White Supremacists and the Jena 6
MSNBC is reporting that there is a [tag]white supremacist[/tag] web site reporting phone numbers and addresses for families of the [tag]Jena 6[/tag]:
CNN first reported Friday about the Web site, which features a swastika, frequent use of racial slurs, a mailing address in Roanoke, Va., and phone numbers purportedly for some of the teens’ families “in case anyone wants to deliver justice.” That page is dated Thursday.
It pretty much had to happen, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything before. I’m fairly certain there has been some activity. I’ve noted a number of times that for me tolerance and diversity are values, not absolutes, and thus I am quite willing to be intolerant toward intolerance. White supremacists fall into the category of persons for which I have no respect. They’re disgusting. They enjoy being disgusting. The FBI is investigating them, and hopefully if they have crossed the line to incitement something substantial will be done about it.
The existence of such white supremacist groups should remind us, however, that there is a broader fringe in society that is racist, but not so extreme. The important thing here should not be a battle between extremes, but rather the search by all people of good will for a just way to handle the situation. I’m not asking that nothing happen to those accused. I’m asking that they be treated in an even-handed manner.
But more importantly, their community, and numerous similar communities need to look at their underlying attitudes, and take action earlier. One of the critical actions would be for churches to look toward more integration. It has been said, though I forget by whom, that 11 AM on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in our area. When you start from that point, other bad things will grow out of it.
I would attribute the quote re 11 am on Sunday to Th Reverned Professor Dr Wee Chong Tan, from whom I first heard it. Wee Chong is the founding president of Pearson College of the Pacific, the founder of the Canadian College of Chinese Studies, was ordained in London, taught in Tubingen and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has a first doctorate in microbiology, a second in theology, has a card with so many degrees on it that they take both sides of the card in 8 point type, and has published dozens of books in China many on the relationship between the ancient Chinese classics and the NT.
Thanks for the help! I could not remember where I had heard it.
I grew up as a preacher’s kid in the deep south. One of the factors contributing to my dad’s success, though he was rarely ever recognized for it, was his ability to accept and minister to people regardless of thier race or religious preference. His virtue was that he had a knack for seeing the inside which is rarely shown or observed by most individuals these days.
I’ve sat by blacks and Hispanics and whites alike in Sunday School, fed on fried chicken with blacks at homecomings, and played side by side with blacks on the playground. We were friends. We prayed together and got into trouble together. We stood together side by side in the principle’s office and shared the same punishment. We were equal and we never stopped, or were not stopped, to think otherwise. We were too busy living and helping one another get to the next day to have the time to strive with one another.
The only views I’ve had comes from the news information offered on CNN and Fox News about the Jena 6.
Why is this labelled The Jena 6? My understanding is that whites began this issue with a “white tree” and hanging nooses. That’s incitement. Six particular black people got into a fight with a white person. That’s assault and battery for which they remain incarcerated. Before that a white person pulled a shotgun on some black people at a store. That’s a felony but he was allowed to walk free. A white attorney has charged the black people with attempted murder. The white people have not been charged, at least that’s my understanding. The school system should be charged with accessory and contributing to incitement for not cutting down the “white” tree. So again, I ask, Why is this called the Jena 6?
If responsibility were accepted or placed squarely on where it belongs this would be called The City of Jena,Louisiana. This should be Jena’s mess to clean up. As I see it the whole town indirectly or directly, chroniclly or acutely, shares in the responsibility of the building of this calamity.
Why isn’t it called The Unwiseman for the attorney. Or the Unjust Stewards for the school system. Or the Boys Who Love To Fight simply for all the persons involved before it becomes The Grieving Parents in The Saga of One Unfortunate City.
That said because this is not about one person, or a handful of boys, but about a whole small town including a system of parents and educators who should apologize to one another for not accepting responsibility early on. This is about families, brothers and sisters, buds and gal friends, workers and co-workers, pastors and parishioners, proprieters and patrons who never desired for their hard earned peace and quiet to be torn apart by strife and debate.
Jena,Louisiana does not need the government to step in and escalate this event and determine the outcome. Jena onnly needs all sides to come together, admit wrong, confess and compromise, reach a decision and render a communal verdict of “we shall not be guilty of dividing the families that have made up this town by petty pride and cynicism.”
One of the best friends I ever had in elementary school was a black person. We got into a fight one day on the playground and just because I couldn’t be as strong or as tough as he, I gave into what even grown men do even today when their weaknesses are exposed by some pressure or circumstance that they can’t hide, in an embarrassed, boyish rant much like “my dad’s bigger than your dad” I resorted to name calling and called him the “n” word. I’ll never forget that look of utter shame and hurt on his face. Ashamed, not of himself but of me and hurt by my betrayal of our innermost trust and friendship toward him. He slowly and sadly went to the principal. I was right behind him full of shame and disgust of my self. The principal flailed my behind like he should have. In small town Hahira word travels fast and before I could get into the door at home Mom was whaling my rear end like it should have got. No tribunals, no law and no lawyers. Just good ole fashioned leather meets backside and problem solved. I did not lose a friend that day. I gained respect, pride, and admiration and for the rest of our school days and beyond graduation we were the best of friends.
Had it not been for a solid friendly relation, a qualified and responsible principal and a solid school system, and a Godly mother, things might have turned out tragically differently for me and my family then and today.