There are some parts of this country where tension between the races still exists-or at least they aren’t hidden. Places where, for the most part, white children will not play with black children, or vice versa. The small town of Jena, Louisiana is one example of a place in the United States where such practices are common.
Jena has received unwanted international attention over the last year because of a racially charged incident that occurred last December. The scandal began amid rising racial tensions in the small rural town of about 3,000 inhabitants. According to reports six black high school students now referred to as the Jena 6 beat a white student. The fight came after several months of incidents between black and white students.
In one incident, which the school’s superintendent later called an “adolescent prank,” white students hung three nooses on a “white only” tree that a black student had recently sat under. The white student, who allegedly hung one of the nooses, went on to taunt some of the black students involved in the fight with racial slurs.
After the fight, the white student was taken to the hospital and released the same day. He sustained no major injuries. A few days later, the six black students were arrested and charged. The Jena 6, teenagers raging in age from 16 to 18, were charged as adults with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The charges carried a combined 100-year sentence. The charges outraged many because of their severity and because the motive behind them appeared to be racial. Activists complain that white students in the same town had received misdemeanor charges or less for similar incidents involving violence towards blacks. The charges have since been reduced, mainly because of the attention the incident has attracted. Civil rights activists and organizations continue to press for the case to be dismissed.
But the incident tells of much larger issues Americans face as a country. America has been unsuccessful in trying to come to grips with its past. It also has failed to properly address the blatant racist behavior still occurring today. Thus racially motivated incidents like the one in Jena are common in America.
Many, however, reject the notion that racist attitudes are still prevalent in America. They dismiss it as a thing of the past, a dark chapter in the country’s history.
It is almost as if some Americans refuse to except that although much has changed, racism and all its ugly manifestations still remain lurking beneath the surface of this supposedly civilized and tolerant society.
The truth of the matter is: racism still plays a big part in most American’s lives. Many still harbor feelings of abhorrence towards other races. This is to be expected, though. America is a young nation and for most of its existence, the idea of racial superiority has plagued one incoming minority group after another. The concept of race has been interwoven with so many different facets of American society that it has proven almost impossible to disentangle it from the current system.
Officially, the United States government has a firm and clear stance on racism: it is illegal, morally reprehensible and it goes against what America represents. The U.S. Government has moved on from its past-unfortunately, most of its citizens have not.
It is on this level where the biggest problem can be found. Although U.S. law may prohibit racism, it still carries on unchecked in the minds and lives of so many Americans. So when and how will things change?