JENA SIX, MY OPEN LETTER!!

Dear Bloggers,

With so much devastating news regarding the Jena Six recently, I have been totally overwhelmed with sadness and grief. It’s a new emotion for me, because I’ve never been one to get emotional over much that doesn't deal directly with who L.T. is or does. But I am; and in that sadness lies a great deal of anger towards some of my fellow bloggers’ irresponsible and reckless coverage of the unfortunate, racially charged acts of our recent time. Some have belittled the incident that occurred in Jena as just some “unfair fight that had 6 Black ganging up on 1 White kid”. Others are saying “violence is never the answer, no matter what someone says or does”. But to utilize your positions as a news source for many people and talk negatively, or not at all, about Jena Six puts my disappointment in a place of unmaintainable proportions. I never realized how much race relations could affect an individual until now, but alas here I stand.

The unfortunate incidences that have occurred in Jena, LA, Douglasville, GA and New Orleans, LA have reinforced a very disturbing and an obviously apparent fact about the United States of America. There are still parts of this country that don’t care about Black people. This country will continue to deliver harsh injustices day after day after day until their purpose has been served. What purpose that is, I don’t really want to say, because at the heart of it I truly cant put it into words.

For all the well-known African American bloggers that chose to overlook the unfortunate acts of Jena Six should be ashamed of themselves. Instead of using your platform to unify a people for equality and justice for all, some have decided to use their platform to drive the wedge of division even more between them and us. No one with an ounce of common sense, or compassion can look at ALL the evidence of this heinous situation and not determine that it wasn’t racially motivated. Some people are focusing on Mychal Bell’s prior criminal history, and are basing this incident with his previous one(s). But, I personally feel that’s not right or even the smart thing to do. Those incidences had nothing to do with three noose’s hanging from a tree in their high school. I stand before you all a very smart, articulate, and most importantly understanding human being. But I couldn’t tell you what my reaction would be if I were to come to a public school, a school that civil rights leaders like Malcom X or Martin Luther King, fought for me to attend and witness such blatant human disrespect.

The actions that took place in Jena, as unfortunate as it was, I believe were a result of a racist community that pushed young African American youth into a corner and they came lashing out. And for my Black bloggers to either ignore this issue, or to talk negatively about the Black men involved should be truly ashamed of themselves. I can’t tell you how to run your respective sites. But in this instance, if you aren’t going to choose to be apart of the solution please don’t become apart of the problem.

L.T. Dinwiddie