One of the many things that disturbed me about Poynter Institute's Al
Thompkin's columns on the Jena 6 is that he treated the nooses hanging
from the "White tree" (two of course, not the widely reported three)
were just a childish prank that harmed no one.  Not so...Read on-

 

Current News 

Perspectives: On Nooses, Blacks and Dogs In America

by Dr. Pamela Reed
Oct 26, 2007, 06:35 





The United States of America is in the midst of waging an all-out global
"War on Terror." However, in this writer's estimation, not enough
attention is focused on America's own homegrown, longstanding domestic
terrorism: racial violence against African-Americans.

 

Perhaps nothing symbolizes and crystallizes this racial hatred and
intolerance - which is ingrained in the very fiber of all that is
American - better than the hangman's noose and the lynching that it is
used to perpetuate. The recent spate of cases involving the hanging of
nooses around the country is deeply disturbing, yet infinitely
revealing, particularly on the grounds of institutions where one should
be able to expect racial diversity and tolerance above and beyond that
of the larger society, i.e. educational, military and law enforcement
establishments.

 

The noose incidents at Columbia University, Jena High School in Jena,
La., the University of Maryland, College Park, and the U.S. Coast Guard
Academy have been widely reported, but there have been other,
lesser-known incidents. So, sadly, these developments form just the
latest chapter in the history of the American noose, but they point to
what many construe as an alarming trend of escalating contemporary
racial intolerance in the place we call America, "the land of the free
and the home of the brave."

 

Many are scratching their collective heads in amazement that the Justice
Department has not stepped into this seeming bigots' free-for-all and
launched a full-fledged investigation. What better time than now when
race relations are at what could only be called a modern nadir (or low
point) and when the criminal justice system is, it seems, woefully
two-tiered - one track for Whites and one for everyone else.

 

Why, just last week, the U.S. Department of Justice waded into the
Michael Vick dog fighting melee and appointed a guardian for the
surviving dogs of the former ring! This, while on the very same day, the
House Judiciary Committee conducted hearings on the situation in Jena.
Yet justice has remained mum with regard to the historic "Jena Six"
cause - and the flood of hate crimes that are nothing less than a pox
upon our national psyche. Go figure.

 

Clearly, drastic measures must be taken to stem the tide of racial
hatred flowing in this land, once and for all. Not since the days of Jim
Crow have we witnessed such unmitigated cowardice and hate. Really, if
the truth be told, this is even bigger than Jim Crow. Indeed,
Christopher Metzler, director of diversity management and equal
employment opportunities at Cornell University and a member of the
faculty in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, declared
in a recent presentation at Oxford University that we are witnessing
"Jim Crow on Steroids."

 

In view of this, in this correspondent's humble opinion, there are three
steps that could begin the process of correcting centuries of historical
wrongs in America. First of all, Congress and the Department of Justice
must strengthen the existing hate crime laws in this country to the
point that they are so draconian and so prohibitive that anyone tempted
to commit a hate crime would think long and hard before doing so.

 

Secondly, anyone convicted of a hate crime should be thoroughly and
utterly ostracized and marginalized, and basically relegated to
society's "loser" heap. Think O.J. Simpson or Michael Vick. And mind
you, this should not just be limited to convicted felons, but to anyone
who advances racist and hateful sentiments in public, be they written or
verbal. These people should have no place at all at the proverbial
"table of brotherhood" - or sisterhood.

 

Finally, diversity and inclusion training must become standard fare in
all American schools that receive public funding - and it should begin
at the very earliest levels. Teacher training programs in this country
must also incorporate this training into their curriculum requirements.
Further, our children must be taught true American history and not some
"Whitewashed" version which glosses over this nation's slaveholding past
and centuries of institutionalized, systemic discrimination. Only then
will the young begin to understand what all the fuss is about with
regard to racism, affirmative action, reparations, and other
sociological issues of the day.

 

Until the day comes when the political leaders of this country are
courageous enough to do what must be done to tangibly and concretely
correct the historical ills in this society - with laws, enforcement,
and funding - individuals and institutions of good will must make every
effort to affect change in our own backyards.

 

The time has come when all persons in this country have an equal shot at
the American Dream, and are afforded all the vaunted liberties of the
American citizen, such as equal protection under the law. At the
founding of this nation, the African- descended American was considered
a mere three-fifths of a man and, as W. E. B. Du Bois noted in The Souls
of Black Folk, America "classed the Black man and the ox together." Many
have begun to question just how far removed we really are from these
founding American sentiments. In the end, this is the bottom line: We
can no longer protect dogs more fiercely than we do African-Americans in
this country. Doggone it! 

 

Dr. Pamela D. Reed is a diversity consultant and assistant professor of
English and African-American literature at Virginia State University.

(c) Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com

Dr. Daufin's Commentary:

 

I agree wholeheartedly with almost all of this article.  What troubles
me is the author's call for draconian penalties for those convicted of
hate crimes AND SPEECH.  I don't want to sign away our First Amendment
rights though certainly hateful people committing hateful acts have
hidden behind this noble Amendment.  My real concern is that history has
shown a propensity for the laws that the oppresses struggle and
sacrifice to get passed end up being used against the victims/survivors
who sought to pass them.  For example some of my expression of pain and
resentment for certain oppressors in my social activism Spoken Word
poetry may be described by sinister minds as hate speech against the
oppressors.  I'd hate to get arrested at the next show I do as protest
poets in Pakistan, some Latin American countries, some African countries
and former Soviet Union/Russian (among other places) have long
experienced!

 

We sometimes have problems with our server rejecting incoming email. If
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number below.   Apologies...We are working on it. Sincerely,

 

Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor

Department of Communications

Alabama State University

915 South Jackson St.

Montgomery, AL 36101-0271

334.229.6885

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