a debate that is being done at a historically black college. Before you go off on the liberals or "dimmocraps" as you call them I'm no fan of theirs either. Yes I am familiar with Walter Williams and have read many of his self hating articles. In my opinion the man hates his own race more than the Klan does. Anyone who is friends with the likes of that racist piece of Rush Limbaugh does not deserve my time. He's trying to take the "Grand Uncle Dragon" le away from Jesse Lee Peterson as far as I'm concerned.

[TLWisfoine]

I'm asking this next question w/o having read anything in this thread...

It appears to me that thre MAJORITY of blacks only become angry about injustices against them, like the one that's happening right now w/ the Jena 6. That is fine.

But where are all these blacks standing up for what is right when it comes to all of the blacks in gangs, all of the blacks in jail, high teen pregnancy rates, low SAT test scores, AIDS etc?

Questions like this tickle the out of me. In case you didn't know they're many people within the black community who are speaking out against these issues but the media doesn't seem to care about them. All they care about is what crazy shenanigans the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are doing thus making the current civil rights movement seem like nothing but a big joke. But maybe its better for them to not get attention because you have people such as this ray guy who will discredit them as being nothing more than race baiting racists for speaking out.

[TLWisfoine]

all of america is racist, not just jena
jena is just more overtly racist

wonder why so many black people are in jail compared to white people, all over the us?

Yes I know why. You can start with this phony war on drugs that goes hard after the users and not the suppliers. Also, how in the is crack cocaine a worse drug than cocaine and why does it carry a heavier prison sentence when you are caught using it. You can thank every black persons hero for that, Bill Clinton.

Also you can point out the disproportianate funding of schools and the cutting of after school programs in the urban cities of America. Unless you are inclined to believe that blacks somehow have this criminal gene that whites don't.

[TLWisfoine]

I think its both and that is what is sad. Kids who do that and think its a prank grow up believing that its ok to do that. I applaud the fact that the kids who did that were expelled but it sucks that the expulsion was reduced to a suspension. Watching this story on Outside The Lines this morning the football coach and one of the school board were interviewed and they both condemned the nooses which tells me there is hope but then seeing the DA talk about this case and only mention the beating and not the nooses lessened that hope.

Some people on both sides (including posters here) are so quick to point the other side as racists that they are ignoring the same behavior on their own side.

I'm starting to feel this way which is why I'm most likely not going to mess with this thread anymore after this post. We are all just spinning in circles fast and we are all obviously entrenched in our own beliefs and I don't think any of us are going to budge.

Oh well, back to the sports forums for me!!!

[TLWisfoine]

Sorry made a mistake before. Walter Williams is trying to take away the "Grand Uncle Dragon" le away from Jesse Lee Peterson. My mistake!!!

[samikeyp]

I'm starting to feel this way which is why I'm most likely not going to mess with this thread anymore after this post. We are all just spinning in circles fast and we are all obviously entrenched in our own beliefs and I don't think any of us are going to budge.

Oh well, back to the sports forums for me!!!

I agree with you to a point. I think there is room for talk. Sadly though, you have too many folks, black and white, who go to the race card too easily. People, including many on this board, think if a black man has something nice..he must have stolen it and if a white person has something nice, it was handed to him only because he is white. If we could think and listen before we judge, we all just might survive.

[xrayzebra]

The same party that you support have historically and to this day are still ignoring issues within the black community most recently by declining to go to a debate that is being done at a historically black college.

Obviously you don't know you history, do you? Who freed
the slaves and to what party did he belong? Who supported
the civil rights law? It wasn't the dimm-o-craps. They
the dimm-o-craps are the party of slavery, dependence on
the government. And you fit the party's "party line" right
down the line.

The same party that you support have historically and to this day are still ignoring issues within the black community most recently by declining to go to a debate that is being done at a historically black college. Before you go off on the liberals or "dimmocraps" as you call them I'm no fan of theirs either.

What issues "within the black community" has the
Republican party refuse to debate at a historically black
college". And pray tell what issues haven't been debated
by the party that owns the black community and solved?
They own you by the admission of your black leaders,
Jesse Jackson and what's his face, cant think of the
slick "minister" from New York name. No my fine
adversary you and other individual blacks are going to
have to solve your own problems. Just like others do.
There have been some good people try to say things
you need to hear and been shouted down. Bill Cosby
being one. Like he said, how can anyone expect to get
ahead in this world when they cant even speak a language
that anyone understands except another gang member.
Or they dress like some kind of idiot. And do not
respect the law and wont help the law to fight crime in
their own neighborhood. Don't preach to me, preach to
those that need help.

[Ya Vez]

I will never understand the south... probably why I hate it so much... I am so glad I grew up in the southwest...

