Students In Blackface "Jena 6" Reenactment

[RamboLiberal]

A group of white Louisiana college students dressed in blackface and reenacted the "Jena 6" assault while a friend snapped photos and videotaped the staged attack, images that were later posted to one of the participant's Facebook page. The photos, which you'll find on the following pages, were taken late last month on the bank of the Ouachita River, where students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe giddily acted out the racial attack. The photos (and the short video clip at right) were posted to the Facebook page of Kristy Smith, a freshman nursing student. The album of images was entitled "The Jena 6 on the River." In the video, three students with mud smeared across their bodies stomp on a fourth student, while two of the participants are heard to say, "Jena 6." One man can also be heard saying, "Niggers put the noose on." After the video and photos on Smith's page were discovered by fellow students, she removed the material and made her Facebook page private. Smith, who did not respond to a TSG e-mail sent to her school address, apologized for the images in several recent Facebook postings. "We were just playin n the mud and it got out of hand. I promise i'm not racist. i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death," she wrote. She added in a later message that her friends "were drinking" and things "got a lil out of hand." When faced with heated online criticism from fellow students, Smith yanked the photos and video from Facebook, but not before one student downloaded the photos and another videotaped the video directly from her computer screen (and then posted the clip on YouTube). The Monroe campus is about 65 miles north of Jena, where thousands of marchers gathered on September 21 to protest what they claimed was unfair legal treatment given to six young black men arrested in the beating of a white high school classmate.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1002071jena1.html

Wonder if they are also Young Republicans?

[cynatnite]

1. MSNBC just did a report talking about a grandmother who staged a mock lynching...

using her grandchild as the lynchee. :puke:

Was she a part of the same group?

[againes654]

3. I think that is the grandmother

of the child in Grambling. The school was trying to teach and get some understanding among the children. They were too young IMO.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1959739

[LisaL]

6. That, and I don't think putting a noose on the neck of the child

is a smart idea. What if whoever is holding the child trips?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Then they take the noose off?

I don't think nooses are particularly dangerous in and of themselves without some sort of gibbet and a platform to fall off of.

[LisaL]

11. Take a look at the photo.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/school-stages-m.html

[againes654]

9. Well I don't think the grandmother did it

The school did it, but the grandmother said she understood that it was to teach the children why the noose is so offensive. I can understand that perspective.

[LisaL]

18. Here is an article describing it.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070929/NEWS01/709290316

[ronnykmarshall]

2. Why aren't they in Iraq?

[Javaman]

4. What the fuck is wrong with these people?

>shakes head in wonder<

what a total bunch of fucktard racists.

[BlooInBloo]

5. What a wonderful country.

[backscatter712]

7. Bigotry is cool again.

Everything that was fought for and gained in the civil rights movement is slipping away.

Kids are now showing the same nasty, hateful, bigotry that we saw in the 60's and earlier.

[SeattleGirl]

10. Exactly.

As the leaders go, so go (some of) the people.

Sickening.

Just sickening.

[Whisp]

35. and add a few other 'isms' this so called free culture has

disgraceful.
big fricken lie.

[jus_the_facts]

12. This happened in my hometown....bible belt...ass backward fucktards.....

....I'm SO goddamned disgusted with this entire ordeal...it only exacerbates ingrained ignorance...as much as things change...centuries old biases still remain.

I know personally that *INJUSTICE* happens to POOR WHITE MALES too in small town jails and courtrooms...granted it's not as prevalent but my friend spent 11 months in a jail WITHOUT GETTING TO GO OUTSIDE THE ENTIRE TIME...it took 4 months for his arraignment and another year for him to be sentenced...which he had to serve another 2 years for escaping that hellhole along with the original charge of simple theft....there wasn't ONE SOUL to protest or cry outrage on his behalf...or the countless others that have been fucked over by this broken system we call a gov't. :rant:

[NOLALady]

65. No one's protested on the behalf of countless

instances of injustice. I'm not sure why. Complacency? Fear?

The Jena incident was so blatant that many cried out that enough is enough. I'm aware that poor white males are also treated unfairly. This is why I was surprised that there weren't more white people involved in the march. We marched for ALL who are being treated unfairly.

The march was meant to highlight the injustice in this broken system.

[flashl]

13. During MLK holiday ...

There were a series of stories about "ghetto and gangster" parties at Clemson, Tarleton State and University of Connecticut Law School.

