Here Comes (My Musing On) Honey Boo Boo!

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo airs on TLC and is in its second season.

For the ridiculous sum I pay for cable, I watch approximately 5 channels: Food Network, Cooking Channel, Investigation Discovery, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and any random channel that might have a show that lets me get my crime TV/forensic fix. When these channels simultaneously broadcast shows that I have seen or that I don’t like, my life is thrown into an uproar. I typically throw down the remote and pick up a book. Occasionally, I go channel-surfing. During one such surfing-in-desperation episode, I stumbled upon the premiere of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.” I saw people on Facebook writing about it and got the gist of the background of the Shannon/Thompson family (if you’re not familiar, the show is about the now-seven-year-old Alana Thompson, who competes in children’s beauty pageants and her family, including her mom and dad, three older sisters, and new born niece). I expected to be critical of the beauty pageant element, in particular, and what I thought would be the drudgery of it (I don’t like reality TV), in general. I do have a lot to say about the children’s pageant element, but I found that, overall, I liked the family. One of the main reasons is that, as rural southerners, they are familiar to me. I found the mother, June Shannon, funny, confident, and patient with her girls. I watched more than one episode, a true sign of my interest.

But… within a few episodes, I realized, to the producers of this show, my feelings about June and her family must seem an anomaly. In my opinion, whoever is staging this show goes out of hir way to make this family a subject of mockery, ridicule, and disgust. From the opening montage, the audience gets a clue of what to expect—the family is first gathered, all smiling, as if they are posing for a portrait. And then, someone passes gas and they dissolve into arguing amongst themselves. Why, you may wonder, are they repeatedly cast in such an unflattering light? I believe we are meant to be repulsed by them because of a number of social characteristics of the family members: they are southern, working class, and some of them are fat.
I cannot list all the tropes trotted out to play on stereotypes of people who fall in the aforementioned category, but let me try. We see June, the heaviest member of the family, eating. No shame in that right? But we see her eating in ways that we can look down upon. We see her eating with her hands. We see the show edited (for example, the Thanksgiving show) to make it seem that she eats non-stop. We see her eating large portions (as on her date with her partner, Sugar Bear). And we are encouraged to make judgments on how she cooks for and feeds her children, some of whom (including Alana) are heavy. She sprinkles sugar on their already sweetened cranberry sauce and says it’s how they get their servings of fruit. She makes a dish called “sketti” that includes spaghetti, ketchup, and butter. She tells us about feeding them venison culled from deer killed in car accidents. As if that does not drive the point home enough, Alana laments the fact that they haven’t had venison in a while, noting that, “It’s been a while since I had road kill in my belly.” Largely ignored is June’s comment that she is trying to feed a family of six on $80 a week, leaving little room for gourmet fare, and that she cooks almost everyday to control food costs.

And, oh, these uncouth southerners! The children curse. The parents curse. They argue and laugh loudly. The camera makes sure to document each time they pass gas or burp or pick their noses. They play in mud on several episodes (I mean, you know how we southerners love our dirt—food, toy, flooring—it’s multi-purpose!). They go to “Redneck Games.” The editing of one episode emphasizes that gnats fly around them. When Alana meets the current Ms. Georgia, Ms. Georgia notes that she is unsure of how far the little girl will go in the pageant world because of her lack of refinement. And attempts to teach Alana “proper” etiquette seem exasperating for the child and the instructor, as if the little girl is hopeless!

The presented image of Sugar Bear, too, is often unflattering. He is always shown with a pinch of chewing tobacco in his mouth, leading to comments about his breath. He speaks softly and seems shy and, quite often, scenes are edited to emphasize that June is the “boss” and the girls pay him little attention. This further contributes to the appearance of the family as disordered, given our culture’s creation and castigation of “matriarch” figure and common lamentations about men losing their status in various ways. But I don’t see Sugar Bear as weak because he is quiet. In fact, in Sugar Bear, I see my own dad and my favorite uncle. My dad was a quiet man who loved pickup trucks and hunting and fishing and dealt with my sister and me gently. My uncle is much the same way and, like Sugar Bear and many southern men, he’s usually chewing a pinch of tobacco and clamoring for a “spit cup.” I do not find him disgusting. I have never been repulsed by his breath or his tobacco habit. A quiet disposition does not indicate a lack of engagement or importance in a family circle. Sugar Bear’s love for June and those girls is obvious. He works hard for his family. And when June’s oldest daughter, his step-daughter, has a baby, his sweet words about how she reminded him of Alana and seeing him cuddling the newborn reinforced the comparison I made between him and my dad.

The Shannon/Thompson family has a strong sense of themselves as working class southerners and are even untroubled by the term “redneck”—and why should they be, given “redneck’s” origin as a term to describe hard-working farmers whose necks were burned red by exposure to the sun? But given all the negative connotations that label has, it seems outside the realm of possibility to the producers of the show that one can be comfortable and even proud of a rural southern identity. In comments of posts or articles that talk about the show, you will commonly see them called “white trash,” as well. Now, I have to say, first, that while I understand the sentiments of poor white people and scholars who have tried to “reclaim” the term “white trash,” it is a very problematic term, particularly in its implication that “white trash” is such an anomaly that we must include a racial marker. Most white people are not perceived to be trash, thus the label; but what does this say we think about people of color? The racialized terms by which we are referred have been constructed in ways that imply an innate subordination, impoverishment, “less-ness” in a way that the term “white” has not been constructed. In fact, so anomalous is “white trash,” that scholar Matt Wray explored the idea that people given this label are often perceived as “not quite white.”

For the purposes of this essay, I want to focus on another adverse meaning of the labeling of the Shannon/Thompson family as “white trash”: in the words of Matt Wray and Annalee Newitz, “white trash” is often the “white Other,” “the difference,” indeed, the “threat” within the bounds of the privileged status of whiteness. There is no clearer evidence in “Honey Boo Boo” that the South and, in this case, white southerners are being othered, portrayed as foreign, unknown, and unknowable, than the fact that the family’s speech is captioned, as if our English is any more accented than that of people from other regions of the United States! But those other accents are normative, unnoticeable, default, and, in the end, not an accent at all, but the way “real” USians talk!