[clambake]

ray's a riot.

loves rush limbo=drug addicted racist
loves bill cosby="let me slip you this knockout drug so i can you"

[TLWisfoine]

Obviously you don't know you history, do you? Who freed
the slaves and to what party did he belong? Who supported
the civil rights law? It wasn't the dimm-o-craps. They
the dimm-o-craps are the party of slavery, dependence on
the government. And you fit the party's "party line" right
down the line.


What issues "within the black community" has the
Republican party refuse to debate at a historically black
college". And pray tell what issues haven't been debated
by the party that owns the black community and solved?
They own you by the admission of your black leaders,
Jesse Jackson and what's his face, cant think of the
slick "minister" from New York name. No my fine
adversary you and other individual blacks are going to
have to solve your own problems. Just like others do.
There have been some good people try to say things
you need to hear and been shouted down. Bill Cosby
being one. Like he said, how can anyone expect to get
ahead in this world when they cant even speak a language
that anyone understands except another gang member.
Or they dress like some kind of idiot. And do not
respect the law and wont help the law to fight crime in
their own neighborhood. Don't preach to me, preach to
those that need help.

You obviously don't know your history either. I like it when conservatives try to throw the "we are the party that freed the slaves, and supported civil rights" etc. etc. What you seem to forget is that once the civil rights bill was signed there was a mass exodus from the Democratic party to the Republican Party, and that is also when the previously Democratic south became the home base of the republican party it is today. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill he is quoted as saying ""I know the risks are great and we might lose the South, but those sorts of states may be lost anyway." And where did all these racists go, the Republican Party, and the Republican leaders were more than willing to conform their beliefs in order to satisfy their new base. Especially that racist son of a Reagan, every Republicans hero.


Just in case you haven't been keeping up with the news, you have heard of the Republican candidates who have declined an invitation to speak at Howard University and other black avenues. Even Newt Gingrich, one of the most partisan people I know has criticized this. Also Princella Smith a black Republican and someone I have repeatedly reffered to as the "Grand Mamie Dragon" speaks on this. As far as the Democratic party goes I have absolutely no love for them either. I view both parties as being two fingers on the same hand. I am continually perplexed with why the black community is so loyal to a party that hasn't done much for them. "Oh but they attend black churches and play the sax on Arsenio's show." Straight BS if you ask me. And as far as solving things in the black community, I am not ignorant to the fact that there are problems within the black community that needs to be solved. I am just as vocal about that as anybody and if you checked out some of my posts in other forums that are predominately black you will see this. But this being a majority white board I don't preach the same message here as I do there. And I'm also not one of those Uncle Tom's who think's that the black community is the one who holds all of the fault in this. American society has failed the black community and people like you who think and speak in broad genaralities about the black community are of no help either. Being that whites are the ones who hold the positions of power in America and blacks don't the black people who are trying to solve the issues that currently are troubling the black community do need help and people like you are either to stubborn to give it, or just don't give a rats ass. You and your ilk are so quick to lend a helping hand to the country of Israel and others, but when it comes to your own "American brothers" you just want to turn your back on us and just wait for us to internally self destruct. But that's what people such as yourself would love now isn't it?

Walk a mile in my ing shoes before you start preaching to me about the black community!!!

[TLWisfoine]

Nice stuff TL....too many times we tend see things through our own eyes...so caucasions who don't practice racism think that it does not exist anymore....after all, it's not them being racists....but they don't walk around being black, or hispanic, or any other minority...they don't know that there are still some racist people out there and the system is set up so minorities receive a inferior education ....

...that's my main problem with all these well-off kids who cry about being stuck next to some minority who doesn't measure up thanks to affirmative action in schools.....if you don't want affirmative action, then lets start sending some of the kids from Edgewood and South San to Churchill and Reagan and vice-versa....

Thanks, Affirmative Action is a neccessary evil until America fixes what the real problem is, the disproportinate funding of schools

[xrayzebra]

You obviously don't know your history either. I like it when conservatives try to throw the "we are the party that freed the slaves, and supported civil rights" etc. etc. What you seem to forget is that once the civil rights bill was signed there was a mass exodus from the Democratic party to the Republican Party, and that is also when the previously Democratic south became the home base of the republican party it is today. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill he is quoted as saying ""I know the risks are great and we might lose the South, but those sorts of states may be lost anyway." And where did all these racists go, the Republican Party, and the Republican leaders were more than willing to conform their beliefs in order to satisfy their new base. Especially that racist son of a Reagan, every Republicans hero.


