Barack Obama will eat your children

And turn the country Muslim, which is almost the worst thing ever, except that he also conspires on behalf of a radical organization called the Black Community.





via adrizzle

And now, a message from John McCain on his suspect allegiance to the Black Community:


via ill doctrine

"They're taking our jobs!"

I've heard the above refrain more than a few times from white and Black alike.

Welp, they're right!



Via Of America.

colleges cater to changing appetities...how bout changing demographics?

According to The New York Times, universities and colleges are making changes to their dining menus. Lobster, prime steak, white spinach lasagna are all making an appearance in college dinning halls...

gosh, when I was in college, all I looked forward to was leaving the dining hall without a queasy stomach...

The article states,

"But as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms."

One college director of housing and dining adds,

"And [students] don't just want that product in name only, but they want it to be authentic, because they've eaten at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and they want to smell that hickory wood burning."

I don't know but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Are palates growing more sophisticated? Or are more students from affluent backgrounds who are accustomed to this style of eating being accepted to these colleges?

One student says,

"I didn't apply to Bates, because, well, I ate there, the meal was not very good," Lucas Braun, a 17-year-old senior at Westtown School, outside of Philadelphia, who has been accepted at several colleges in the Northeast. "There's something subliminal from the food you see in the dining hall and the meal they give you that influences your decision."

Really, now. When I was applying to colleges, it was the cost of the school and the financial aid package that was the influencing factor in my decision. Well, I did think about food, but more in the would I even get to eat considering the cost of tuition kind of way.

As a Latina from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles county, I was fortunate enough to even get the chance to apply to colleges, and that was only because many of those annoying application fees were waived based on the plain fact that my high school was both poor and underachieving. I was lucky enough to be on the campus of a small, private, liberal-arts school. And during my time there, I was much too busy fighting the system to care whether my food was cooked to order. I only demanded an occasional tortilla here and there to calm my homesickness.

With this in mind, I can't help but think that rich kids are the motivating force behind wood-fired pizza, grilled sesame crusted tuna with wasabi mayo, and lobster.
Lobster, yeah,
lobster…

America isnt getting into heaven

Barack Obama's Speech on race and its relevance today in society, has been echoing throughout the media, schools, the workplace and everywhere in between. Even Condoleezza Rice has made comments reitereating the points raised by Obama, leading to more bigoted responses from people like Lou Dobbs

Obama was not the first person to call slavery America's original sin. People can refer to him as the man who made it a point during the 2008 presidential campaign, but lets not give him too much credit.

BUT! As essential as slavery was to the U.S's development as a dominant world superpower, to the creation of white ruling classes consisting of corporate and and inherited wealth, and to the general privilege afforded to white people, none of this would have been possible without the land they stole. America's original sin in my mind was the genocide wrought upon Native Americans from Canada down to South America and throughout the Carribean. A genocide fueled primarily by greed for land and wealth, not fear/hate of "savages"

Was that not the quintessential crust that makes up the American Pie?

"Remebering" tradgedies of the past isnt a shopping cart philosophy, we cant just pick and choose what is convienent. If we are gonna talk about America's sins we need to talk about everything. We cannot ignore the Native American genocide and the enslavement of Asian immigrants to build the railroads, and their immense contributions to the West's developments. The knowledge alone, that was stolen from them was/is a sin in itself. But what about the CURRENT inhumane conditions of immigrant workers in constuction and domestic jobs, and all the other systems that oppress people on the basis of RACE AND CLASS AND GENDER AND SEXUALITY. Why hasn't a presidential candidate talked about that? Until the public starts to account for the multiple "sins" and the current ones, its not going to get into heaven.

community and identity

i've been thinking a lot about community lately. living in a city foriegn to me, treading on streets of one of the oldest cities in the u.s. which have some of the oldest "commmunities" of urban america. i have lived here for a year now. and sitting in class last night, we were talking about community. my friend, said "[community to me has rarely been a geographic drawn commmunity, i grew up in Harlem, but now live in Washington Heights, ive been there for 10 years now, but when i think of the the community, i think of communities i dedicate myself to and belong to, like social justice and labor, not necessarily drawn by physical boundaries.]"

her words reflect more than just the reality of a global economy and society, where captial and people (sometimes one in the same) can be moved over night. telecommunications have us talking and seeing eachother over a computer, and when we want to "stick it to the man" its often hard to find out who that man really is.

