JENA 6

The story of the Jena 6 is just now getting into mainstream media and becoming known to more and more citizens. The Jena 6 are Robert Bailey Jr.,Mychal Bell,Theo Shaw,Carwin Jones,Bryant Purvis, and Jesse Beard. The stroy Jena 6 began last winter when a group of black kids were told that they could not sit under a specific tree at lunch by white students. The black students then went to the principal of the school and asked if they could sit under the tree and he told them that they could sit wherever they wanted. The next day the black students went and sat under the tree and the white students again harrased them about it. Then shortly after there were nooses hung from the tree. This action was taken very serious and the white students received a three day suspension.Some black students then held a protest and a La Salle Parish district attorney told them that"I can make your life go away with the stroke of a pen". From then on there was constant tension between the black and white students. Then on Decemer 6, 2006 six black students, who have now become known as the Jena 6, attacked a white student for saying racial slurs. All six of them were arrested and charged with attempted 2nd degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and of them were expelled from school. Recently since the case has been getting attention the charges againbst Bailey Jr., Shaw, and Jones were reduced, but Mychal Bell still remains in jail today.

I believe that this story would be so very hard to write about or cover because of the bias that I have. I find it very shocking and almost humurous that so many people are in shock that this has happened. But, things like this happen everyday around the country somewhere. I believe that most of America thinks that everyone has the same oppurtunities ad racism does not exist and that there are not injustices in court just based on race. I was reading an article on ABCs' website and I think that the writer shared my views and it was obvious. The link of the story is http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=3645309. The writer says things such as "Unfortunately, any of these elements is less than extraordinary in black American life"when saying that this case is familiar in the Black community. I believe that even though this author feels this way she should not show this in her writing. I believe that the author should write without a bias and present evidence from both sides and let the reader decide on how they believe.