Two white teens arrested in Jena, Louisiana after being spoted driving a red
truck with "hangman's nooses" dangling from the back.  They reportedly drove
through the protest site several times as if to incite the marchers.

  Quoting "E. K. Daufin" <[log in to unmask]>:

> >From Diverse Online
>
> Current News
> Protesters Stand Up For Jena 6 and More
> By Tracie Powell
> Sep 20, 2007, 04:47
>
> A Black West Virginia woman was sexually assaulted, stabbed and
> tortured, with one of her White abductors telling her, "That's what we
> do to niggers around here." Hate crime charges are yet to be filed in
> the case because the penalty isn't as stringent as state-level
> kidnapping, assault and rape charges.
>
>
> Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teen, was convicted of rape and received 10
> years in prison for having consensual sex with another teen. The state
> law was later changed to make the crime a misdemeanor and a federal
> judge ordered Wilson freed, but the now 21-year-old remains in prison
> today.
>
> Six Black teens in Jena, La., were arrested and charged with attempted
> murder for what amounted to a school-yard fight that resulted from
> months of racial tension that built up after Black students sat under a
> "Whites-only" tree at the town's high school. Most of the charges have
> been reduced, but the teens still face years behind bars if convicted.
>
> This isn't the 1950s, these events all happened in the past year.
>
> What is happening in Jena is not an anomaly, says Dr. Gregory Carr,
> assistant professor of Afro American Studies at Howard University in
> Washington, D.C.
>
> "Many Whites believe that 'the system' is color-blind, which is true,"
> he says. "It cannot see beyond its own invisible whiteness."
>
> Meanwhile, several conservative court decisions coupled with the federal
> government's anemic enforcement and unwillingness to bring forth race
> cases have set back civil rights advances and protections, advocates
> say.
>
> In June, U.S. Supreme Court justices limited the use of race in school
> desegregation plans. Last summer these same justices made it harder to
> prove discrimination in voting rights cases. And at the moment, the
> constitutionality of the newly reauthorized Voting Rights Act is already
> being challenged; its future, if it lands before a more conservative
> U.S. Supreme Court, might be in jeopardy.
>
> The judicial system most certainly is not color-blind, adds Angela J.
> Davis, a professor of law at American University. Davis also wrote about
> Genarlow Wilson's case in her new book, Arbitrary Justice.
>
> For Davis, the injustice visited upon Genarlow Wilson and the Louisiana
> teens, more commonly referred to as the "Jena Six," raise a more
> profound question about the abuse of prosecutorial power, she says. "In
> the Jena Six case alone you have a district attorney who prosecuted
> African-Americans for behavior that he didn't prosecute Whites for,"
> Davis says. "That's race-based selective prosecution."
>
> At first glance the casual observer may view the Jena Six and Wilson
> cases as having nothing to do with the savage torture of a Black woman
> in West Virginia. Some may even say that they are an unfortunate series
> of isolated incidents. But those who follow race issues in this country
> more closely will say that they are all interconnected. In fact, many of
> the estimated 10,000 marchers who plan to peacefully protest in Jena
> today at least have a sense that there is something much greater at
> stake - overcoming a legacy of racism and unequal justice, not only in
> Louisiana, but also across the country.
>
> "We have seen in the last 10 years a roll-back and a retreat from strong
> enforcement and prosecution of race crimes. It's looking pretty grim,"
> says Julie Fernandes, senior policy analyst and special counsel for the
> Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.
>
> "At the same time we're seeing a series of bad court decisions that make
> it harder to get into court and harder for people to prove that they are
> victims of racism," she says. "It's a double whammy."
>
> In addition to faulting the Bush administration for not acknowledging
> that racism is still a problem in America, Fernandes blames the U.S.
> Justice Department for not prosecuting high-profile race cases and
> Congress for not enacting legislation that will help prevent and punish
> racist acts. To make matters worse, she says, the U.S. Supreme Court has
> shown little to no interest in protecting civil rights.
>
> In response, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is working to get
> an enhanced federal hate crimes law authorized that will include
> additional protected groups, such as homosexuals. President Bush has
> vowed to veto the legislation. The organization also wants to see a
> federal racial profiling law and renewed civil rights act passed,
> Fernandes says.
>
> Both pieces of legislation have been languishing in Congress since 2001
> and 2004, respectively.
>
> "This isn't about politics," Fernandes sums up. "It's about civil rights
> and court fights that impact our everyday lives."
>
> For now, people like the marchers in Jena will have to raise their
> voices and their dollars to help right the wrongs perpetuated on Wilson,
> the Jena Six and the woman victimized in West Virginia.
>
>
>
> Howard University's Dr. Carr put it another way. He said protesters
> aren't going to Jena, Louisiana in hopes of changing hardened racist
> views. There are bigger expectations, Carr said.
>
>
>
> "There is no reason to expect that these hard-crafted racial attitudes
> will be softened by any pleas to a common humanity," he added. "That, in
> fact, that is not what African people should be aiming for anyway.
>
>
>
> "We have to support the Jena Six because any of those boys could be any
> of us, and that they are lending financial support and going to Jena on
> September 20th to bear witness to a higher moral standard," Carr
> continued. "That African-Americans have never pled for our humanity to
> whiteness, but rather have called this country to be better than its
> racist history and thereby reach a standard of humanity that  Africans
> brought with us on the boats that brought us here."
>
>
>
>
> - Tracie Powell
>
>
>
> 1.      Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin <http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin>
> Says:
>         September 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
> <http://diversepodium.com/?p=302#comment-6567#comment-6567>
>
> Good article. The lead local news station did a package on the coming
> protest but NEVER mentioned anything about the Black female student who
> was raped and tortured by White students. The local station just made it
> seem as though 6 beastial Black boys had brutally beaten "an innocent
> victim."
>
>
>
>
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