but to me, more importantly, her words highlight the importance of empowering people across demographics, beyond boundaries of race, class, gender, and sexual orientaiton. especially if looking at the potential democratic presidential candidates. one, a african american man, the other white woman. we have all heard "what it would be if we had a woman president? or a black president?"

although our identity and how we interpret it - our privilege, social honor & esteem, or lack of - is the basis for our views and political orientations, its important to realize that when it boils down to it, its about how we think. creating degress of opprssion has never made sense to me, i cant imagine weighing one person simply based on a single demographic. good politics are good politics, consciousness is consciousness, and if you truly believe in liberating education and empowering communities, thats what important. at least it is to me.

Stuff white people like...

asian fusion foods, apple products, renovations and more...

click here for a blog devoted entirely to dissecting the interests of white people.

classic.

Perpetuating Racism

Recently I heard about a college class that was asked the following question:

How do you reinforce racism either through the things you do or do not do?

Everyone was told to write down their responses and then the papers were passed to different people in the class and read aloud.

Most of the responses were things like:

I get nervous when I walk by a person of color on the street

I don’t stop my friends or family from saying racist jokes or using words like “ghetto”

When I see students of color on campus I think they got here through affirmative action*

It is a beginning level course with mostly white students so I didn’t expect to hear much else, but I really want to.

I want to see the discussion of perpetuating racism deepen. I want it to be more than admitting you get nervous around men of color. I want it to be true confessions of outwardly things that people do.

But if you ask a white person what they do to reinforce racism and they think that they are not racist then they probably do not realize what it is they are doing. And if they are a student in college that is trying to be really pc, then they might admit something deep if they have had extensive classes but most likely they won’t because they don’t want to admit to themselves or others that their over use of pc terms is because of their deep seeded racist thoughts.

Ok, I’m generalizing, but this is what I have heard throughout my years in academia.

People in college are going to be the ones that take over big companies and have positions of power in the future. They will be in positions that can allow them to work from the inside out. I want them to acknowledge what they do so they can work to over come it.

I want to hear a college student say:

I work in a department store and I often follow people of color as they shop

I think people of color exaggerate when they talk about racist things that have happened to them

It’s an interesting conversation to have. It’s one that more college courses should have and professors should push students to go deeper. What would you say in response to that question?

*This one is an exception. It's on the deeper side for sure. Not something most college students are likely to admit.

On the National Day of Panhandling for Reparations

It's the day before THE day and my partner-in-justice and I just finalized our panhandling location. The surge of excitement surrounding tomorrow drove me to blogspot, and here I am.

We'll be panhandling at the corner of Hyperion and Monon in Silverlake (in Los Angeles, CA). Right there, in front of the Trader Joe's. I'm excited because it affords me the justice I didn't know I needed.

See, I shop at this Trader Joe's every few weeks--it's where I get my Kashi Heart to Heart at $2.87 a box. Breakfast of champions. Seriously... those little hearts and Os are the perfect balance of wholesome, crunchy, and sweet...but I digress.

Every time I venture out from Koreatown to Silverlake--as liquor stores turn to coffee shops--my breath becomes labored from the thick smog of gentrification and hipster musk. Until now, I haven't had a way to interrogate this space--I've found myself shoved around like a pinball, bouncing from $200 matted hair-do to $200 matted hair-do inside this store, trying to get my hands on just ONE box of cereal and get the hell out!

Today I fully realized the opportunity to force the present into conversation with the past that panhandling for reparations provides. Tomorrow we will be looking history squarely in the eye, acknowledging its truth, and asking others to do the same. This is my opportunity to peacefully push back, to ask my hipster co-shoppers to take a second and locate themselves...or, at the very least, to make a reparations payment.

Slip of the tongue

Written and performed by Adriel Luis of the ill-literacy crew.

Shout out to wifey for this one ;)

Front Page News?

