Thursday, September 20, 2007

Thank you PBS...



I want to thank PBS for giving me an up to date report of what is going on in Jena, LA. I’ve been reading many articles online about this case but it kept telling me things I already knew about it.
(Eddie Nicole also did a post on this a while ago click here to get info on it b/c I’m about to talk about this and you should look at the post and video so you can get up to speed on this issue-I’m too mad to play catch up today) I wanted to know what was going on today, who showed up at the protest, what was said, how did the crowd react and how did the town of Jena react to all of the people. Now granted I haven’t been home all day glued to the TV, but I can tell you after being out and about today running errands and getting back home looking for coverage of the Jena six I failed to see anything between the hours of 3pm and 6pm. I did however, see countless reports about OJ Simpson who I could give a flying f*ck about right now. Im tired of hearing about him and I refuse to entertain his situation anymore-I’m mad I even said his name!

Now back to business…

I FINALLY saw a thorough report on PBS with commentary and EVERYTHING. In the PBS report, it was said that the citizens of Jena, LA (mostly white residents) were saying that the case was giving the town a bad name, that they are “a good town with church going people” and they were saying that this has turned into a racial thing and it had been blown out of proportion (run on sentence, I know, bare with me). Ummm, ok? Let’s see, nooses were hung from a tree that the students named the “white tree” (because that’s where the white kids sat during lunch and such) and you don’t consider that “racial”? Puhlease! Ok, fine…while race does play a large factor in the case, we can omit it for a brief moment only because the fact still remains that the two parties involved in the series of events were not punished fairly. It’s been reported that the District Attorney, Reed Waites says that racism wasn’t a factor in the prosecution because there were no LA laws that were in place to give the white boys a greater punishment (the white boys only got suspended from school for what they did)-but there were laws however, to convict Michael bell of attempted murder for taking the gun away from the white boy and then beating him up. I just want to know why the white boy was not charged for attempted murder for pulling out the gun in the first place or at least charged with assault with a deadly weapon? I’m no attorney, nor am I in law school, but I took the damn LSAT-that should give me a lil' credibility, right? lol-so something I’m saying has to make sense! So with attempts to look at this from a non racial standpoint, if it were two personified fruits in this situation (apple and orange) you mean to tell me that apple who took the gun away from orange, who actually pulled it out in the first place, would be charged with attempted murder and orange would only get suspended from school for a couple of days? F*ck that! I’m mad! Man, people in New Orleans and Mississippi are still displaced and homeless from Katrina, the Jena six are being treated unfairly, I can't stand my boss, Nicole Simpson can't rap! Ok, I’m digressing, the point of this post was to discuss the coverage or lack of coverage for the Jena 6 case/protest. I’m done…you get my point! Throws macbook down and leaves the room. End scene.

Despite all of this, I’m still livin’, laughin’, and lovin’ (Mama just didn’t raise no fool) Lady A ☺

*No macbooks were harmed in the typing of this post, the author spent too much of her own money to actually harm her precious Apple…it was only stated for dramatization.

10 Vain Comments:

Anonymous said...

On the Eve of this somewhat victorious occasion (I say somewhat because in lite of the recent protest the courts have ruled an emergency hearing to take place in 72 hours in regards to Mr. Bell's fate) I find it extremely troubling that the only information I found about the young lady in West Virginia Ms. Williams is an article that is almost two weeks old. The media is all too excited when it comes to exploiting some of us i.e. OJ however they conveniently miss the opportunity to cover the heart wrenching injustice that happens far too often in this country. I thank Vanity Pages for bringing this issue to the forefront of its reader’s thoughts, and not leaving it up to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to handle. It's a shame that I watched the local news for over half an hour before I saw one mention of the Jena 6. However they were quick to cover a "story" of a white girl convicted of assisting in a murder with her boyfriend, and the recent video confession tapes. The girl is already going to jail, why not cover something NEW!, that is the purpose of the news...right?

Anonymous said...

No not really, the purpose of the news is to entertain, not inform-you haven't figured that out yet girl? Seriously, I can't agree w/ u more ayeshia! It's crazy that bloggers and other internet sites have been covering this story since almost a year ago and its just now making national news...sort of

Anonymous said...

Not sure if it's just me but I seem to remember a time when high school ass whoopings were just that, "high school ass whoopings." Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning violence, but what happened to school fights ending in a 3 day suspension or at the max a stint in the "behavior learning center (or whatever your district called it)?" I can't get over that, let alone the racial implications and abuse of the justice system. I don't remember where we got it from, but my husband and I always say that television stands for TELL-LIES-through-VISION. It's amazing the amount of stupid BS they present as news, but what's worse is that we are absolutely powerless to do anything about it. The news media are "WMD's - weapons of mass DISTRACTION" aimed at keeping you focused on Britney, Anna Nicole, and Paris, instead of Iraq, racism, corrupt government, the horrible economy, and gas prices. And I'm spent... Remember, the REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
-Rocky

Anonymous said...

