White college students playfully re-enact the Jena-6 beating

[Ladewig]

some background (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2170644,00.html):

It was here that Kenneth Purvis asked the headmaster at Jena high school if he could sit under the "white tree" - the tree in the school courtyard where the white children used to hang out during break. The principal said he could sit where he liked. Purvis took him at his word. The next day he went with his cousin Bryant and stood under the tree. The day after that white students hung three nooses there.

[snip]

Back in Jena, the local, overwhelmingly white school board, considered the nooses a youthful prank and handed down brief suspensions. This made black parents and students angry and sparked months of racial tension. Police were called to the school several times because of fights between black and white students.

[snip]

On December 4 a group of black students attacked a white student, Justin Barker, after they heard him bragging about a racial assault his friend had made. Barker, 17, had concussion and his eye was swollen shut. He spent a few hours in hospital and, on his release, went to a party where friends described him as "his usual smiling self".

The six black students were then arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. Such a charge requires use of a deadly weapon. Walters argued that the trainers used to kick Barker were indeed deadly weapons. Mychal Bell, 17, became the first of what are now known as the Jena Six to be convicted on reduced charges by an all-white jury and faced up to 22 years in jail.

On Friday Bell's conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled that he should not have been tried as an adult. A new bail hearing is set for later today.

[more]



link (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1002071jena1.html)
OCTOBER 2--A group of white Louisiana college students dressed in blackface and reenacted the "Jena 6" assault while a friend snapped photos and videotaped the staged attack, images that were later posted to a participant's Facebook page. The photos, which you'll find on the following pages, were taken late last month on the bank of the Red River, where students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe giddily acted out the racial attack.

[snip]

In the video, three students with mud smeared across their bodies stomp on a fourth student, while two of the participants are heard to say, "Jena 6." One man can also be heard saying, "N*****s put the noose on."

Here is a case of incredibly bad judgement on videotaping the event and posting it on the internet.


. .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . .
Edited to add a better background story.

[madurobob]

Brilliant. "I bet I can put that fire out with this here bucket of gasoline!"

College kids and beer: I fine combination in ages past, not so much in the age of youtube and facebook.

[quixotecoyote]

Now normally I defend college kids for racial insensitivity, god knows I was offensive at times, but I think this crosses the line from ignorance to hateful.

[geni]

Here is a case of incredibly bad judgement on videotaping the event and posting it on the internet.

It isn't technicaly illegal to be a jerk.

[JoeEllison]

Wonderful... college racists.

Of course, the answer is to stop talking about racism, and it will just go away, right? Right?

[Ladewig]

It isn't technicaly illegal to be a jerk.

I concur.
Thanks the gods that it isn't or the number of folks in prison would grow exponentially.

[corplinx]

I believe this is current events and not politics.

[JoeEllison]

They were probably Republicans?

[TragicMonkey]

And people think you have to be smart to get into college.

[Ladewig]

I believe this is current events and not politics.

You're right. I forgot the two topics were split up.

[ponderingturtle]

And people think you have to be smart to get into college.

I would think most people who go to college learn that this is a lie pretty quickly.

[GroundStrength]

Wonderful... college racists.

Of course, the answer is to stop talking about racism, and it will just go away, right? Right?

Of course not Joe. The answer is to keep seeing racists under every rock and behind every tree and to accuse everyone of being a racist that disagrees with you.

Good job.

Look out behind you Joe, I think there is a racist!

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Al Sharpton and his supporters turned this into a circus. They shouldn't be surprised that the clowns came out.

[SynapticDancer]

I am a student at a graduate school where recently a noose was hung outside of a professors door. The professor was an African American female who I understand to lecture, among other things, on the topic of racism in education.

Everybody at my school rallied together the next day (I was present by default, I had class) and I admit it was hard not to be moved. However, while Jena was apparently directly racially motivated, I think these little outbursts that we are seeing are not all necessarily as such. I could list the potential motivators for doing such a thing, or making such photos or videos, but how can you know which ones are vicious acts of racism and which ones are people using the salience/exposure of the situation to gain attention? Frankly, if you want to be noticed on youtube, you kind of have to either put something really hysterical (Philipino thriller dance anyone?) or something really controversial. To say these college students are racists (and granted they may very well be) is a false induction based on the evidence of one youtube video. We need more data before we can draw such a conclusion, before these turn into witch trials.

Also, even if we were to learn that these college students are racist, then what? Can we arrest them? Isn't that discrimination? I hold some views that some might consider offensive (heretic even), and so long as I enjoy the right to have and share those points of view (so long as it doesn't hurt someone else) I have to accept that this includes protecting the rights of drunken college students to put together a mock-minstrel show and post it on youtube, as abhorrent as it may be.

[Redtail]

I would think most people who go to college learn that this is a lie pretty quickly.

