Posted by
frashure on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 9:24:45 PM
No one wants to discuss the elephant in the room. I suppose I’ll take it on.
If
you do the crime, you do the time. I thought that’s how it always went,
that simple. Apparently, if you’re black, the phrase doesn’t always
apply to you. It’s a symptom of the new era of racism and
discrimination. The case of the “Jena Six” portrays this injustice
perfectly. Six black students from Jena High School in Louisiana
attacked a white kid and beat him unconscious, not stopping there.
Misinformation has spread and this has been coined a “fight.” It was
not such a thing; it was a blatantly unprovoked attacked. Nooses had
been hung on the grounds of the school stirring racial tension and I
condemn the act, but at the time of the incident then 17-year old
Justin Barker (who had nothing to do with the nooses) had not evoked a
fight. I’ll let District Attorney Reed Walters reiterate: “there was no
credible evidence before or during the trial that the victim had
provoked the attack by word or gesture. The evidence showed that this
was an attack, not a fight.”
Now,
in the wake of this incident and the ensuing trials, a public outcry
has been birthed calling for the freedom of the Jena Six. The notion
that these six did no harm and committed no crime eludes me like the
roadrunner did the coyote. Jesse Jackson encouraged the public
entourage by saying that “the pressure must continue until all six boys
are set free and sent to school, not to jail” Well, Mr. Jackson, these
six should be sent to jail for the crime they committed. It truly is
that simple. If the colors were swapped and it was six white kids
versus one black student who was beaten unconscious, Al Sharpton, Jesse
Jackson, and the entire NAACP would be calling for those six to be
behind bars never to see the light of day again, and protests in favor
of the solitary black student would rally. Sadly, this is not an issue
of right and wrong, it has been mutated into an issue of black and
white.
The
mentality remains that blacks are being oppressed by whites and are
stripped of their equal opportunity. This way of though is now defunct
and its preservation only fans the flames of racial tension. The great
Bill Cosby grasps the concept of this false notion and urges the black
community to cure their own pandemic from within, “we cannot blame
white people.” Simple words for a simple dilemma.
I am hereby calling for an end to this
new reverse discrimination and double-standard put forth from many in
the black community. If you commit a crime, you should be held
accountable and suffer the legal repercussions. Discrimination is no
longer your scapegoat.