Last week Reverend Lennox Yearwood from the Hip Hop Caucus waited outside the doors of the Petraeus hearing to get in. The policy repeatedly denied him entry while allowing others to enter. Rev. Yearwood began to question the officers about why he was not being allowed into a public hearing. Multiple officers then tackled him to the ground and arrested him. The entire time Rev. Yearwood is not resisting and many people around him are yelling at the police to stop and saying he is a peaceful man. If you do a google search you'll find Democracy Now!, some independent media sources and blogs reporting on the incident. Here is the You Tube video:



On Monday, a University of Florida student attended a speech by John Kerry. The student was given the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the speech. Right before he went up to the podium he gave a camera to his friend to record the question. After a minute of simply talking to Kerry he was asked by a police officer to finish his statement; his time was up. The student then yelled "I'm going to ask my question." and continued to go on and on. Finally, two officers began to escort him out. He then began yelling and resisting. He became so out of control that he was tasered. If you do a google search on this story you will see it in almost every major newspaper and on the front page of many today. Here is the video:




Before you read any further, please watch both of those videos. What do you notice about these two? Any striking differences besides the fact that one is a black man and the other white?

Does it look like the white boy is putting on a show to anyone else? The paper also mentioned that the student "has a history of chronicling his public hijinks". I can't begin to express my anger right now. Not only did a white boy trying to cause trouble make the front page, but a well-respected Reverend who did nothing wrong has his civil liberties violated and it is ignored by all major forms of media. People are talking about the "police brutality" at University of Florida. WTF!!!! I agree that they should not have tasered the U of F student, but who gets coverage is just ridiculous. Jena 6 happened over a year ago and major news sources have only picked up the story in recent months.

This shit is just FUCKED up.

Not a Hate Crime?

Apparently, when six whites kidnap a Black woman, hold her hostage for six days and torture her with repeated rapes, choke her with a cable wire, force her to eat excerment and scald her with hot water, it's not a hate crime.

From Keith Boykin, who broke this story over a week ago:

When police arrived at a rickety mobile home in Big Creek, West Virginia on Saturday, they found something that shocked the community. A 20-year-old black woman was being held hostage in the house. She had been kidnapped, tortured and raped for more than a week by a group of six whites, authorities say. The three men and three women who held her captive allegedly beat, stabbed and sexually assaulted the woman while calling her a "nigger."

Federal prosecutors in West Virginia have decided not to file hate charges, a decision that may in part be due to the fact that hate crime convictions carry far lesser punishment than federal statutory offenses. Boyking adds:

The best argument for not pursuing federal hate crimes prosecution is that the state crimes carry tougher sentences if convicted. That's a reasonable argument, but that's often the case, especially in cases of murder and other serious violent crimes. Still that misses the point. The point of hate crimes laws is not to replace the existing law, but to provide an additional basis for charges against the accused. In these cases, society is so outraged by crimes motivated by prejudice that we provide heightened penalties for those who commit such crimes.

What is the point of having hate crime legislation if it's only a slap on the wrist? For crimes such as this one, that carry with it such vile hatred as the impetus for inflicting torture, hate crime legislation needs to be something that not only symbolically pays dues to the the undercurrent of hatred and power that motivates violent crime. Instead, it should work to legally acknowledges the power imbalances in this society, and uses its boundaries to provide a space in which that power is challenged and, in some vague way, justice is served.

But hell, with OJ's alleged robbery making front page news, I should know better than to think justice exists for Black folks in this country.

Mt. Pleasant is a small community in Washington, DC that is home to much of the Latino community. Mt. Pleasant Street is filled with little Salvadorian restaurants, Latino grocery stores and other Latino owned businesses. It's nice to walk through the neighborhood and see that the Latino community doesn't just live there but owns businesses there too. It's refreshing and makes me feel like we have a place of our own.

That is until you get about half way up the street and find Dos Gringos. It is a small cafe that mainly has vegetarian and vegan food. It was started by who else, but "dos gringos". And guess who usually frequents the place? Gringos! Reviews of the restaurant mention that it is about the only place that's ever heard of a chai latte in Mt. Pleasant.

I say: Aren't there enough places for white folks to hang out? Do you really feel that threatened by the Latino community?

It's not just about white people owning a restaurant in the area. It's about the fact that they felt the need to claim that whiteness. Let anyone that walks by know that this is in fact a white establishment.

Today as I was walking through the neighborhood I saw a co-worker of mine eating there. As I walked up the steps to say hello I felt wrong, as if I were committing a sin against the community. I said my hellos as quickly as possible and left.

Another white male co-worker of mine mentioned that he has had a few interactions with people in the Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant areas that have stopped him to tell him to get out of their communities. The rapid gentrification of the areas is causing turmoil between the white and non-white members of the community. I look at places like "Dos Gringos" and think...this is where it started.

