I don't usually comment on public events. I am a quiet active political person. I read, assess, form my own opinions and then vote. Although, if this was the trend, then no one would stand up and shout at the rain. I don't like to rant. I find it aggrevates my anger, like scratching an itch, it only gets worse. I take a point of view of discerning instead of judging. This keeps me out of trouble on so many levels: I don't alienate friends or family members; I don't propel the angry Rae image; and I have lots of people who enjoy my company. My close friends know my personal love for all things political give me a bit of room when I just need to talk about politics.


I haven't really consulted anyone before writing about the next little bit, but I haven't had that safe space to spell out my opinion on this particular event. So here goes,...


I have always been a bit mouthy whenever I hear racial slurs. I will cut people down for using phrases or words or even having an ethnocentric attitude. I don't stand for it inter-racially or intra-racially. If I hear a black man/woman using inappropriate language with another black man or woman, I will slice him/her to ribbons for self degredation. I just won't stand for it, under any circumstances. This being said, I have been almost killed for being mouthy (about racism or any number of other things, which is why I am less vocal today). However, I have also been respected for my prescence of mind, courage and heart.


I am not sure where I get this strength. The only thing I can think that I rely on is my experience in high school. Most kids in my neighborhood went to a private school. Everyone in my neighborhood was white. The public school that serviced my neighborhood was about 85% or more black. There were some Asian, not many and the rest white. I remember being one of three white females who "graduated" the seventh grade. My best friend in the eighth grade was suspended for fighting with a girl who called me a "white bitch" in homeroom. I remember Joseph Lowery coming to speak to my school. It was a very big deal and we were all in the gym for about an hour listening to him preach. The other thing I remember about that event was being in fear for my life as I walked out of the gym because I was one of the few white students. I remember being grateful that my spanish class that I was returning to was the first door on second hall past the gym exit on the left. I was afraid. The people in the school were pumped up after he spoke, with anger and a dangerous encouragement. I remember being called goldie locks for my blonde hair. I remember shootings at the mall next to the highschool. I remember having to walk through the mud in my pumps and dress that I wore for National Honor Society because there was a huge fight on third hall that left blood on the floor and lockers. I remember one of the coaches walking to the disciplinary principal's office with two young black men in headlocks so they wouldn't fight. I remember people going to jail everyday for violence in my school. And I knew why they were fighting. There was an underlying racial tension in my school that you couldn't cut with a knife. It was both inter and intra racially motivated. It was dangerous in my school.


I do not put up with racial slurs because cutting words are a result of cutting thoughts. Cutting thoughts and words lead to slicing actions. Racial violence is unacceptable on any level in thought, word or deed. I will not stand for it.


These young men, these Jena 6, that stood up for their civil rights through beating a classmate and leaving him for dead...I will not stand for it. There is nothing justified in their actions. They were violent. There is nothing about violence that deters racism. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that. It is about changing thoughts. Violence does not change thoughts. The student who had to ask his pricipal for "permission" to sit under a "white" tree should have been the first indication to the principal that something was wrong in his school. PERMISSION? Are you kidding me? Why didn't the principal ask the student back, why do you feel the need to ask for permission? What is it that we as a faculty and staff, as educators need to address that would eliminate this lack of freedom for the student? Where were the teachers? Why was their no authority for the children? Why would racism ever escalate to a place of violence in today's society? THEY ARE CHILDREN. WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING THEM?


Do I think that the young men who beat the one young man should go to jail? for murder? Yes they should go to jail, and for attempted murder if there is proof of motive and intent suffienct to support the charge. If the young man who was beaten died, they should be prosecuted for murder. They committed a crime. I don't care why they committed the crime. They broke the law. The worst thing about taking the "law into your own hands" is that you are no longer protected by those laws. You are an outlaw. You are a criminal.


I don't know really what motivated my parents to send me to public school vs. private school. What I do know is that it was the best cultural experience I could have. I learned what it meant to experience racism. I know what its like to go to a school where tension is a part of the daily function of the school. I know what its like to say, yes I graduate from that highschool and have someone ask me back, "and you survived?". I know what it is like to be the minority. I know what it is like to live in tolerance and diversity. I know what it is like...

There has never been a reason for me to hit, kick, demonstrate in any violent way my intolerance for racial slurs, racial hatred, racial oppression. So why is there a reason for these six to get away with attempted murder for their intolerance of racial oppression? The answer is that they shouldn't. And if they do, their leaders should be ashamed of themselves.