Just in case you haven't been keeping up with the news, you have heard of the Republican candidates who have declined an invitation to speak at Howard University and other black avenues. Even Newt Gingrich, one of the most partisan people I know has criticized this. Also Princella Smith a black Republican and someone I have repeatedly reffered to as the "Grand Mamie Dragon" speaks on this. As far as the Democratic party goes I have absolutely no love for them either. I view both parties as being two fingers on the same hand. I am continually perplexed with why the black community is so loyal to a party that hasn't done much for them. "Oh but they attend black churches and play the sax on Arsenio's show." Straight BS if you ask me. And as far as solving things in the black community, I am not ignorant to the fact that there are problems within the black community that needs to be solved. I am just as vocal about that as anybody and if you checked out some of my posts in other forums that are predominately black you will see this. But this being a majority white board I don't preach the same message here as I do there. And I'm also not one of those Uncle Tom's who think's that the black community is the one who holds all of the fault in this. American society has failed the black community and people like you who think and speak in broad genaralities about the black community are of no help either. Being that whites are the ones who hold the positions of power in America and blacks don't the black people who are trying to solve the issues that currently are troubling the black community do need help and people like you are either to stubborn to give it, or just don't give a rats ass. You and your ilk are so quick to lend a helping hand to the country of Israel and others, but when it comes to your own "American brothers" you just want to turn your back on us and just wait for us to internally self destruct. But that's what people such as yourself would love now isn't it?

Walk a mile in my ing shoes before you start preaching to me about the black community!!!

So the dimm-o-craps of yesteryear are the Republicans
of today. In some cases you may be correct. But it
doesn't change the fact that it was the former who did
the two actions cited.

And you talk about helping hand. What pray tell is this
helping hand we are suppose to lend? Give me some
specifics. More welfare. About schools, yes there was
some inequities in funding at the state level. But
remember something. Funding originally, in at least
Texas, was suppose to come from the local community.
Not State level. Now a good portion does come from the
state and during the past several years supposedly it
has been fixed. Of course it doesn't cure the
stupidity of the people who elect the local school boards
and let them rob the system, now does it. Nor does it
solve the problem of the kids that want stay in school
and finish, no does it. Am I, as a white person, suppose
to get up every morning and force these kids into a
school. It also doesn't solve the problem of parents
who really don't even care of if school keeps. One other
thing, where do you get the idea that it is any of my
responsibility to do anything in the "so called" black
society. Tell me. I took on my responsibility and
raised my three children, who incidentally all have
college degrees and my children's children are doing
the same. Three of them have graduated from college
and the fourth is in her senior year. Where in the world
is your responsibility? That is if you have children. And
how is it my fault or any one's fault that black men wont
stay in a married relationship and help raise their family.
I know that statement is broad and doesn't apply to all
black men, but it certainly does to a majority. Again,
what role can government or anyone play that would
change that. More government programs. Yeah, they
have done a wonderful job of helping the black
community, now haven't they.

I recall you saying Dr. Williams was a "uncle tom' or
words to that affect. Can I ask why? Because he
got an education and tells it like it is or was. I suppose
you think Clarence Thomas is an uncle tom because
he succeeded and worked with Whitey. Also Dr.
Sowell. And any other black member of society that
makes something of themselves and moves out of the
hood. All of the gentlemen have careers that are
demanding and rigid in principle and I might add not
easy to succeed in. I only wish the younger blacks
would look up to them instead of stoop dog or some
of the other gangsta types. Yeah, it is hard to pull your
self up by your boot straps, I know. But it can be done
and has been done. As far as sympathy from me,
no I have none. I don't have to walk in you shoes
my fine adversary. I have been as poor as you can get
and had the soles of my shoes flapping in the breeze
and been hungry. Had people make snide remarks because I was an American. So shove it. Learn to walk in the
shoes of success and suck it up and quit crying.
As far as affarmative action. It may get you a job,
and even keep you a job, but it damn well wont
earn you any respect. You have to do that on your own.
And it is hard work. Live and learn it.

[TLWisfoine]

So the dimm-o-craps of yesteryear are the Republicans
of today. In some cases you may be correct. But it
doesn't change the fact that it was the former who did
the two actions cited.

And you talk about helping hand. What pray tell is this
helping hand we are suppose to lend? Give me some
specifics. More welfare. About schools, yes there was
some inequities in funding at the state level. But
remember something. Funding originally, in at least
Texas, was suppose to come from the local community.
Not State level. Now a good portion does come from the
state and during the past several years supposedly it
has been fixed. Of course it doesn't cure the
stupidity of the people who elect the local school boards
and let them rob the system, now does it. Nor does it
solve the problem of the kids that want stay in school
and finish, no does it. Am I, as a white person, suppose
to get up every morning and force these kids into a
school. It also doesn't solve the problem of parents
who really don't even care of if school keeps. One other
thing, where do you get the idea that it is any of my
responsibility to do anything in the "so called" black
society. Tell me. I took on my responsibility and
raised my three children, who incidentally all have
college degrees and my children's children are doing
the same. Three of them have graduated from college
and the fourth is in her senior year. Where in the world
is your responsibility? That is if you have children. And
how is it my fault or any one's fault that black men wont
stay in a married relationship and help raise their family.
I know that statement is broad and doesn't apply to all
black men, but it certainly does to a majority. Again,
what role can government or anyone play that would
change that. More government programs. Yeah, they
have done a wonderful job of helping the black
community, now haven't they.

