Sick, sick, sick... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070524/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsracism_070524134732 Racial demons resurface with nooses on Louisiana tree JENA, United States (AFP) - The racial demons of the Old South have resurfaced in a rural Louisiana town where black students who tried to sit on the white side of the school yard were met by three hangmen's nooses dangling from a tree. The students and their parents were outraged by the stark reminder of the mob lynchings which had terrorized Southern US blacks until just a few decades ago. Months of inter-racial violence followed the decision by a white school superintendent to over-rule the principal's recommendation to expel three white students found to have hung the nooses. The community became even more divided after a white prosecutor imposed significantly harsher charges on the black youths caught up in the violence. The head of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union described Jena, Louisiana, as a "racial powder keg" primed to ignite, but some white leaders disagree. "Race is not a major local issue," said Mayor Murphy McMillan. "It's not a factor in the local people's lives." Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama which tracks hate groups, said these types of incidents are still far too common in southern American states where racism is ingrained in the social fabric. "Race is just below the surface in almost every aspect of southern life," Potok told AFP. "There are a lot of places in the Deep South where (almost) nothing has changed aside from the fact that segregation isn't legal." Jena's troubles started in September when a few black students tried to challenge the accepted state of things by crossing an invisible color line in the school yard. They arrived the next morning to see three nooses hanging from the tree they sat under. And the students who hung them were suspended for just three days. "Adolescents play pranks," said superintendent Roy Breithaupt. "I don't think it was a threat against anybody." Inter-racial fights broke out at the school and then spilled out into the small lumber and oil town of 3,000, which is 85 percent white and 12 percent black. Someone set fire to the central wing of the high school in November. Then a black student was beaten for showing up at an all-white party. And a white youth pulled a shotgun on three black teens at a convenience store. Finally, on December 4, a group of black students jumped a white student as he was coming out of the school gym. Even though the teen wasn't seriously hurt, six black students were expelled and were charged with attempted second-degree murder and other offenses for which they face up to 100 years in jail. The white teen who beat a black party crasher was charged with simple battery. The white youth who pulled a shotgun was not charged at all. In the convenience store incident, the three black teens were arrested and accused of aggravated battery and theft after grabbing the shotgun -- in what they call self-defense. "There's no doubt about it -- whites and blacks are treated differently here," said Melvin Worthington, the lone black member of the school board. "The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided." Uneven delivery of punishment is common across the country, according to a recent report by the New York-based Urban League. Black men are three times more likely than white men to face jail once they have been arrested: 24.4 percent of blacks arrested in the United States in 2005 ended up in jail compared with 8.3 percent of white men. They also receive jail sentences that are on average 15 percent longer than whites convicted of the same crime. The biggest disparity is among men convicted of aggravated assault: black men were sentenced to an average of 48 months in jail, which is 33 percent longer than the average sentence of 36 months received by white men, according to the Urban League's annual State of Black America report.
I felt disgusted reading that. especially the comment by the mayor. whats his name? Bahgdad Bob? "There is no racism in our town!"
the mayor isnt bothered by the fact there is an acknowledged white side of the schoolyard in the first place? and he still doesnt htink racism is a problem in his town?
Maybe the grass died and the ground is a little beige, but they call it white. The other side of the schoolyard is the green side of the schoolyard.
This part is almost unbelievable in 2007. So if someone pulls a gun on you and you try to disarm him.. that's theft
[sarcasm]Blacks shouldn't complain because racism died mostly with Slavery, and then what little there was left died after MLK did all his good work. Every complaint that we hear now is just a group of people looking for a handout.[/sarcasm]
There's a reason so many people from Louisiana moved here every year, way before anyone heard of Katrina.
I wonder from time to time why rural areas of the former Confederate states still act the way they act when given the opportunity to disappoint. It's like they're stuck in time or something, but what's real baffling that it's happening in the richest nation in the world.
well the problem is they're communicating quite well, they've made it clear to us they don't like non-white people
Simply baffling. I don't even know what to say. The 'stuck in time' reference is accurate. I must admit that I am curious as to what the "debate" side of this is: The mayor is a tool. The superintendent is a tool. They and the town are obviously racist. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. The world just makes zero sense to me sometimes.
Absolutely sickening. I can't believe there aren't more reports about this. What an ass backwards hick town.