I haven't met a white person yet who hasn't made mention to the restaurant when talking about Mt. Pleasant. It's "trendy" and "hipster"....which means "white". It's there spot on the La-tino street. It's probably the second most popular reason for moving there right after; "I really feel like I'm connected to the people here". Oh yeah, look at that, I think your skin is changing color....it's a lighter shade of white.

A poem for the ones I work with

Gay white people piss me off.

No, let me rephrase.

It's not all gay white people, it's the ones that serve as conduits
for white culture.
The ones that claim to "get it" because they're gay.
The ones that say the building across the street is "ghetto" because it needs a new coat of whitewash.

Ha. no pun intended, but I'll take it.

I can't stand these cats who take the blasé approach to Diversity Training,
not out of strong politics, but out of
lack.

Who believe that dealing with issues of race in this work place
would be preaching to the choir,
Who focus more on being straight-
inclusive than trans-
inclusive,
Who hush their voices to talk about
"African Americans,"
Who speak their opinions as universal truths.

I hate it when they try to explain to me the "reality" of the situation,
Like I don't have eyes and ears and a brain of my own,
Like thinking trumps feeling like rock to scissors,
Like their Beverly Hills mansion is some Medieval watchtower from which they survey the city below.

Science and reason are their new religion that turn fiction
to fact with
anthropology,
physiognomy,
and three taps of a hat.

They forget the connection between the birth of the "homosexual" and
The Birth of a Nation;
Forget to fight for their right to marry AND her freedom to choose.

It's not that they're not well-meaning,
but when they blow off an immigration rally,
opting instead for "exotic" decorations and margarita happy hour,
I want to SCREAM.

And when they think pictoral representation is the problem, not a symptom,
when they police each other about being "PC",
I want to take their PC and shove it up their ass.

Yeah, it's times like these that them gay white conduits piss me the hell off.

Because when the revolution comes

When I first got wind of the youth uprisings outside Paris in November 2005, two things shocked me. One, that black and brown youth were revolting en masse, gaining international attention. And two, the Parisian urban get up. The most impoverished neighborhoods lay about half an hour outside the city, in physical isolation from the country's economic and social center. The poor were literally out of sight and out of mind, fueling the tension that bred the rebellion. I wondered how physical isolation felt for entire communities that had been removed from the public sphere.

The United States now seems to be adopting a European model of shaping --and coloring --urban landscapes. From San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York, working class communities of color are being pushed farther and farther out. In the Bay Area, it might start with being pushed out of the Fillmore or Mission, and then moving along BART lines throughout the Bay to stay somewhat connected to the city, where the density of jobs exist. Even hipsters are finding it hard to maintain and are looking to colonize working class Black strongholds like West Oakland.

Is this way of life sustainable? One untold aspect of gentrification is its effect on government services. As working class families leave, public schools are faced with declining enrollment, a fact that probably means nothing since everything is being privatized anyway.

As crucial as an analysis of race is to any discussion about gentrification, it's important to note that it's not just white folks gentrifying your city's downtown. That pursuit of power, prestige, "civility" is a form of whiteness that anyone of upwardly mobile means can don as a mask. Whether it's Mexican American Princes, taking the reigns of LA politics, or freshly minted negroes with Arabic names and Stanford degrees, everyone who wants to be anyone is jumping at the chance to call a neighborhood "ghetto" and talk about its infestation of crack babies while listening to Jay-Z.

Race, as always, is complex and everchanging. In our limited American lexicon where we lack the language to dictate the obvious, race has become a hallow word we used because we're uncomfortable using words like "priviledge" and "power". More than anything, we're afraid of indicting ourselves. It's so easy as people of color to indicte white folks for everything oppressive and unjust, yet we ignore the power dynamics in our own communities that make mobilizing so difficult. I am a Black woman from a working class neighborhood -- a "surivivor" of gentrification. My family prized education, so to some, I talk 'white' and appear booksmart (yes, I've read Audre Lorde. No, my life didn't change as a result). In about two weeks I'm set to move across the country, iBook in one hand, ghetto survivor's guilt in another, and pursue my dream of becoming a "writer" in an affordable Brooklyn neighborhood, haunted by the ghosts of the families I've displaced. As you might have guessed it, I have an Arabic name, was born in the mid eighties, and graduated from an overpriced exlcusive liberal arts college. It ain't easy to admit, but admitting priviledge is the first step.

