Jacie Williams is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].Congratulations, Southern states. We have once again managed to send the message to the nation that we are ignorant and stuck in the 1960s.
Not too long ago, it was the flag debate. Now we have a bunch of kids starting a debate about whether our court systems are effective.
Following the Jena 6 mess has made me wonder if maybe the nation is right. Are we stuck in some backward part of the country?
All the Jena 6 coverage has done is convince more people that the Southern portion of the United States is full of backwater, ignorant racists.
If there is a problem with racism, the news coverage of the situation is not going to help it. There are no quick fixes for bias. It sometimes takes whole generations or longer to change the attitudes of people. While they are not predominant, there are some idiots in the South, and elsewhere for that matter, who are racists.
Two men were arrested for antagonizing a crowd while the demonstrations were going on in Jena, La. They were driving around with a noose hanging out of the back of their truck.
Instead of reacting violently, the protestors simply told the police, who handled the situation professionally.
So, why did the students not do the same if it were really a matter of race? My guess is that either they were not intelligent enough to realize that the law system would have worked or they would have been fighting anyway.
Then again, despite how mature the demonstrators might be, when I first heard about the protest, I was appalled. Is it not the same as people protesting our court system?
We have an appeals process for a reason. Even if the average person doesn’t agree with the decisions that courts make, they should still respect the decision. If we cannot put faith in our own judicial system, then what pride can we have in being American? Our foundations become useless.
From my understanding, the selection process of the jury was not biased. There were blacks called to serve, but they did not respond, according to The Associated Press.
There are hundreds of people in jail that probably do not deserve it. So what do I care that a couple of punk kids, who already have juvenile records against them, end up in jail? They obviously did not learn their lessons the first go around.
From what I have seen reported in the media, this is no racial situation that needs the attention of national anti-racism organizations and protestors. There were a couple of kids down in Louisiana who acted stupidly, both black and white.
I’m not saying that the fights were not based on race, but I do not think that this is something worth national news. Kids back in my high school fought all the time. It just so happened that in this instance it was race that set the kids off instead of fights over significant others, insults to family, or whatever else kids decide is worth fighting for.
I do not like how the media spun this incident so far out of proportion. Thank you, stereotypes. It makes me feel like there is a media guru out there waiting for any small insignificant event to jump all over to further the negative stereotypes.
Has anyone looked at the death toll from racist gangs in California? I know it is a lot higher than the zero deaths from the Jena 6. One article I read recently said that the number of blacks in Los Angeles has halved since 1990 due to increased violence against them from Hispanic gangs. It might have made the news, but it certainly did not national headlines.
The South might still have problems with racism, but it is not as bad as the media wants people to believe, and we certainly are not the only place with such problems.