My first semester teaching I got a term paper complete with the website address the student downloaded it from. That's right, she was too stupid to cheat.

What needs to happen is an honest discussion about race, but until all sides can handle that it ain't gonna happen.

[fuelair]

My first semester teaching I got a term paper complete with the website address the student downloaded it from. That's right, she was too stupid to cheat.

What needs to happen is an honest discussion about race, but until all sides can handle that it ain't gonna happen.My first college teaching I had a take home (research) mid-term -with careful instructions that it was individual, not a group project. Six of the papers turned in were word for word copies - including one answer that stopped dead in the middle of a sentence (and about the middle of what the correct answer was). I handed back the papers and said: " Before you ask any questions about your grades, be aware that for the six people who turned in the same paper I graded the paper and then split the grade six ways - that is why you each have 13.5 points. If anyone wishes to discuss this further, I have asked the dean of students to sit in on the discussion. Does anyone have any questions about their grade?"

[dudalb]

Now normally I defend college kids for racial insensitivity, god knows I was offensive at times, but I think this crosses the line from ignorance to hateful.

I think this was caused less from racism and more from the eternal need to some college students to do anything that will shock and upset people.

[dudalb]

They were probably Republicans?

Just can't resist the cheap shots, can you ,Joe?
Frankly,your whole Right/GOP Equals BAD and Left/Democrate Equals GOOD viewpoint is simple minded and silly.

[fuelair]

Just can't resist the cheap shots, can you ,Joe?
Frankly,your whole Right/GOP Equals BAD and Left/Democrate Equals GOOD viewpoint is simple minded and silly.

I tend to stop at the Republican - bad part. I have 6 years worth of evidence - and it wasn't cheap.

[quixotecoyote]

I think this was caused less from racism and more from the eternal need to some college students to do anything that will shock and upset people.


I'd blame drunkenness more, but in either case, it's why I used the term 'racial insensitivity' rather than racism'. I've done/said several seemingly racist things in the past not because I thought poorly of different colored people, but because I never learned that some things (obvious to others) were offensive.

[Redtail]

My first college teaching I had a take home (research) mid-term -with careful instructions that it was individual, not a group project. Six of the papers turned in were word for word copies - including one answer that stopped dead in the middle of a sentence (and about the middle of what the correct answer was). I handed back the papers and said: " Before you ask any questions about your grades, be aware that for the six people who turned in the same paper I graded the paper and then split the grade six ways - that is why you each have 13.5 points. If anyone wishes to discuss this further, I have asked the dean of students to sit in on the discussion. Does anyone have any questions about their grade?"

Just out of curiosity, did that hurt a little? Not the failing them but the idea that somewhere there was a kid that really wanted to learn. A kid that because the kid in your class a.) had good grades and then discovered pot,sex, beer, etc... b. got legacy-ed in, Afirmitive actioned in, parents paid for new uniforms-ed in, etc... c. got lucky somehow,etc... got passed over and now they were at some school they didn't want to be at or they were working at McDonalds trying to save up the money? I only ask because a kid who wanted to come to FAMU but was turned down and wound up at Tulane, was accepted to FAMU because of Katrina. He was Black but was raised in Japan and his Dad went to FAMU so he wanted to go there, got the chance and loved being there and learning. I pissed me off that one of the abc kids from above took his slot in the first place.

[lolurigeller]

Wonderful... college racists.

Of course, the answer is to stop talking about racism, and it will just go away, right? Right?

Anyone ever seen the Borat movie? Man those minorities, they got too much power and they sure are uppity!

[/sarcasm]

[fuelair]

Just out of curiosity, did that hurt a little? Not the failing them but the idea that somewhere there was a kid that really wanted to learn. A kid that because the kid in your class a.) had good grades and then discovered pot,sex, beer, etc... b. got legacy-ed in, Afirmitive actioned in, parents paid for new uniforms-ed in, etc... c. got lucky somehow,etc... got passed over and now they were at some school they didn't want to be at or they were working at McDonalds trying to save up the money? I only ask because a kid who wanted to come to FAMU but was turned down and wound up at Tulane, was accepted to FAMU because of Katrina. He was Black but was raised in Japan and his Dad went to FAMU so he wanted to go there, got the chance and loved being there and learning. I pissed me off that one of the abc kids from above took his slot in the first place.

Hurt - I'm afraid not - because it was a behavior common even then so even before I taught there I had seen it in action for many years (and these were kids who planned to become teachers) - so I was, sadly, innured to it. The other thing that sort of applies to what you say is I had been told at the time I took the job, by the head of the Library Science program, that in the average college the actual readiness of most freshmen was 9th grade - but at this one the average was 7th. She was from the same background as the students (but definitely well beyond either grade level - very impressive woman!!).