Jena is currently a “happened” story.  The mainstream media reports on events, developments, action.  A story has a somewhat longer shelf-life with columnists in search of “news hooks” for their commentary–big, iconic events the reader can be presumed to know something about.  Toss together three or four news hooks related by a common theme and your column is half written–now you just have to come up with a point. 

Joseph Evans is a black pastor in Washington, DC.  His use of the Jena saga tells us a great deal about the settled state of public opinion.  What happened to people like the Jena 6 and Megan Williams in West Virginia, Rev. Evans says, “serve as constant reminders that we have not arrived to the founder’s ideal of ‘a more perfect union'”. 

People like Alan Bean and Craig Franklin can pontificate endlessly on what really happened in Jena, but hardly anybody is listening.  News consumers like the Rev. Joseph Evans checked out a few days after the September 20th march, and this is their verdict: what happened in Jena was a legal travesty.

That’s where the consensus ends.  Some go on argue that the rural South hasn’t changed as much as we were inclined to believe.  Some say that Jena is symptomatic of the unequal justice dispensed by the American legal system.  And then there are folks like Rev. Evans who acknowledge horrors like the Jena 6 and Megan Williams, insert a semi-colon, and move on to some form of “on the other hand” observation.

Jena is bad, Joseph Evans admits; on the other hand, black-on-black crime is worse. 

To make the point, Evans brings up another news hook: the case of slain Washington Redskins star, Sean Taylor; a black male killed by other black males.  If we’re going to be marching, the preacher says, we ought to be marching in protest of young hoodlums who spray bullets throughout their own communities.  Heck, you could probably draft the sainted Bill Cosby to lead a march like that!

But who and what would we be protesting?  Punks with guns?  Are the bangers going to see 20,000, placard waving zealots marching through their poor DC neighborhood and realize that the jig is up.  “Oh my God,” banger A says to banger B, “it appears that mainstream society frowns upon our irresponsible antics and is demanding change.  I guess we’ll have to turn our pieces over to the appropriate authorities and re-enroll in high school.”

Public protest doesn’t address the Megan Williams and Sean Taylor tragedies for a simple reason–these cases bear no relation to public policy or to the actions of public officials.  Jena isn’t primarily about black kids beating on a white kid, nor is it about white kids hanging nooses; Jena is a story about the abuse of power.  Public officials sometimes respond to public protest; racist sickos and ghetto thugs do not.

We should be concerned about grotesque expressions of white racism and we should care about black-on-black violence; but the response needs to be qualitatively different.  Organized protest and “ain’t-it-awful” hand-wringing will have no effect on these problems . . . except to establish the moral superiority of the hand-wringers.

Noose hangings and violent assaults are symptoms of a toxic social environment.  Rev. Evans calls for “quiet community-based results oriented, discussions within the African American community.”  A good idea, but if the discussion never addresses public policy, and the white politicians who shape it, we won’t get anywhere.  The black community can’t solve this problem on its own.  Nor can white politicians.  Conversations should begin in poor black neighborhoods and within the corridors of power, but eventually the poor and the powerful must listen to one another.

So long as we see the madness within society as a sign that poor people are making bad decisions nothing will change.  Similarly, if we assume that rich white folks share the full weight of responsibility for the problems of poor, black America, progress will be impossible.  We are dealing with a toxic social environment.  Because everybody is part of the problem, everybody must be part of the solution. 

Black-on-black crime?

By Joseph Evans

Few would argue that race relations in America remain in dire straits in many social stratus and classes. The so-called “Jena Six” in Jena, Louisiana, and the shameless event in southern West Virginia, involving a young African America woman, Megan Williams, serve as constant reminders that we have not arrived to the founder’s ideal of “a more perfect union.”
 

These horrific events attracted warranted public outrage and media coverage. Leaders from all segments of American culture were present to protest racism, perceived or otherwise. They should be applauded for civic responsibility and loudly denouncing these kinds of behavior as un-American and uncivil. Grassroots organizations and humble citizens — black, white, Asian, female and male — came from various sections of the nation unified to say no to these kinds of activities and to rightly demand justice.
 

Familiar African American public figures were at the forefront. They ardently spoke against what seems to be a too often reoccurring theme in American culture, whites victimizing blacks. Many of them are perceived to be leaders in African American public life; and by proxy, they are believed to serve as authoritative voices on African American contemporary culture and guardians of civil rights and African American pathos.
 

In light of these two incidents in Louisiana and West Virginia, how do we process Sean Taylor’s tragedy? Because he died, it seems to truncate these other crimes. Maybe it’s the distressing way his death happened. Many of the details surrounding this heinous act are still unclear. Sadly, details about those arrested for the crime are not. They are very clear. Mr. Taylor was slain with his girl friend and child in his home and the alleged assailants are young African American men. It seems like “black on black” crime.
 

Understandably, across the land, many are grieving; some participate in the National Football League and some are simply moved by this violation of privacy and property that resulted in murder. Maybe it’s because his life was a symbol of what hard work and getting the right breaks complimented by God-given talents can produce. Mr. Taylor found material success. He was living the American dream, proving that all things are possible. His American dream was ascending but eclipsed by needless violence, apparently at the hands of African American males. Maybe that is why so many of us are depressed.
 

Statistics reveal that more African American men are in a penal system for similar crimes than in colleges, universities or trade schools. Still, staggering numbers are commonplace as Bill Cosby states in his book “Come on People: On the Path From Victims to Victors”: “Homicide is the number one cause of death for black men between fifteen and twenty – nine years of age and has been for decades.” Where is the public outrage and demand for justice and answers? Is public ambivalence – black and white — a sign that “black on black” violence is not as offensive? Can blacks, whites, Asians, females and males convene around a proverbial table and say “No more. We want justice”?
 

Is it too much to hope that Mr. Taylor’s needless murder causes diverse leadership across this nation to begin honest dialogue about African American male rage, dysfunction and displacement? Can we ask some of the familiar African American public figures to organize rallies in some of the most plagued cities where murder and crime occur mostly at the hands of our young African American men? Can they lead high profile or quiet community-based results oriented, discussions within the African American community, stating that “we cannot survive like this?”
 

Is there a correlation between inner-city schools failing to educate and prepare young people for their futures and the fact that currently much of African American family life is at its lowest ebb, partly because fathers are not in many homes? We do know that there is a clear and present danger of fatalism threatening to destroy our thinly veiled fabric of African American social stability. Can we find some leaders who will call for a moratorium finally, to discover if these plagues are causes and effects for African American males’ rage?

As disgusting as the Jena Six and Meagan Williams’ episodes remain, Sean Taylor died. Perhaps his death will force American culture to face this reoccurring nightmare, African American men are killing each other. Why?
 

The Rev. Joseph Evans is pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Washington.