Last September in Louisiana, a Black student of Jena High School asked the school’s principal if he could sit under the school courtyard tree, a place traditionally claimed by the white students. The principal answered, “Sit wherever you want.”
The next morning, three nooses were hanging from the tree. “It meant the KKK, it meant ‘n*****s we’re going to kill you,
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The three white students responsible for this racist act of terror were slapped on the wrist—they were suspended from school for three days. The school’s white superintendent explained, “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”
The school, like the Southern town of Jena, La., is about 85 percent white and 12 percent Black.
Three months after the incident, six Black students fought with a white student, Justin Barker, who had been taunting Black students. Barker was a friend of the students who hung the nooses. He was briefly treated at a local hospital and released. Later, Barker was charged with bringing a rifle to school.
The six black students were charged outrageously with conspiracy to commit second degree murder and attempted second degree murder. They now face up to 100 years in jail, if convicted.
These events are a reminder of how racism is still woven into the fabric of the South and U.S. society as a whole. National oppression of African Americans continues to be tolerated and facilitated by the state.
The message of the state is clear: whites can terrorize and brutalize the Black community without consequence. The Black community must accept this or be punished.
Fighting against these racist notions and practices is an essential part of the struggle for class unity in the United States.
