Although I missed the 10 o'clock service this morning and all the talk in church parking lots nationwide about the Jena 6 protest rally and march, I have a testimonial to share with the congregation.
From this day forward, I will stop checking out television programs that REFUSE to feature me as the lead but rather as the best friend. Enough of the fashion industry telling my women that if you're Britney Spears' size or bigger, you're a fat pig. And I think I'm going to have to pass on watching those Sunday morning political shows that parade an endless cadre of "insightful" White male experts who espoused their views on politics, power and pop culture like it's the gospel.
Instead, I've decided to immerse myself even deeper into the global conversation about things I'm passionate about. Why? Because I am no longer willing to be relegated to the proverbial back seat of the bus, waiting for some heralded news source to publish my unrecognizable edited perspective when it conveniently fits neatly within their pre-designed margininal discussions on issues that speak to me on the regular.
When the Los Angeles Times
ran an editorial in Friday's paper on the
huge march in Jena, Louisiana on Thursday, so many others like us here at Three Brothers and A Sister were all probably saying the exact same thing initially, "Maybe they are finally starting to get it?!?" And then we woke up!
The "they" are mainstream media who blindly continue on each day with this "business as usual" arrogance despite the explosion of smart, articulate, insightful wordsmiths writing their asses off in ways and numbers that would make W.E.B. Dubois proud. We are accountants, lawyers, actors, engineers, stay-at-home soccer moms, high-school drop-outs, marketing executives with MBA's and elected officials, all bound together by a clear understanding of who we are and where we come from. To break it down even further, we are every advertisers dream. We are the folks who buy the brand name peanut butter and laundry detergent, who spend money on pimped-out Lincoln Navigators, who will travel to Florida and cruise to Jamaica with fly-jock Tom Joyner, and who will pay that 22% interest rate on our almost maxed out credit card just to ensure our kids get that IPod and PlayStation 3 for Christmas.
We are "The Black Bloggers", and the days of being the spook who merely sits by the door are ovah!!!
While Jena, Louisiana has been portrayed by big-city reporters as a place caught in a time warp, many Black folks online understand that the situation there is much more nuanced. African Americans, who make up about 12 - 15% of the town's population of 3,000, live in their own neighborhood, are buried in their own cemetery and reportedly can't even get their hair cut at the local White barbershop.
Online KKK Group Give Out Home Addresses Of Jena 6 Kids Over The Internet
However, a large number of White residents, including current District Attorney Reed Walters, find accusations of racism and inequality bewildering. As the LA Times indicated, "To them, Jena is just a pleasant, friendly place to live and work. They say everything would be fine if all the media and outside protesters -- agitators, they would have been called in a not-so-bygone day -- would just clear out and leave them alone.The reality is probably somewhere in between. Jena is no Selma; the uneven treatment accorded to Black and White students by school officials and local prosecutors isn't nearly as overt as the discrimination that racked the South decades ago, when racism was enforced by law as well as custom."
The Times opinion piece continues, "But Jena became a stewpot of racial tension starting a little more than a year ago, after black high school students sat under a tree that had long been an exclusive gathering spot for whites. Three nooses were found hanging from the branches the following day. The school's principal wanted to expel the three white students responsible, but the school board ruled the incident a prank and suspended them for just three days."
That decision has had terrible consequences. People of both races have committed violent acts in the year since, but the harshest legal penalties seem to have been reserved for Blacks. White youths struck a Black student with bottles at a party; only one was charged, with simple battery. The next day, a White man brandished a shotgun at a group of Black youths, who wrestled the gun away from him. The gunman wasn't charged, but the boys were charged with theft for taking his gun. Finally, six Black youths viciously beat a White student outside the school gym, apparently over the White guy making incendiary comments after being warned to "shut his mothafuckin' mouth." Some were initially charged with attempted murder, although the victim was well enough to attend a school ceremony that evening.
And that's what set this off in the Black blogosphere.
Although charges against most of the "Jena 6" have rightfully been reduced, former athlete Mychal Bell remains in custody -- even after an appellate court threw out the adult conviction, ruling that the young man (with prior offenses and who reportedly is currently on probation) must be tried as a juvenile.
A request to free Bell or set bail was denied, delivering yet another setback to this emotional case.
For those who don't have a clue why bloggers of color are so focused on spreading the word about the
Jena 6, the answer is really not that complicated. Real of otherwise, people perceived that there was a miscarriage of justice that the big networks and large cable outlets simply treated as just another story in their daily news cycle. Only now are journalists beginning to fully grasp the tremendous power African Americans writers and storytellers yield. It's not about Al Sharpton. It's not about Jesse Jackson. It's not about Black Entertainment Television, TV One or local Black newspapers. This is civil activism gone digital, forging fertile new ground with an unapologetic swagger.
And now that this dormant, sleeping giant has awakened, Thursday's rally should mark the start of some long-overdue soul-searching and political housecleaning in other "Jena" cities across the country. Whether we're taking about the Newark college student murders, the Dunbar Village horror, or something as silly as Patti Labelle on YouTube going off on a brother invited on stage at her concert, Black folks have found their own 24-hour source for news, information and entertainment. To hell with CBS. MSNBC, don't trip!
So put on your seat belts television programmers, commercial syndicators, cable executives and most importantly, advertisers targeting "ethnic consumers." Folks , it's getting ready to be a bumpy ride!
And the church said, "Amen!"
Mychel Bell was one of six black teenagers who faced adult felony charges in the 2006beating of a white classmate in the town of Jena. The beating followed months of racial tensions in the community of 3,000 after three white students hung a noose in a tree whose shade was traditionally off limits to blacks at Jena High School.
