FLIPSIDE - Jena 6

About a year after the Jena 6 incident in Louisiana took place, we have seen history take place right before our eyes. The election of America's first black president was quite a historical boundary for black people. With that said, it is almost odd to believe that the Jena 6 situation was only a year ago and still to this day the fact that any of the violence was motivated by racism rests solely on the shoulders of the Jena 4 and not those who hung nooses in a school yard.

Even in retrospect, the white citizens of Jena suggest that there was no racial motivation behind the hanging of nooses from a tree on the school's yard. An editor from the town's newspaper even suggests that most of the media's accusations about the incident were false and broke them down into myths. This is just one of what Jena Times assistant editor, Craig Franklin referred to as myths during an interview with The Christian Science Monitor taken directly from the published article. -

Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school
officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the
placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to
the
expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at
black
students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white
students
aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo
team. (The
students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of
"Lonesome Dove.") The
committee further concluded that the three young teens
had no knowledge that
nooses symbolize the terrible legacy of the lynchings
of countless blacks in
American history. When informed of this history by
school officials, they became
visibly remorseful because they had many black
friends. Another myth concerns
their punishment, which was not a three-day
suspension, but rather nine days at
an alternative facility followed by two
weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday
detentions, attendance at Discipline
Court, and evaluation by licensed
mental-health professionals. The students
who hung the nooses have not publicly
come forward to give their version of
events. -

What? If that is true, then what are these students learning about history. If these students don't know the the racially intimidating image of a noose hanging from a tree, then there is a lot more than racism that is an issue at this school. I find it had to believe that none of the students in on the so-called prank had no idea that a noose hanging from a tree could possibly be offensive to black students - black students who supposedly have so many white friends.

Get real. If the prank was merely a joke for some rodeo team, then where were the cows? Isn't the rodeo team supposed to rope calves or something, or do they hang them from trees now? And what part of rural America has a rodeo team anyway? Too many questions and not enough answers that make me believe that Jena is a little racist place in the corner of America where places like this still exist. Catch ya' on the FLIPSIDE.