Like many folks in my shoes, I romanticize revolution. I wear it on my t-shirts and listen to it on my iPod while I'm on my way to my cozy office job. I believe in rebellion and resistance as an effective --even necessary--method of sustainable social change. Anger is the seed to action. But I worry. When I visualize revolution, I see a scene from an Octavia Butler novel, post-apocalyptic angst, roaring flames. I believe that youth will lead the way and that text messaging will be critical. But at that point of chaos, I fear that we'll have no direction. Perhaps like the Parisian youths who rioted for days and captured international headlines, we'll fight gallantly. But where will I be? It's not so easy as choosing a side. I feel like we all rotate along the edges of an octagon and when that public display of anger reveals itself, we'll all rush forward and attack one another because we were never certain of where we stood.

The revolution starts with the self. Hi, my name is Jay. I'm priviledged, and I'm angry.

Bush-isms.

I rarely write about Bush because I feel like his incompetence is so glaringly obvious that's it's usually a waste of energy. But Ima put me up on this, so enjoy:

Is our President an idiot? Or just inarticulate? You decide.

Transgender woman rape survivor sues california prison system

Alexis Giraldo is suing the California state prison system after being repeatedly raped by her cellmate. Ms. Giraldo, a Latina transgender woman, was an inmate in 2006 and repeatedly asked prison officials be moved to a different cell after her cellmate threatened to rape her. Her demands fell on deaf ears for three months, during which time she was repeatedly raped.

She's now suing the state for failing to protect her despite her own voiced concerns for her safety. She's also suing on behalf of the Transgender community in an effort to force the state to develop new methods of safety for transgender inmates.

Community United Against Violence (CUAV) and the Transgender, Gender Variant
& Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP)are encouraging community members and social justice organizations to show their support for Ms. Giraldo as her trial begins. Court officials continue to refer to Ms. Giraldo as "him" in an attempt to attack her credibility.

From the press release:

Ms. Giraldo, who will be present to give her own testimony, and her
attorney Greg Walston, are requesting that the community attend the court
proceedings and wear RED. RED has been chosen as a symbol of the hurt and
pain caused by the violence and discrimination against our communities, as
well as a way to express power in loving solidarity. On the behalf of Ms.
Giraldo, CUAV and TGIJP are also requesting that community members sit in
silent solidarity in the courtroom. For more information about trial times
and dates please go to: www.tgijp.org . For copies
of press packet materials: http://www.tgijp.org/giraldo/presspacket.html

When: Tuesday July 17th-31st, 2007.
Where: Civic Center Courthouse, Room 622, 400 McAllister Street @ Polk St,
in San Francisco.
Time: The trial will regularly run every day from 9:30am to 4:30 pm.
Please Wear RED!

Please let CUAV & TGIJP know which dates and times you are able to attend by
emailing Tina D’Elia, the Hate Violence Survivor Program Director at CUAV,
or by calling Alexander Lee at TGIJP.

For more information:
Court Case Coordinator (inquiries about the case):
Alexander Lee at TGIJP (510) 677-5500; for daily court updates go to:
www.tgijp.org

Court Watch Coordinator (inquiries about participating in the court watch):
Yaya Ruiz, Hate Violence Advocate at CUAV – yaya@cuav.org

Jim Crow in Jena, Louisiana

Its really interesting (not suprising) that mainstream media has not picked up on this at all. What are your thoughts?



From Indy Bay

Jim Crow Injustice in Jena, Louisiana
by Alice Woodward /Revolution ( revolution.sfbureau [at] gmail.com )
Monday Jul 16th, 2007 1:37 PM


(Update from Revolution Newspaper) In 2006 Black high school students sat under a tree in front of the local high school, an area that, in the unspoken law of Jena, Louisana, was reserved for white students. The next day three nooses hung from the tree in the school colors. These events set in motion a schoolyard fight. 16 year old Mychal Bell was convicted on June 28 by an all white jury and now faces up to 22 years in prison. And five more Black students still face serious charges stemming from the fight.
The story of the Jena Six began on September 1, 2006 -- a hot late summer day, in the southern town of Jena, Louisiana. Bryant Purvis, a Black high school student, asked permission to sit beneath the shade tree known as the “white tree,” in front of the town’s high school. It was unspoken law that this shady area was for whites only during school breaks. The vice principal said nothing was stopping anyone. So Black students sat underneath the tree, challenging the established authority of segregation and racism.

