[Antiracism] press release on Jena, LA

[Cate Woolner]

 very interesting commentary from a restorative justice perspective
Cate W


 Last year black students asked for the "right" to sit under a tree on 
campus
 that had historically been reserved for white students. The tree, instead 
of
 becoming a symbol of harmony and progress, no longer lives on campus. But
 before it was cut down, nooses were strung from it by white students. Those
 students knew the symbolism of the act and they knew the threat and history
 it provoked. But, they might not have known the harm it caused. How could
 they? They probably didn't intend to hang black students from the tree-they
 merely wanted to be "one-up" in the power dynamics of a situation that
 seemed to be threatening the separation of the races on school grounds and
 the superiority of white students. It was determined that a "crime" had not
 been committed and school suspensions were meted out to those involved.

 Reports indicate that tensions and fights between black and white students
 have flared up over the several months since the first noose was found in
 the tree.
 School officials, students, parents, and community members considered them 
a
 normal part of high school life-schoolyard fights between boys, often
 between boys in groups of their friends, often based on racial identity.
 Each situation was probably handled by the rules and what seemed reasonable
 to school officials. However, they did not understand the ongoing harm that
 occurred in the school community. Fear, anger, suspicion, tension, and
 reminders of "place" and social divides that many had hoped would have been
 long irrelevant were affecting everyone. There were likely both white and
> black students who worried about violence on campus.
>
> Then the group of black students now called the Jena 6 was charged with
> attempted murder for the beating of a white student. We've seen the
> consequences. Thousands of people converging in Jena, national news and
> interviews of some involved, political comments and reminders of the civil
> rights movement, acknowledgment of systemic racial discrimination in our
> criminal justice system, and a "protecting of their own" by prosecutors 
> and
> other officials within the system. Charges have subsequently been reduced
> and five of the students are out on bail while the prosecutor tries to 
> make
> a distinction between them and the sixth (Bell) who has had previous
> arrests.
> These details are hard to surface in the turmoil and big picture 
> experience
> of racial prejudice. There have also been more nooses tied to car/truck
> bumpers recalling the 1998 killing of James Byrd Jr. a black man dragged 
> to
> his death from a noose tied to a truck in Jasper Texas.
>
> Here is an important example of the consequences of not understanding the
> harm that happens-even if the action doesn't reach the level of being 
> named
> a 'crime". It is an example of how actions-known to be symbolic-have
> enormous impact. It is also a searing example of the collective harm that
> occurs from systemic discrimination. The thousands of demonstrators and
> rhetoric of the case being a new symbol of the 21st Century civil rights
> movement reinforce the need to address overt racism in our criminal 
> justice
> system. But, it also compromises all of us to suggest that a six-on-one
> beating should be endorsed as either an acceptable or necessary response 
> to
> a harmful situation.
>
> This is also a case where the reliance on the results of the beating 
> rather
> than the harm it induced creates even more harm. When people note that the
> student was released from the hospital and attended a school function the
> same evening, they are in effect saying the crime was less severe than the
> charges indicate. I have no doubt that the student beaten by the Jena 6
> feared for his life. I think both he and they are lucky that he did not 
> die.
> Not because there was an intention to kill, but because permanent injury 
> or
> death can be so easily a result from this type of physical violence. The
> societal attitude that violence (especially group violence) should be
> accepted also reinforces an approach to harm that young men (and growing
> numbers of young women) in this county model to their long-term detriment.
>
> An alternative approach would have been to recognize harm and deal with 
> it.
> Knowingly fostering racial discrimination by allowing race-designated 
> places
> (informal or formal) is the responsibility of the school and addressing 
> the
> harm that occurred to students is part of the obligation school leaders
> needs to assume. Those who hung the first nooses might have better
> understood the impact of their actions if there had been dialogue rather
> than quiet suspensions. Students who were impacted and found racial 
> tensions
> and fights occurring in the school could have had a venue for letting out
> the experience, feelings, and story of what did and was happening on 
> campus.
> The Jena 6 could have had the opportunity to name their experience and
> understand the impact of their actions. The student, beaten by a group of
> six and surrounded by onlookers, and his family/friends could have had the
> opportunity to share their fears and concerns without being named racists.
 And, the community of the school could have learned more about the needs of
 its students and engaged them in creating a safer place for everyone.

 I know that Jena doesn't want this incident to define it in the national
 consciousness-and yet it does. The legal process and rules of school
 administrators and policy makers have their place. However, they have not
 served these students and this community well. A restorative model of
 dialogue and conflict resolution could define Jena as a place that strives
 to heal hurt, allows experience to be expressed in the context of time and
 symbolism, and engages those impacted by harm to seek and define 
resolution.
 I wish for Jena, the Jena 6, and the students expelled, beaten, and
 suspended a place and a process of dialogue that offers an opportunity for
 understanding and the power to define their own resolution to the harm.
 Through their wisdom, sustainable and effective guidelines for their future
 school community could be developed.
 I offer our dialogue facilitators who understand the dynamics of race,
 violence, adolescence, and harm to help in any way we can.


 Barbara Raye
 International Association for Restorative Justice and Dialogue Victim
 Offender Mediation Association
 2233 University Avenue West #300
 St. Paul, MN 55114
 Email: voma at voma.org or braye at effective.org
 Web: www.voma.org or www.rjdialogue.org
 Tel: 612-874-0570 or 612-874-0535
 Fax: 651-644-4227