I took a lot (and I do mean a lot) of flack when predicted Jena, despite all the fanfare and Michael Baisden afterparties (seriously, WTF?) would do little for these young men in the longterm. Why? Because many of the principals who headed to Louisiana were there to make their own statement, however frivolous it might be, rather than actually help these kids.
There were book signings, and album release parties, and oddly enough, an adult pajama party all sandwiched amongst the rally and march. Nobody seemed to really give two sh*ts about helping the six young men in any lasting and substantial way.
Two of them were exploited at the BET Awards. One beat up another kid in school and found himself in the clink. Another was featured flashing jewels and wads of cash that may have been donated to their legal defense fund. And now, there's this latest episode of Negro Nonsense.
A teen convicted in the "Jena Six" beating case shot himself in the chest and was taken to the hospital Monday, days after his arrest on a shoplifting charge, police said.The boy is in a foster home? Huh? What a sad state of affairs. Seriously, after tens of thousands "marched" on his behalf, this Negro ends up in the clink over a pair of
Mychal Bell's wound isn't life threatening, said Monroe Police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten. The 18-year-old used a .22-caliber firearm in the shooting around 7:40 p.m., she said. Wooten believes Bell was upset over media coverage of the arrest last week.
Bell was in the news again after he was arrested on Dec. 24 and booked on charges of shoplifting, resisting arrest and simple assault, police said.
Police said Bell tried to steal several shirts and a pair of jeans from a department store and fled when a security guard and off-duty police officer tried to detain him. After they found him hiding under a car, Bell "swung his arms wildly" and one of his elbows struck the security guard with a glancing blow, according to a police report. He was freed on $1,300 bond.
Wooten said Bell was taken to a hospital in Monroe, where a nursing supervisor wouldn't release his condition. Wooten didn't have further details on the shooting.
In the Jena case, Bell eventually pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery. Bell, the only one of the six who has been tried, has been living in a foster home in Monroe and attending school.
I know this sounds stoopid, but I still don't really blame the kid, although he's 18 now, and his youthful Negro Excuses are running low. Reality is, there needed to be an uncle, a grandaddy, a coach, or someone in this boy's life to tell him that you don't take out your misplaced frustrations via a 6 on 1 beatdown. Somebody to tell him that if you dodge a bullet once, you need to go sit your ass down because you don't get second chances when you're black and living in The Dirty South. Someone to tell him to go focus on school and quit his pedal-to-the-metal quest to become Another Morbid Statistic.
I know what you're saying: where's the father? Well, if you'll recall, that Negro is pretty messed up himself.
I feel sincerely for all the victims (yeah, the white kid too) in this sad case. Reality is, this was little more than a schoolyard scuffle and should have been handled as such. And after all the marches, donations, fried catfish plates, and hawked t-shirts, exactly how are these young men better off? Why didn't it occur to a single one of the thousands who descended upon Jena to work with these kids after the fact? The real injustice is that nobody cared enough to abandon their personal agendas. The Black Blogosphere patted itself on the back, and disparaging old-school Civil Rights stalwarts who were equally ineffective.
Yes, Jena bought the plight of young black men to the national stage. But if the very black men this "movement" sought to save are more screwed up now than evar, what exactly was the point?
Take The AverageBro Challenge™ and make a real change in your communities. And pray for Mr. Bell while you're at it.
Somebody needs to.
Question: Am I being too damn critical as usual, or was The Jena Six brouhaha a prime example of misplaced Negro Priorities?
Police: 'Jena Six' teen shoots self [AP]
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I side with you on your Jena 6 stance. I grew up in Louisiana until I was 19. After that my brother and I left for California with 4K and just a hope to leave a state which isn't kind to black men period. After that I never looked back but when I was living there I learned from my father is "Keep your black ass out of the system". Those kids should have done the same damm thing.
I wasn't reading your blog back then, but I did share your view about the situation. And now after all the marching and protesting the kids are where, doing what? Are they better off? Is Jena better off?
First off Happy New Year!
Second, it doesn't look like they're doing too much better than they were before. I too thought WTF? when I saw 2 of them at the BET awards. I thought to myself, didn't they have enough publicity? And it wasn't like they went up there as "reformed" boys. They had their jeans around their knees and sun glasses on. They pretty much personified the stereotype that all black men and boys are put in. I was disappointed. But that's just me.
The big(er) picture is that those so-called activists that invaded Jena thrive on Black dysfunction. So if they actually tried to help the Jena 6 they would be working against their own personal and business interests.
Also...
How could Rev. Al and the others guilt White corporations into donating to the cause if they actually solved problems in the community? White corporate America would never support that kind of thing.
I'm just so cynical....sigh
Three words “Prophets for Profit”
They are killing us.
You are correct that Jenna 6 was a prime example of misplaced Negro priorities.