I think the whole family is portrayed in a way to make each member an object of ridicule, but I believe our greatest disgust is supposed to be reserved for June. June seems, to me, to have a great attitude. She finds the humor in many situations and she is affectionate with her girls. She is confident about her relationship with Sugar Bear and her attractiveness to him. She is a bit adventurous and she likes to have fun. June is also money savvy; she endeavors to be an “extreme couponer”: “You save money for your family — that’s what it’s all about,” she said [on Jimmy Kimmel Live]. “I could be a multi-millionare and still want to get the best deal for my family.” Additionally, “she’s putting the show’s earnings into trust funds for her children,” noting that, “I want my kids to look back and say, ‘Mama played it smart.’”

Funny, confident, beautiful, smart… apparently, those are all things forbidden to fat southern women. When June decides to have fun on a water slide, the camera focuses on the fact that she struggles to climb it (even then, she laughs amiably at herself and is clearly having a good time, but the joke is supposed to be on her—HaHa! She’s too fat for this!). She notes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that she and Sugar Bear both appreciate her beauty (a fact that he confirms). Yet, she is shown as the opposite of all those things that are constructed as beautiful in our society, from her disdain for makeup to her refusal to obsess over her weight. And, true to common characterization of southerners, there are plenty of “duh” moments when we are given the impression that the family members are not intelligent. I cannot, in one post, catalogue all the ways this woman is mocked and cast as the butt of some joke that everyone else is in on.

But, what really endears June, and indeed, all her family, to me, is the fact that, in the face of a country that derides most things about them, they STAY proud and true to who they are, something that I understand as (and I deeply, deeply hope is) a refusal to accept the mandate that they apologize for being themselves, for being working-class and southern. When I see June, I am reminded of Liss’s post about having the audacity to be fat and happy and I can’t help smiling myself. For me, the othering of the South and southerners, the positioning of us as inferior to northerners, the constant stream of jokes about our stupidity and “in-breeding,” our “strange” food (and even deadly, until soul food and southern food are properly gentrified by northern chefs—but that’s another post!) and weird customs, means that I proclaim my southern-ness often and loudly, from the language I use on social media to referring to myself as a southern (b)elle to making a conscious effort to use my “real” voice in my classes and other settings so that my accent, which I find lovely and luscious, shines through. And while part of that has come from the process of being comfortable in my own skin, part of it is DEFINITELY a “Ha! I am progressive, smart, funny AND southern”-thumbing-of-my-nose at those who would believe such a person cannot exist. I read June’s actions and attitude in the same light.

I have a delightful feeling that I am right.

What's the Matter with Louisiana?

Been thinking about starting a new blog called "Dispatches from the South" or something so I can just post ridiculous and non-ridiculous shit I stumble across everyday.

Then I realized, I barely write here!!! Might as well post my observations here. So, continuing my critique of Louisianans who make me want to pull my eyelashes out, I present the following two items:

Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License in Louisiana

and

Sharon Hodges, 61,... was charged with simple battery and disturbing the peace with racial slurs Thursday.

Okay, I ain't gone lie...

My first thought when I saw the first article was, "I have to tell Kim!" but then, I wondered if that put her in the, "Hi, I'm elle and this is my best friend, Kim, worldwide spokesperson for all biracial people" position.

So, I decided that it would be fun to just half-heartedly pick apart this racist Justice of the Peace's (he should not bear any title with the word "Justice" in it, IMHO) (il)logic:

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Keith Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday.

He is talking using terms like, "mixing the races."



He apparently believes that somewhere, there is a "pure" race. He is prefacing his sentence with, "I'm not a racist..." He seems totally unaware or unaccepting of the notion of race as a political, social, and economic construct. Yes, Mr. Bardwell, you are a racist. He then says,

"I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Really, is he using the "I have a (fill-in-the-blank) friend!" argument? And is there anything more telling than, "They use my bathroom?" He compares his racial "tolerance" to the Jim Crow Era and has decided he his suitably progressive? Progressive enough that he's wiling to allow black people in his house and take the risk of getting our cooties!

[I]t is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long...

[snip]

[Bardwell] came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

I don't know divorce statistics, I really don't. But I don't think the rate of staying-togetherness is impressive for many marriages these days, regardless of the racial background of the partners. If the rate of divorce is higher for interracial couples, I can't imagine why, given the welcoming and supportive social climate evidenced by people like Bardwell.

Also, this theory that people do not "accept" biracial children? First, let me state that I understand CLEARLY the difference between conceiving children in a consensual, loving relationship and conceiving them in a sexually exploitative system like slavery. But I have to point out that biracial children have a long history of being part of "black" families, because of the realities of the lives of enslaved women. Not "accepted," as if the effort to love them is always complicated and must be consciously undertaken.* It's as if Bardwell has been enjoying some of that "tragic mulatto" literature on the side.**

There is nothing that makes biracial children inherently prone to "suffering." Of course, I cannot personally speak to the experiences of biracial children and I know there are issues living in this society as a biracial person. But much of that is the byproduct of living in a highly racialized country, where we've understood race, for so long, as a binary, and are obsessed with making people fit one category or another. Louisiana is a perfect example; it wasn't that long ago that the state proved it's dedication to the one-drop rule.

Then, finally,

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

No, you don't. if you're marrying some people and not marrying others, you are not treating everyone equally.

And, if I'm not mistaken, this is an elected position in Louisiana.

As to that second article,

A West Monroe police affidavit said Hodges claimed a woman cut in front of her at Walmart's return desk, and the woman's daughter lunged at her.

[snip]

The woman's daughter admitted to lunging at Hodges after she used a racial epithet.

I would ask, in whose mind does it make sense that the reaction to cutting line is slinging racial slurs, but I think this says it all:

[W]itnesses heard Hodges yell a racial epithet at the woman and say, "You will respect your elders, especially since I'm white."

_____________________________
*I am not trying to dismiss the fact that there was undoubtedly resentment and struggles as enslaved women and men dealt with slaveowners' sexual violence.

** Since he depends on his perspective as a Louisianan, let me throw in mine. Lately, when I go home, every time I enter a store, I see white grandparents or godparents or aunts and uncles (and I partly assume the relationships and partly know for sure, because people ask them, "Who is this you got with you?") with biracial children all the time. Why do I even note it? Because that was NOT something I saw growing up there.

Struggling To Meet the Standards...

I have been a teacher for the past eight years and I have come to one of many conclusions-It is a very thankless job. I put in ten to twelve hour days that involve dealing with my students in one aspect or another. Much of my time is spent trying to get them to realize the importance of education, getting them involved in extracurricular activities and then riding them like horses to keep their grades up to stay involved, trying to keep them from getting arrested or abused, both physically and mentally, or just watching them stretched out in my living room studying or getting help with homework because my house is a safe place. I do all of these things because I love my students regardless of their skin color, socio economic background, religion, sexual orientation or any other obstacles that many human beings use as barriers to keep from forming relationsips with each other. I also realize that barriers are more permeable than in larger areas-I know/grew up with my students' parents, am often kin to them, go to church with them, and everyone knows where I live or what my phone number is.

