Now that's enough ...

... it's time for all school aged and college aged racists to go home, regroup and come up with another form of intimidation, other than a noose, that will give them all the credit they are so desperately seeking.

Since the Jena, La., story has hit national news, I have counted seven incidents involving nooses, one of which was the situation at Alma J. Brown Elementary School on Grambling State University's campus.

Most recently, a noose was found on the office door of an African American professor at Columbia University. A noose was also found in the sea bag of an African American cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., in July and another was found in the office of a white civil rights instructor during race relations training in August.

That's just the tip of the ice burg. Nooses were found on the campuses of the University of Maryland and Andrews High School in High Point, N.C. Police also arrested two suspects in Alexandria, La., after the Jena Six rally for inciting violence after they rode around with two nooses tied to a pick-up truck.

Now that incident was wrong on so many different levels. Not only were the nooses being dragged by self-proclaimed White Supremacists but the incident kind of brought back the not-so-fond memories of the James Byrd Jr., murder in Jasper, Texas.

A noose wasn't used to drag him behind the pick up truck but I am willing to bet that it has been done before.
Upon preparing for this post, I did a Google search of the word "noose," then I searched the word plus (+) "2007" and some of the stuff that I saw should have been surprising, but it wasn't. I saw everything from recent stories to noose hanging incidents to the message boards where people were asking why the image of a noose hanging from a tree was so powerful.

Because I believe there is power in knowledge and I never like to pass up a teaching opportunity, allow me to illustrate.

Now that you see that not so long ago, Southern trees bore strange fruit, I hope you can understand why seeing nooses hanging on trees can send chills, shock waves and anger through the bodies of African Americans/Blacks/Coloreds/Negroes everywhere.

It's not so much that people have been hanging nooses in several locales throughout the country, it's that some of my counterparts in the media act as if it just started last year with the incident in Jena.

In all actuality, lynching dates back to slavery when some of our ancestors attempted to run and free themselves from the physical and mental bondage inflicted on them by their masters and the rest of society.

As far as I'm concerned, the hanging of a noose carries the same weight of a cross burning on some one's lawn. It's all about hate, nothing more, nothing less. It is the sheer hate of people of color, particularly black people, for no reason.

When someone hangs a noose, it not only symbolizes hate, it is also meant to intimidate and it sends the clear message that people of color are not wanted there. The sad thing about this situation is nooses are being hanged in places where they will be found and in places we shouldn't have to avoid like schools, our homes and in some cases our workplaces.

The only thing that kind of irks me about the situation is nobody is owning up to it. I guess Paul Lawrence Dunbar said it best, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes ..."

I say we all take off our masks and be true to ourselves, our God and everyone else. In other words, if you are going to be a racist, show yourself. No sense in hiding from the world. I say if you hate me, hate me for all to see, not just behind closed doors.

Open Letter to Society ...

Dear World Leaders, Dignitaries, Politicians, Saints, Sinners, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Capitalists, Communists, Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Middle Eastern, Celebrities, Pseudo-celebrities, racists, classists, sexist, normal, abnormal, regular and irregular people and anyone else who may have been left out:

It has come to my attention that WE as a collective population have grown to hate each other and it needs to stop! For the past few months, I have seen some of the most outrageous events play out in the media and all I can say is if these things weren't happening, they wouldn't be getting reported.

First off, we need to stop being naive and trying to get everything sugar-coated. The sooner we admit that racism, classism, sexism and prejudice of all kinds still exist, the sooner we can begin the healing process and taking steps toward understanding each other.

I don't even NEED to further explain why the March on Jena was necessary, but I will. The bottom line in this whole debate is that there is a separate justice system for white folks and people of color, not just in Jena, but the whole country.

If that's not the truth, explain to me why Darryl Hunt can have two trials and still spend 18 years of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit? If it's not true, why did Geronimo Pratt spend 27 years of his life in prison on trumped up murder and kidnapping charges? If it's not true, why are more black and Hispanic men incarcerated more than any other group?

I'll tell you why, other people are afraid. They are afraid of what they don't know and what group of people are avoided at all costs? Black and Hispanic males, that's who. Meanwhile, those REAL criminals, many of whom are of the Caucasian persuasion, go free because they either have the resources to hire those folks who can get them off the hook or invoke their white privilege while we on the other hand have to pay that old, Colored Tax.

If that's not enough, we are passing this hate along to our children and masking it as education. Take the "noose lesson" at Grambling State University's Alma J. Brown Elementary School. The "adults" in this situation used "mock" nooses to "teach" the children, all kindergarten and first-grade students, why the noose was a symbol of racism.

