Touchy Subjects.

I am about to tackle one.

*Disclaimer: If you decide not to read my blog again after reading this. I'm sorry you feel that way. I am a white male. I make no apologies for that. I enjoy spending time with friends. Many of which are not white. I don't see color. I see habits. I see actions. And if you act like an idiot, walk like an idiot, then guess what? You are an idiot.

Over the past couple of days, I have been debating whether or not I should voice my opinions concerning the Jena 6 subject. I have my opinion and some may call me a racist, and some may just agree with me. I will not sit here and begin by trying to explain how I am not racist by having black friends or sugar coating what I have to say. Everyone has a negative feelings about some aspects of a different race. You are lying if you say you don't. How many people have looked at a person of Arab descent and immediately thought terrorist? How many people have looked at a group of 4-5 black men and thought, they are up to no good? What about the Mexican down the street? I bet you think he is working somewhere in construction for peanuts, taking the job of a much higher paid person. We've all been guilty. Stop lying and face the facts.

That being said, I'll explain to you now why I have decided to make this post.

Last night, on a local news broadcast, there was a video shown of 7 black kids attacking a white kid in the middle of the street. None of the 7 were arrested or charged as of yet. And they should be. The attack was unprovoked and all eye witness accounts of the events said, that the reason for the attack was.... because the kid was white.

This is the cause for many "race-related" fights all to often. The color of someone's skin.

As was the case in Jena, La. 6 black teenagers attacked a white male. They beat the kid to the point of unconsciousness. They kicked and kicked and kicked at someone who could not defend himself.

And then those same kids got arrested. As they deserved to be. They got tried. As they deserved to be. And there were convictions. As there ought to have been.

We hear stories of a "white tree". A label that the parents will tell you is true, but the teachers at the school will tell you is false.

Then we hear about 3 nooses on a tree(there were actually 2), that when hung were used by students (both white and black) more as a rope swing until school authorities ordered to be taken down, when students started putting their heads through the loops.

And next we hear that the students who hung the noose were only suspended 3 days. When in actuality, they were also given in school suspension for two weeks as well as being sent to an alternative school for about a month.

Mychal Bell, the one student in the center of the whole distpute, was indeed an honor student with a high grade point average. However, to say he didn't have a criminal record is untrue. He was in fact on probation for previous battery charges and criminal property damage.

I will concede, however, that it is pretty widely known by the people who live there that blacks in the community tend to be treated more harsh than whites. Authorities do need to look into the practices of the system there.

In my opinion, I think that each and every one of the students involved in the beating, need to punished. They committed a crime and they need to do the time. Do they deserve to be tried as adults? Not unless there were adults when the attack happened. Do they deserve 20 yrs or 100yrs of prison? No. But they do need to punished. If this is the first offense, which for some it is not, then put them on probation. If there are habitual offenders, as it appears Mychal Bell is, then they deserve to spend time behind bars. I don't care they were black, white, latino, or asian.

In a country where we demand that celebrities get no special treatment and that we demand that politicians immediately resign if they have a lapse in judgment. How dare we demand that criminals who are guilty go free?

Admit it, we are a hypocritical nation. What would we be protesting if we reversed the colors in the situation, or if Mychal Bell was the victim of 6 white students? What if instead of nooses being hung, there were Klan hats being hung? What if we heard that Mychal Bell had called one of the white guy a "honky" or a "cracker"? Would we still be outraged if those white students were to be tried as adults?

I don't think so.