During my eight years as a teacher here in Smalltown, USA I have attended many professional development workshops and conferences where improving school scores is always at the top of the list. They give these grandiose ideas they have sat in their expensive offices and dreamed up in their world, which by the way usually does not reflect my student's world, and tell me that if I do exactly what they say, my school's scores will shoot up and all will be hunky dory at smalltown high school. I listen and try my damnedest to accompish all of the things the "SUITS" tell me and yet although my school's scores have improved every year it has not been enough for the higer ups in Baton Rouge.

Friday we were informed we had become a school of choice. This means parents of our students can now send their children to two other local schools deemed more academically suitable. We missed our score by three tenths of a point. A school score includes your test scores, attendance, dropout rate, and how many certified teachers there are at your school. For each student that drops out you receive a zero for that students-we had eight students 9th-11th grade to drop out. We also have a problem with attendance. I am constanly amazed at the excuses parents give us when their children miss school. I have heard everything from "she had a hangover", "he doesn't like to get up in the rain", and one of my favories, "he/she needed a break from school." The parish I teach in is POOR! 82% of my students are the FIRST in their families(mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins included) to graduate high school. Out of 66 parishes we rank 61 in pay. So attracting highly qualified and certified teachers is a job in itslef. What we usually get are teachers who get hired in our parish, get certified throught the parish, and then leave to go to another higher paying parish.

I say all of this to say I AM SO UPSET, TIRED, DISGUSTED, and SAD because it seems as if no matter how hard I and others like myself who teach at smalltown high school work it is NEVER ENOUGH. I correspond classes with high risk studets through LSU in an attempt to get them out of school so that they do not dropout. I take them on college visits, senior trips, and do job shadowing with them, so that they can see how much the world has to offer them if they are willing to work hard for it. So I work hard for them and as I sit here writing this post I am crying because with all of the work I put in year after year striving to get my students into colleges,(because of course we have no high school counselor- so this is another task I do for free)I feel useless and defeated and sad because the state has decided that my school is not up to their standards which means the work I do is not good enough.

Above, I mentioned that the world of the department of education officials/curriculum planners is not that of my students. Let me give you a glimpse--we are a school for which there is rarely enough. When we run out of the most basic supplies--like bulletin board paper--we are told there is no money for more, but we are still expected to "make do." To finish my example, bulletin boards are required, whether the school provides paper or not. And reimbursements? Please!

Parental involvement is next to nil--not because parents don't care, but because they work jobs like poultry processing and are worn out when they get home. If I am honest, teacher morale is not what it could be, either. It's hard to face a class of 33 sixth graders in one room. It's hard to teach active fourth graders in a tiny, temporary building that is not well lit or particularly roomy. It's hard to meet the needs of 20+ kindergartners who all want attention urgently but there is no regular aide. Student morale is low as well, as many are tired and don't see the point. My kids are often expected to cook, clean up, take care of younger siblings, and supplement parents' income. School is not a priority.

As I get ready to start another school year on August 18th, I will wipe the tears from my face, and pray that this year be the year we meet our standards the state of Louisiana has set for us. There will be less money from the state and we will be expected to work miracle after miracle to see that little Johnny/Jane has that extra quarter or dollar needed for breakfast and lunch so they will not be hungry-because it is hard to concentrate on what is being taught when your stomach is growling--to help students with their FAFSA's, provide them with paper and pencil, and, in so many cases, to love them. I will pray for the strength and guidance I need to keep traveling down this road of hope that continues to be just out of my reach.

Business as Usual

I live in a rural, southern town that was dominated by a black-white racial binary for most of its 100+ years existence. There were a few black business owners when I was young--barbers and stylists, mostly. And there were some middle class blacks who'd made money in the timber industry, as educators, and in other fields, who owned and rented houses or made their way on the police jury and school board, and were considered the "prominent" black citizens.

But most of the storeowners were white. I grew up patronizing establishments whose owners were known to be racist, people who used racial slurs freely, who routinely disparaged people of color, who were rumored to belong to the Klan, who eyed you coldly as you walked around their stores. Some would hire African-Americans in the stores--young boys as bag boys and a few black girls and women as cashiers.

Other fields were similary white--banking and medicine (CNAs, cafeteria workers, and janitors were black, of course), in particular.

The saddest part is that many of us learned to accept it and to think, in a sense, that white ownership and dominance in certain occupations was the way it had to be. Three examples stick out to me right now.

1. When each bank hired one black teller and stuck to that quota until they merged a few years ago, that was just the way it was.

2. The owners of the only store that stays open after 10 p.m. are southeast Asian. While the relationship between the owners and primarily-black customers seems mutually antagonistic, I have seen black customers treat them in a way I've never seen white store owners treated--yelling at the store owners and making threats, for example. I've heard black customers disdainfully call them "A-rabs" and "Julios."

3. The bank has finally hired it's first Latino teller, and he has had to deal with backlash from black and white customers who question his hiring or who initially didn't want to be helped by him.

But, I keep thinking, it's a different day. Slowly, as surely as time progresses, things will here, too.

Not very quickly, however. The teller that I mentioned just passed his citizenship test and his co-workers at the bank held a celebration for him. The local dentist stopped in and offered his enthusiastic approval.

"I wish they'd all do that," he said. And if that isn't stomach-turning enough, turns out that, some time ago, he invited the bank president to a meeting of the local business club.

He wanted to present the case for why the ATMs should be English-only.

He is the only practicing dentist in a town with a majority black population and a growing Latin@ population.

It just makes me sad that two or three decades from now, some resident of my town will still be able to begin a story with, "I grew up patronizing establishments whose owners were known to be racist..."*
____________________________________________
*I know this is not distinctive to my town or the South; it just bothers me.

Looking for a Word...

**See this, too.**

What do you call companies who make a practice of hiring immigrants, knowing full well some are undocumented, depend on their labor, subject them to brutal, crippling work, pay them low wages, set them in opposition to other exploited workers, and aggressively combat the workers' efforts to organize for better conditions, then turn them in to ICE?