Maybe it's just me but I think the same thing could have been taught with movie scenes. I can think of a couple off the top of my head - the Ving Rhames hanging in Rosewood or the hanging of the little girl in A Time to Kill. Here's a novel idea, why not Google a few pictures to show these children how horrible hangings are. But they wouldn't do that because it's "too graphic."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-10-01-grambling-noose_N.htm

I'll do you one better, two teachers up in New Jersey assigned their sixth grade students social studies projects where the students had to create an advertisement IN FAVOR OF slavery. According to a story from a local news station, the students had to defend the use of slave labor to run a newly built plantation in South Carolina. Students were told to come up with a '"catchy" name for the plantation and give three reasons why slave labor is the "best idea" and they were even encouraged to add illustrations.

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/slavery.slave.labor.2.312697.html

Here's an even better story, at a high school for the deaf and hard of hearing just outside of Washington, D.C., our nations capital, a black student was held against his will by six white students and one black student. The student was let go after being held for about 45 minutes and after the seven students used markers to draw swastikas and "KKK" on his body.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/04/deafschool.racial.incident/index.html

Regardless of what happened, it was wrong. This entire incident is nothing more than the proverbial chickens coming home to roost. Frankly, if we spent more time educating our kids at early ages about our ACTUAL history, there would be no need for these incidents to keep popping up.

As much as we'd like to believe that these incidents are isolated, those of us with some common sense can see that all of these incidents are indirectly related to the miseducation and the desensitization of our children and ourselves.

After a while, we'll be back to square one - segregated getting separate, but unequal shares of everything this great nation has to offer. Look around ya'll. Is this what our ancestors fought for? Is this why our foremothers and forefathers were attacked by dogs and fire hoses?

I think not! It's time we wise up, start the healing process and take the first step toward equality, in justice, in the economy and in life in general - together.

Sincerely,

A fed up, black, female, Christian hippie who wants justice and equality for all, in all.

Well thank God for small miracles ...

... Mychal Bell has been moved to a juvenile facility.

Star Jones Reynolds announced on her show today that LaSalle Parrish District Attorney Reed Walters has said that he will not pursue adult charges against Bell. He does however plan to re-file charges in juvenile court.
There's been no word on bail as of yet. One of his attorneys, Louis Scott talked to Jones Reynolds today saying that he was going to file a motion for bail in the Parrish Clerk's office today.

As I understand it, Bell has to have a new bail because once he was convicted, the initial $90,000 bail was revoked. Hopefully since his case has been moved to juvenile court, he will get a bail that his family will be able to afford. He has been in jail since the December arrest.

My heart goes out to the families of the six "attackers" and to the victim, but quite frankly, I would love to get to the bottom of it all. The information that has been fed to us all has been that the entire incident began with the hanging of nooses on what was known as the "white" tree on the school's campus.

Until earlier this week, it was believed that the boys had only received a few days suspension after the expulsion was overturned. It was reported earlier this week that the boys who hanged the nooses from the tree spent nearly two school weeks in an alternative school and served a two-week in-school suspension.

According to the widely believed information, this supposedly set off a chain of racially motivated events that resulted in arson, an incident where a shotgun was pulled on several students and at least two fights.

The thing that keeps bugging me is that the reports are now saying the victim in the beating by the Jena 6 was beaten into "bloody unconsciousness," but he was in attendance at a school function that night. What hospital releases a patient who was knocked unconscious as a result of a fight where he was supposedly stomped in the head?

I am having a hard time buying that this kid was beaten this badly. We see the same picture of this kid while he is in the hospital but we don't see any pictures of the black kid who was beaten up by the group of white people.

The bottom line in this entire situation is these kids were overcharged. I am not saying that they didn't deserve to be prosecuted, but it should have been juvenile assault or Louisiana's equivalent.

Another thing that tripped me out was during Walter's press conference, he stated that he couldn't find a law to charge the "noose hangers" with and Jones Reynolds had one and showed video from the CNN i-Report from the Alexandria incident where two white teenagers were arrested for tying two nooses to the back of a pick up truck.

Have I said before that Jones Reynolds is the WOMAN?!

She had the law that is on the books in Louisiana in front of her and had a legal expert on hand to discuss it. I know Walters was not watching the show, but I hope somebody down there TiVos her show and can show it to him.

On her show today, Jones Reynolds admitted that she's been out of practice for a while but she found said law in about three minutes, she said. And I say to you all that if she could find it that quickly, Walters couldn't have been looking for it.

Growing up, I always heard, "if it was snake, it would have bit ya." My response was, "if it was a snake, I wouldn't have been looking for it."

I think that kind of rings true with this case. He probably thought charging those boys would probably have come back to bite him in the polls at re-election time. The funny thing is, not charging them has come back to bite him, on the ass - right now.

After this blows over, I hope the Louisiana Bar Association reviews this and takes necessary action.

*rubbing my chin and chuckling to myself* I guess he and Mike Nifong will have a lot to talk about in a few months.