Ghetto and gangster party participants dress as stereotypical Blacks:

• Black men with liquor bottles in brown paper bags
  
• Aunt Jemima, with head scarf and syrup bottle
  
• Afro wigs and fake gold and silver teeth
  
• Pictures show students “mocking how African-Americans do step shows”
  
• Other pictures on facebook shows a student is dressed as Aunt Jemima and carries a gun

[SoCalDem]

14. Racism never ended..it was just driven underground..

Laws made it more difficult to discriminate, but the creeps who can discriminate, will always (and always have) figure out was to do it "legally"..

Racism is not inbred.. it must be learned from your elders, and until that stops happening in homes , it will never end.:cry:

[Snarkturian Clone]

15. The video just looks like a bunch of college kids acting

stupid just like college kids do - they drank too much and did some inappropriate shit. The problem with sites like myspace and facebook is that all the stupid embarrassing shit you did in college that you'll regret the rest of your life is now in downloadable format. Thank god the internet sucked when I was in college. I feel sorry for all the parties involved here.

We all have fucked up skeletons in our closets- these people just made it public.


Someone upthread said that bigotry is cool again. It's possible. However, it could be that bigotry is such a taboo now that the only way to show rebelliousness, which college kids always try to do, is to be a bigot.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Oh - well - if *that's* all it is.

[Snarkturian Clone]

17. well it was obviously

not meant to be seen by everyone. The kids were being offensive on their own and to each other. Dumbassery of youth today demands that they put it on the internet.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Sure.

They're not racist because they never meant for anybody to know.

:eyes:

That's why klan members where the hoods. As long as they have the hoods on, they're not really racist. They've got lots of black friends.

[Snarkturian Clone]

22. I didn't say they weren't racist.

They're racist as fuck, but the point is that they are still young dumbass kids and they'll grow out of it... especially after it has been publicized and exposed like this.

[BlooInBloo]

23. Yah - just like the Jena judge grew out of it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. Pff.

"the video just looks like a bunch of college kids acting stupid just like college kids do"

Just some wild and car-azy guys.

:eyes:

[Snarkturian Clone]

26. Ah, the rolling eyes smiley.

Smugness now has a kanji: :eyes:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

27. Is there a smiley for apologetics?

[Snarkturian Clone]

28. on the same list as the smiley for witchhunts NT

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. Witchhunt? LOL

Those poor, poor oppressed racists.

[Snarkturian Clone]

31. I'm just talking about the pleasure people get

from looking down their nose at someone just to say they are better than them. What taboos are left in our culture? Bigotry and pedophilia.

Some people take pleasure in seeking out whatever the current taboos are and exposing them so they do not have to consider their own shortcomings.

For the pedos there's "To Catch a Predator".

I wouldn't be surprised if a new show came out called "Closet racism exposed".

Another point I was trying to make is that there are people in this world who are rebels, who always want to buck the system. In today's world, there's very few things you can do that are considered anti-social or anti-normal. One of those things is to be a bigot. I would not be surprised if more college students were into bigotry just to be rebellious. I'm not saying that this is the case here, I'm just bringing it up as a possibility.

[BlooInBloo]

32. That's it! People are racist because of people COMPLAINING about racism!

It's OUR fault people do it!

Utter genius.

:rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. LOL

"What taboos are left in our culture? Bigotry and pedophilia. "

Oh, those poor oppressed racists and pedophiles!

:rofl:

"Another point I was trying to make is that there are people in this world who are rebels, who always want to buck the system."

Doesn't seem to me these kids are rebels and want to buck the system. Seems to me they want to support the same old institutions.

"there's very few things you can do that are considered anti-social or anti-normal."

Putting on black face and mocking victims of hate crimes is anti-social and anti-normal. Always will be.

"I'm just bringing it up as a possibility. "

Why?

[Snarkturian Clone]

36. I forgot how low test scores are for reading comprehension.

"Oh, those poor oppressed racists and pedophiles"

what I'm telling you has nothing to do with any of this. I was talking about how there are people LIKE YOU who have to prove themselves by exposing the shortcomings of others. Racists and pedos are UNIVERSALLY hated by EVERYONE. It's not news. Therefore it's not necessary to seek out and expose everywhere they are and what they do.

"Doesn't seem to me these kids are rebels and want to buck the system. Seems to me they want to support the same old institutions."

That's entirely possible, I was just bringing up a scenario.

"Putting on black face and mocking victims of hate crimes is anti-social and anti-normal. Always will be."