Me, myself, I'm sitting here saying, "Them motherf*ckers!" From the AP:

Nearly 300 people were arrested Wednesday in immigration and identity theft raids at Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants in five states. … "We knew in advance and cooperated fully," said Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for the Pittsburg, Texas, company. ...The raids were part of a long-term investigation, officials said. Plants were raided in Mount Pleasant, Texas, Batesville, Ark., Live Oak, Fla., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Moorefield, W.Va., authorities said.

Atkinson said the company went to ICE agents with information about identity theft at the Arkansas plant. (emphasis mine)

If you think anyone is pulling the wool over poultry companies' eyes, that they are unwittingly hiring undocumented immigrants, please allow me to disabuse you of that notion. Let me point you to two newspapers series: The Chicken Trail, a 2006 Los Angeles Times series (abstracts free, articles cost), and The Cruelest Cuts, a 2008 Charlotte Observer series. An excerpt:

Of 52 current and former Latino workers at House of Raeford who spoke to the Observer about their legal status, 42 said they were in the country illegally.

Company officials say they hire mostly Latino workers but don't knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

But five current and former House of Raeford supervisors and human resource administrators, including two who were involved in hiring, said some of the company's managers know they employ undocumented workers.

"If immigration came and looked at our files, they'd take half the plant," said Caitlyn Davis, a former Greenville, S.C., plant human resources employee.

Former Greenville supervisors said the plant prefers undocumented workers because they are less likely to question working conditions for fear of losing their jobs or being deported.(emphasis mine)

Also, Russell Cobb's The Chicken Hangers, much of which is part of a paper he wrote for a series of occasional papers sponsored by UT-Austin's Inter-American Policy Studies Program about poultry workers.* Cobb recounts the story of Esteban, an immigrant poultry processing worker:

[A]fter a year on the job, Julio Gordo, a manager at Peco Foods, called Esteban into his office. (To protect his identity, Julio Gordo is a pseudonym.) According to Esteban, Gordo told him that the Social Security Administration had notified Peco Foods that Esteban’s Social Security Number had repeated as a number for another worker.
At first, Esteban feared he would be fired by the plant and deported for document fraud — a fate not uncommon among undocumented workers. “Gordo told me he could have the cops here in five minutes if I didn’t cooperate with him,” Esteban confided to me later.

After Gordo allegedly threatened to deport Esteban, he reassured him that he could stay on at the plant if he could get a new ID and Social Security Number. Esteban knew this would be difficult; fake documents cost hundreds of dollars and were sold by only a handful of people in southern Mississippi on the black market. Furthermore, Esteban knew he would run the risk of being fired or deported if he bought a new Social Security Number, since he would be admitting his old one was false. Even with a new I.D., his seniority — including the two raises he had received for a year’s work — would be revoked. Esteban would be starting over from scratch.

Then, according to Esteban, Gordo told him he was willing to do him a “favor”: Esteban could buy a new Social Security Card from Gordo for $700. This was a favor Gordo had done for many other Mexicans in the same situation, he claimed.

So, given the current employee makeup, poultry processors depend heavily upon the labor of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. In order to obtain work, these immigrants often become involved in a "fake document" black market,** risky actions that can see them deported or land in jail. Employers are well aware of the risk immigrants take. Federal prosecutors certainly believed so when they charged Tyson "of conspiring to smuggle immigrants to work at the company's poultry processing plants."***

Yet, despite the fact that "immigrant labor" has become a necessity to the poultry industry, immigrants have not. Poultry processors are used to high turnover--the UFCW suggests that annual turnover is well over 100%--and treat their workers as interchangeable, a disposable workforce. They themselves incur no risk. The article on Pilgrim's Pride lists a number of charges that immigrant workers will face then states succinctly, "Pilgrim's Pride faces no charges." Tyson beat the federal case by disavowing claims that they recruited and smuggled immigrant workers, blaming those actions not on company policies but on a few "rogue" employees.

And the immigrant workers who are fired, jailed, deported with little recourse will simply be replaced.
_______________________________________
*Anita Grabowski was an author of one of those papers and has gone on to produce Mississippi Chicken. From the film's synopsis:

In the 1990s, poultry companies in Mississippi and throughout the American South began to heavily recruit Latin American immigrants, most of them undocumented, to work in the poultry plants. A decade later, there are now large immigrant communities in poultry towns all over the South, and the immigrants find themselves in an extremely vulnerable situation, where they are frequent victims of abuse by employers, police officers, landlords, neighbors and even other immigrants.

**For more, see House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2005: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. 109^th Congress, 1^st Session, 12 May 2005 (Washington: GPO, 2005).

***The INS accused Tyson of cultivating a culture “in which the hiring of illegal alien workers was condoned in order to meet production goals and cut costs to maximize profits.” The indictments alleged that Tyson aided and abetted these workers in obtaining fake documents.

Maintaining Segregation

When I made the commitment to start blogging again, my goal wasn't to come here and report everyday on how racism is alive and thriving in my area. But some stuff, I just gotta tell.

I live in an area of the South that was largely biracial--(non-Hispanic) black and white--and racially stratified for most of the 20th century. But, in the early 21st century, things, at least on the surface, are changing. The geographic boundaries that separated the "black" and "white" sections of town are increasingly disregarded. Poultry processing plants and timber industries have attracted a number of Latino residents to the area. And we have our first black mayor.

There is the problem of white flight--there are fewer than ten white students at the local school, though the town is still about one-third white. Still, it's changed significantly since I was growing up here.

Yesterday, my younger cousin was at our house visiting my son and nephew. At some point, he was ready to go so that he could play basketball at the gym of First Baptist Church. I was a bit surprised as First Baptist is a "white" church. The only church with a predominantly white congregation in my town that routinely reaches out to the whole community* is Pisgah Baptist. My son and nephew asked to go and my dad said no. When they walked out the door, he told me the reason he said no was, "I don't see how they can justify letting the black kids have just one night."

"What?" I asked. He repeated it. I asked for more details and he explained. The gym is open five nights a week. White children can go two nights, Latino children can go two nights, and black children get Thursday night.

"What?" I mean, that's all I could say. "Is that what people do or did the church people say that?" I asked my dad. Again, he repeated the breakdown. "No, Daddy. Did they say that?"

And my dad, who's a deacon at my church, finally confirmed that, yes, they said that. They extended the invitation to our church officers that way. And our pastor politely declined.

I'm still saying "what?" What makes the people at First Baptist think this is okay? Because I really believe they think they're being generous. What makes them think our kids can't play together? And why, as I've told this story over and over to (black) people in the last 24 hours, has the response still been, "Why do our kids get only one night?"