I am so proud of my young folks ...

... I saw so many folks today, black and white, wearing all black in a silent protest of the unmerited jailing of six Louisiana teens.
I too am wearing all black today, but it was not until I checked my e-mail that I started having second thoughts about participating. As a journalist, I am supposed to be neutral about everything, be it politics, the justice system, anything that could be considered news.
When I chose this career, it never occurred to me that I would be giving up my constitutional right to have my own opinion. I love my job, but I love being able to speak my mind even more. So, even though I think wearing all black today has presented itself to be a conflict of interest, I am not going to change my clothes or change my opinion about what has been allowed to happen in Jena.
I have blogged about it, signed petitions and talk about this issue to anyone who will listen because I believe that this is wrong and the only way it will go away is if WE ALL participate in some kind of protest to announce to the Powers That Be that this is wrong and it needs to be changed.

*Since a lot of our Washington, D.C. politicians tend to favor country music, I hope this guy cuts a CD and a DVD of this performance and sends it to them all!*

I hope you guys who weren't able to make it to Jena wore your black, for those of you who didn't, I hope you called a congressman, the governor or signed a petition. Right now, this is not affected your family or anyone in your neighborhood, but what is to stop it?
I'll tell you what, action. Send the message to these folks that we're not going to take it anymore.

Will you participate?

I think it's time for some new black "leaders" ...

Is it just me or is it time for Al and Jesse to retire?
Don't get me wrong, I am glad they have joined the cause to free the Jena Six, but they are getting on my LAST nerve.
It seems like every time there is some sort of "racial injustice" these two opportunists want to jump on the bandwagon to yell about it. Nothing wrong with that, but what is wrong with being a quite leader who makes his point without being stuck up in front of the news cameras making an ASS of himself?
It seems to me that these two lay low until there is a really big issue that will get them national and sometimes international press. These two, from what I've heard and read, are very electrifying and in some cases powerful speakers who flat out, don't get a whole lot done.


Granted they are there to help motivate people to get things done but when are they going to stop the lip service and the empty rhetoric and use their influence to try and get some things changed.
In recent history, these two have jumped aboard some of the most talked about issues that involve the mistreatment and degradation of black folks. The two events that come to mind are the Duke Lacrosse case and the Don Imus incident.
Both were very hot button issues that needed to be handled but they both jumped the gun way too early. Though a lot of you may not agree with me, they should not have run off to Durham to indirectly force Mike Nifong into withholding evidence that would give those guys a chance to not have their names trampled on. And they should not have called for Imus' head in that whole debacle.
They used both of those situations and are using this one for their own personal gain and I can't stand it!!! Sure the names Sharpton and Jackson may call attention to a situation where it is needed, but it calls more attention to those two media whores who wouldn't know civil rights if they punched them in the face.
And since when did they organize this march? It is my understanding that the whole protest started because Michael Baisden said on his afternoon radio show that he was going to go down there and listeners started saying that they wanted to go too.
I am not even that fond of Baisden's show but I do have to give credit where it is due and he worked this protest out! Kudos, hats off, five on the black hand side and major props to Mr. Baisden.
Regardless of what you read or what you see on the news, Baisden was instrumental in getting this thing started and heard on a national scale. Before he started telling this story on his show, it was an underground issue that Louisiana officials were trying to keep under wraps. Thank God that he saw fit to give it some airtime and now these kids and their families have a shot at putting their lives back together and moving on from this. Be sure to wear your black tomorrow.

FREE THE JENA SIX!!!

I don't know about you guys ...

... but I am disgusted.
I'm disgusted with what gatekeepers are calling news. I'm disgusted with the MTV Video Music Awards. I'm disgusted with entertainers. I'm just disgusted!
I have been trying to stay off my soap box about the Jena 6 but the gatekeepers won't let me! Since my posting about the Louisiana group of teens on trial for some trumped up charges stemming from a high school fight, I have seen two "stories" on television that resemble coverage.

There was a piece done on CNN's "Out in the Open" and Star Jones Reynolds discussed the case on her show last week with one of the students and his lawyer. While this case can certainly use all the coverage it can get it deserves more than a three-minute summation on CNN and more than a five-minute spot on Jones Reynolds' goulash of a show on Court TV.

Meanwhile, national media outlets are a buzz with talk about Britney Spears' suck-tacular performance at the VMAs and I am still trying to figure out why everybody is so surprised.

We are talking about Britney Spears. Head shaving, rehab dodging, child-endangering Britney Spears who quite frankly CAN NOT sing! She's never been able to sing. Not on this single, the last CD, the one before that one, the one before that or the Mickey Mouse Club.

She's gotten by for so long because she has (bleached) blond hair, big doe eyes and she knows how to play a damsel in distress. And if ever there were a time where that dame was in distress, it is now.

