As a veteran journalist and baby boomer, I have followed, with much interest, the controversy surrounding the Jena 6 in Jena, Louisiana. This is one of those times when I wish I was still working in the newsroom---fighting for the right to cover stories of the injustices done to African-Americans---especially to African-American males.
I have seen very little coverage on this story and I know why. The “white shirts” who run newsrooms around the country don’t see the same significance as they do in a story berating OJ Simpson. It’s OK to kick a black man down BELOW the ground but don’t try to lift him up because he might try to steal a white woman.
I worked in an environment where an Assistant News Director expressed his fear of driving in a predominately black neighborhood and chastised me for his belief that I wanted him to show me favoritism because of my race. My question was----and still is---how do you get objective news reporting coverage from a manager like that?
What is getting ready to happen in Jena is historic. But let’s not forget, it’s happening in other places across America. Take the case of James Johnson in Wilson, NC who is scheduled to stand trial for the murder of an 18 year old white girl next week. There is NO EVIDENCE linking him to the crime but the District Attorney seems gung ho on connecting him since he was apparently at the crime scene with another young man who has already confessed that he did it and he acted alone.
The Jena 6 movement is also very similar to the marches of the late 1950s and 1960s when people who believed in freedom marched and said “I ain’t gon’ let nobody turn me around..turn me around…turn me around…”
It is somewhat similar to Woodstock, when free thinkers said make love---not war.
I salute Davie Bowie who recently donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for six black teens charged in an alleged attack on a white classmate in Jena, Louisiana. It tells me that there are baby boomers who still have a conscience and awareness for what SHOULD be right with the world
Now I know this blog is going to piss some people off but I thank God I live in a country protected by the First amendment.
