Let's put reflection on the past aside for one post and take a look at the present.


Thursday or Friday I turned on CNN and was surprised to see massive coverage of something called "Jena 6." I thought it might have been a sixth porn compilation from Jenna Jameson, but no, this was some sort of large gathering of grave-faced black people.

At this point I have only a tenuous grasp of the story, and while I find it worthy of comment I paradoxically don't find it worth studying in detail. The story goes that at a high school in Louisiana the white kids usually gathered under a particular tree at lunch. One day some black kids "usurped" the tree. The white kids, in retaliation, hung some nooses from the tree to send a message about old-old-old school reprisal for such a transgression. Silly, to be sure, and I wouldn't have been surprised if Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's posses turned out for a quick photo op and a one day news story about this, and perhaps rightfully so.

But instead, some particular white kid got picked out and beaten down by six black kids over this. Six. Six on one. Hardly a fair fight. So the six black kids are being charged with attempted murder because, believe it or not, six people kicking the shit out of you in unison could potentially cause life-ending injuries.

As I say, I wouldn't have been surprised, maybe wouldn't even have blamed, Sharpton and Jackson for showing up over the nooses. But by the time six kids have attacked one, they've lost their any privilege to play the race card. You've more than gotten your revenge, you've used excessive force six times over. But here are Sharpton and Jackson saying this should be treated as "kids fighting" instead of an attempted murder.

Yeah, right.

If Sharpton and Jackson wanted to hear a real story of racial inequality, maybe they should have turned their attention to Savannah, Missouri. Right after CNN reported the Jena 6 story, there was this one: two white males, not even 20, had created a homemade rap video where they "spit" that they were going to kill about 22 Savannah, Missouri police officers, then destroy their small town "like a Godzilla." The two are now in custody and facing a variety of charges, including terroristic threats and conspiracy to commit second-degree assault.

Back in 1989 a group of five black males in Compton, California were propelled to legendary status overnight for a similar rap song. N.W.A., "Straight Outta Compton":

I'm a sniper with a hell of a scope
takin' out a cop or two,
they can't cope with me
A motherfuckin' villain that's mad
with potential to get bad as fuck
I'm gonna turn it around
Put in the clip, yo, and this is the sound.
Yeah, something like that
but it all depends on the size of the gat
Takin' out the police who make my day
But a nigga like Ren don't give a fuck to say it
Fuck the police!

(I didn't even have to look that up, I know it by heart!) Ice Cube goes on to ask us to bring the yellow tape to "tape off the scene of the slaughter" because when he's finished "it's gonna be a bloodbath of cops dying in L.A." Yes, probably as graphic, or morseo, than what those teens in Missouri were coming up with, with their derivative, honkified concepts and rhymes. Yet Ice Cube now appears in family-oriented movies like Are We Done Yet? and is accepted as a mainstream movie star. Dr. Dre had a stint as a lauded producer.

Damn right, Jesse and Al! This racial inequality must end!

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