Apparently, we've become so accustomed to the division that it's like second nature.
____________________________________________________
*Which is not to imply that the black churches here do conduct community-wide outreach programs. The churches, at least, have changed little.

Waiting...

It occurs to me that I am cataloguing, watching, and waiting for shit to explode in my little corner of the world.

Something is going on here in my home region, something created by the nature of race, gender, and class relations here. Everyone is whispering, but no one is talking.

To date:

Precious "Petey" Story, an 18-year old white woman, was murdered in August. The suspected murderers are young black men, one of whom Petey had previously dated.

Shortly thereafter, when the family of a local white girl decided that she was missing, they went to the home of her black ex-boyfriend and demanded entry. She was not there (was later found on her family's property), but that did not stop her parents from withdrawing her from the local, primarily black high school. They were careful to state that they were not racist, but did not believe in interracial dating.

Over the next couple of days, at least seven other white students withdrew (fewer than 30 were enrolled). When my offended best friend asked one of the white boys about it, he said that his sister confessed to being "afraid" to attend school with so many black boys now. "If one of them tries to date her and she refuses, she's scared of what he might do to her."

Really. He said that.

In a neighboring town, four black boys and one white girl checked out of school one day. They "went to one of the boys’ house, located close to the school, where sex occurred between one of the boys and the girl." They returned to after-school activities and during that time, the girl said she had been raped.

The 14-year-old girl was taken to a local hospital, treated for possible rape, and released to her parents.

A 16-year-old male [was charged] with forcible rape... and placed... in an undisclosed juvenile detention center. He was later released.

...The school district conducted a thorough investigation of the incident and determined that sex occurred, but there was no evidence of a rape. No staff members were notified that a rape had occurred during the school day.

The girl's parents have removed her from the parish school district.

When Ouachita Christian (you know what "Christian" typically means in the name of a southern school right? k, thx) played the majority black Madison High School in football in September, some parents reported hearing gunshots. Some time later, OCS played the (majority black) high school where my best friend is cheerleading advisor. She sent her girls over to introduce themselves, but the OCS cheerleaders were not allowed to come to their side. The gist of the OCS cheerleading advisor's explanation? While it was safe for the black cheerleaders to face their crowd, they couldn't trust the black crowd not to shoot at their cheerleaders.

When I visited the local high school recently, the staff was abuzz with the news that a white male student had brought a noose to school at another nearby high school. School officials have not let a word of that out, so I cannot verify that beyond what I heard that day.

Then, keep in mind, I live about 100 miles from Jena and about 45 miles from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, home of these students who mocked the circumstances surrounding the Jena Six cases by blackfacing themselves with mud.

Oh, and the local solution for addressing the violence and problems here? Take the black kids to Angola and "scare them straight":

Gary Clark, a childhood friend and successful businessman, and I were having conversations recently and the topic of jail came up. ...we talked about the number of black men incarcerated and the things that scared us straight.
“You remember when we were at Westside High* and prisoners were brought to the school and talked about prison life, ’’ said the retired Mobil Oil accountant and successful business owner. “...The things they said about prison life scared the (heck) out of me. I knew then, I was not going to do anything that would send me to jail.”
Tommy L. Carr... and members of the community have taken at risk juveniles -- mostly boys -- on prison visits. “And I have seen how these visits changed the lives of young people,” said Carr. A planned Oct. 23 trip to Angola – the Louisiana State Penitentiary - sponsored by District Attorney Bob Levy, will introduce both area boys and girls to prison life.
Angola... has a prison population of more than 5,000 of which 77 percent are black males.
Most prisoners are sentenced to natural life or exceedingly long sentences. It is estimated that 85 percent of the current population will die behind prison walls.
Carr wants to stop this madness. Both Levy and Carr should be commended for their intervention efforts to keep juveniles out of jail.
Even if it means scaring them straight.

That passage is so simultaneously loaded and clueless that I just can't break it all down right now.

Why am I troubled? I mean, for a long time white parents have been vocal about their desire to separate their kids from ours because our kids are violent, threatening, and dangerous, because a violent act committed by one black kid is reflective of the inherently criminal nature of all black kids. In a sense, this is nothing new. Part of me thinks maybe I've just been away for a while and am supersensitive to all the tensions simmering here.

But the other part of me thinks things can't continue to go on this way. This is a lot, in a small area, in a short time frame. I think people here have to begin to talk. Because I am hesitant and, yes, afraid, I decided to begin here.
_________________________________
*Westside High was the "black" school in the latter days of segregated schools in Union Parish.

Outcomes

A few days ago, I blogged briefly about the story of Precious Story, a young white woman allegedly killed by her black boyfriend and his brother. My post focused on local black residents' prediction of how whites would react and what her murder would mean for race relations.

Last night, we got a partial answer. My niece called me around 11:15 and began the conversation with, "Another white girl is missing." "Do you have to say it like that?" I asked her. "Yeah," she said, "Because they over here kicking folk's doors down and stuff."

From what I've been able to piece together, a 16-year-old girl had been expected home by her parents after work yesterday. When she didn't show up, they went looking for her. Her father and male relatives went to the home of her black ex-boyfriend and kicked the door in.

Now, I've heard that they were armed, but I cannot verify that.

Shortly after I got off the phone with my very irate niece, my best friend, Vivian, called.

"So, that's how it's going to be? Every time a white girl is late, they coming to the black part of town kicking in doors?" She was angry, too.

"Hell, no," I said. "That better not be how it's going to be."

We talked for a minute it and she ended the call with, "When her ass shows up at school tomorrow, I'll call you."

So, she called me a few minutes ago. Turns out, the girl wasn't at school, but neither had she been abducted, nor had she run off with the ubiquitous evil black boy.

She'd fallen in her backyard, into a shallow old well, and couldn't get out.

Her father had been at the school in this morning turning in her books and taking her out of the predominantly black high school. His only explanation--he and his wife are old-fashioned.

Mm-hmm.

"Wait," I asked. "How is he at the school? Why he ain't in jail?"

""The police said there's nothing they can do."

I knew she must be joking. She swore she was not. The local police hadn't done anything (though they did show up last night). So now, the boy's mother is going to the parish police.

To which both of us said, hmmph.

I'm guessing this won't be in any of the local papers, so I wanted to document it here.

Check Out...

...the Jena 6 Defense Committee's site.

The Jena Six (continued)

H/T Professor BlackWoman and One Black Man

Mychal Bell's sentencing date has been changed from July 31 to September 20. He has a new attorney.

Some national entities have offered assistance and/or made public statements about the cases.