I recall you saying Dr. Williams was a "uncle tom' or
words to that affect. Can I ask why? Because he
got an education and tells it like it is or was. I suppose
you think Clarence Thomas is an uncle tom because
he succeeded and worked with Whitey. Also Dr.
Sowell. And any other black member of society that
makes something of themselves and moves out of the
hood. All of the gentlemen have careers that are
demanding and rigid in principle and I might add not
easy to succeed in. I only wish the younger blacks
would look up to them instead of stoop dog or some
of the other gangsta types. Yeah, it is hard to pull your
self up by your boot straps, I know. But it can be done
and has been done. As far as sympathy from me,
no I have none. I don't have to walk in you shoes
my fine adversary. I have been as poor as you can get
and had the soles of my shoes flapping in the breeze
and been hungry. Had people make snide remarks because I was an American. So shove it. Learn to walk in the
shoes of success and suck it up and quit crying.
As far as affarmative action. It may get you a job,
and even keep you a job, but it damn well wont
earn you any respect. You have to do that on your own.
And it is hard work. Live and learn it.

This is ing rich. Compassionate Conservatism right before our very eyes.

No it doesn't change the fact that it the former who did the actions cited, but just as you and the rest of your ilk will say about Democrats, you have strayed so far from your original message that it really is irrelavant what you did before.

I should know better than to try to speak with someone who believes that blacks to this day are not still disenfranchised from many forms of employment and that the only racism that exists is practiced by blacks on whites, but here goes nothing. Its at udes such as yours that has this country to this day so racially divided. You and your ilk just don't care about your fellow man, and this is not only a problem with whites, its a problem that is in the black community as well. These are problems that many in the black community have tried to address, but there's only so much we can do when we are not the ones who hold the power. And when one does speak out many people such as yourself will just call them out as a race baiting racist playing the race card and not even listen to what they have to say. How's that for progress and unity. And with your comment about the majority of black men not being able to stay in a relationship and help raise their families, their you go speaking in broad generalities again. Just go ahead and be like your boy Walter Williams or Jesse Lee Peterson and tell me how you think blacks are just a morally corrupt group of people. I know your thinking it. Just do yourself a favor and just don't speak on things you know little to nothing about especially since you have expressed your indifference in the matter.

Speaking of Walter Williams and the rest of his self hating ilk, the reason I don't care for him and black people like him is because they look down on their own people constantly telling us how pathetic we are, and I really find it funny that Williams and the rest of his conservative black friends will be so quick to speak out against Affirmative Action and yet that is the same program that helped them get to where they are. I guess with your anti affirmative action logic you shouldn't hold them to such high esteem. But they are examples that if given a chance, that black people can achieve just as much as whites. I also find it hilarious that you compare being poor and white to being poor and black, and your sob story about being made fun of because you're an American. Funny stuff!!!

Yes many of the issues that are troubling to the black community falls on the feet of blacks, but it is in my opinion that many of these issues can be nipped in the bud if we combat some of these issues while many of our black brothers and sisters are young and impressionable and show them that we at least give a damn. You'd be suprised the amount of hoplessness many of these children feel because they feel as if nobody cares about them. It'll break your heart. But maybe not yours since you have no sympathy.

[Wild Cobra]

I knew this would be true if I could find it, and I finally did.

What am I talking about? The obvious to those of us who know the main stream media's tactics. If Jena was a republican community, the media would have been shoving in our face "republican mayor," "republican DA," etc. etc.

Guess what...

Jena normally votes democrat!

Yep, that right.

What's wrong here? I thought it was the republicans that were racists?

Let's start with the school board:

District 1 - W. O. Poole (D)
District 2 - Howard “Coach” McCarty, (D)
District 3 - Unknown
District 4 - Eli Cooper, (R)
District 5 - Billy Fowler, (N)
District 6 - Alvin J. “Buddy” Bethard, Jr., (D)
District 7 - Walter Creel, (D)
District 8 - Dolan Pendarvis, (R)

Guess who the DA is...

Reed Walters, another democrat. He seems to have a connection with another democrat, Speedy O. Long, a democrat white separatist!

Now the City Council Members are 3 republicans and 2 democrats, but both democrats running won! Could five democrats have won if five ran?

Oh... They also helped elect the current democrat governor!


Jena 6 and the Republicans?

[ChumpDumper]

Wild Cobra supports the Democrats of Jena.

[PixelPusher]

Maybe Jena's Dixiecrats didn't get the memo about switching parties after 1964.

