Student Life

Student Life

Even this article forgot to mention how the inocent white kid who was jumped was shouting racial slurs at the black students before they jumped him. I also read that he was shouting things in defense of the kids who hung the nooses.

Non white peoples and some black people do not appreciate the enormity of the N-word. Some Black people do lose their minds when they are called the N-word. Outsiders will say that people should not let a word bother them so much. Calling someone the N-word is basically like talking about someones mother, father, their religion, language, their lack of humanity and culture all in one. No other word dares put any group of people in their place like the N-word.

The Jena six and the Black American reaction

Their is an elephant in the room. That is an expression used in America when their is an issue that needs to be discussed but everyone is taking deliberate steps to avoid discussing it. I am a little bit of a "nature buff" and I know for a FACT that an elephant could never be in a room in America. You see, the elephant (the African elephant is the biggest elephant so we will use it as the example) is indigenous to Africa so you could never just run into one in the land that we now call America.


Fortunately for us Americans, we do have other big animals that we can run into and pretend not to notice. How about a bison? If someone told you they were in a room with a bison, you would assume that they had to be somewhere out west. The Bison once flourished in the US but once it was found out that the the creature was intricate in supporting the life and culture to the people that are indigenous to this land, they were then pushed to the brink of extinction.

I was on a plane headed towards New Orleans from D.C.(I went to school at Xavier University of Louisiana) and I was sitting next to this 11 year old boy. We started talking and I really liked the kid. We talked about the NFL and college football and he really know his stuff. We finally landed in New Orleans and he said to me,

"Wow! You are really cool. I wish more Black people were like you. All the rest
of them are just niggers."

I was devastated. The kid could tell that he had hurt my feelings. He then said he was sorry and I can't recall what I said to him after that.

Now if someone had told you that story, many would assume that they were in the south. While I do agree that the level of intolerance is greater in the south, but you need look no further than todays curent events to see that the country as a whole has yet to embrace the idea that we are all equal.

At Jena High School in Jena Louisiana, their is a tree that is reserved for white students to sit under. When a Black student violated that unwritten rule. A message was sent via the hanging of several nooses on the aforementioned tree. I believe that this is a violation of Louisiana hate crime laws. It was recommended that the three students determined to be responsible be expelled. Superintendent Roy Breithaupt overruled the expulsion and instead the students received a 3 day suspension. As the racial tension in the school mounted, a fight occurred in which six Black students beat up a White student who was taunting them with racial slurs and verbal support for the students who had hung the nooses. The white student in question, Justin Barker was sent to the hospital, treated and released.


The six black students Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Beard (the Jena six) were charged with attempted second degree murder and were expelled from school. The district attorney bumped down the charges to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. The district attorney convinced the all white jury that Mychal Bells sneakers were weapons and he was found guilty and when he is sentenced on September 20, he could face up to 22 years in prison.

The others are still awaiting trial and they are still to be charged with attempted second degree murder.

What people who are not African American need to appreciate is that this type of treatment second class treatment has been going on for centuries. West Africans were not brought to this country to be equals but instead, they were brought here as lifetime laborers. Upon our arrival here, different governments within the colonies wanted their to be a clear distinction with regards to how we were treated and how Europeans were to be treated. When Lincoln freed the slaves, it was a strategic move done to weaken the Confederacy. It was never done to bring about Black equality which, Lincoln was against.

If someone knows the history of America, they should not be surprised that something like this could happen. Be it intentional or not, White Americans have instilled in Black Americans a certain level of "expected indecency" with regards to how we will be treated when no one is looking. You can call it racism or a double standard but whatever you dress it up as, it is still the big bison that all of us will have to deal with together.

I am anxiously awaiting the day that we can drive it towards extinction.

In the court of Ronnie's opinion, I find Gary Sheffield to be not guilty of racism

The Gary Sheffield interview in the May-June issue of GQ magazine, has caused a little bit of controversy (oooh someone brought up race). In the article, he said that Latino players would displace Black players as the most prevalent minority in the sport. The rallying point for those who claim that this statement is racist, is that he said:



I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. … [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them


So what's inferred here in the blue font is that Latin players are easier to control.


So this is what we are going to do boys and girls. We are going to break down why this is not racist by investigating the words, race and Latin.

Exhibit A

In the red font, Mr. Sheffield identifies that the new people coming to displace the African American (Black) baseball players will themselves be Black. This is key. How can Mr. Sheffield, a Black man, be accused of being racist if the people he is referring to are the same race as he is? What is not fully understood by mainstream America, is that Latin or Latino/a is not a race. All the term means is that you are from a country in the "New World" where Spanish is the primary language spoken because the regions indigenous peoples were exploited by the Spanish (when the Indians said for y'all to "help yourselves", they did not mean to everything! That is the last time we invite those guys over) who in turn brought west Africans over to toil and work the land for them (slaves). So now that you know some history, you should also know that if you were in say Peru or the Dominican Republic all of your life, you would not call yourself a Latino, you would be considered Black, white or Indian (referencing to indigenous people of the Americas).


So we cannot find Mr. Sheffield as being Guilty of racism but, we can get him on a separate lesser charge of ignorance.

"Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man

"These are the things my race demands. So, if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent home? I know a lot of players that are home now can outplay a lot of these guys."

So if we observe the blue text, we see that Mr. Sheffield is saying that people of his race demand respect over Latin people. As mentioned in exhibit A, Mr. Sheffield is speaking about the Black Latin players. So in order to know that this statement is ignorant, you have to know what race is. The scientific term of race says that their is only one race. The human race. The sociological/cultural use of the word was started by Europeans and was used to separate based on physical characteristics that are passed down genetically (think of this whenever you are filling out a job application or taking a standardized test). As an example, I am a Black man. I would be considered Black if I were born to the same parents in the United States, Germany, Korea or the Dominican republic.
So Mr. Sheffield, like any Black man entering a court in the United States, we have to find you guilty of something! I commend him for speaking out (something that more athletes NEED to do), on an issue. As an outsider looking in, it appears as if he was trying to say that since Latin players are coming from impoverished conditions, and baseball is there only way out, they are easier to manipulate and exploit by major league baseball. Major league baseball is looking for good baseball players. So Latin players provide the talent but at a cheaper price than the American players who might be just as talented but have other opportunities that they can explore (football or to get an education).

The real shame in all of this is that mainstream media ran with the idea that he is a racist rather than the idea that Latino ball players are possibly being mistreated. I live in the DC area and a local white sports talk radio host was comparing his comments to John Rockers. He went on to say that no one is complaining about their being less White people in baseball and that there is a double standard when it comes to who can say what in regards to race. I don't know why SOME white Americans try so hard to look for instances for them to be outraged about their "people" being treated unfairly because of their race. As far as comparing Sheffield to Rocker, That one is a reach that even Yao Ming couldn't make. How do you compare want man saying that he dislikes a place because of the type of people that live there to one man making an attempt at educated social commentary. He is right about there being a double standard. But if white baseball players are being discriminated against, who is discriminating against them? The white owners, the white gms or the white media?