What Does Justice Mean in Jena?
The national spotlight is falling on Jena, a rural Louisiana town. Six black teenagers are being charged with attacking a white teenager after a racial provocation. According to the AP:
The six teens were charged shortly after the local prosecutor declined to charge three white teens who hung nooses in a tree on their high school grounds. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder, but that charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.
The kid who was badly beaten suffered a swollen face and lost conciousness. He was did attend a “school function” that same night, indicating that his injuries were not necessarily permananent.
Based on what little I know of the case, the initial charges of “attempted murder” seemed extreme, which is why they were lowered so quickly. But more important questions are coming up. Protestors are raising an issue about the selective application of “justice.”
The controversy is an interesting one. Thousands of people from all over the region came to the city to protest the disparate treatment of a justice system long rife with inquality. They are outraged the noose hanging was not punished and demand leniancy due to what is a clear provocation.
Many White people look at this situation and see a vicious attack that needs to be punished. They will doubt that historical violations justify a vicious attack by many on one.
Black people will see this in light of hundreds of years of continuous mistreatment and injustice — and the nooses as one significant symbol of the legal system’s long historical collusion with the forces of racism.
This view is only exacerbated by the still unresolved demand for justice — for reparations from slavery (coerced, unpaid labor), segregation, and the history of lynching and violence in which local and state governments legalized or tolerated (lynchings were rarely punished). The six teenagers may or may not articulate this view, but any people who suffered such crimes would internalize it and live it out.
In short, the whites who want to see these 6 teenagers punished have the if-an-alien-landed view, devoid of any historical placement or any crucial context. That is fine for perpetuating ignorance and societal imblance, but it contributes nothing to the legacy of understanding needed to right the wrongs of the past.
In my moral universe, I cannot see this beating as justifiable. Yes, words and symbols can be painful reminders of the past — and I would classify a noose hanging as a free speech act — though one that should mitigate the punishment of the teens (and I would include their young age as another factor). Just as most school fights go unenforced criminally (usually just school suspensions), this one should too. The students who hit the boy should be punished, and the boys who hung the nooses should be shamed by the school and their peers.
More importantly, problems like this call for the long overdue step of a major racial reconciliation by the federal, state and local governments. They should issue offical apologies to African-Americans, and offer communal and individual reparations. This may not be complete justice, but it could mark a new era in race relations. And don’t let the Oprah’s, 50 Cent’s, LeBron’s, and Condoleeza’s of the country fool you: the historical crimes this country was founded on are still unaccounted for.
