Blinded By The White: OJ Simpson vs. The Jena Six

Why is it that mainstream white media and white folks in general are so obsessed (once again) with OJ's guilt but paying little or no attention to the innocence of the Jena Six?

Of course, we all know about OJ's recent arrest. It's been all over the news. But if you don't know about the Jena Six, you're not alone. On USAToday.com, for instance, there are four times as many recent news stories about OJ as there are about the Jena Six.

As I'm writing this, the town of Jena, Louisiana --- population 3,000 --- is preparing for a civil rights rally Thursday with an expected 50,000 demonstrators from across the country. But OJ Simpson is on the front page of USA Today site.

In the small town of Jena last fall, two black high school students sat in a schoolyard under a tree. The tree was known as the "white tree" because only white kids are allowed to sit under it. The day after the two black students defied this unspoken rule, nooses were hung from the tree. The school principle dismissed it as a "prank". Black students protested by sitting under the tree, in growing numbers. The District Attorney came to the school and threatened them, saying, "I can take away your lives with the stroke of a pen."

There was a series of violent incidents were white students attacked black students. The government and school administrators ignored those. But when a white student was beaten up by six black students in a schoolyard fight --- after provoking the black students with racist taunts --- the District Attorney charged the black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were charged in adult court. Meanwhile, the white student they beat up suffered only minor cuts and bruises.

One of the black students, Mychal Bell --- age 16 --- has been in prison since December. Last month, an all-white jury decided that Bell was guilty --- not guilty of beating up a student who racially taunted him, but guilty of attempted murder.

It reminds me of the African American five-year-old in Florida earlier this year who was acting up in kindergarten so the teacher called the police and the little girl was handcuffed and arrested and taken to jail. Or countless other examples. How is it that white folks are so predisposed to presume that black folks are sinister and guilty and yet equally as quick to deny the pervasiveness of racism in every crevice of our society and rail against affirmative action and other remedies to structural injustice?

At the time of OJ Simpson's trial for allegedly murdering his ex-wife and her friend, polls showed that most white people thought Simpson was guilty while black people thought he was innocent. Another poll conducted 10 years after the Simpson verdict found the same thing.

What gives? Why in case after case do blacks and whites see things so, well, black and white? Racial profiling is a documented phenomenon; studies show that African Americans are far more likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes than whites who commit the same offenses. People of color recognize that the system is biased. Why can't whites? And why can't whites recognize their own role in perpetuating that bias --- not only directly but also indirectly by denying that that such racism even exists?

Thursday, Mychal Bell will be sentenced. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a schoolyard scrape that he didn't even start. While many whites in Jena are saying the case has been "overblown" (USA Today's wording), over 11,000 busloads of demonstrators are on their way to Jena in protest. To show their solidarity with Jena's black community, all of the demonstrators will be wearing black.

Rather than us white folks reading the news about OJ and assuming, "There he goes again..." we should be reading the news out of Jena and thinking, "There it goes again!" --- the "it" being racism, injustice, systematic oppression, an entrenched double standard based on race. We must start to recognize that, when it comes to crime, the problematic pattern in our society is NOT the criminal behavior of communities of color. That's a myth. It's wrong. White people commit far more crimes than blacks. We must recognize that, when it comes to crime, the problematic pattern in our society is us white folks over and over again presuming the criminality of people of color while denying that we do so, thus allowing injustice to accumulate in often subtle but just as often egregious ways. When we don't acknowledge our own racism and the racism of those around us, we lay the groundwork for an all-white jury to convict Mychal Bell and call it justice. As the saying goes, if we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem.

On Thursday, September 20th, white folks around the United States should rise up and denounce the Jena Six verdicts and the atrocious handling of this case in side-by-side solidarity with the African American community. We should make it clear that we won't stand for racism in our schools, our criminal justice system, our hearts or our minds. Not in Jena. Not anywhere.

On Thursday, September 20th, we should see a sea of white folks nationwide wearing black to show their support for the demonstrations in Jena. This means you! Racism is perpetuated by white folks who like the system the way it is, with them at the top and people of color at the bottom. But just as much, racism is perpetuated by white folks who aspire to a world of equality and justice but nonetheless turn a blind eye when racism rears itself again and again and again. Don't be part of the problem. Be part of the solution. Wear black, sign the Color of Change petition to free the Jena 6, donate to their defense fund, tell your friends and neighbors about this injustice, and do something to resist racism and build an America where we're truly all in it together.


Sally Kohn is the director of the Movement Vision Project, working with grassroots community-led organizations across the United States to identify our shared, long-term vision for the future.

