By Andrew L. Jaffee

Six black teens beat up a white kid in Jena, Louisiana, and Al Sharpton hails it as “the start of the 21st century civil rights movement.” The white teen who was assaulted had nothing to do with the hoo-ha. Some 18,000 “protesters” swarmed Jena demanding that the black teens, the so-called “Jena 6,” be released from custody — for beating up an innocent bystander. This is not justice. This is no civil rights movement. This is the culture of victimization, avoiding its own problems and projecting them on others. How did it all get started?

…The “Jena 6″ story began in August 2006 when a black student sat beneath a tree where white students usually sit outside Jena, Louisiana’s high school. The next day, nooses were hung from the tree. Some of the white students called it a prank. Then in December, six black students beat up a white student during a schoolyard brawl. That led to criminal charges against the six. …

I can certainly understand why nooses would upset people. They are a very ugly symbol of what happened to black people during part of our nation’s history. But many of us have worked to change that history and build a present and future of freedom and equality.

Martin Luther King Jr. did not teach vigilantism. Do these “protesters” even know what MLK stood for? To compare the Jena 6 to heroes like Rosa Parks verges on blasphemy.

The protesters demand that criminals who beat up a bystander be set free without punishment. This is a demand for preferential treatment — a playing of the race card, nothing more. I don’t trust the rabble-rousing of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but I do trust Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana:

…There is no link between the nooses hung by white students outside a Louisiana high school and the alleged beating of a white student by black teens …

The events occurred three months apart last year in Jena, Louisiana.

“A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection,” he said. …

Here’s what has happened on the legal front regarding the white and black students in Jena:

…Many said they are angry the six black students, dubbed the “Jena 6,” are being treated more harshly than the white students who hung the nooses. The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters argue they should have been charged with a hate crime. The black students face charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the schoolyard beating. …

Whether we like it or not, hanging nooses seems to fall into the category of free speech. After all, Columbia University just courteously welcomed Iranian President Ahmadinejad, even though he’s called the Holocaust a “myth” and advocated that Israel be “wiped off the map.” Ahmadinejad’s government sponsors terrorism and routinely tortures and executes its own people. How would these “protesters” react if some high-profile politician demanded that Africa be wiped off the map, or that the Rwanda genocide be censored from history books?

If the white kids with nooses did violate a hate crime, then they should be prosecuted. I won’t protest. If the Jena 6 criminals are released because of special interest pressure, then that would be a miscarriage of justice, and a a slap in the face to all who worked so hard in America’s true civil rights movement.

The energies of African Americans would be better spent in addressing their own problems: rampant internecine violence, a popularized “gangsta” culture, and too much uninformed political correctness. Black America — all of America — should be listening to the voices of people like Oprah, Bill Cosby, and Juan Williams:

…Williams is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which is “Enough: The Phony Leader, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It.” In the book, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the “culture of failure” that exists within their community. …

See related:

• Democrats Embrace ‘Impresario of Hatred’ [Al Sharpton]
• Jesse Jackson — for blacks or himself?

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Related: Law, Political Correctness, Racism

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