[Tippecanoe]

not sure if this has been posted, but this article gives a new perspective on the jena 6

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/...ce_called_jena

Black and white becomes gray in La. town

By TODD LEWAN, AP National Writer Sat Sep 22, 7:33 PM ET

JENA, La. - It's got all the elements of a Delta blues ballad from the days of Jim Crow: hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree; a mysterious fire in the night; swift deliberations by a condemning, all-white jury.
ADVERTISEMENT

And drawn by this story, which evokes the worst of a nightmarish past, they came by the thousands this past week to Jena, La. — to demand justice, to show strength, to beat back the forces of racism as did their parents and grandparents.

But there are many in Jena who say the tale of the "Jena Six" — the black teenagers who were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy for attacking a white classmate at Jena High School last December — is not as simple as all that.

Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as "latter-day Scottsboro Boys."

And they say that while their town's race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.

To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, "this whole thing ain't no downright, racial affair."

Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.

He doesn't buy it.

"You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, 'cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we're the ones who're going to have to live here."

Clearly, something bad occurred in Jena, population 2,971, an old sawmill town in LaSalle Parish that, once upon a time, was Ku Klux Klan country. And, as most white and black residents readily agree, there is no good reason for embracing what unfolded here.

But what happened, exactly?

The story goes that a year ago, a black student asked at an assembly if he could sit in the shade of a live oak, which, the story goes, was labeled "the white tree" because only white students hung out there. The next day, three nooses dangled from the oak — code for "KKK" — the handiwork of three white students, who were suspended for just three days.

Much of that is disputed. What happened next is not: Two months later, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. (The case remains unsolved.) Two fights between blacks and whites roiled the town that weekend, culminating in a school-yard brawl on Dec. 4 that led the district attorney to charge the Jena Six with attempted murder. The lethal weapon he cited to justify the charge: the boys' sneakers.

In July, the first to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two hours of deliberations by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it.

(It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record. Although he had a high grade-point average, he was, in fact, on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property. In any event, his conviction was overturned because an appeals court ruled he should not have been tried as an adult.)

There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.

Consider:

_The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.

_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.

_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.

_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.

_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.

About 225 miles and a world apart from racially mixed New Orleans, Jena (pronounced JEE-nuh) is a throwback.

Here, one refers to elders as "Sir," and "Ma'am." Children still pull catfish from creeks; couples court at Jena Giants football games; families rope goats and calves at weekend rodeos.

In a place where per capita income is $13,761, there aren't any swank, French restaurants, but rather, family eateries such as the Burger Barn, Ginny's and Maw & Paw's. Most of Jena's 14-odd churches stage Easter egg hunts. On summer afternoons, sweet tea and lemonade on a neighbor's front porch are obligatory.

And there are endearing figures, like the designated town sweeper who mountain bikes around town with a wagon full of rakes, brooms, dustpans and cleaning fluids, stopping only to sweep shopowners' parking lots or to distribute complimentary bubble gum to grade schoolers.

Not all vestiges of the past are beloved, or quaint, of course.

There are no black lawyers, no black doctors and one black employee in the town's half-dozen banks. (The employee is male, an accountant who works out of public view.)

Economics play a role in this; with the closure of the sawmills in the '50s, the town now relies heavily on the exploitation of oil and natural gas, offshore. There are relatively few good-paying jobs in what is gradually becoming a retirement community, and some point out that African Americans with higher educations tend to leave the parish.

"To a certain extent, that's true," says Anthony Jackson, one of Jena High's two black teachers. "But I know some people who tried to stay here and couldn't get good jobs. There was, for instance, a gentleman who graduated as a certified biology teacher, but he left because he didn't want to deal with what's going on here."

Cleveland Riser, 75, who began working in Jena as a teacher and then rose to become an assistant superintendent of schools in LaSalle Parish, says blacks have long had trouble getting ahead in Jena.

"In my experience, the opportunity for advancing in my profession was denied, in my opinion, because I was black — not because I was unprepared professionally, or because of my performance."

Here and across the "crossroads" of Louisiana, there are Klan supporters, to be sure; David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard, carried LaSalle Parish in his 1991 run for state governor. And Jacqueline Hatcher, a 59-year-old African American, remembers when, as a ninth grader in 1962, she saw a large cross burning out front of the all-black Good Pine High School.

"We heard the Klan was meeting in the woods because there was going to be desegregation in the schools and they didn't want that," says Hatcher. Still, no one recalls seeing any public lynchings or whites in robes and masks for a half century.

"If I could take you back to 60 years ago, and then fast forward to today, you'd have to say we've come a long way," says Billy Wayne Fowler, a white school-board member who is one of the few leaders with the school administration or local law enforcement who still talks to reporters.

Most townsfolk, he says, interpreted the events of last year pretty much the same way — that a small minority of troublemakers, both black and white, got out of hand, and that the responses from authorities weren't always on the mark.

The boys who hung the nooses "probably should have been expelled," Fowler says, and the murder charges brought against the black teenagers were "too harsh, too severe."