Comments

[tao53nyc]

Of course, one person is missing from all this high-toned blather - Mychal Bell himself. As another Huffpo blogger pointed out today, Bell's actual bail ($90,000) was less than that of OJ Simpson. Yet Al Sharpton and all his protesters couldn't find a way to pass the hat and bail the poor kid out. Neither, it seems, can irate white people who blog on Huffpo about the injustice of it all. All Sharpton had to do was convince some people (including himself) to write a check, and Bell would be protesting WITH them. But I guess to people like Sharpton, Bell serves a higher political purpose in an orange jumpsuit and chains.

[GenericBlogger]

tao53nyc wrote "Yet Al Sharpton and all his protesters couldn't find a way to pass the hat and bail the poor kid out. Neither, it seems, can irate white people who blog on Huffpo about the injustice of it all."

Where is the PayPal button? It's not here because HuffPo is a news and opinion poll not a charity organization. Some problems aren't solved by throwing money at them.

The Jena 6 have more than enough legal representation and so far they have been successful except for Mychal Bell. His problems are expected to be resolved.

Al Sharpton and Tawana Brawley used each other in that infamous hoax in New York State. Al Sharpton used the Rutgers basketball team against Imus. Not all advocates and champions behave in the best interest of the victims they claim to help.

[GenericBlogger]

Correction:
"...HuffPo is a news and opinion poll not a charity organization."
should be
"...HuffPo is a news and opinion blog not a charity organization."

[Poboy]

Thank you sister Sally for your post.

Unfortunately, white people simply don't hear black people. Maybe, they will hear you, because white people MUST deal with their racism and soon before it destroys them and us.

And brother Sparkandy, you are right. It is a class struggle, but white people don't identify with people on the bottom, because they are too busy imagining themselves on the top!

[Misanthrope2]

There is no reason that white people MUST deal with their racism. It works very well for them.

[jvarga]

I wonder if this is the world MLK dreamed of? Where 1 person is beaten by 6, but it is ok because of the respective skin colors?

[GenericBlogger]

The events at Jena are unfortunate. However, it's not fair to ignore all the improvements made in race relations since the 60s. Not everyone benefited in the last several decades but many have and are living better lives.

I don't believe racism can be completely eliminated because it's inherent in human nature. The best that can be achieved is a peaceful coexistence and understanding each others' differences.

Racism exists between any two diverse groups of people or races. On the subject of racism, blacks are not free of racism towards whites. Also, racism exists between light and dark colored blacks. Before jumping on caucasians with accusations of racism, it's best to look at the nature of racism and the entire racial landscape.

[Misanthrope2]

Improvements, yes, but still a long way from fair.

[popsknox]

I've been trying desperately to get an accurate portrayal of exactly what happened in the Jena 6 situation. When I first heard the story I thought it could'nt be such a blatant miscarriage of justice as it is being so widely presented.As far as I can tell,the whole incident boils down to a local incident poorly handled and then hijacked for political purposes by opportunists looking to further their own agendas. Now we have people demonstrating and protesting about something that they have'nt even taken the time to investigate for themselves to find out if what they're up in arms about. Everyday in this country there are bona fide cases where unfair and unjust things happen to people who are tuly being screwed. My gut instinct however tells me that the Jena 6 case is not one of them.Am I the only one who is tired of these situations being blown out of proportion to suit someone's political ambitions.It's the Mumia[guilty],the border patrol agents[guilty] where people rally around a cause and it just takes on a life of its own and the truth be damned.

[aardvarx]

NPR filed a series of comprehensive stories on the Jena case. Their coverage overall has been impressive.

http://216.35.221.77/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14533821

[Misanthrope2]

Yep, I think that is how it works.

[sparkandy]

Everyone is missing the point here. In real life it's not about race at all. It's about class. The Corporate Eaters of the Souls, which run this country, and the rest of the world, want those of us on the bottom to continue to fuss over race. They want the Blacks to think they're being held down by the Whites. In my part of the country they want the Blacks and Whites and Natives to think it's the Mexicans who are messing things up. As long as they can keep working people at each other's throats they have control.

In my life anyway, as a working person who is making just above poverty level wages, everyone is in the same boat. The Blacks I work with work just as hard for just as little, the Mexicans are given breaks because they speak Spanish, but they are the ones who cut grass when it's 110 outside.

I'm going to lose my house and everything I own because of lost income from throwing out a man who broke my bones, but because I'm white I am not eligible for any help. But that's not the fault of the Blacks or the Mexicans. It's the fault of the greedy Robber Barons who run the country on their inflated and obscene salaries and want to keep the riff raff at odds over silly things like skin color and minor cultural differences so we won't notice that we're all struggling just to live while they have enough money to pay the bills and then some. They want Whites to think people of color get priveleges just because of their skin color, and they're the ones who created the myth that it's easier being White in today's world.