From the NAACP:

A team of concerned lawyers is volunteering their legal experience and research expertise to assist Bell in his appeal and stand ready to assist the other defendants. Professor Charles Ogletree, director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, is also collaborating with the NAACP in the effort to secure justice for the young men.

At the NAACP's 98th annual convention recently held in Detroit, an emergency resolution was passed in support of the Jena 6 and the LaSalle Parish Branch of the NAACP to fight against racial discrimination during the trial and in the community overall. "This case reflects a national trend involving disparate treatment of African Americans within the United States criminal justice system," the resolution reads.

From the Congressional Black Caucus:

The racial hotbed that burned for over nine months in Jena should have been contained by school and elected officials. Instead, the students were left to battle this rage without institutional support or resources.

Therefore, the CBC urges the Judge to consider all the factors surrounding these events during sentencing of Mychal Bell, the first of the six students to be tried. Additionally, we appeal to the Jena District Attorney, Reed Walters, to drop the charges against the remaining five students.

Additionally, either the NAACP or the Department of Justice (depends on the source; maybe it's a joint effort?) held a community education forum in Jena on Thursday night. The DoJ's goal is "peacemaking":

Organizers say they are hoping Thursday's forum is the beginning of community reconciliation for the community.

But some residents were "disappointed with the lack of racial diversity -- most of those in attendance were black."

In order for there to be peace there's got to be both sides," said J.L. George of Sicily Island.

From Mychal Bell's father:

"I thought we wanted to resolve this," he said of the tensions, problems and injustice in the community. "We can't do that without both sides."

I think there is more than a little denial in some of Jena's white residents--I've seen the "We don't have a race problem/Jena is no more racist that X-city" and also the blank-eyed stare of the local (white) librarian on the Democracy, Now! film who says she doesn't know what the nooses meant or why they were there. She relies on the prank theory.

As does U.S. Attorney Donald Washington who spoke at the forum:

Washington and [FBI Special Agent Lewis] Chapman talked about the definition of a hate crime... as it pertains to the nooses found hanging in a tree... at the high school.

"You're absolutely right," Chapman said, addressing the community member who asked if the hanging of the nooses was a hate crime.

"What you may not be aware of is that we... did an investigation."

That investigation's findings, he said, were given to Washington's office. Washington said there were all the elements of a hate crime but one -- threat or use of force.

"How would I prove that in this particular case?" Washington asked. "What's my evidence? ... Put yourself in my shoes, and tell me what you'd do differently."

How he can stand flat-footed and say a noose can't be perceived as a threat towards black people in the U.S. South is beyond me. And I'll bet this was a prank as well:

Two men have been arrested after they ran over a church sign at a black church in [Jena]… just hours after the NAACP held a meeting at the Antioch Baptist Church to discuss the fate of the teenagers.

Washington also addressed the complaints of selective and malicious prosecution (against LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters).

Washington said selective prosecution is very hard to prove, and in order to do so he would have to have to "dig in his head" to determine if Walters was treating black and white people differently.

No, I don't know what's keeping him from digging.

The Jena Six

... on Democracy Now! Watch the film.

The Jena Six--What We Can Do

Thanks, Clare, for more info:

Get Involved!—Write, email, or call one of these local organizations:

The Jena 6 Defense Committee
PO Box 2798,
Jena, LA 71342
jena6defense@gmail.com

Friends of Justice
507 North Donley Avenue
Tulia, TX 79088
www.fojtulia.org

ACLU of Louisiana
PO Box 56157
New Orleans, LA 70156
www.laaclu.org
(417) 350-0536

I'll be adding to this post all day. It's been on my mind for a couple of days, but I kept telling myself, "Get everything together." Only, being the procrastinator I am, if I wait until I've compiled all the ideas and resources, I'll never get it done.

1. Sign the petition:


(Thanks Tom and Sylvia).

2. Donate to the Friends of Justice (there's a link in the post).

3. Kevin started a Facebook group and cause for the Jena Six.

4. Grab this animator. (I'm trying to figure out how to put it on my sidebar. Is that possible? Am I totally technologically unsavvy?)

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

5. From blueintheface at DailyKos:

Please contact:
Senator Mary Landrieu
webpage contact link
(202) 224-5824

Senator David Vittner
webpage contact link
Phone:(202) 224-4623

Rep Bobby Jindal
webpage contact link
Phone: (202)-225-3015

Rep William Jefferson
Phone: (202) 225-6636

Rep Charlie Melancon
webpage contact link
Phone: (202) 225-4031

Rep Jim McCrery
webpage contact link
Phone: (202) 225-2777

Rep Rodney Alexander
webpage contact link
Phone: (202) 225-8490

Rep Richard Baker
webpage contact link
Phone: 202-225-3901

Rep Charles Boustany
webpage contact link
Phone: (202) 225-2031

Please call these representatives and leave a message. Tell them that Americans won't stand for racism and ask them to get involved. Let's bring political pressure to bear on District Attorney Reed Walters to stop using the Louisiana justice system to discriminate against African-Americans. For Mychal Bell and the rest of the Jena 6, we need to speak up. Our voices will make a difference!

blueintheface reiterates what Friends of Justice outline as needed responses:

Restoring justice to Jena will require the following:
· The Louisiana State Police must be assigned to the investigation of the alleged fight at the school.
· District Attorney Reed Walters must recuse himself from the investigation and prosecution of the black defendants in the alleged school fight of December 4, 2006 or the incident at the Gotta Go Convenience store on December 2, 2006.
· The legal cases cited above must be transferred to an alternative venue.
· A special prosecutor must be assigned to prosecute whatever charges (if any) are deemed appropriate on the basis of an independent state police investigation.
· The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice should launch a full investigation into events in Jena, Louisiana, beginning with the noose incident of August 31, 2006, and culminating in the alleged fight of December 4, 2006 to determine if the civil rights of Jena residents have been violated.
· The inaction of the LaSalle Parish School Board on the noose incident represents a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Therefore, a written complaint should be filed with the U.S. Department of Justice.
· The LaSalle Parish school system must institute a rigorous program of diversity education beginning in elementary school and continuing through high school with a particular focus on the history of race relations in America and the virtues of pluralism, mutual respect and equal opportunity. In addition, a yearly, system-wide in-service diversity training program must be provided for teachers and administrators.

6. Circulate this:



and this: "Injustice In Jena As Nooses Hang From The 'White Tree',"

and here is a link to a CNN Video.