Tommy Farris, 27, an oil driller, and his wife, Nikki, 29, a registered nurse, concur — to a point. "Those boys should have expelled," says Nikki, who is white. "It was no innocent prank. I think those boys knew what they were starting by hanging those nooses from a tree."

Tommy, who is black, agrees. But free the Jena Six?

"That's not going to happen," he says, adding that he thinks the black teenagers are being given a fair chance to defend themselves against the charges.

Johnny Wilkinson, 44, a platform officer on an oil rig, and his wife, Karen, a 47-year-old director of nurses at the local hospital, are, like many couples in town, wrestling with that question of fairness.

The noose hanging was wrong, say the Wilkinsons, who are white, and the boys who did it should have been more severely punished.

Still, "They knocked that boy out cold and were stomping on him," Johnny says. "They might have killed him. I believe punishment would have been measured the same way if it had been the opposite way around and six whites had attacked a black kid."

(The teenager who was beaten, Justin Barker, 17, was knocked out but walked out of a hospital after two hours of treatment for a concussion and an eye that was swollen shut. He attended a school ring ceremony later that night.)

Adds Karen: "A sentence of 15 years is fair, but I do think they should be eligible for parole. Who are we to say they can't be members of society?"

But to Braxter Hatcher, 62, a janitor at Jena High for 18 years, such punishment would be excessive, and would only serve to reinforce su ions in the black community that the worst kind of "Deep South justice" still exists here.

"They haven't always been fair in the courthouse with us," says Hatcher, who is black. "If you're black, they go overboard sometimes. I think this was just a fight between boys. I don't think it was attempted murder."

A number of other blacks — and whites — have raised similar questions about the Jena Six episode, particularly the manner in which authorities handled a series of racially charged incidents leading up to it.

Why, they ask, wasn't the noose incident ever reported to police? (A report might have triggered a hate-crime investigation, although federal authorities rarely go after juveniles in such cases.) And when whites and blacks tangled several times before the Jena Six episode, why did authorities charge the whites with misdemeanors — or not at all — while charging blacks with felonies?

Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish district attorney who is prosecuting the cases of the Jena Six, insisted the case "is not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions."

Huey Crockett, 50, lives with his wife, Carla, 45, in a heavily wooded, predominantly black district just beyond Jena's limits, an area known as "The Country." The Crocketts, who are black, have complained to police that Bell and other youngsters were causing trouble in their neighborhood — scratching cars with keys, breaking the windows of parked cars, spraying property with paint.

The authorities, Crockett says, were always slow to respond.

"But as soon as he had a run-in with a white boy, they came down on him like a hammer. That's not right. If I call the police for an incident here, it may take them an hour, an hour and half to get out here. But they'll be right out in an instant if a white person calls them."

What also rankles African Americans in Jena, says Riser, the former school superintendent, is that whites charged with the same crimes as blacks receive more lenient punishment. "What this boils down to is: Why is there a double standard?"

On a road into town, a brick portal welcomes visitors to Jena, touting it as "A Nice Place to Call Home." But when the national spotlight goes away, will it be that nice place?

A week ago, Eddie Thompson, a white pastor at the Sanctuary Family Worship Center, would have said no. But on Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators prepared to pour into tiny Jena, religious leaders held a unified church service, attended by blacks and whites.

"We prayed for one another, prayed for all of the boys involved in this," Thompson says. "We're not used to the glare, but something positive is going on here. I believe that we're maybe listening to our neighbors better, when we didn't listen before."

[Yonivore]

Quit ing up the narrative, Tip.

[TLWisfoine]

I knew this would be true if I could find it, and I finally did.

What am I talking about? The obvious to those of us who know the main stream media's tactics. If Jena was a republican community, the media would have been shoving in our face "republican mayor," "republican DA," etc. etc.

Guess what...

Jena normally votes democrat!

Yep, that right.

What's wrong here? I thought it was the republicans that were racists?

Let's start with the school board:

District 1 - W. O. Poole (D)
District 2 - Howard “Coach” McCarty, (D)
District 3 - Unknown
District 4 - Eli Cooper, (R)
District 5 - Billy Fowler, (N)
District 6 - Alvin J. “Buddy” Bethard, Jr., (D)
District 7 - Walter Creel, (D)
District 8 - Dolan Pendarvis, (R)

Guess who the DA is...

Reed Walters, another democrat. He seems to have a connection with another democrat, Speedy O. Long, a democrat white separatist!

Now the City Council Members are 3 republicans and 2 democrats, but both democrats running won! Could five democrats have won if five ran?

Oh... They also helped elect the current democrat governor!


Jena 6 and the Republicans?

What does this have to do with anything?

[boutons_]

September 24, 2007

Politics in Black and White

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Last Thursday there was a huge march in Jena, La., to protest the harsh and unequal treatment of six black students arrested in the beating of a white classmate. Students who hung nooses to warn blacks not to sit under a “white” tree were suspended for three days; on the other hand, the students accused in the beating were initially charged with second-degree attempted murder.