The next day, hanging from the tree, were three ropes, in school colors, each tied to make a noose. The events set in motion by those nooses led to a schoolyard fight. And that fight led to the conviction, on June 28, 2007, of a Black student at Jena High School for charges that can bring up to 22 years in prison. Mychal Bell, a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, was convicted by an all-white jury, without a single witness being called on his behalf. The remaining five Black students still face serious charges stemming from the fight, their lawyers and parents estimate they will go to trial this fall.

While this particular story begins in September of last year, the background story goes way back. In a previous article in Revolution, I used the “white tree” of Jena as a metaphor for all the racism, and systematic oppression of Black people, which dates back to the founding of this country. Right now, that is what is being enforced with the persecution of these young Black men.

* * *

The town of Jena, like rural and urban areas throughout this country, is a segregated place. In an article called, “Racism Goes on Trial Again in America's Deep South,” the British newspaper The Observer (Sunday, May 20, 2007) described: “Jena's major industry is growing and marketing junk pine. Walk down the usually deserted main street and you will not find many Black employees. [Caseptla] Bailey, 56, is a former air force officer and holder of a business management degree. ‘I couldn't even get a job in Jena as a bank teller,’ she said. ‘Look at the banks and the best white-collar jobs and you'll see only white and red necks in those collars.’” The local barber is still a white-only business, they have never cut the hair of a Black person.

I spoke with Mychal Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, by phone, and he gave me a picture of how this breaks down in the Jena schools: “Young white kids, most of them don’t have contact with Black people until they get to high school. They got a school, their junior high here, what they call Fellowship, and another school called Nebo—a little neighborhood that is part of Jena—they got an elementary school—a junior high school, or a middle school—one or the other. Those schools are being funded by government funds, but no Black kids go there.

“They don’t have contact, any interaction with Black kids until they get to high school. When white kids leave their school, and get to high school here, this is their first time ever playing ball with Black kids, being in classroom with Black kids, talking to Black kids, if they even talk to them, which I doubt.”

I mentioned to Marcus Jones that I had recently seen the movie Remember the Titans (about the integration of a school and its football team in 1971 in Virginia), and that the situation he was describing reminded me of scenes in the beginning of that movie. He kind of laughed, and said, “Some of that Titan’s stuff is not too far from this.”

Protesting the Noose Incident

In response to the noose incident, several Black students, among them star players on the football team, spontaneously staged a sit-in and protest, under the tree. The principal reacted by bringing in the white district attorney, Reed Walters, and 10 local police officers to an all-school assembly. Marcus Jones described the assembly:

“At any activity done in the auditorium—anything—Blacks sit on one side, whites on the other side, okay? The DA tells the principal to call the students in the auditorium. They get in there. The DA tells the Black students, he's looking directly at the Black students—remember, whites on one side, Blacks on the other side—he's looking directly at the Black students. He told them to keep their mouths shut about the boys hanging their nooses up. If he hears anything else about it, he can make their lives go away with the stroke of his pen.”

DA Walters concluded that the students should “work it out on their own.” Police officers roamed the halls of the school that week, and tensions simmered throughout the fall semester.

In November, as football season came to a close, the main school building was mysteriously burned down. In the wake of this, tensions erupted in a weekend of whites lashing out to enforce white supremacy in Jena.

On a Friday night, Robert Bailey, a 17-year-old Black student and football player, was invited to a dance at the “Fair Barn,” a hall considered to be “white.” When he walked in, without warning he was punched in the face, knocked on the ground and attacked by a group of white youth. Only one of the white youth was arrested—he was ultimately given probation and asked to apologize.

The night after that, a 22-year-old white man, along with two friends, pulled a gun on Bailey and two of his friends at a local gas station. The Black youths wrestled the gun from him to prevent him from using it. They were arrested and charged with theft, and the white man went free. The following Monday students returned to school. It was then that a fight broke out that sent one white student to the hospital. He was treated, released, and seen at a social event that evening. In contrast to how the authorities handled the assault on Robert Bailey by white students – where one white student got probation and apologized – for this incident, six Black students face serious criminal charges and decades in jail.

