Lessons Learned from The Jena 6

The Jena 6 incident in Jena, LA was indeed a very unfortunate one. It is an incident that shows that racism in Amerikkka, especially in the deep south is very much alive and well. I believe there are many reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is that Southern Whites feel that they are still silently fighting the Civil War. Although of course they are not fighting this battle with guns and other weapons of the sort, they are fighting back with economic discrimination of blacks, intimidation and other means. They do not like blacks PERIOD. We need to face the fact.

As a black woman who was born and raised in Mississippi, educated in Georgia and Tennessee, I can assure you that there is still a lot of bitterness from whites toward blacks in the South. A lot of this racism has unfortunately passed itself off to foreigners and new immigrants to the South who are quick to recognize who the main power holders are and they are quick to align themselves with "whites" and take on their prejudice of blacks. Many blacks are surprised that in the South foreigners, and yes, this includes many africans as well as others, look down on American blacks. They also have a deep resentment.

There are many whites in the South and elsewhere "but especially in the South" who still feel a sense of "entitlement" because they are "white". They drive around all day in the big pickup trucks with their confederate battle flags mean mugging blacks and hispanics. Its almost like one can see in their eyes their true hatred for other races.

The Jena 6 showed us that there are also large racial disparities in the Judicial system that unfairly sentences blacks to harsher sentences than whites, even for the same crimes.

To sum it all up, I would have to say that the Jena 6 movement shows all of us Amerikkka has a way to go to be a nation of "true" equality for all of its citizens, not just "whites".