Why are all the white people saying that "if it was 6 white guys who beat up a black kid then all the blacks would scream hate crime!!!"? Hell yeah we would, only if it is a definite race situation. We're not even trippin over the nooses, we know there's a ton of white trash in America and undercover racism. It's about the judicial system. If 6 white kids beat up a black kid on some racial shit, it would be a hate crime and they would get sent to a juvenile detention center for assault.
If 6 black kids beat up a white kid on a racially charged incident stemming from another incidents (example: the noose on the tree)...they would not get charged with a hate crime, but will get sent to a juvenile center for assault. They didn't beat him because he was white. If the kid was Mexican...believe me..they would have given him the same beat down.

What's the difference, the black kids were being charged for attempted MURDER as adults! Why is that? Because the judicial system in LA is run by incompetent hicks.
THAT'S THE F*ckin PROBLEM. FUCK THE NOOSES, IT'S THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM PEOPLE!
The blacks were pissed...and beat the white dude's ass. They were not trying to kill him!

Why do people try to purposely block out pieces of the story. There are even black folks who don't fully understand the importance of this movement.
When Rodney King got his ass woopin', the police beat his ass because they hated him, they didn't beat him because he called them white scud bucket pigs and hung up black power signs in their front yards! And they used a force of a deadly weapon! Get the difference

Why did the black kids beat up the white kid? Why do some Islamics hate Americans? Because people meddle in other folks business and instigate!..Leave people the hell alone and stop provoking violence.
From what I understand...there were some racist white kids who fucked around and got caught up in some shit that they thought was just a prank (the nooses)- First Mistake. Then one brave white soul decided to talk shit to one of the black kids from the same school about the whole "noose" situation- Second Mistake..and in return he got an old fashioned severe ass beating. If he were in Harlem, Compton, or 5th ward he would have gotten shot...Enough Said! He could only get away with all of that in Jena, LA.
He got an ass beatin' and I bet he will never step up talkin shit until he's ready for real..
When you're stuck in a racist town and constantly get badgered about the color of your skin, sometimes it just takes that one person to set you off. I'm not saying that the Jena 6 were just in what they did, I even feel they should be penalized...but why are people forgetting about the rigors of high school life. People get jumped all the Damn time! Hell I almost got jumped from some shit that my friend did. Black folks are sick of this KKK racist bullshit. Don't step to us with the bullshit if you're not ready to get dealt with. That old Jim Crow bullshit is old and tired. People who start shit must be ready to end it.
So, he got his ass kicked...but he wasn't almost beaten to death. Folks love to exaggerate shit when it fits...it's not right what they did, but it is human...Imagine being in high school under the presidency of Bush in a po'dunk hick town, while being black- that shit aint easy...Now all the white people around the world are confused because they feel that we (blacks) support the violence. We don't support violence...we know how it feels to get called out on color...and we deal with it the best way we can. We support equal rights!
Black parents in the south must teach their kids how to face adversity. It's strange that this should even be a problem, but maybe schools should implement RACE and Ethics classes to try and get these kids to understand each other and their history.
I could go on and on, but I'm done!

Anonymous said...

I know that was long...but I've been holding it in ever since this mess started.
Please don't do a search on Google about this because all you will find are message boards about how this is reverse racism and in turn you will get pissed like me...What idiots!!

Erica

Anonymous said...

"I hate my boss". LOL!!

Santana Caress said...

Wow...I hadnt heard that the white kid pulled out a gun. He should have mos def been charged with attempted murder. This just goes to show that a sickening, racist, piece of shit justice system still prevails.

Anonymous said...

Very well put Eddie. No you won't hear anything about the "gun" because thats what the media doesn't want you to know. You also won't see "president" Bush's response to whats going on in La. So let me fill you in, Bush's response(in a nut shell)- "it saddens me the events in La." "It will be up to the administration to ease the tension involved with race relations in this country." Ain't that some shit? Good ole Bush leaving something for the next person to take care of. Like solving this whole F'd up situation in Iraq and Afghanistan won't take up too much of their time. Wake the hell up "mr. president" you still have a year and a month to start doing something about the race relations in the US if you really are "saddened" by the things that happen in the country you were "elected" to run.

Please note the sarcasm in the remarks surrounded by quotation marks.

Anonymous said...

@Santana- I heard about the gun from the short documentary, but I am confused on what happened. They refuse to report this in its entirety!

Ayeshia- Bush doesn't give s shit about the race relations. He's another rich child posing as a grown up who really doesn't get the whole "race thing"...by the way...Condoleeza Rice is way worse than Bush in my opinion. She should no better. She fuckin sold her soul...and that's really sad. I hope they get her out of the administration as well.

CoCo Benitez said...

I thought I would comment on something a bit more light-hearted......I LOVE the dramatics at the end of your piece....I actually closed my eyes and visualized you standing up, lifting your beautiful white Mac over your head and slamming it onto the floor....you had me nervous for a minute, but your quick clarification in your signing off reassured me that everything was going to be ok.....From your mouth to mine..."I'm more corny then your cornflakes"!!!!!!!! luv you Lady A