And one of the Jena Six remains in jail, even though appeals courts have voided his conviction on the grounds that he was improperly tried as an adult.

Many press accounts of the march have a tone of amazement. Scenes like those in Jena, the stories seemed to imply, belonged in the 1960s, not the 21st century. The headline on the New York Times report, “Protest in Louisiana Case Echoes the Civil Rights Era,” was fairly typical.

But the reality is that things haven’t changed nearly as much as people think. Racial tension, especially in the South, has never gone away, and has never stopped being important. And race remains one of the defining factors in modern American politics.

Consider voting in last year’s Congressional elections. Republicans, as President Bush conceded, received a “thumping,” with almost every major demographic group turning against them. The one big exception was Southern whites, 62 percent of whom voted Republican in House races.

And yes, Southern white exceptionalism is about race, much more than it is about moral values, religion, support for the military or other explanations sometimes offered. There’s a large statistical literature on the subject, whose conclusion is summed up by the political scientist Thomas F. Schaller in his book “Whistling Past Dixie”: “Despite the best efforts of Republican spinmeisters to depict American conservatism as a nonracial phenomenon, the partisan impact of racial at udes in the South is stronger today than in the past.”

Republican politicians, who understand quite well that the G.O.P.’s national success since the 1970s owes everything to the partisan switch of Southern whites, have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism.

Thus Ronald Reagan, who began his political career by campaigning against California’s Fair Housing Act, started his 1980 campaign with a speech supporting states’ rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered. In 2000, Mr. Bush made a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University, famed at the time for its ban on interracial dating.

And all four leading Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination have turned down an invitation to a debate on minority issues scheduled to air on PBS this week.

Yet if the marchers at Jena reminded us that America still hasn’t fully purged itself of the poisonous legacy of slavery, it would be wrong to suggest that the nation has made no progress. Racism, though not gone, is greatly diminished: both opinion polls and daily experience suggest that we are truly becoming a more tolerant, open society.

And the cynicism of the “Southern strategy” introduced by Richard Nixon, which delivered decades of political victories to Republicans, is now starting to look like a trap for the G.O.P.

One of the truly remarkable things about the contest for the Republican nomination is the way the contenders have snubbed not just blacks — who, given the G.O.P.’s modern history, probably won’t vote for a Republican in significant numbers no matter what — but Hispanics. In July, all the major contenders refused invitations to address the National Council of La Raza, which Mr. Bush addressed in 2000. Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, had to cancel a debate scheduled for Sept. 16 because only John McCain was willing to come.

If this sounds like a good way to ensure defeat in future elections, that’s because it is: Hispanics are a rapidly growing force in the electorate.

But to get the Republican nomination, a candidate must appeal to the base — and the base consists, in large part, of Southern whites who carry over to immigrants the same racial at udes that brought them into the Republican fold to begin with. As a result, you have the spectacle of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, pragmatists on immigration issues when they actually had to govern in diverse states, trying to reinvent themselves as defenders of Fortress America.

And both Hispanics and Asians, another growing force in the electorate, are getting the message. Last year they voted overwhelmingly Democratic, by 69 percent and 62 percent respectively.

In other words, it looks as if the Republican Party is about to start paying a price for its history of exploiting racial antagonism. If that happens, it will be deeply ironic. But it will also be poetic justice.

======================

Repugs are repugnant

[Wild Cobra]

What does this have to do with anything?

I'm sorry, I thought you started the party issue:

The same party that you support have historically and to this day are still ignoring issues within the black community most recently by declining to go to a debate that is being done at a historically black college.

You go on to compare republicans with keeping the blacks down in various postings. I would ask how does that apply when Jena is more democrat then republican?

You see, the thing is, democrats and liberals tend to make empty promises to the black community, to buy there vote. More republicans and conservatives tend to believe in equal rights, and that we are all created equal. For one to say that we have to give something to the black community is the same as saying they are not equal! What an insult!

The pressing issues in the black community should be making them get off their asses and trying to make a better life for themselves, rather than trying to vote in politicians who say they will give them something!

Now you have an exchange about who did what political wise. All the time, nobody is addressing what the black community needs to do to help itself. More republican and conservatives believe in getting out of peoples way so they can improve themselves. Democrats and liberals want to tell everyone how to live and use transfers of money. When you keep someone dependant on a system rather than making them fend for themselves, you maintain a status quo that is not much better than slavery. When dignity is lost, what is there to live for?

[ChumpDumper]

For one to say that we have to give something to the black community is the same as saying they are not equal!

If the thing that is given is equal rights?

The pressing issues in the black community should be making them get off their asses and trying to make a better life for themselves, rather than trying to vote in politicians who say they will give them something!

Is that what is being asked for in Jena? A handout?