Marcus Jones told me what happened: “The next day, when they get back to school, the Barker boy called one of them a ‘nigger.’ We have a statement from a white kid, saying that he was right there when he called him ‘nigger boy’ or something like that. They charged them with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree attempted murder. Alright, the boy was knocked unconscious. But by the time they called for the medic to get there, he was walking. They took him to the hospital. He don’t stay in there probably no more than an hour, tops. They released him, parents come to the hospital to get him, everything, took like a whole hour. Later on that evening, they held the ring ceremony, you know where they get their rings—he comes up there all fine and dandy. He had a little black eye, little bruise on his lip, you know, but he wasn’t nowhere close to no death. He laughed and talked with everyone up there, and everything.”

Justin Barker was allegedly knocked down, punched, and kicked by a number of Black students. In December of 2006 six Black students—Robert Bailey Junior, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Mychal Bell, and a still unidentified minor, allegedly the attackers of Justin Barker—were arrested, charged with attempted second degree manslaughter, and expelled from school.

The outrageously high bail ranged from $70,000-$138,000, leaving most of them stuck in jail for months. Mychal was 16 years old at the time he was arrested, the judge removed him from the juvenile facilities and brought him to the Jena Parish jail to charge him as an adult.

A Jim Crow Trial

What kind of trial did Mychal Bell get in the town of Jena, Louisiana?

Without any explanation, both of Mychal Bell’s parents were put on the “witness list” and therefore were not allowed into the courtroom. They were never called to testify, but they were not allowed to go into the trial. In this way those in charge of this courtroom prevented Mychal Bell's parents from attending the trial of their own son.

Mychal was judged by an all-white jury, in a courtroom run by a white judge. Whites sat with Justin Barker and his white lawyer on one side. Blacks sat with defendant Mychal Bell, who was represented by a court-appointed attorney.

The prosecutor called 16 witnesses, mostly white students. The court-appointed defense attorney called none. Barker’s attorney argued that Bell’s tennis shoes on his feet were a “dangerous weapon.”

The trial was so outrageous that when a Louisiana TV station polled viewers, 62% said that Mychal Bell was not getting a fair trial.

Mychal Bell was convicted of two felonies: aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. Mychal faces up to 22 years in prison for a schoolyard fight. Compare this to the white students who attacked Robert Bailey at the Fair Barn and have been allowed to go free with barely a slap on the wrist.

The threat of a similar so-called trial hangs over the heads of the other accused Black students.

Marcus Jones said, “Now remember, who created this atmosphere of this Black and white stuff? The DA done that. ’Cause when he let those boys get away with hanging those nooses, and when they had the fight with the Barker boy, he was telling them, ‘Listen, you niggers, don’t put your hands on nobody white. If you do, I’m gonna show you. I’ll put charges on those boys.’ And lately he was saying, ‘It’s alright for those whites to do what they want to do, because I ain’t going to do nothing to them.’ Black kids see he didn’t do nothing to them about the noose incident, you know? So he’s the one that created all this racial tension here, you see. He let one race slide. But you’re going to try to enforce the law on another race.”

In an interview from an upcoming documentary that aired on Democracy Now (7/10/07), Marcus Jones showed for the camera the stack of college scholarship offers his son Mychal had received to play football at many different schools. Marcus Jones commented solemnly, “One of the best lessons that my son could learn, that’s one of the best lessons, to know what it is to be Black now, ya know, if this don’t teach him what it is to be Black now, I don’t know what will. He’s 17 now, he’s got a lot of life ahead of him. The day he sets foot out of jail, I’m going to tell him again, you know what it is to be Black now, here it is.”

Free the Jena Six!

In scenes from the documentary aired on Democracy Now, Caseptla Bailey, the mother of Robert Bailey, who also awaits his trial remarked, “They want to take these kids, my son as well as all these other children, lock them up and throw away the key, that’s a tradition, for Black males, so they want to keep that tradition going because they want to keep institutionalized slavery alive and well.”

In the face of this heart wrenching and outrageous reality, a battle is being fought to defend the Jena Six. Family, friends, and supporters of the young men are protesting and struggling. The Black community in Jena and people from across Louisiana and Texas have come together to support the Jena 6 and fight the injustice of their trials. People have put their lives on hold, and churches have opened their doors.

Marcus Jones told me, “I’m still in need of a lawyer for my son and one more of the kids. So we opened up a defense account for trying to get some good legal representation. Because my son was really just sold out by the court-appointed lawyer. Oh man, that’s so devastating. So now we’re just trying to generate some money to get good legal representation.”

