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country, the government uses this fact to get more Black men into the military. Traditionally, those
without acceptable community opportunities have been directed to the armed forces. Our “volunteer
army” has produced yet another generation of young men in places like Iraq and Afghanistan locked
out in peace but licensed in war; a young Black male remains expendable in war but neglected in
times of peace, making him a candidate for extinction. It can be called suicide by ethnicity.
For those who argue there is no need to have a civil rights movement should go to Jena, Louisiana
and they will still be able to bear witness to the menacing bastions of Jim Crowism with its attendant
indignities and disenfranchisement. This new avant-garde of racism has only presented a more
diffused and abstract sort of targeting, but the tactics are just as menacing and the results are still
horrendous.
Affirming the basic humanity of all people still requires attention to a broad range. When high school
students are greeted with nooses for sitting under a tree reserved for white students, this backwards
and disgusting condition should compel our attention with the same strength as any back-of- the-
bus rule that ever humiliated a person of color. The situation in Jena was a fire near a powder keg
and the school administration should have done everything within its power to handle the racial
inequities between students fairly. They did not, nor was there any indication of a valid attempt to do
so.
Many community activists throughout the country descended on Louisiana not only because they felt
that sharp injustices had been place upon the Black students who were unreasonably sentenced in
this case, but because the were shocked about the nature of the deterioration of the race relations in
general. This deterioration led to disillusionment and bitter dissension that has created malicious
situations within the inner circles of community leaders and groups. Many community leaders believe
that the criminal court in Louisiana was not an innocent party in the victimization of these students,
but few imagined the close association between the board of education and legal forces in
systematically singling the Black students for punishment for a crime that was evolving long before
they sat under that tree.
One might think that we’ve come along way, but a lot of us know that in a lot of ways we are standing
or falling back, and not only in school. Still in America, there are two separate worlds. Blacks and
Latinos live in New York, in California, and in Washington D. C., they grow up in separate worlds and
do not know white children. How long will it be until American will be a fully open society, a ‘melting
pot’ at last? How long will it be until our national and local leaders really begin to speak of these
issues again?
Many Americans are only taking the opportunity of looking at how fast the world is changing. Sooner of
later we have got to recognize that far too many things have stayed the same, like a bias court system.
Even within the justice system, color remains the distinction upon which Blacks are denied equal
rights, not just under the law but in housing employment, protection of due process, food, educational
assistance, and virtually every other necessity of survival in many major cities throughout the North
and South.
We must all prevent entering another era of crisis, an era of regression that has been instituted and
allowed to fester by our current administration that has ignored the problems of America by focusing
everywhere but here. The next year will require profiles in courage in we are able to survive as a
democratic society. Many of the signs are not as small as some of is would rather believe. Taken
separately, some may not seem unbearable or worth fighting for. But taken together they suggest a
movement and a pattern which could lead to further suppression of civil and democratic rights to an
ever faster cycle of authoritarianism and response with no conceivable end, knowing at the
foundation of justice and humanity, chipping away piece by piece the barriers against dictatorship
which the framers of the Constitution erected.
Khalilah Sabra
MAS-Freedom, NC
www.masfreedom-nc.or
without acceptable community opportunities have been directed to the armed forces. Our “volunteer
army” has produced yet another generation of young men in places like Iraq and Afghanistan locked
out in peace but licensed in war; a young Black male remains expendable in war but neglected in
times of peace, making him a candidate for extinction. It can be called suicide by ethnicity.
For those who argue there is no need to have a civil rights movement should go to Jena, Louisiana
and they will still be able to bear witness to the menacing bastions of Jim Crowism with its attendant
indignities and disenfranchisement. This new avant-garde of racism has only presented a more
diffused and abstract sort of targeting, but the tactics are just as menacing and the results are still
horrendous.
Affirming the basic humanity of all people still requires attention to a broad range. When high school
students are greeted with nooses for sitting under a tree reserved for white students, this backwards
and disgusting condition should compel our attention with the same strength as any back-of- the-
bus rule that ever humiliated a person of color. The situation in Jena was a fire near a powder keg
and the school administration should have done everything within its power to handle the racial
inequities between students fairly. They did not, nor was there any indication of a valid attempt to do
so.
Many community activists throughout the country descended on Louisiana not only because they felt
that sharp injustices had been place upon the Black students who were unreasonably sentenced in
this case, but because the were shocked about the nature of the deterioration of the race relations in
general. This deterioration led to disillusionment and bitter dissension that has created malicious
situations within the inner circles of community leaders and groups. Many community leaders believe
that the criminal court in Louisiana was not an innocent party in the victimization of these students,
but few imagined the close association between the board of education and legal forces in
systematically singling the Black students for punishment for a crime that was evolving long before
they sat under that tree.
One might think that we’ve come along way, but a lot of us know that in a lot of ways we are standing
or falling back, and not only in school. Still in America, there are two separate worlds. Blacks and
Latinos live in New York, in California, and in Washington D. C., they grow up in separate worlds and
do not know white children. How long will it be until American will be a fully open society, a ‘melting
pot’ at last? How long will it be until our national and local leaders really begin to speak of these
issues again?
Many Americans are only taking the opportunity of looking at how fast the world is changing. Sooner of
later we have got to recognize that far too many things have stayed the same, like a bias court system.
Even within the justice system, color remains the distinction upon which Blacks are denied equal
rights, not just under the law but in housing employment, protection of due process, food, educational
assistance, and virtually every other necessity of survival in many major cities throughout the North
and South.
We must all prevent entering another era of crisis, an era of regression that has been instituted and
allowed to fester by our current administration that has ignored the problems of America by focusing
everywhere but here. The next year will require profiles in courage in we are able to survive as a
democratic society. Many of the signs are not as small as some of is would rather believe. Taken
separately, some may not seem unbearable or worth fighting for. But taken together they suggest a
movement and a pattern which could lead to further suppression of civil and democratic rights to an
ever faster cycle of authoritarianism and response with no conceivable end, knowing at the
foundation of justice and humanity, chipping away piece by piece the barriers against dictatorship
which the framers of the Constitution erected.
Khalilah Sabra
MAS-Freedom, NC
www.masfreedom-nc.or
| Are We Really Surprised by Jena or Just Embarrassed by It? |
The military is fiercely recruiting Black
males into military service. This is
nothing new; in fact there is one actuality
that has been consistent throughout
American history. Young Black men have
traditionally been required to give their
lives in the pursuit of freedom while
actually denying it to themselves and to
their military victims elsewhere around
Forces may be actually the only
experience open to the Black American
experience open to the Black American
in which he is truly accepted. Some in
which he is truly accepted. Some might,
oddly enough, think of this as might,
oddly enough, think of this as being is a
positive fact -but it is a back being is a
positive fact -but it is a back handed slap
to the face of moral thinking handed slap
to the face of moral thinking people. It is
in actually one of the most definitive
signs that racism still exist widely
throughout the American society.
males into military service. This is
nothing new; in fact there is one actuality
that has been consistent throughout
American history. Young Black men have
traditionally been required to give their
lives in the pursuit of freedom while
actually denying it to themselves and to
their military victims elsewhere around
Forces may be actually the only
experience open to the Black American
experience open to the Black American
in which he is truly accepted. Some in
which he is truly accepted. Some might,
oddly enough, think of this as might,
oddly enough, think of this as being is a
positive fact -but it is a back being is a
positive fact -but it is a back handed slap
to the face of moral thinking handed slap
to the face of moral thinking people. It is
in actually one of the most definitive
signs that racism still exist widely
throughout the American society.