She needs to take a permanent vacation, lay down about 16 bars of her airy vocals, let Pharell and Chad manufacture her a CD, take a couple of "Mommy & Me" classes and take her country behind home somewhere and sit it down!
MTV hyped up her opening of the show for weeks saying "You won't know what to expect!" And they were right. I would have expected her to come out, make out with Madonna again, dangle her baby over the side of the stage or even shock me and have a nice singing voice. But I never expected her to come out, look and sound horrible while lip syncing.
And when will entertainment reporters ever get tired of reporting on Kanye West's temper tantrums? The Louis Vuitton Don is pissed off again because he got snubbed at the VMAs.

According to the Associated Press, Kanye went off, to say the least, in a hallway full of *dadada* the media. The AP quoted him saying, "That's two years in a row, man ... give a black man a chance."

He was beat out last year at the European VMAs and he straight crashed the stage. Now, maybe it's just me, but if you notice, every time he goes on one of his lil' rampages it's around an album release date.

Now we all know that this damn near 30 year old man is a big baby, but nobody is really saying how smart he is. As of late, record companies haven't been spending a lot of money promoting CDs.

So what's the best way to promote new music? Make sure it's constantly in the media. How does he make sure that it is constantly in the media? He does whatever he needs to do to make an ass of himself so that every time he's mentioned, a reporter will say something about his new CD that's scheduled to drop on Sept. 11.

Don't believe me? Then why is it that 50 Cent only has beef with people when it's time for him to drop a CD? The last time, he was talking trash about my shero Oprah and Kanye. Now that he and Kanye are going to drop on the same day, he's beefing with Kanye again!

Look it up! He has to draw attention to himself to sell records. Now for those of you who know me, ya'll know I am not feeling 50 at all. "In the Club" was my joint for about five minutes and that was because of the beat.

I have a hard time liking or respecting anyone's music whose claim to fame is he was shot nine times and he's still living. You know what that tells me?

He either hired someone to shoot and not kill or whoever he had a beef with couldn't see worth a damn! And if the person he had beef with couldn't see who to shoot, then nobody should be hanging out with this dude because they are subject to catch a couple of bullets!

And this dude said that if Kanye outsells him, he will stop rapping. I personally challenge everyone who reads this to buy three or four of Kanye's "Graduation." Even if you throw them away, you can rest assured knowing that you have done your part in ridding the world of a nicely built, lock jawed rapper.

But even with all that, I am saying that I am disgusted and I want some REAL news. Is that too much to ask for?

I guess Billie Holiday said it best …

“Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves, blood on the root ...”
The song, recorded in 1939, was written and sang to raise awareness about the lynch-mob killings of mostly black men that occurred in the early days of Jim Crow. Sadly, the song still rings true 68 years later.
For those folks who haven’t heard, there is a major violation of civil rights going on in Jena, La. Six black (or African American, which ever you prefer) high school students were charged with attempted second degree murder that stemmed from several racially motivated altercations.
To bring you up to speed, a black student asked a school official if he could sit under the “white tree.” The school official told the student that he could sit anywhere he wanted. The following day, three nooses, painted in the school colors mind you, hung from that very tree.
The responsible students were identified and expelled by the school principal. The school board overturned the expulsion calling it a prank. Students staged a sit in under the tree that was attended by the district attorney who allegedly informed the students that he could take away their lives “with the stroke of a pen.”
To give you the abbreviated version of this story, a main building at the school burned, a black student was beaten at a “white party” by what should be considered a mob of white people.
The assaulted student, who was with friends, ran into one of his assailants at a convenience store. An altercation broke out and the assailant pulled out a gun, the students took it from him and turned it in to police. They were arrested for theft of a firearm.
Two days later, one white kid taunted a group of black kids with racial slurs. I’m sure we all know what they were - they lost their cool and promptly beat him down.
Fast forward to now, six students were charged with attempted second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
One of the students, Mychal (pronounced Michael) Bell has already been tried convicted of the lesser charge of second degree battery. He faces a maximum sentence of 22 years.
First off – WOW!!! Secondly, since when is a school fight a second degree murder attempt? How come nobody was arrested for attempted second degree murder when the black kid was beaten up?
This is beyond ridiculous. It is high time that legal lynching is stopped in the South. I love the South, I always have but we have a soiled history that seems to be repeating itself in Louisiana.
A march on the courthouse is being planned for Sept. 20. I urge each and every person who can get there to do so. Those who have any sort of power, be it political or of the pen, to do your part in helping thwart this injustice.
George Santayana wrote in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I am pleading with you, let’s not only remember our past, let’s be proactive in securing our future. Let's march, let's write letters, sign petitions, whatever we have to do to right this wrong.

FREE THE JENA 6!!!

For more information on how to help, visit: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/