Yup this is exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks for repeating it. You win a cookie!

[fishwax]

37. racists are *universally* hated by *everyone*? Racism is defended all the time, even here on DU

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

39. Some racists are hated more equally than others, apparently.

[BlooInBloo]

42. Even - gasp! - in this very thread - clutch the pearls!

[fishwax]

44. is it time to be *shocked* again?

:rofl:

[BlooInBloo]

46. I'm shocked (shocked!!!)

:rofl:

[Snarkturian Clone]

43. I'm talking about REAL racism.

examples:

REAL Racism: The time my roomate in college tried to beat me up because I took a black co-worker back to our apartment for lunch.

Not Racism: If you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist.

REAL Racism: When I was a kid my cousin berated me because I watched "Family Matters".

Not Racism: Michael Vick sucks for torturing dogs.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

47. So is this real racism, or just stupid college kids?

I was once a stupid college kid, but I never dressed up in blackface. Did you?

[Snarkturian Clone]

51. This is REAL racism

which I said before is UNIVERSALLY HATED.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. You hate it so much it's just stupid college kids?

[fishwax]

49. lol. Of course you are.

[fishwax]

34. "closet racism exposed" has been on the schedule for years

And I think it's absurd to compare "To Catch a Predator" with a bunch of bigots posting their drunken antics on facebook.

The "bigotry is the new rebellion" theory strikes me as thoroughly bizarre, but even if it's true it doesn't make it somehow less bigoted.

[Snarkturian Clone]

38. I'm not trying to apologize for these fuckbags.

I'm just trying to say that this video is not something rare among college students. Getting drunk and being offensive. What's left that's offensive? Oh yeah, bigotry.

Didn't you ever do something stupid in college while intoxicated? I don't mean racist, just stupid?

People on here act like their angels.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. Sure looks like it too me.

"I'm just trying to say that this video is not something rare among college students."

It's not antiheard of, but I hardly think it's common.

Nor do I think being stupid and being in college is much of an excuse.

[BlooInBloo]

45. I think you left an "un" out in a strategic place.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. phicksed.

[BlooInBloo]

52. LOL! Touche.

[Snarkturian Clone]

48. You remind me of Mayor Street of Philly

the time he waited in line on city time to buy an iPhone. The newscasters asked him "This is a huge waste of city time and resources!" and he just said "No it's not."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

53. But the mayor wasn't wasting city time and resources.

He was just a dumb college kid. Why are you trying to make yourself feel better than the mayor of Philly?

[fishwax]

55. But what I really wonder is: did the mayor put his drunken iPhone spree up on his myspace page?

[Snarkturian Clone]

57. Yeah he had a fucking press conference. NT

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

61. Well we all have skeletons in our press conferences.

Maybe he was just trying to be rebellious.

[Snarkturian Clone]

63. People like you say this kind of shit

to twist other's words around and show off to the other users what a cool and witty person you are. How cute. Read my message below.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

58. College students and pedophiles are always doing that.

Why are you looking down from your high horse at pedophiles?

Save it for the witchhunt, Cotton Mather.

[fishwax]

60. I have a theory that Cotton Mather was just trying to rebel

Soon racism and pedophilia will become passe, and the only way to rebel will be through witch hunts :rofl:

[Snarkturian Clone]

56. Now you're just being contrary.

ODD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppositional_Defiant_Disorder

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

59. No, I'm being snarky.

Saying your against racism and saying it's just drunk college kids is contrarian. It's contrarian with yourself so it's being contradictory too.

[Snarkturian Clone]

62. We'll have to continue this discussion later.

I have to go. I'll be back on in about 2 hours if you want to keep this going. Or PM me?

[Name removed]

64. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fishwax]

21. if it wasn't meant to be seen by everyone, why post it so publicly?

[fishwax]

19. facebook isn't the problem--the people doing the stupid embarassing and thoroughly racist shit are

the problem.

[Snarkturian Clone]

24. They've always existed ... it's just public now

because kids who've grown up having the internet their whole lives are now becoming adults.

[fishwax]

29. and doing stupid racist shit

that's the key here, really. The problem, again, is not the means they use to publicize their behavior, but the behavior itself.

[Bluebear]

40. Oh good, if they were drunk we can just overlook it.

:crazy:

[NOLALady]

66. Hmmm

I understand now
I was rebellious in college. They didn't call us bigots though some called us militants, some called us hippies.