The Jena Six, or why Racism is Still a Huge Problem In America

I've been meaning to post about this for a few days, but the heat got in the way. The office gets absolutely miserable any time the temperature breaks 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

There has been a lot written about this issue already; I'm choosing to link to a post at Pandagon that offers a good summary of the issue. (More information can be found via Kevin at Slant Truth, who has been all over this.)

I am posting this now because I think it's important to remember that racism - the really ugly, overt, and conscious kind - is still nowhere gone from American society.

And furthermore, I think that the ridiculous bullshit perpetrated by the Bush folks at every level since 2000 really encourages this sort of response from police. How? By working to create new, limitless police powers; to encourage folks in authority to abuse their power; and to promote a vision of justice that's all about pain and retribution.

Sometimes I feel like I came from another planet, or that literally everyone has gone crazy except me. I mean, in my vision of a just world, if something like this happened, the public response would be huge (but not vindicative - just huge). Huge enough, in fact, to actually affect what's happening in Jena.

And for the record, I don't blame this on 'the South' or some such bullshit - it's a problem for white people everywhere. And besides, Oregon has a pretty nasty history of state-sanctioned and institutionalized racism that it's never really acknowledged.