All those who oppose racism, all those who watched in horror or themselves lived through the reality of Hurricane Katrina, all those who joined the debate around the Imus incident in opposition to racism and oppression, and those who have watched with horror as the clock was turned back 50 years by a Supreme Court ruling, undermining and doing away with what little rights were given by Brown v. Board of Education should join in demanding the charges be dropped against all of the Jena 6, and that Mychal Bell’s conviction be reversed!

Humiliation Level: High

Recently my grandmother went on a trip to Mexico. Before she entered the metal detector at the security checkpoint my aunt (who was traveling with her) told airport security that her mother had had knee replacement surgery. After my grandmother went through the detector which of course beeped, airport security pulled her aside and used a wand. And of course, it beeped at the knees. My grandmother pulled up her long skirt to reveal the long scars extending up each leg. Security said she would have to be checked in a separate room. My aunt insisted that there was no need, she had knee surgery. Security told her to step aside and let them do their job. In a private room my grandmother had to take off her skirt while three female security guards used the wand on her, which went off—at her knees. Then they would talk to each other, go outside and consult with someone else, come back in, and do it again. This went on for almost thirty minutes until she was finally let go.

What did they think? A 76 year old abuelita had a doctor insert explosives into her knees so she could blow up her Mexico lindo?

A friend of my mothers has a similar experience. Her father wears braces on his legs. He can’t walk without them. Each time he goes to the airport he has to take off the braces, put them through the machine and then crawl through the metal detector. No one is allowed to help him through. Is it so far fetched to let him sit down while the braces are run through the machine and then use a wand so he doesn’t have to crawl on the airport floor?

I understand the need for metal detectors. I want a safe and weapon-free flight too. But I also want people treated with respect.

When I go the airport all it takes is a smile and no one thinks twice to check my bags. It has been that way my entire life. In middle school when a pager was stolen in the locker room everyone was checked at the door, except me. I was furious. No one seemed to understand why. “But that means they trust you!” Maybe. But it also means that we were not all treated equally. And airport security doesn’t know me. They have no reason to trust me. Yet they do. In fact, they shouldn’t trust me. Both times I returned from South America I brought in items I wasn’t supposed to. Harmless items they may have been, but still not allowed.

The point is the security check points are no longer here for our security. They are now here for our humiliation as the disabled man crawls across the floor and the young white skinny girl walks through with her high heeled shoes on.

Ancestors in Training

Older people have always scared me. Wrinkles, gray hair, the looks of agony as arthritis takes hold of a bone. They force me to think of my own mortality. Nevermind the fact that most of the folks I know who've passed have been taken in some tragic, unexpected way, years before their time. To me, aging has always been taking one step closer to dying. But I've never been afraid of death.

Aging to me is the slow process of everything, and everyone, becoming an antecedent. The heart and essence of people get lost in time until they become moments of deja-vu. Everything is fresh when you're young, experiencing it for the first time, and it's confusing for me to think that life is the repetition of cycles over which we have no control.

I've never liked the word "gentrification" because it sounds like something far too clinical for a process that murders generations of souls. But today I walked past the old record shop on Hayes that's now home to an organic healing center that doubles as a tattoo parlor, and it hit me. This process of uprooting communities is a slow, painful genocide. Death knocks on your door in the form of eviction notices and foreclosures. Memories become "ghetto", "violent" and "prone to drug addicted behavior". Every three blocks is marked with "historic district", the city sanctioned tombstone that makes maintenance too expensive and pride too elusive. Year by year, buildings are snatched away and remodeled so that even the few who remain don't even recognize their memories anymore. They become bitter and hostile, aging much faster than the rest. Some go insane by way of injections or pipes or bottles or God. Who can blame them when their memories don't belong to them anymore?

I'm not afraid of death, but I am afraid of its process. The physical pain, yes. But it's more this process of becoming an antecedent. The past triumphs over the present moment. I haven't decided if that's a good or bad thing, and it's this indecision that makes me quiver. I believe in respecting the past, but fear I'll tread that line a little too closely and become one of the insane whose reality differs from everyone else's. I can't help but laugh at that, though, because in my 22 years I'm still so consumed with the opinions of others.

For better or worse, this process of death still frightens me. I don't know who to blame: the ailments, for striking so selfishly; the body, for fighting so pitifully; or age, for being one of those undeniable truths we're never meant to understand until we're knocking on death's door.