Continued from A conversation on the Jena 6 Part 1...
When that segregation was acknowledged and challenged, the response was to place nooses on the tree. That is a powerful message, especially in the South. When my friend thinks about a noose he thinks of a hanging, but I informed him that for an African American it evokes an image of a BLACK person being hung – a lynching. And when that happens in the South you get the image of KKK and slavery. It’s very different for me to see that and for my friend. I wanted him to comprehend that. I know he cannot understand it as I do, but the comprehension that those nooses are a death threat. It makes the difference of how the reactions unfolded. It provoked anger, and that is not an excuse. Violence is a bad response to provocations, but it is one response when death is the message.
As I recall, back in the 1970’s a court (I believe the Supreme Court) held that incendiary words exist, and their use could provoke actions. These actions could be crimes, but due to the incendiary words the punishment could be minimized or removed. I’m not a lawyer but I recall that well [any lawyers that know better or the exact case, feel free to correct/support me here]. Thus, back then, if an African American were called the N-word, and he beat the crap out of a White man that said it to him, the incendiary clause could be used as a defense.
The nooses were the incendiary. The tree is the segregation. Essentially what happened and was said is, in my opinion, ‘Hey N*****, you don’t belong here. Go away.’ When that was challenged with the thought that segregation doesn’t have a place in 21st century America the response was ‘Uppity N***** I will KILL you.’ Which lead to the violence.
Perhaps it’s the fact that African Americans still feel the weight of the past of America on them, or that America has never apologized for slavery (nor willing to provide reparations as the nation has for other groups that were wronged in the past) because America is not beyond the thoughts of that time, but this is the sentiment that still pervades the nation.
It goes both ways. As my friend correctly mentioned, there are places that he cannot go in New York City. There are places that any race or ethnicity cannot go in America, to this day. We have not gone as far as most of us wish we have. And as long as we don’t address the root of the problem, we never will.
America has its head in the sand when it comes to race relations and segregation and prejudice. Slavery is a subject no one wants to speak about. Reparations is so terrifying a concept, because of what it addresses, every Presidential candidate except one (not Senator Barack Obama) refused to even speak about it in a debate. And these events, like Jena 6, continue to happen.
Continued in Part 3...
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