I knew very few detail of this until recently, but I have to say, the more I learn, the less I think this amount of protest is wise, effective or morally right. It seems like nobody was fully in the right here, frankly. The D.A erred in charging them, at least one of their lawyers screwed up; sadly, these things happen a lot without regard to race. But the level of national protests, and some of the rhetoric I have heard coming from the protesters, makes me think we are watching two totally different cases. The kid who was charged as an adult had been charged with battery before, for punching a 17 year old girl in the face. Gandhi, Mandela and Dr. King these kids are not, and no amount of protesting will change that.

I am not saying rights are limited to those without sin or blemish, nor am I saying that only those without prior records can champion a cause (witness Malcolm X) but this incident is not as clear cut as the protests indicate. As far as I can tell, everyone in the situation is morally guilty of something or other, including racism. They all ought to have stood trial for what the laws they broke--fairly, under the law. Championing 6 kids who beat the shit out of another, no matter how racist or obnoxious that one kid may have been, well, that's a thin and divisive plank to build a new civil rights crusade upon. They are guilty, despite the screw-ups of the system in trying to prove that.

So all these placards and shirts demanding that the Jena 6 be freed...well, sorry, but they did commit a crime, however you define it. Retrials, maybe; I don't know the exact status of the cases, though I do know the Attempted Murder charges were dropped, and the one kid tried as an adult had that reversed as well. And yes, the kid who brandished a shotgun, the kids who hung nooses, the kids who shouted threats: if they broke the law, they should be, or have been, tried also. And some were: some were expelled (though that, too, was later overturned) some suspended, and some were convicted, though they received ridiculously light punishments. But regardless of the degree of provocation endured, there should not be any question who committed the most serious single crime here: the Jena 6.

"ESPN has reviewed more than 40 witness statements relating to the fight. Several indicate Bell punched Barker from behind, instantly knocking him to the concrete walkway. Witnesses say a group of black students then stomped on Barker, kicking him in the face and head as he was on the ground."

"But Barker spent a little less than three hours in the hospital and was healthy enough to attend a school ring ceremony that same night."

I'm glad the kid's injuries were not fatal or even that serious--he's a vicious little racist (or so it seems) right now, but not beyond redemption. The DA badly erred when throwing the book at those students, in my opinion; but then, I am not a lawyer, only someone deeply and passionately committed to fairness and justice for everybody.

In my opinion, we do suffer from endemic racism in this country, mostly but not entirely directed at non-whites. And classism. And sexism, again both ways. And abuses of our civil rights by those in power. We need symbols, and leaders, causes we can all rally around. I admire the energy that these protesters bring, and their dedication to changing the system. But to get the country behind them needs a morally clear-cut case with the qualities I mentioned above, or it will not convince the average Middle American (who are, yes, more white than not) that this affects them, or is legitimate, or carries with it the seeds of a more perfect nation.

We need a movement based on equality, dedicated to creating it for all. We don't need tit-for-tat, name-calling, retaliation, all the ugliness that can exist on both sides. I wish I knew how to create it; I only know that the Jena 6 are not poster-children for racial discrimination, are not heroes of the Civil Rights struggle, are not upright and noble victims, and should not be treated as such. Nor can they be used as such successfully; choose your symbols and your heroes well if you want to succeed, because you will be judged according to them. And right now, how judgment will be rendered is clear; whatever they endured, the Jena 6 retaliated by attacking a boy from behind, six against one, and beat and kicked him until he was unconscious and bleeding from the ears. Choosing them as a symbol, as heroes, as a cause, means to a lot of people choosing to say that their behavior was acceptable, even laudable.

And KStone--people bring up OJ in connection to this because he's in the news again and so on people's minds, and because, to a lot of white people morally convinced (rightly or wrongly) of OJ's guilt, the visible celebration of his aquittal by many black people was bizarre and repugnant; "You are celebrating a vile, wife-beating murderer who got away with it, solely because he's black and put one over on white America!" I know a lot of white people who are still shaking their heads over that one, and a lot of black people who hold it up as one acquittal that may have been unjust, versus thousands of convictions of black people that are absolutely unjust. Not to mention the historical record (in the South especially) of all those thousands of white people acquitted, horribly and against all notions of true justice, of racially motivated violence, up to and including murder. But two wrongs don't make a right, as vindicating as they may feel; they only make true rapprochement and equality that much harder to create.