The era of lynching may be over, but the legacy of the infamous noose lives on.
I am always being told that “slavery is over”, “get over it”, “stop sniveling and crying about the past”, and “move on”. But yet there are some white people teaching their children how to make nooses to dangle before the eyes of Negro children.
What do you think? Do you think that these Jena white children dreamed up this idea of “nooses” out of the abstract air?
It is the invisible hand of the devil, trying to dredge up fears in black people about things that happened in the past- when lynching Negroes was a sport.
As I wrote about the “Hanging Tree” in Jena, Louisiana, someone recalled when it was an innocent twig, planted on the lawn of Jena High School. The so-called prank that white students pulled on black students for requesting to sit under the segregated shade tree was three nooses draped over a limb. By their actions, they declared it a "hanging tree", and then say it was all a joke- then turn around again and smear in the black children’s face everyday at school.
[To Be Continued]
I'm told the Jena city officials took a chainsaw and cut down the tree over which the noose was draped. Now, what would contribute more to eradicating extreme color-aroused systemic antagonism in Jena? Eliminating all of the trees or eliminating all of the extremely color-aroused people?
ReplyDeleteColor-arousal and ideation of race-base social strata is now undergoing a subjective crisis in the minds of the Jena white population. One white resident is frustrated with the town being portrayed as "racist". This is what happens when you put a mirror in front of an ugly person. "That's not me," they lament.
ReplyDeleteEddie,
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog. Continue to speak the truth.
In solidarity, Baldblogger
Francis - The Jena High School tree was cut down earlier this summer. Click here to see my post and photo on the topic.
ReplyDeletepeace, Villager
Cutting down the tree solves absolutely nothing. The tree itself did nothing wrong, the problem lies within the community itself. It would have been better if all the students at the school were given some type of education behind the history of lynching. Many of them probably had little knowlege, or worse yet, false knowlege of this part of American history. The students also could've benefitted from counseling in regards to issues like racism, bullying, andconflict resolution.
ReplyDeleteCutting down a tree does nothing to solve Jena's problems. It's just another form of denial.