Jena: the Next Step
by Gary Younge
"Activists must leverage the attention that has been given
to the Jena 6 to raise the broader issues of social justice and racism."
This article originally appeared in The Guardian, UK.
The recent demonstration in Jena was a great success on
many fronts, but still has two important goals to achieve.
First the successes. It brought the argument to the people who needed to hear
it. I'm sure it convinced very few white people in Jena that hanging nooses is
more than a prank or that the judicial system is weighted against
African-Americans. From most of the quotes I've seen they are still in denial.
But I'm equally sure that it made any administrator, legislator, judge or
attorney there realize that much of the world does not share their standards.
This message reverberates beyond Jena. The notion that what happens in small
towns stays in small towns no longer holds. No local official wants a
"Jena" on their hands.
"The notion that what happens in small towns stays in small
towns no longer holds."
Second, it was huge and managed to galvanize a new generation of activists. One
of the noteworthy aspects of this demonstration - in contrast to many - is that
it appears to have been multi-generational. With nooses and jail time the
issues it raised linked the old Jim Crow and new quite effectively.
Third, it revealed a new network of bloggers and radio hosts (similar to the
immigrant rallies) that kept this issue alive when others would have allowed it
to die or could not keep it going.
Fourth, it was peaceful. Nothing would have been gained by violence in Jena.
The fact that none occurred left locals who had shuttered up the town, in fear
of black hordes arriving to ransack the place, with nothing to talk about but
the issues.
"The judicial system knows
the world is watching."
Now the hard part. The Jena Six remain either in jail or awaiting trial. The
demonstration did a great job of highlighting their plight. The judicial system
knows the world is watching. Now it is down to the lawyers to get them a fair
shake. That means a proportionate punishment for the alleged crime.
Dr David Stovall, author of an article titled, “Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public Housing, Law Enforcement and the Future of Black Life,” said “one of the ways to attrac
Slow-witted Joe Biden appears to think that we’re still in the age of the sole superpower, when in fact that era has come and gone.
Neither AOC nor the rest of the Squad has mounted any significant challenge to the party’s corporate leadership, despite being elected for this exact purpose.
A pamphlet written 70 years ago by an exiled Black American communist reveals an African continent seething to break free from European colonization.
The real story of the Rwandan genocide begins in 1990, when exiled Tutsis from Uganda invaded northern Rwanda, unleashing a deadly campaign that uprooted a million Hutu peasants and set ethnic tens