Happy New Year!
You'll get no disagreement from me. I hope the young man gets some mental health assistance because it certainly reads as a suicide attempt to me.
AB, When you talk about making change locally, be it through politics or community service do you feel like you're in Groundhogs Day and people don't get it? That's how I feel.
Fact is,too many people want to do it big with national organizations and they want to fix and do it all. Just not possible. And its not overnight, which too many people want and when they don't get it they are frustrated. ,
New activists are no more effective than old school activists as far as I'm concerned. Its just a different time, calling for different methods. Small skirmishes and battles are won but the wars still remain.
I got a cousins in rural Louisiana, granted a town bigger than Jena, but I thought to myself that that coulda been my cousin and I woulda wanted someone to come to his behalf.
But, let it be recognised, them was some thugs before the whole "Jena 6" incident.
Knowing my aunt who raised my cousin down there, I'm not totally convinced that the parents necessarily knew/know best for kids given a situation like that. Personally, I bought my shirt and threw my support for them because of the excessive charges. I sure didn't have anything to say when even after Sept. 20, 2007 one of them was caught doing "hoodrat things."
I don't think you're being too critical. but I will say that after listening to Al Sharpton, I can't help but think that at minimum, National Action Network has the organizational ability to do follow-up on cases like this. Now the question is whether or not people on the ground actuallly do/did their job. Moreover, if I'm "Al Sharpton" or whomever, why would I want to attach my name to something that went South so quickly.
I think most of us DID get caught up in the frenzy, but I think again, most of us saw the writing on the wall when they got those BET Award invites that year leaving most of saying "WTF?!?!?!?!"
That aside...
I do believe these young men are old enough to take agency for themselves--their situation changed, but their character did not.
Your Jena 6 analysis is spot on. I can only shake my head in extreme disappointment and frustration at the entire situation.
The very fact that this young man is even in a position to have another run in with the authorities like this is testimony to the utter failure and empty posturing that took place last year by the so-called civil rights "leaders" [aka "poverty pimps"] who were more concerned with getting their face on TV than making sure that these young men were put on the right path in life.
Don't get me wrong, we can't let injustice go unchecked, and after extensively researching the case law in Louisiana on attempted murder and what qualifies as a "deadly weapon" I feel fairly confident in calling bullsh*t on that sad excuse of a prosecutor for bringing those charges in the first place. He should have been reprimanded by the bar for that one.
But the fact remains, these 6 were used as pawns for everybody else's gain except their own.
i think the crux of what avb is getting at is the drive-by activist vs. the steady, hand-on help so many of our young people need.
i have a confession to make, averagebro. my usuaul 1st response to these kind of articles and to the "avb challenge" is to shout out one of your tags: "raise your own d@mn kids"!! after all, if we all did that, presumably there would be less riff raff running around in this world. this selfish and jaded perspective stems from my years of tutoring needy kids and working for non-profits but still never feeling like my time and effort were making one iota of a difference.
but something clicked when i read today's post. i realized that it wasn't just my parents but a community of strong adults who raised me. and likewise, my husband and i receive a ton of help from our family and greater community (church, teachers, etc) in raising our son. we're both tremendously blessed to come from very strong, supportive, close-knit families and i often shudder to think where we'd be, but for the support of our loved ones.
so i must consider the fact that so many kids who have taken a wrong turn simply haven't had that strong support network. it really does take a village to raise a child. so i'm stepping up to take the "avb challenge". we have a big year coming up in our household but i'm going to carve out some time to be part of someone's support network in '09. i'm not big on new year's resolutions either but it seems i've just inadvertently made one. thanks!
I think AB and DeeDee hit it on the head. This was an example of two arguments: misplaced priorities and a need for a call to action by our community as a whole. I like DeeDee am the benefactor of a community of adults who took a vested interest in me and my peers and were determined to see us make something out of ourselves. Collectively my parents, coaches and school administrators played a role in me developing into the kind of person who sets goals and works towards acheiving them. Unfortunately it seems as if the youth of today are less interested in this way of life and more fascinated with being the best D.Boy they can be instead of the best Man they can be. I feel bad saying this cause it was only 2000 when I graduated and I already see a drastic difference in the priorities and train of thought of our boys. My high school teammate is now a teacher at our old high school and nearly everyday he tells me stories of how wild these kids are now. What's even worse is that he tells me that our little sisters are now the leaders in mayheim at the school with girl/girl fights almost a daily occurence. We, the older generation of well adjusted young adults, have to play an active role in developing these kids. I mean damn if we don't care about these kids and make an effort to change the course of action many of them are on who will?
Until I read DeeDee and Kirby's comments, I didn't really realize how much people "other than" my parents had a hand in raising me. There were neighbors, grandparents, extended family members, the church, etc. Everyone had a hand, more at some times than others, in raising me and my brothers. The whole "takes a village" cliche sounds lame, but it's very true.
