Oprah and the Jena Six: Will the Talk Show Goddess Find the Truth in Jena, Louisiana?
Will Oprah Cover the Jena Six and Mychal Bell Story of Black Students in Jena, Louisiana?
According to a Yahoo article titled "Have You Heard of The Jena Six?" scuttlebutt is that The Oprah Winfrey Show may be interested in the plight of The Jena Six, a group of six black students in Jena, Louisiana, that are finally attracting national attention.
And I'll be happier than a pig in slop the day Oprah brings the fair and balanced truth to The Jena Six situation to the world at large.
The whole Jena Six (or Jena 6, Gena Six, Gena 6, Gene 6, as people are apt to misspell it) plight reportedly began when a black student at a predominantly white high school in Jena, Louisiana, wanted to get out of the hot sun and sit under a "whites only" tree in the shade.
Yes, you read that correctly. A "whites only" tree. This is 2007, not 1957, and the Jena, Louisiana, school still entertained the antiquated unwritten rule.
Then two black students - like our brave forefathers and ancestors who sat upright at segregated lunch counters in the deep South and carried signs proudly declaring "I AM A MAN" that make my eyes go watery and my lungs fill with indignant air right now with thanks and appreciation as I type these words - dared to sit under the "whites only" tree in Jena, Louisiana.
A few days later, three nooses were strung from the tree - an obvious warning to other black students who would dare attempt to do the same thing. As in Jena, Louisiana, and elsewhere around the world, nooses are as hateful a symbol to African-Americans as swastikas are to Jewish people.
Nooses represent the days when racist Whites would castrate black men and hang them from big oak trees and - with children at their feet - have picnics and take pictures smiling with the decomposing bodies.
Pure hellish evil. But good God...
...can overcome this evil, and hopefully use Oprah to get to the bottom of what really happened in The Jena Six situation.
After the noose-hanging incident, the high school principal, Scott Windham, urged that the three white teens who hung the nooses be expelled from Jena High School. Too bad his thoughtful plea wasn't heeded.
In fact, tensions were later inflamed when Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish District Attorney, warned the black students that he could "end their lives with [the stroke of] a pen."
Ah, pride does indeed go before a fall...
Oprah is gonna have her hands full with this one in Jena. I pray.
So, depending on which report Oprah believes, a black student got his head cracked open with a bottle. Then The Jena Six jumped a white student, and were eventually charged with attempted murder.
Mychal Bell (not Michael or Mychael) was the first of The Jena Six to be tried, and his aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy conviction - coupled with the fact that Mychal Bell may be sentenced up to 22 years in prison - has drawn outrage from supporters.
But 17-year-old Mychal Bell's bond was recently denied because prior to The Jena Six assault, Bell "committed two violent crimes while on probation for a battery Christmas Day 2005," according to testimony given at the trial.
Either way, people have descended upon Jena, Louisiana, in protest marches, and popular personalities Michael Baisden, Steve Harvey, Tom Joyner, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others have taken up The Jena Six cause.
Black journalist Jason Whitlock cautions The Jena Six bandwagon to look at both sides of the story. Meanwhile, "Free the Jena 6 [Six]" t-shirts have been banned at various Jena schools.
The Jena Six situation seems to be boiling to such a head, maybe attention from Oprah Winfrey will help bring the truth to the forefront in Jena, Louisiana, as The Oprah Winfrey Show cadre of viewers looks on.
Published by Paula Neal Mooney
Paula Neal Mooney is owner of Plunder LLC, a media and publishing company. A screenwriter and journalist for major websites like Yahoo and Examiner, Paula has also been published in various national print... View profile
- Exposing Myths About Jena, LouisianaTo listen to one describe Jena, Louisiana you'd think in place of street lights they had burning crosses - here are some true facts about the situation not watered down to appease the media.
- What's Happened to the Dream in Jena, Louisiana?In Aughust 2006, after a school assembly a black student asked the assistant principal if black students were allowed to sit in the shade of a large tree on campus. The administrator's response was, "sit anywhere you...
- How to Get Reservations for Tickets to The Oprah Winfrey Show: Be in the AudienceA guide to obtaining tickets to a live taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Roger Ebert Previews His New Voice on the Oprah Winfrey Show, After Thyr...Film critic and thyroid cancer survivor, Roger Ebert debuts his new voice on the Oprah Winfrey Show.- Jena 6 Defendant Mychal Bell Still Jailed Discusses the events leading up to the arrest of six black students in Jena, Louisiana. Raises questions about racial equality in the American justice system.
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- Walk for Change: Politics in the 2000s
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- The Jena 6 - Is Jena, Louisiana a Racist Town?
- Chicago Marches to Free the Jena 6
- How Black is Black: The Rainbow on My Body
- Response to Critics of the March in Jena, Louisiana
185 Comments
Post a CommentSo there cause is supporting a black person convicted of 3 violent crimes? Right, that's precisely what the black community really needs to get behind. sigh, morons.
i hate pow white trash tawkin about mi president obama
I feel sorry for you RACHEL do you only screw blacks??? Is that your problem??? And Obama is GARBAGE!!! Oprah??? At her school the black girls are raped... But that's a good thing... Whites are not allowed there...LOL!!!
No one knows what is like to be white in the south until you actually live here. It isnt true about there being a "whites only tree" but it was probably just the tree where white kids hung out to get away from the unnumeral amounts of black kids that cause the same ruckus in every public school in the south. Kids cannot concentrate in our public schools here and there is absolutely no order in the schools(and i know bc i am a teacher) bc of the conduct of most black students. majority dont have fathers, let alone stable households to help rear them in a respectable manner. Its ridiculous what our white children have to tolerate and go through and be blamed for. I am so sick of being blamed for slavery. GET OVER IT. No black person I know was a slave neither was their grandparents or great grandparents or great great grandparents. Hell for all I know, my ancestors could have been slaves. So just bc the black race was treated poorly once upon a time does that mean that white people are
It's unfortunate that a group of teens got together, made up false lies, and because of their color it made national news. I am glad it wasn't a true story, but it grates my nerves that so many people jumped on the "color" bandwagon to defend these so called victims. Good for Oprah for neglecting to join in and for actually looking into the story for the truth.
i'd just like to make a comment to NAN...the reason that there ARE all black schools...is because blacks WERENT able to attend the universitys with the whites..so maybe you should do a little research before you make ignorant comments such as those(:
take that whites
wow seriously who ever thinks that white supremacy is the right thing needs serious help...im white and i know there are tons of people of all different races who are without a doubt smarter then some of the white people. anyone with half a brain would know that racism is wrong no matter what race, nationality, or sex you are. but maybe the reason you think that way is because you feel inferior to someone of a different race actually being more intelligent than you are....just one more thing to get you thinking the United States was created in order for the people of england to escape to a place where they were free to be themselves without being discriminated against and look at where our country is now? so for real you people need to get a life and stop living in a past with no future...oh and another thing...
OBAMA BECAME PRESIDENT...yeah that just happened!
you best believe that your world of fantasy is about to come to a abrupt end...
them white kids were wrong for that. I can't believe that they judge was being that less justicin the situtation
Well, as we all know by now, Oprah declined to get involved after her people looked into it and found out all the things that are in the article on this site entitled, "The Jena 6 Case What the New Never Told You"....must reading for everyone who is interested in knowing the TRUTH about the whole mess.
I am not a racist, I just hate lies. And there were too many to count that were made up about the Jena 6 case.
The writer of this article should have held her peace until she knew the facts. Most of what she has written is a fairy tale made up by Al Sharpton and others of his kind.