Now you have an exchange about who did what political wise. All the time, nobody is addressing what the black community needs to do to help itself.

Reproduce in Jena until they have a more sizable voting bloc.

[xrayzebra]

This is ing rich. Compassionate Conservatism right before our very eyes.

No it doesn't change the fact that it the former who did the actions cited, but just as you and the rest of your ilk will say about Democrats, you have strayed so far from your original message that it really is irrelavant what you did before.

I should know better than to try to speak with someone who believes that blacks to this day are not still disenfranchised from many forms of employment and that the only racism that exists is practiced by blacks on whites, but here goes nothing. Its at udes such as yours that has this country to this day so racially divided. You and your ilk just don't care about your fellow man, and this is not only a problem with whites, its a problem that is in the black community as well. These are problems that many in the black community have tried to address, but there's only so much we can do when we are not the ones who hold the power. And when one does speak out many people such as yourself will just call them out as a race baiting racist playing the race card and not even listen to what they have to say. How's that for progress and unity. And with your comment about the majority of black men not being able to stay in a relationship and help raise their families, their you go speaking in broad generalities again. Just go ahead and be like your boy Walter Williams or Jesse Lee Peterson and tell me how you think blacks are just a morally corrupt group of people. I know your thinking it. Just do yourself a favor and just don't speak on things you know little to nothing about especially since you have expressed your indifference in the matter.

Speaking of Walter Williams and the rest of his self hating ilk, the reason I don't care for him and black people like him is because they look down on their own people constantly telling us how pathetic we are, and I really find it funny that Williams and the rest of his conservative black friends will be so quick to speak out against Affirmative Action and yet that is the same program that helped them get to where they are. I guess with your anti affirmative action logic you shouldn't hold them to such high esteem. But they are examples that if given a chance, that black people can achieve just as much as whites. I also find it hilarious that you compare being poor and white to being poor and black, and your sob story about being made fun of because you're an American. Funny stuff!!!

Yes many of the issues that are troubling to the black community falls on the feet of blacks, but it is in my opinion that many of these issues can be nipped in the bud if we combat some of these issues while many of our black brothers and sisters are young and impressionable and show them that we at least give a damn. You'd be suprised the amount of hoplessness many of these children feel because they feel as if nobody cares about them. It'll break your heart. But maybe not yours since you have no sympathy.

\

You really do need to get a life. Funny, black people
being poor is much worst that white people being poor.
And I am a Compassionate Conservative with no
compassion. You are a joke, a really sad joke. You have
no idea of what you want. You just want it and whitey
has kept you from getting it. Funny, though that is not
true. There a many black people who are very successful.
Only you don't see them, because they do like the rest
of mankind, they get up, go to work everyday and
try to get ahead in life. Every study I have seen says the
same thing. Want to get ahead, black/white/yellow/green
or whatever, finish high school and go on to college if
possible. That is the secret to get the young black
person out of the hood. And into a neighborhood of
normalcy. You want me to be compassionate, will that
help all those who live off welfare? How. I ask before
and you still haven't answered: what is my responsibility?
I can guarantee you if I went into a black neighborhood
and started trying to tell some/any family or young
tough hanging on a street corner to get his/her butt
back in school I would be a statistic in a New York
minute. If I tried to go into a black neighborhood and
told them to quit the jive talk and speak real English
the same results would occur. I have no desire to end
my life in that fashion. Look what you say about people
who have made something of their lives and try to tell
you that it is YOU not THEM that has to do the heavy
lifting. No one can live your life for you, that is your
responsibility and yours alone. I learned that the hard
way myself. Thank God! Don't talk down to me about
being poor. My fine adversary, poor is damn well poor
hungry is damn well hungry. And yes, there is nothing
wrong with helping your fellow man, regardless of race.
But helping and supporting them are two different things.
The means to end poverty have always been out there,
the same with homelessness. The poor will always exist,
why, because in most all cases young people will go
through a period of low wages. It is called the starting
point. The secret to improving yourself is called being
dependable. You show up, do the job you are hired to do,
and try doing it better than anyone else. I will guarantee
you success and I don't give a damn what race you are.
I know of what I speak. Those qualities are rare in the
workplace. Even a young person flipping hamburgers
can succeed at McDonalds if he displays those traits. He
will be the boss instead of the flipper and believe me
the boss makes a of a lot more than the worker.
But crying I am being held back cause of whatever
reason is not acceptable. It is not a new thing either.
Believe me many people of all races uses the same lame
damn excuse. So if you will excuse me, I have finished
my dissertation on this race subject.

About Jena, I made the statement which I think has
been shown to be correct. There are many aspects that
have not been reported correctly or otherwise and there
is a good possibility an error in the justice system. It
is in the hands of the court system, not in Jena, so lets
just see what happens.

[clambake]

why don't you just tell them to be with happy the freedom gift!!!