Jena 6 - when many white liberals and white bigots seem to agree - strange fruit

OK, I'm an old school dude. I grew in Boston and as a teenager attended anti-war marches during the Vietnam era. I used to go down to the Boston Commons. It was a sea of white college kids faces, and it seemed like I was the only black person at the anti war rallies. That was then, this is now.

September 20, 2007 Jena, LA. A sea of black folks and a few good people of other races and nationalities, all joining in to say enough is enough.

But what happen to the media, what happen to the left wing bloggers? Why were only black folks Blogging for Justice? Why only black radio, NPR and Pacifica Radio talking Jena 6 and black justice? Where was the so called liberal media?




Oh, I guess they were blogging for justice for Paris, Lindsey, Brittney, oh and let's blog some hate for OJ?

Social justice, criminal justice, human rights, civil rights, what is that?

As blogger Vanessa: unplugged said, "This case of the Jena Six began almost a year ago and the media coverage has been abysmal, at best." But she is not the only one Pam of Pam's House Blends' talks about the lack of coverage in the "progressive blogosphere."



But it's just not black bloggers or the AfroSphere that notice the absence liberal bloggers talking about Jena 6. As an example Media Matters noted "Hardball addressed the so-called Jena Six case for the first time on September 19, but the report focused only on Rev. Jesse Jackson's reported comment that Sen. Barack Obama was "acting like he's white" in his response to the matter. By contrast, the same edition of Hardball spent nearly 14 minutes on the O.J. Simpson case. The September 20 edition of Hardball featured no coverage of the Jena Six despite a thousand-plus march in Jena that day."

OK , so you say what is the point? Why bring this up. We had our Day of Blogging for Justice to focus attention on the disparate, shameful punishment of six black students in Jena, LA. You had your Jena Day, why are you critical of liberal bloggers? Why are Pam's House Blend, Field Negro, and Jack and Jill Politics and so many other Black bloggers wondering why white liberals bloggers are Missing in Action?

I guess it's because the black bloggers and the AfroSphere has wondered for sometime why white bloggers and white media have been MIA. Afro-netizen broke it down to a level anyone, including liberal bloggers and the media should be able to understand regarding why we protest. "We protest because the boys of Jena 6 and their families need to know they are not alone. We protest because the Jena travesty is not about a nooses that were hung on a now-felled tree, but the noose of injustice that remains around the neck of Black America. We protest because few people know "state-sponsored terrorism" like Blackfolk. We protest because Jena is not a rural Southern town, it is a state of mind -- not from the 1950s, but of the here and now in every American town, suburb and city from South to North and sea to shining sea." More HERE.




But I for one think that there is something going on in America right now, that is problematic. It appears there is an unwillingness or inability on the part of liberal media and bloggers to stand up and report, blog, or protest. It seems that liberals in the media and liberal bloggers have forgotten some of the words of one of the greatest American's of all time, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King when he said, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

But that's right many liberal bloggers and many in the liberal media only believe in Martin Luther King, when it's convenient for them, or on his birthday.

Will left wing bloggers join in an effort to Free The Jena 6. Only time will tell.