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"The Jena 6: Since When Do Teenage Boys Watch Lonesome Dove?
Posted on Jun 07, 2007 - 1:30pm by Laura in Jena 6, Other Blogs

"...Blatant racism is exposed in a small town here in Louisiana, culminating in the burning of the high school and attempted second degree murder charges against six students (the ¡°Jena 6¡å) for a high school fight. The high school in this 85% white town evidently self-segregated, as schools often do, but apparently it became less about choice and more about enforcement because a group of black students found it necessary to ask permission to sit under a tree where white students normally sat. The school administrator told them they were free to sit where they liked, and when they went to the tree the next day, they found three nooses hanging from the branches.

Three punks were ¡°quickly¡± identified as the culprits, according to this Chicago Trib article. (I can¡¯t help but wonder if they were quickly identified because they were bragging and laughing it up.) Result: 3 days suspension.

¡°Adolescents play pranks,¡± said Breithaupt, the superintendent of the LaSalle Parish school system. ¡°I don¡¯t think it was a threat against anybody.¡±

Pranks?! Roy Breithaupt cannot possibly be that stupid. But if he is, he¡¯s not alone. According to , the three days suspension was justified by >

asserting that the noose were merely a silly prank inspired by a hanging scene in the television min-series ¡®Lonesome Dove¡¯.

Since when do teenage boys watch Lonesome Dove? Teenage boys watch MTV. They don¡¯t watch western miniseries on the Hallmark channel. Give me a break. A noose is a statement, just as making a motion as if to slit your throat, or pointing your index finger as if it were the barrel of a gun is a statement. And in the south, a noose is a particular pointed, threatening statement. A prank is when you string some guy¡¯s underwear up the flagpole so everyone can see his skidmarks. A prank is a water balloon or filling a locker with shaving cream. A noose? Not so much.

As they say at Fark, after the nooses, hilarity ensued. From the Trib article:

First, a series of fights between black and white students erupted at the high school over the nooses. Then, in late November, unknown arsonists set fire to the central wing of the school, which still sits in ruins. Off campus, a white youth beat up a black student who showed up at an all-white party. A few days later, another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store.

Finally, on Dec. 4, a group of black students at the high school allegedly jumped a white student on his way out of the gym, knocked him unconscious and kicked him after he hit the floor. The victim ¡ª allegedly targeted because he was a friend of the students who hung the nooses and had been taunting blacks ¡ª was not seriously injured and spent only a few hours in the hospital.

But the LaSalle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, opted to charge six black students with attempted second-degree murder and other offenses, for which they could face a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted. All six were expelled from school.

Second degree murder charges for a high school beating? Reginald M., a Jena High School graduate, has a great summary of all this and some excellent links at Listen to me for a minute. And as one commenter put it, ¡°it¡¯s like the 60¡¯s never happened.¡±

This is not just a school problem. It¡¯s a town problem.

And the guy who pulled the shotgun on the students at the convenience store evidently wasn¡¯t even charged. But then, if a noose is a prank, I guess that shotgun thing was something for America¡¯s Funniest Home Videos.

A slightly different point of view - a local pastor acknowledges the racism, but reminds people that these events were spread out of the course of eight months, and says that the punks with the nooses -

were first suspended and then sent to an alternative school off-campus. They underwent psychological evaluations before being re-admitted to Jena High School and even then were separated from the student body at first.

Is that enough for the original offense? How much responsibility should these students bear for effects of the chain of events they triggered? I¡¯m not at all sure, but even that pastor writes,

"LaSalle Parish is awash in racism: True racism. Not the sort of affirmative action/name-calling/reparations-seeking fluff that keeps Jesse Jackson and liberal do-gooders in business, but a systematic, culture of bigotry, neglected by the scrutiny of time.

Here in the piney woods of central Louisiana, where some gentle, old, Christian, white women still call graying black men ¡°boy¡± and some angry, young, Christian, black teens attack pizza delivery trucks that would dare enter their neighborhood, racism and bigotry are such a part of life that most of the citizens do not even recognize it. Cross Highway127 just south of Jena and you enter two different worlds, separated by class and race. If we as Christians face powers, principalities, and rulers of darkness in high places it is certain that part of the spiritual wickedness arrayed against the citizens of LaSalle Parish is hatred born of racism."

-snip-


http://www.pursuingholiness.com/2007/06/07/the-jena-6-since-when-do-teenage-boys-watch-lonesome-dove/