7. I have talked to LA public defender Jason Williamson, who works in New Orleans, but who's keeping an eye on this case. He's in touch with the parents of the boys and has promised to let me know of local efforts to raise funds and encourage support.

8. Check out whileseated.

More later.

Images for the Jena Six Petition

Tom has combined some of the images for the Jena Six petition with links to the petition.

Please check it out.

H/T Sylvia.

Independence Day?

Because of Jena.

And the Newark women.

And Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District #1.

And the criminalization and mistreatment of immigrants.

And continual violence against all of us.

And our overwhelming silence...

...a still-relevant perspective on the Fourth of July:

I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me.

This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.

You may rejoice, I must mourn.

-Frederick Douglass

The Hypocrisy of American Slavery

(What to the Slave is the Fourth of July)

July 4, 1852

One hundred fifty-five years ago. Apparently, not long at all.

(One Reason) Why Mychal Bell's Conviction Was No Surprise.

OK, I had to take a couple of days. You know what I felt like happened? Let me give you a couple of historical examples.

After Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, when eyes turned to Virginia, when the lies about enslaved blacks' contentment and the relative benignity and beneficiality of slavery were so thoroughly challenged, the white South basically shut down any discussions on the peculiar institution.* Challenges and criticisms wouldn't be met with defenses, justifications, or skewed logic (not that they'd always been prior to 1831). Instead, they were met with aggression, anger, and threats toward suspected abolitionists (and even the more moderate anti-slavery folk) and further repression of blacks. Pro-slavery forces in Congress even managed to effect gag rules, shutting down the discussion in Congress for a decade.

The lesson--there are very real, very negative results if some white Southerners perceive attacks on the racial status quo, particularly in the form of liberatory actions on the part of blacks and "interference" from "outsiders."**

I've mentioned before that in the late 1950s/early 1960s, Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana stood in the Senate and painted a picture of the South, and Louisiana in particular, as a peaceful region, with few "racial" disturbances, and a status quo accepted by blacks and whites alike. If blacks were largely disfranchised,*** then it was the result of insufficient motivation on their parts and nothing systematic or institutional. But, Ellender warned, if the Justice Department kept interfering, if civil rights organizations kept pushing, then no one could hold white southerners responsible for what they might do about the attack on their states' rights and the favoritism shown towards blacks.

And in the aftermath of new civil rights acts and the establishment of the Civil Rights Commission (CRC), white Southerners, again, shut down. They restricted access to social services to the poorest blacks. In Louisiana, they ruthlessly purged blacks from the voter rolls. They expanded the use of literacy tests and "good character" requirements. They refused to cooperate with the CRC, refused to even acknowledge its legitimacy.

The lesson--there are very real, very negative results if some white Southerners perceive attacks on the racial status quo, particularly in the form of liberatory actions on the part of blacks and "interference" from "outsiders."

So when it came to Mychal Bell's trial, I just knew. When blacks in Jena rallied around their children, when international attention came to the situation, I knew. When I read the nasty comments from Louisianans on different blogs about how "Jena isn't that bad" and "There's racism everywhere" and "If six white boys had done this...", I knew. And Lord, when they
chose that all white jury, I knew, as a historian, as a black southerner, that the jury was not going to miss the chance to reinforce "the lesson."

Again.

At the expense of a child's life.
_____________________________________
*The rebellion was not the sole reason, of course, but I believe it played a large role in the way the South handled the issues surrounding slavery over the next three decades.
**Outsiders can be within the community, too, e.g. white southerners who challenged the status quo in the South.
***I mention this because I am hearing the same defenses of the all-white jury in Jena.

The Jena Six Petition Is Ready

Please sign and help circulate the petition

Jena Six petition link.

H/T Tom.

Mychal Bell, First of the Jena 6 to Stand Trial, Convicted

***Update (5:51 PM-6/28)***

I really have nothing to say right now. This conviction is not surprising.

But it still hurts.

I got the news from the Alexandria Town Talk:

The jurors were told that in addition to the charges Bell faced, they also may consider the lesser and included charges of aggravated battery, second-degree battery, simple battery, or acquittal.

Yeah, right.

Vox sums up my opinion:

30 years for a high school fistfight in which no one was seriously injured, convicted by an all-white jury. I don’t know what to say about that.

Thanks to my cousin, Trinity, for updating here.

____________________________________

This is Trinity-Elle's cousin. She's away from the computer but wanted me to update you that Mychal Bell has been convicted of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

More Later.

An Aside on the Jena Six

***Please excuse my all-over-the-place-ness as I think this out, but you're used to it, right?***

In the comments of my very first post about the Jena Six, I had a commenter named Nick who was troubled by my views:

Blah, blah, blah!!! I am a resident of Jena and i have been a resident here all my life. It is really unfortunate that the news only publishes stories that make these young men, the "Jena 6", seem like victims. I happen to know 3 of them and i assure you they are anything but.

...

Does it really matter what color they are or this student they beat? Its so funny how all these big city hot shots come here and try to make all this a racial thing when really its not!

My immediate response was defensive:

as far as "does color matter?" hell yes. don't even try that BS with me--another rural louisianan. didn't color matter when a tree was still "reserved" for whites only now in 2007? when the nooses were hung? when those boys got a slap on the hand?

...

as far as trying to make this not be a "racial thing"--good attempt with the "i don't remember how this started." it'd be easy to say "with nooses hung from trees," but somehow, i suspect it goes beyond that, past the mistreatment of (largely African American) Jefferson Parish Prison detainees who were moved to Jena after Hurricane Katrina, past the brutalization of the young men in the old juvenile prison, past the overwhelming support of jena's white populace for a former ku klux klan leader for governor.Keep your head buried in the sand, Nick. Jena has a race problem. And it's not young black men.

Nick's response included:

elle, obviously your missing my point entirely! I LIVE HERE IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY In JENA! Do you? I know all about what racisim is, trust me!

...

The majority of people in this town are not racist though. I work in a place where i talk to cops daily and most of them also beleive that attempted second degree murder is really extreme.

I wanted to continue the discussion, but I felt that I owed Nick an apology (which is why I asked Nick to e-mail me). Not because I changed my position, but because 1) I had professed to want views from people in and around Jena and felt that I dismissed Nick's when I jumped defensive and 2) my initial response to Nick was full of assumptions.