It's time the Workers of this country took things into our own hands and act like the brothers and sisters we are - and stand united against those who want to keep us all down.

[Misanthrope2]

The proletariat will never become self-conscious and there will never be a proletariat revolution. All revolutions are bourgeoisie revolutions.

[aardvarx]

People are so duped in this country. I don't see any kind of revolution happening as long as media concentration remains the same.

[Spookcatcher]

President John F. Kennedy, in 1962,45 years ago, sent 27,000 troops to make sure a black man, James Meridith, was enabled to attend the University of Mississippi. In this same year Malcolm X gives his "Democracy is Hypocracy speech.
This year, 45 years later, Democracy is Hypocracy continues, and Bush sent 30,000 more troops into Iraq to prove it to anyone else in doubt!

[CLR]

Why do you say the Jena 6 are innocent? Are you saying that they didn't beat a boy? From what I have read they did beat the boy 6-on-1 in anyone's book isn't a fair fight. The boy who was beaten wasn't one of the boys who hung the nooses in the tree. The beating incident took place 3 months after the tree incident. The 3 boys who put the nooses in the tree were expelled from school and then after they appealed they were suspended. So although they didn't break the law the school handled the situation. I don't think the Jena six should go to prison however, if 6 boys beat up my boy I would call the cops on them. The Jena 6 should have consequences for their actions plain and simple.

[aardvarx]

The Jena 6 (that number is debatable) should have consequences for their actions. BUT, so should the white guy who hit the 17 yr old black student over the head with a beer bottle...and so should the white kid who pulled a shotgun on the Black students at the convenience store. The mainstream media are leaving too many important details out of the coverage.

[Misanthrope2]

I think you are leaving out details. The details that would show that the two white students committed any crime. The 17 year old was a trespasser who refused to leave, right? And the shotgun was displayed after a group attacked the other white boy, right? Now, what facts do you have to show any crime? None, right?

[RealBlackGirl]

I don't know how you got to the truth, but thank you for providing this map for others to follow.

[gilmanc]

So let me make sure I understand this.

Are you upset because 6 black kids beat the piss out of a white kid and were charged with a crime? The crime with which they were charged was out of line, but do you admit a crime was committed?

Are you upset because hanging a noose isn't a crime?

There are many biases that go around. A teacher calls the cops on a 5 year old black girl. Ask yourself why this would happen?

Biases are based upon the experiences we endure, and the messages to which we relate. White folks have biases against blacks partially because of what we see on TV, but just as much from our own experiences. How many white folks have sat in a movie theatre when there are black people there and had the movie interrupted because of loud crazy comments at the screen? Is it indicative of all black people? I really hope not, but to a white person does it show a complete lack of respect? Absolutely. When a black person listens to black talk radio (and I have listened to it. WVON in Chicago) and you hear over and over how the white man is holding you down and he is racist and he is doing everything he can to keep you from achieving what you can achieve, does that not help create and build upon biases against white people?

Racism IS what she says. We on the white side need to do a much better job stemming it within our community. What is not acknowledged though is that it is NOT just the white man who needs to change. If a white person's personal experience with black men is when the men "step to him" and are staring at him in a menacing way, it has an effect. It begins and builds the bias towards black men as thugs.

As an aside, the Showtime series "Weeds" has a black family with an extremely prominent role as the growers of the weed.

[TheOtherMaven]

It's not the "white" they're blinded by, it's the GREEN. It's the color of money.

Like it or not, OJ is a Notorious Celebrity, and stories about him sell like hotcakes. Stories about six nobodies in a nowhere town don't sell anywhere near as well.

It's not about the news any more. It's all about the ratings, the sales, the MONEY.

[Misanthrope2]

"Innocence" of the Jenna Six?

One has been convicted. By most accounts, the others ran to repeatedly kick an unconscious person.

They are not innocent in any reasonable meaning of the word.

[eaglecapri]

I hear you my adopted sistah!

I think you hit it right on the head when you said, 'Racism is perpetuated by white folks who like the system the way it is, with them at the top and people of color at the bottom.' 'Nuff said! Why would whites, or rather some whites, want the justice system to be on equal footing for all races? With the current system, white men can rape and torture a black woman while screaming racial epitaths without being charged with a hate crime (the current case going on in West Virginia), whites can be arrested with cocaine and get probation instead of jail time or murder blacks and get years in jail for murdering the opposite race (white-black) instead of the dealth penalty. Here in Chicago, a skinhead pushed two Asian-Americans into the lake while they were fishing (two separate incidents), one fisherman survived the other drowned (he didn't know how to swim). The skinhead was not charged with a hate crime. We can go on and on.

