Segregation-Era Oppression

hey friends. my friend john emailed me this message today.

i find it significant because john never emails me mass stuff, only personal notes once in a while. he’s a really dear friend of mind who i got to know when i did mission year in atlanta. he and his wife hilary still live in south atlanta. john grew up in the south (mississippi) and always offered a lot of deep insight into my life about race / the depth of sadness and pain that’s come from life in the south, and a lot of his insights on waging a war against the terror of racism. he listened to my own struggles with being a chinese american person of color within the black and white struggles of our black neighborhood. not too many responded in sadness to my personal struggles.

one thing i’ve always admired about john is his unrelenting desire to live a life that expresses integrity. i did a lot of youth work with john, and he would always try to put himself in other people’s shoes. we had kids with rocks in their hands threatening us, and bottles and curse words thrown our way, but it didn’t deter from the truth that our shoes were a lot newer + nicer. we would get new ones once ours were worn out. john’s humility would always remind me that we did have a lot of choices, and our friends and enemies did not have the same choices as us.

a couple years ago, john just finished his masters degree and was volunteering at an organization called “men stopping violence”. he wondered if and when he’d be hired on as staff, as he put in a lot of time as a volunteer. hilary (his wife) was expecting, and she stopped working. he needed to find work soon for his family. finally, john was offered a position with the organization. i was surprised to learn that he turned down the position. i asked him why. he explained to me that the black woman who was training him, was being let go do to lack of funding, and that they were going to bring him on, to work in a different position. he didn’t know if the two were connected, but he didn’t want any part of anything that was racist or sexist. i was taken aback. i’ve never known anyone who realized that he was in power as a white person and as a male, and decided that he didn’t want anything exercising this privilege and power, even if he didn’t know if this was exactly what was going on. he just said to me: what would the woman think: if she, as a black woman was let go due to funding, and then me as a white male would be brought on in a different position.

john ended up finding good work, and he and his wife and child are doing well. i wanted to share this story about my friend to be encouraged about the ways that people continue to fight for racial justice and equality. i feel that the pain and reality of racism / sexism / poverty / enslavement is a bit more painful and evident in the south.

john wrote this note to me below. when you have time, please read it and respond to it.

i have to admit that it’s hard for me to be conscious to the realities of the world. it’s hard to be conscious to pain and suffering. if i close my eyes and mind things seem to disappear, it doesn’t mean that these things stop happening. i think it’s important for us to realize what shoes we wear, and that other folks have some hard shoes to fill. it would be sad if we only looked at our own shiny shoes all the time.

thanks for your time!

-benjamin

Dear friend,

I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happening
today in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org’s campaign
for justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2428-230320

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat
beneath the “white tree” on their campus, nooses were hung from the
tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a “prank,” more
Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney
then came to the school accompanied by the town’s police and demanded
that the students end their protest, telling them, “I can be your best
friend or your worst enemy… I can take away your lives with a stroke
of my pen.”

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA
did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard
fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted
murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It’s a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges,
lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in
“their place.” But it’s happening today. The families of these young
men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press.
Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governor
of Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It starts
now. Please join me:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2428-230320

The noose-hanging incident and the DA’s visit to the school set the
stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the
next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of
Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same
weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.
The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a
young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran
away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students
were later arrested for the theft of the gun.

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter
of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was
beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black
students “nigger.” After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and
kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but was
released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),
Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an
unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged
with second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last
month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was
convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated
battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his
public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal’s
parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court
prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the
judge could see them.

Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail
for 22 years. Theo Shaw’s trial is next. He will finally make bail
this week.

The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting
tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are
standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone,
their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we can
make a difference.

Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get
involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that
DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet
gone to trial.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2428-230320

peace,

John