Still, I am troubled by Nick's assertion that some of these boys were "bad" and the resultant implication that being charged with attempted murder is somehow deserved because of alleged past actions (not Nick's position, but I've seen it). It reminds me of all the purported discussions during the civil rights era that emphasized putting only positive-reputation-having, well-dressed, "respectable" people on the frontlines in sit-ins and on segregated bus seats and during acts of civil disobedience. Of course, the technique was undoubtedly necessary.

But still, it begs the question (a question that I'm dealing with in another part of my online life as well), for whom do we seek justice and fair treatment? Whose criminalization and/or negative characterization do we resist? S/he of the spotless past and unimpugnable reputation? Those with the "right" color or money, who can have what they do dismissed as pranks or a misstep (rather than an inherent flaw) or "unintended to offend?"

Vox, as usual, beautifully summarizes why, no matter what unrelated allegations about the Jena Six arise, no matter how many people cry "reverse racism!" (because I, for example, obviously think it's okay for black people to beat up white people and that black people should "get away with" said beatings), the circumstances of this case, from the way provocative actions before the fight were dismissed to the unreasonable charges, point to racism and the difficulty these young men will have in getting a fair trial:

a. Only three of the six teens arrested participated in the fight.
b. Several white teenagers jumped and beat up a black teen the weekend before the fight and were charged only with battery.
c. A white teenager threatened a black teen with a shotgun and was not charged with a crime.
d. White teens threatened the lives of the black teens by hanging the nooses from that tree and were never punished.
e. The boy who was “beaten” in the afternoon was up and at his ring ceremony that same evening.

It’s not racism because they’re being prosecuted for beating another teen. It’s racism because the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, and because similar crimes by white teens in the four months preceding the “beating” were not punished at all.

In other words, that racism affects this case is not something that bloggers, or some newspapers, or the faceless "leaders of national organizations" made up to malign residents of Jena or to divert attention from "the 'real' victim."

I bobble as I try to walk the line between respecting Nick's position as a Jena resident and giving voice to my own lived experience(s) as a black, rural Louisianan. Still, my questions to Nick and people of this mindset remain:

Is the law being administered differently based on race? How does the historical mistreatment of African Americans in Jena's "justice system," affect this case? Is a fair trial for young men that citizens like you are working so hard to paint a criminalized picture of possible in Jena?

I deeply believe that race and place matter in this case, and I worry for the lives of these young men. No matter what allegations are hurled at them, they deserve to be treated fairly and justly.

Ongoing Update-The Jena Six

***For summary/analysis of the circumstances surrounding the Jena (Louisiana) Six, read this by the Friends of Justice. ***

***From the Alexandria Town Talk (6/27)***

JENA -- The prosecution and defense rested their cases today in the trial of Mychal Bell, 17, charged with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same in connection with a Dec. 4 fight at Jena High School.

...

If convicted on the charges he now faces, Bell could be sentenced to as many as 30 years in prison.

The trial resumes tomorrow. Bell's attorney called no witnesses. Is that strange?

***Update from the Alexandria (LA) Town Talk (6/26)***

All-white jury selected in Bell trial

JENA -- An all-white jury of five women, one man and a female alternate was selected today in the trial of Mychal Bell...

This gives me a sick feeling.

***Update from the Monroe (LA) News-Star (6/26)***

Until Monday, Bell, Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Robert Bailey Jr. had all been charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same crime. Those charges remain for all of the boys except Bell, who also faces a conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery.

There is also an unnamed juvenile charged, whose court records aren't public.

This contradicts what I read on the Friends of Justice blog, so I will have to do some more digging once I get off. The original post and updates are below. ***From what I've read in other papers, I believe only Bell's charges have been reduced.***

Two of the black students are to go on trial Tuesday on the charges, which supporters say are way out of line.

"The detective investigating told me it would be simple battery," Bailey said. "My son has never been in trouble before. He's never done anything wrong, now he's facing this. How can that be?"

...

The two facing trial this week are Theodore Shaw and Mychale Bell. Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones face trial on the same charges, but no date has been set.

Shaw and Bell, have been jailed since their arrests, unable to make $90,000 bond.

More from the Times-Picayune (6/25).

***Update from Alexandria's Town Talk (6/25):

JENA -- LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters this afternoon reduced the charges faced by Mychal Bell -- one of the six Jena High School students charged in a Dec. 4 fight at the school -- to second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree aggravated battery.

He, along with five other students charged in the fight -- together called the Jena Six -- had faced charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.

Earlier this morning, a plea agreement for a lesser charge was turned down by another member of the Jena Six, Theodore Shaw, who is on trial this week in the courtroom of 28th Judicial District Court Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr.

Shaw's attorney, Tim Shumate, tried to persuade him to plead guilty to aggravated assault, a felony, against the wishes of Shaw's father, Theodore McCoy.

"We are confident to go to trial," McCoy said. "They are trying to avoid trial because they don't have a case."

An ***Update*** from the Friends of Justice blog (6/25):

So this case goes to trial, beginning with jury selection tomorrow. All defendants now face the reduced charge of aggravated assault.

...

But aggravated assault is still a felony charge, and even if the defendants escape with probated sentences their lives will never be the same. Any minor slip-up could land them behind bars. A college education will become illusive because felons are denied all forms of federal assistance. Most decent jobs are unattainable for felons. And so it goes. We are calling the District Attorney to drop the charges to simple battery–the same charge filed against the boy who attacked defendant Robert Bailey at a dance short days before the incident at the school. Then there is the issue of the all-white jury that will almost certainly be selected tomorrow. We aren’t where we need to be, but we have traveled miles from where we were when this fight began–and in the right direction.

This is what worries me, as well. I see this all the time, everyday--young men who are deemed "unemployable" because of a felony conviction. In my area (here) about the only places they can go for work are the poultry processing plants. If they can't hang with the work there...

The post also mentions that "CNN will broadcast its Jena feature on Paula Zahn’s NOW program this evening between 7:00 and 8:00 (central)." I missed it, of course, but am going to dig around the CNN website now.

Update on the Jena Six

A rally outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in support of the Jena Six:



And from Sylvia:

in an effort to rally up support among the netroots, Tom, an ally at his blog Automatic Preference, has started writing a petition for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the charges brought against the Jena Six for racial discrimination, incorporating other criminal justice situations in recent events that have showed indications of disproportionate charging and sentencing arrangements being given to African-American children and young adults. It’s his first time creating a petition, and he’s asking for assistance, input, and feedback. Please stop by and give him your support. The plan is after the petition is developed and established, the link will be e-mailed to the numerous grassroots organizations and national organizations involved to let them know that the AfroSphere and the progressive netroots are supporting their fight for justice for the Jena Six.