10.16.07
Jena: A Study In Race-based Thinking
I am certain that nearly every American has heard of the events in Jena, Louisiana. As is often the case, the school administration and the town had the chance to take what became a very negative situation and to make it a teachable moment.
Thirteen months ago, when a black student asked at a Jena High School assembly whether he could sit under a tree known as a gathering place for white students, an assistant principal told him he could sit anywhere he wanted. The next day, though, two nooses were found dangling from the tree. Hanging nooses is not a crime under Louisiana law, but, in a state where 335 blacks were lynched from 1882 to 1968 (a total exceeded only in Mississippi, Georgia and Texas), it is a repugnant, overtly racist act.
Three white students were quickly identified as the perpetrators. The principal recommended their expulsion. But a school board committee overruled him. The students were suspended — but the length and terms were not disclosed. “Some alternative suspension, along with other criteria,” LaSalle Parish School Superintendent Roy Breithaupt told The Town Talk in nearby Alexandria, La., shortly afterward.
Anyone who grows up with dark skin is constantly reminded that America’s opportunities and its equality are not distributed equally. Any honest look at our national history reveals that we have historically been very rough on non-White residents. Why, then, would the local leadership choose not to harshly prosecute the noose-hangers? Had the troublemakers been arrested and expelled from the beginning, the events that followed would not have occurred. Quick, sure action to prevent a longer-term malaise is the prescription there.
Look. I am not a fan of the Al Sharpton / Jesse Jackson school of race relations. I believe that we are Americans, and that we are one people. Thus, the only solution is to harshly prosecute those whose actions threaten that oneness. If anything threatens our nation’s security, it is all the splinter groups who look only to their own interests and not to the interests of all Americans. This ranges from the guys in sheets who threaten and kill dark-skinned residents to the people who blame everything that happens to Blacks and Hispanics on Whites to the groups that are trying to replace the English language with another one to the guys in the corporate offices who pile bonus on top of bonus, but leave their employees with mere crumbs. In every case, where their actions threaten our national oneness, we need to use existing legal resources to constrain their behavior.
By this summer, the perceived underreaction to the nooses, contrasted with the harsh treatment of the six teens, had caught fire on black radio and reverberated across the Internet. The national media descended on Jena, and on Sept. 20, civil rights activists, including Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, led a rally that drew thousands to the town, many waving signs proclaiming “Free the Jena 6.”
This is what I am talking about. By being so lenient about the original incident, they guaranteed that things would amplify. A prompt and draconian response to the nooses, followed by a “if you threaten our togetherness, you’re going to jail” speech would probably have calmed things down considerably.
But even in the midst of rampant race-based thinking, smaller businesses can be the light of justice, or we can wait until we once again get an activist DOJ in Washington to force justice upon us. Frankly, I prefer to be a part of the solution, to dedicate some of my resources toward rectifying injustices where they have occurred and preventing them where they have not. It is sure that those who bury their heads in the sand will be called to account for their inaction.
Smaller, locally-owned businesses [SLOBs] will always get to deal with the consequences of racism anyway. There are those who will not patronize a business if the proprietor is not of their same ethnic background. This harms the economic vitality of locally-based owner-managed businesses [OMBs], while strengthening the hand of large corporations led by avaricious pirates. There are other customers that will refuse to deal with employees of varied ethnic backgrounds. In all these things, up to the limit of the safety of yourself and your employees, a small business owner / manager needs to do the right thing, not the convenient thing.
I urge every small business owner to become a part of the solution to ethic strife. Stop considering ancestral background in hiring, promotion, firing, or in deciding whom to do business with. Whatever other languages your employees may understand, explain to them that the language of the United States is English, and make sure that they learn to use the English language on the job, even if they also use another tongue.
India has had constant turmoil since independence, primarily because each ethnic, language, and religious group wants to be separately recognized. The government of India is a delicate balancing act whereby each people group wants recognition in local and sometimes national affairs. You have to wonder if that is what we want for our country. Or perhaps we want to learn the lesson of Israel, whose citizens came from all over the world and spoke many different languages. The military and social institutions enforced the use of the Hebrew language, which has helped keep the country together. Our nation threatens to burst at the seams over minor and inconsequential issues like what continents someone’s ancestors came from. Our choices will be a lesson for other multi-ethnic societies.
Repeat after me: We are not “Euro-American”, “African-American”, “Hispanic-American”, and Native American. We are Americans of various ethnic backgrounds. We are one people, the American people.
“The town of Jena has for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place where justice is denied,” Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin wrote in a statement on town letterhead faxed on Friday to The Associated Press.
The Jena mayor is upset that John Mellencamp sings, “Jena, take down your nooses”? If you do not like being portrayed as a bunch of racists, then change the way you act. Recognize that your town had the opportunity to decide how to respond. It is your town’s response that appears to be racially biased, leading to the marches and songs about injustice arising in the South.
Mellencamp’s song opens, “An all-white jury hides the executioner’s face; See how we are, me and you?” As he sings, images of Jena, the high school and the tree are followed by video from the 1960s, including civil rights marchers, police beatings, and President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King speaking. Still images include one of a protest sign reading, “God demands segregation,” a stylized drawing of people in Ku Klux Klan robes and an older image of a black man in shackles, begging.
This is a critical time for our nation. We would do well to heed the advice in the USA Today column:
Throughout the episodes in Jena, authorities seem to have lost sight of the obvious goal when a teenager goes off track. It is to salvage his life — usually by some mix of punishment and instruction — not to destroy it. That applies to noose hangers and muggers, though perhaps not in equal proportions.
More broadly, authorities in Jena appear to have had ample opportunities to use those hateful nooses to open talks about race relations with students and parents, black and white — the most productive outlet for racial tensions. [District Attorney] Walters had a chance to use his discretion more wisely.
If there is a lesson here for the rest of the nation, it is to recognize that color-blind justice is far too rare and that when racial tensions simmer, they need a peaceful outlet, not hot flames that will bring them to a boil.
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Tags: racism, small business, jena