Nowadays, kids don't have this. In my own neighborhood, I barely know the parents next door, let alone the kids (who seldom acknowledge me unless they want to use our playset). Times have changed, but the fact remains.
This is why I coach, and I see the results of when kids don't have this extended network every week. I'm trying to help, but like DeeDee said, sometimes it takes awhile to see the results. This is discouraging for some, but if you don't do it, who will?
My mother was there to feed and clothe me but like many parents, because she struggled and worked hard to do that, the other roles parents play didn't enter her mind (like nurturing self-esteem, etc.) Not to mention she never received that as a child so it wasn't natural to her.
My mother was a teenage mom, I was a latchkey kid at 6, my father wasn't in my life, raised on assistance and I can give you some other reasons why I should be someone talked about on a blog as nothing more than a sad statistic instead of where I am in my life today.
I know that my extended family, neighbors, teachers, guidance counselors and my friends' parents helped to bring me along to where I am today. A military veteran and a grad student who has traveled and studied three languages.
They are why I taught Upward Bound kids last summer. If I inspired one of them to do something they would have never dreamed of before then I did something. I taught them Japanese. One of the mothers called the program director to say she wish I taught his Spanish class in school because after a couple weeks he knew more regarding Japanese than he felt comfortable with in Spanish. You have no idea how great that made me feel.
Shout out to Upward Bound! I was a summer camp tutor/counselor for the Upward Bound program for 4 years while I was in college. Some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done in my lifetime. I'm still close with some of my old students to this day and many of them went on to go to college and one is even working on her PhD. But for that program, many of those kids could have very easily got caught up in the system like the young men in the Jena 6 case.
There definitely needs to be more mentoring and guidance within our community. After I actually sat back and gathered all of the facts from the Jena 6 story last year, one of the things the struck me the most was "where were these kids' parents at BEFORE the school fight even happened?" Because as you'll recall, some of the young brothers already had criminal records by the age of 16.
So I concur that this situation, as well as the original fiasco last year, bespeaks of gross negligence on the part of the black community to live up to the sankofa principle of reaching back to help our youth. Hopefully it will inspire more of us to do that on our own since our "leaders" seem either too lazy or too inept to do it themselves.
Well said Average Bro.
Damn good explanation of the story. I followed this flashpoint on DemocracyNow. It was not lost on me that while I was following it, the rest of the country was oblivious to it. Conspicuous in it all was the fact that the only time the mainstream media touched on the story was when the buses were already loaded on on the road. "Drive by activism", meet "Drive by media" (oh shit, did I quote that gasbag Flush Limpballs? If so, my apologies)
A case that actually does deserve some media attention and a good dose of moral outrage involves a twelve year old Texas girl named Dymond Milburn. This little black girl was abducted by plain clothes police in an unmarked van and then charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer when she tried to escape what she could have only thought was a stranger abduction. See the video at http://collateralnews.tv/index.php/collateral-news it is absolutely outrageous and I don't understand why people aren't marching in the streets for this little girl and her family as she currently awaits trial.
Shout out to Upward Bound! I was a summer camp tutor/counselor for the Upward Bound program for 4 years while I was in college. Some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done in my lifetime. I'm still close with some of my old students to this day and many of them went on to go to college and one is even working on her PhD. But for that program, many of those kids could have very easily got caught up in the system like the young men in the Jena 6 case.
I have to agree Chuck. My time with the kids meant a lot. I still think about them. Many of them were rough around the edges but they all had bog dreams, not of being a rapper or an actress but lawyer, surgeon, physical therapist, math teacher.
I heard Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) on an interview where he said he had been arrested a crazy number of times as a teen. And though he had his parents, it was the influence of a football coach (someone who didn't "have" to be there for him unlike what many of us think regarding family) that changed him.
Twocanpete,
I heard about Dymond Milburn and like Jena 6 I think most of us can be aware but the best help she can get are from advocates in her area (or at least state). Jena 6 is an example of what happens when the loudest advocates are from far away. Eventually they leave.
@ twocanpete, you make a good point. I read about Dymond Milburn and thought the same thing. I wondered where Rev. Al was - Then I remembered Dunbar Village.
Also the incident happened 2yrs. ago, and the public only now knows about it due to the lawsuit? I'd like to hear the rest of the story. There has to be more to this.
@AB, once again, you are absolutely 100% correct.
Your posts on the Jena 6 were part of what kept me here.... I think you were spot-on then and still are now.
I have heard of Upward Bound and didn't know all about it. It sounds like something that benefits those who choose to go. It would be nice if more youth would want to go instead of thinking that being and sounding and looking educated is something to be frowned upon.
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