Paul

Ibrahim

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September 24, 2007

Protect Black Progress; Lock Up the Jena 6

In the unlikely event that an American soldier – by definition my hero – purposely shoots Iraqi civilians for no reason, I would want him to rot in jail for the rest of his life, just like anyone else would. If my own cousin robbed a store, I would want him prosecuted to the fullest extent possible, just like anyone else should be.

But if six teenagers from my own race beat another teenager unconscious simply because he was taunting them, I would want them to roam the streets freely for the sole reason that they share my skin’s concentration of melanin.

At least that’s what Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and thousands of others were saying last week as they invaded the town of Jena, Louisiana to free the “Jena Six.”

For those of you who have missed the race-baiting that has filled the media in the last few days, here is a brief summary of what is going on: A white teenager made fun of a black teenager for getting beat up by another white guy some time before. The black teenager and five of his black friends battered the white teenager unconscious. Some brainless character decides to go after them with attempted murder charges, but these rightfully get reduced to charges the teenagers should be facing for what they did. Sharpton and Jackson smell attention, and they get it.

Now I was a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant in high school, and later a conservative in the Ivy League. If I initiated severe beatings every time I was taunted in high school for not being American enough, or in college for not being anti-American enough, there would have been a lot of unconscious kids (and professors) out there. I would further be writing these columns from my jail cell, and I wouldn’t even have “leaders” of my racial community there to bully the legal system into letting me go free!

But I didn’t send people to the hospital for merely saying mean things to me. And this is why I never went to jail. The Jena Six, on the other hand, acted repulsively. And this is why they should be locked up, like anyone else in their position should be.

It may sound simple, but to the likes of Sharpton and Jackson, such a resolution just wouldn’t give them the attention they crave. Last week they flooded Jena with thousands of demonstrators who were asking for the Jena Six to be freed.

Freed? Why? Is it because they are black? Or is it because anyone should be allowed to completely thrash whoever makes fun of them? It makes no sense whatsoever.

These two (Sharpton and Jackson) have realized that they have run out of genuine civil rights issues that would continue to make them relevant. They have thus resorted to creating them.

Just look at what I call the “Duke Lynchings”, where three innocent men lost much of their future, reputation, money and almost liberty because Sharpton and Co. assumed their guilt in the rape of a black woman. We all now know that the non-victim Crystal Gail Magnum turned out to be a liar, and that the prosecutor in the case has lost his own future because of his sickening behavior.

Look at what they did to Don Imus, whose job they took away because he jokingly referred to a women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hoes.” Right after basking in the glory of dragging American society down another notch, they got into their cars and turned up that hip hop music, which so clearly elevates women and black culture.

And as if the leadership of the Jena Six rally could have been more ludicrous, rapper Mos Def was also present to make his case. Earlier this month, Mos Def also told Bill Maher that he doesn’t believe that Al-Qaeda took down the World Trade Center towers or that we ever landed on the moon. And here is the icing on the cake – Mos Def doesn’t believe that O.J. Simpson is guilty either. Most definitely not the right person to speak for the Jena Six.

America’s black community has made tremendous progress over the last few decades, and in the last few years. As such, it certainly deserves better leaders than Sharpton, Jackson and an assortment of hip hop “artists” who glorify the worst aspects of black culture.

And it certainly must send its bad apples to jail, where they belong. In fact, the black community should take the lead on situations such as this one. Standing up for the violent in your racial community cannot possibly help. Standing up for yourself and your standards, however, sure does. Lock up the Jena Six, and allow the rest of America’s blacks to move forward.

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