International Blog Against Racism Week - Trouble in Jena

I blog against racism all the time, but since this is International Blog Against Racism Week I think that this is an appropriate story to add to the cry that racism is still alive and well. When my friend sent me this email (Thanks Tony!) I had to look at it several times to make sure that I got the date right. This is indeed happening 2007 and not 1957.

From a message sent to the Membership of Color of Change:
"Justice for the Jena 6" —

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Checkout the July 3, 2007 story on truthout.org Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang From the "White Tree" by Bill Quigley.