I know that stories like this one are far from new but, nonetheless, I am always taken aback by how blatant racism can be. Jena, Louisiana is one such place. Here’s a place where housing discrimination is practiced pretty openly, where the “good jobs” are reserved for whites and where black poverty and white affluence are most sharply contrasted.

It is here where four black boys find themselves facing sentences that could see them as middle-aged men before they get out. Did they kill or maim someone. No, they are accused a beating up a white boy.

Let’s backtrack. Who knows when all the tensions started? Maybe it was when white students hung nooses from a tree to protest black students having the temerity to sit the school courtyard tree that had traditionally been for whites only. Really, who knows? But, last November, things had begun to boil over and race fights between teenagers broke out. A few days later, tensions boiled over and, allegedly, a white student was beaten up by six black students.

However, what should have been assault and battery charges on the teens were instead labeled as “conspiracy to commit second-degree murder”. Now, some might say, how do you know that the beating didn’t warrant these charges. Well, the victim, Justin Barker seemed to be faring well:

Barker spent the evening of the assault at the local Baptist church, where he was seen by friends to be ‘his usual smiling self’.

Now, is this the sign of someone who was supposedly beaten harshly enough to justify an attempted murder charge?

Should these youths be punished? If they beat up a boy, they should be seeing some time in a juvenile facility. Maybe several months to a year or two, at most. But, what we are talking about is the possibility that these boys could get 30-50 years in prison, if convicted.

What this also means is that for poor black kids, bail on an attempted murder charge is too high so, they languish in prison awaiting their fate.

I have always said that the rules only seem to apply if you’re black (or brown). This is just another example of why I believe this.

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