Free the Jena Six--and All Young Black Men

I'm encouraged by the mass support of the Jena Six in Louisiana. I watched news reports on Thursday--thousands gathered there to challenge the unjust sentences imposed on six young black men for beating a white classmate. You can Google for the story details.

The fact that so many from across the nation converged on Jena, Louisiana to essentially say, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" is a good sign. The images of protesters in Jena is heart warming. But the cry should go deeper.

Statistics about young black men should cause us to look beyond Jena. The numbers on drop-out rates, unemployment, and incarceration are one indicator of a crisis. The unbalanced portrayal of black men in rap videos and as self-indulged millionaire athletes contributes to this picture. Where is the in between? Because we don't see hard-working black men who raise families and build communities, the tarnished image prevails. The conflict in Jena is also a symptom of how the world views young black men.

Young black men growing up in this racial wilderness need our support. We need to pull them aside and advise how to handle situations that add stress into their already tight worlds. As much as someone who hangs nooses in trees to intimidate black youth---as they did in Jena---and as much as that may call for a school-yard beating, we can't afford to go that route. The consequences for black men are severe, and someone needed to tell those young brothers in Jena.

Last December the Washington Post ran a series on black men. We are six times more likely to be murdered, nine times more likely to die from AIDS and we have a life expectancy of six years less than white men, according to the article. The human stories behind these and other statistics are grim realities for black families, communities--and America. No nation or society can reach its full potential when a comm¨nity is crippled or limited. The toll of racism is undeniable. Which black man has not been profiled or faced with life-saving decisions in nano-seconds. As an adult, I've learned to navigate through or avoid many at-risk environments faced by black men.

The Jena Six march must bring us back to this stark reality

It's been twelve years since the Million Man March. Many of us who participated understood that one march wouldn't wipe away decades of negative images and conditions. Neither will one march in Jena save young black men from the risks associated with their lives. We can do more. We have to do more. Every time I read about the senseless murder of a young black man in my city, I realize that something is wrong. Every time a news story like the Jena Six breaks, I know there are thousands more that remain in darkness. We need to do more.

Another O.J. Story.......

Run O.J., Run. Fast. Over the weekend newscasters buzzed about O.J. Simpson being arrested for armed robbery. On Sunday he was indeed arrested---story has it that he went to a Las Vegas hotel with three other men to reclaim sport memorabilia that belonged to him. This story will grow and media will relish for the kill. First, O.J. probably used bad judgment; let's get that out of the way. Even so, stations like Fox News have already gloated and salivated over the possibility that he will finally go to jail.

I don't have any great love or admiration for O.J. Simpson, the man. But he was a heck of a football player and I loved to watch him run. None of that matters anymore. What will happen next? Maybe he'll go to jail. Maybe he'll be acquitted again---which will make some people very, very mad. Let's watch the drama unfold.

A Woman's Pain

Today, while getting a cup of coffee, I glanced at the cover photo in the New York Times. A Black woman in Sierra Leone, her face colored with pain, lay on the ground outside her home. The photo caught my eye and I could almost feel the pain of all black women. I thought of Katrina and the look in their eyes. Morphine is unavailable, according to the caption, to ease the agonizing pain of breast cancer.

I never read the article---but the woman's face burned into my brain throughout the morning. My prayers go out to this woman, all women, and especially black women.

Long Walk To Freedom

Last week I started reading Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. When the autobiography was published in 1994, I resisted reading because I'd become cynical with the way in which the world embraced Mandela upon his release from prison. Suddenly those who had oppressed Mandela and the people of South Africa were proponents of freedom. His release from Robben Island in 1990 produced a media frenzy; it was like one big party and everywhere it seemed as though his revolutionary spirit had been commercialized and sanitized.

I'm enjoying the first one hundred pages of Long Walk to Freedom. His journey from a boy into young adulthood laid the foundation for what we know of his struggles. His political journey begins after venturing to Johannesburg where he joined the African National Congress and witnessed the white Afrikaner Party come to brutal power in 1948.
It's a long book and I'm ready to plow into the next 500 pages. I'll write more when I finish.

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I cannot pinpoint a moment when I became politicized,when I knew that I would spend
my life in the liberation struggle....... I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, From henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise (Mandela, 1994, Long Walk to Freedom, p. 83)