The New Civil Right -- Attack A Cracker!

Am I the only person who found the entire Jena 6 "celebration" disturbing and more than a little Orwellian? It was like watching an updated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm, with Al Sharpton in the role of Napoleon, leading the Manor Farm's animals in not "Four legs good, two legs bad!" but in "No justice, no peace!" which in civil-rights-speak, oddly enough, translates to: "Black folks good, white folks bad!"

I've never seen so many people reveling in and gleeful over alleged racism. The entire rally proves a thought I have held for some time: White racism (real or perceived) could end tomorrow at 6:00 AM, and by Noon, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others in the "Racism Industry" will have reinvented it. With no Don Imus or Harlem "interloper" to oust, Al Sharpton was glad to have the case of the Jena 6 fall into his lap. He looked and sounded ecstatic at the rally: "This is the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. faced Jim Crow. We've come to Jena to face James Crow Jr., Esq." This hug-a-thug" approach will keep the good Reverend in business the rest of his agitating life, meaning he will not have to get a job. This is not a new approach to civil rights; Jesse Jackson did the same thing in 1999 in Decatur, Illinois when he lionized six expelled thugs who started a brawl at a football game. The Jena 6 celebrations/demonstrations are a gift from the protest gods.

Everyone knows the story by now. On August 30, 2006, three nooses were hung from the "white folks" tree out front of Jena High School. On December 4, 2006, Mychal Bell and five other black teens cold-cocked Justin Barker, a white student with no ties to the noose incident, knocking him unconscious. The six youths then took their place in civil rights history by being the first young black males to strive for their Constitutional right to attack and beat a white boy.

Because the Jena 6 continued to kick and stomp the unconscious Barker, Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish District Attorney, charged each of the six perpetrators with "attempted murder," prompting an outcry from the local ACLU and other local officials of the Racism Industry. Critics of the DA say that the charges did not fit the crime. After all, it was just a "school fight," they said, asking, "How can it be attempted murder if they were stomping him with tennis shoes on?" the charges were later reduced to "2nd-degree battery," a mistake, in my opinion.

The initial charges were the correct ones to file against the Jena 6. A tennis shoe can certainly kill someone when used to stomp them.

In September 2004, I was a teacher and former coach at Westside High School in Memphis. At some point on September 14, 2004, during the middle school lunch, Tarus Williams, an eighth grader at the school, was murdered in a gang initiation in a bathroom. He was attacked and knocked unconscious by six (ages 13-15) tennis shoe-wearing members of the "G-Unit," the middle school's street gang -- call it the AA minors for the Crips and Bloods. I was teaching my English III class, which included Tarus's older sister. Tarus died as a result of his heart's left chamber being crushed during the attack. It is unclear if one of the stomps (with a tennis shoe) crushed his heart. We will never know, but we do know that six people were kicking and stomping Tarus when he died.

Justin Barker did not die. In fact, after a short (but expensive -- $14,000 plus) stay in the emergency room, he did attend a class ring ceremony later that evening. However, what if he, like Tarus Williams, did die? Such is certainly possible. The Jena DA had it right initially, which only serves to make the entire celebration/demonstration that much more of a farce.

A potentially lethal and vicious attack occurs, and there are people lining up to claim the attackers are the victims? What the hell is going on here?

I don't believe that you would see civil right leaders of earlier generations involved in this sorted cause. Frederick Douglass appealed to Abraham Lincoln for the right of newly freed slaves to serve in the Union Army. Fifty years later, Booker T. Washington lobbied for legislation to address lynching. Martin Luther King Jr. marched all across the south to demand an end to Jim Crow and legal segregation. I doubt you would have seen either of these men coming to the defense of the Jena 6, and they certainly would not have been calling for their releases from jail. In fact, I imagine Douglass, Washington and King would have been embarrassed by the Jean 6.

Welcome to "Civil Rights 2007," or as Frontpagemag.com's John Perrazo labels it: "Black Racism." Mr. Perrazo writes that black racism is a"disturbingly widespread phenomenon" in 2007 and is the type racism created by bitter blacks and guilt-ridden white leftists that allows blacks a free pass "to reflexively blame white society for their problems rather than to take responsibility for their lives."

Expect to see more of the same in the near future; the Jena 6 episode is far from a done matter. Heather Macdonald, a writer from New York City (and no stranger to the antics of Sharpton), believes that the Racism Industry "will try to keep Jena in the media and political spotlight for as long as possible." Such reinforces "the notion that this episode (Jena) exemplifies blacks' situations in America," something angry blacks and white liberals desire greatly. It will also keep (the) "hope" (for more racial strife) alive for Al, Jesse and company. More importantly, it will keep them from doing an honest day's work.

This wallowing in victimhood is so defeating for blacks and will do nothing, according to Ms.MacDonald, "to improve (the) lagging performances of blacks." She adds that such will actually "impede" any improvement because such only strengthens the "victim mentality," a disease that creates helplessness because it teaches blacks that their fates are not in their control, but in the hands of people who do not like them.

I remember a speech, a very famous speech, that went something like this: "I have a dream that one day little black children will jump and attack little white children..." Oh wait, that's not how the speech went. Coming on the heels of the Jena 6 celebrations, such a speech might be used in the future.

The door has been opened for the Racism Industry to protest weekly in city after city, calling for an end to the "unjust" charges, sentences and incarcerations meted out to blacks. Translated, this means loud demands: "Let the oppressed and violent out of jail. It was just a six-on-one attack of a white guy."

Disturbing.