We can even celebrate the HBO series hit Weeds - a suburban mother who is a dope dealer. People love the show. But I tell you, if that was a sistah.....don't get me started.

Thanks for the article, I hope it does some good. I doubt it, but it's a start and gets people thinking about their biases.

[aardvarx]

Thank you so much for "getting it."

The media and cultural fixation on OJ borders on pathology. The systematic miscarriage of justice targeting African American males should be of much greater concern than a rich man getting off for murder because he had the money expose the system. Ironically, OJ's defense team was able to exploit precisely the same type of illegal practices that lead to the Jena 6 unjustly being charged with attempted murder.

The OJ trial , if anything, should be a cautionary tale for rogue police and prosecutors who unfairly target Black men. If they would stop their racist practices then the OJs of the world would (most likely) be in jail...and the Jena incident probably never would have occurred. Events probably would not have escalated to that degree.

[Misanthrope2]

Unfairly my ass. OJ was guilty and I am USC Law alumnus.

[azn1011]

"White people commit far more crimes than blacks."

are you going by sheer numbers? because whites are 80% of the population of this country. they do just about everything in larger numbers. that is why you have to go by the percentage of the population versus the percent of said population committing crimes.

[eaglecapri]

azn1011,

I blame your reply on Sally. Sally should have known that a...how do I say this delicately...I can't, so let me take the high road...Huffington Post reader would hone in on 8 words - white people commit far more crimes than blacks - and totally ignore the other thousand or so words in the article. But, lucky for you, she has us, the readers, to come to her defense.

Your reply is appropriate to the article and reeks of irony. Unfortunately, you don't have a clue how it is relevant. It is relevant because whites - some whites, the majority of whites, a few whites (basically, whatever makes one comfortable) - will continue to deny that racism and racial biases continue to exist in this country. They (some, majority, few, etc) will continue to accept privileges enjoyed by the fact that they are merely white and enjoy/overlook condemnation endured by blacks. When will it end? The biggest question is, do whites want it to end? Do they really want equality? azn1011, can you now focus on the message of the article and reply to that?

Here are the statistics Sally was referring to:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_43.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_49.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_55.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_61.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_67.html

And, I'll beat you to the punch by saying, 'Yes, more violent crimes are commited by blacks than whites.' And, we can debate it out if you'd like - I'm always up for a good fight/debate - but really, azn1011, why continue to ignore the big picture?

[eaglecapri]

Addendum:

How interestin­g....after taking a closer look at the fbi.gov stats - the most reliable source - it shows that there are more arrests for whites who are arrested for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Hmmm...the operative word being 'arrested'. I would live to see the stats for committed and compare those stats to blacks'. I'm just sayin'...

But, it goes to show you how we all feed into the propraganda of blacks commit more crimes, so therefore (fill in the blank). And, does anyone wonder why when a white person commits a crime, more often than not, their picture is not splashed across the evening news, whereas the brotha's picture(s) is always on display while the newscaster reports the story. Just askin'....

[eaglecapri]

I couldn't help but do the math:

Based on:

1. Total population in 2006 - 300,000,000 - 74.7% were white (224,100,100) and 12.1% (30,630,000) were black.

2. Total # of arrests for all crimes including murder - 69.8% arrested were white, 27.8% were black.

3. Out of the 10,189,691 arrests, 7,117,040 were white and 2,830,778 were black.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_43.html

So, based on the above statistics, the percentages - as azn1011 wanted to be defined - are as follows:

* 3.2% of whites are arrested for crimes - including murder.

* 9.2% of whites are arrested for crimes - including murder.

Of violent crimes - approximately 5,000 (see fbi.gov Table 43 (link below)) for each group - 0.002% were white and 0.016% were black.

I have to admit, the numbers even astounded me. Numbers are numbers. Why, if whites commit - or are arrested - for more crimes than blacks, are we fed mostly black crimes in the papers, on radio and on the morning, afternoon and evening news? Does a gun battle trump a stabbing, strangulation, beating, etc? And, if whites are arrested for more crimes than blacks, then why is there an astounding more blacks - men and women - in prison?

[Misanthrope2]

Thanks for the stats. Very interesting. Maybe "if it bleeds it leads" or news is based on scaring the viewer. Blacks are scarier to most viewers, so they lead.