Response to Jena 6 Requires Revolutionary Vision

Note: I originally wrote this piece for the "Hilltop," Howard University's student newspaper. It appeared in the "Perspectives" section on August 29, 2007; it assumes a general knowledge of the "Jena 6" situaiton in Louisiana.

The case of the Jena 6 in Louisiana proves that white-supremacy is alive and well in this country; it has further highlighted the fact that we live in a fundamentally racist society. It seems as if it takes an event such as this about every two to three years to keep us vigilant and renewed in Black liberation struggle. Much like the assassination of Sean Bell and the genocide in New Orleans, the modern-day lynching of the Jena 6 has brought a much needed conversation about white-privilege and the horrors of being Black in this country back into the mainstream. But the socio-political implications of these events transcend the individuals who compose them.
For instance, as we mourn the brutal death of Sean Bell, we must recognize the hundreds of Black and Brown folks before him who have fallen victim at the hands of state violence. Grassroots organizations - like the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Brooklyn, for example - sought justice for the Bell family while incorporating a virulent critique of police brutality.

Similarly, the genocide in New Orleans is not specific to the Gulf Coast . Folks realize that what happened in New Orleans is indicative of a larger historical problem in this country: the continued devaluation of the lives and communities of poor people of color. This is evidenced in what has been termed “Hurricane Columbia” by those who oppose Columbia University ’s expansion into the West Manhattanville neighborhood of New York City , an imperialist expansion that would displace hundreds and destroy a community.

We must enter the struggle for justice for the Jena 6 with the same revolutionary vision. The situation in Jena is not just about the young Black men being unjustifiably thrown into the prison industrial complex for the better part of their lives. This is about a country and an (in)justice system in which the lives of Black and Brown folks are of little importance.

We must take into account the individual Brothers who are being affected by these racist policies; we will organize and we will fight for our Brothers in solidarity. But with this, we must keep our sights fixed on revolutionary goals.

We must strategically incorporate a critique of the prison industrial complex. Our folks disproportionately occupy America ’s prisons. The government invests in our confinement: more money is spent on building prisons than funding inner-city school systems.

We must not shy away from a critique of capitalism. Poor people, who lack the financial power to wield influence and provide themselves adequate defense, tend to fall within the cracks of the prison industrial complex more quickly than their affluent counterparts. Even though the Jena 6 show no particular signs of opulence, we must remember and struggle in the memory of our Brothers and Sisters who do not have the privilege of a national campaign for their freedom and who remain nameless behind the bars of a cell. And what about the violent masculinity that gave rise to this incident in the first place. If the young men on both sides of the conflict had been divested of a pestilential masculinity that views violence as a problem solving method, the fangs of white-supremacy – as far as this situation is concerned - would have left the young Black men unscathed. It is unfortunate that we as young Black men grow up in a culture that socializes us to pursue violent confrontation to affirm our masculinity.

I have faith that we, the students of Howard University, will continue to fight for justice for the Jena 6. But as we rally, raise funds, and travel to Louisiana to organize, let us retain a revolutionary vision of justice and liberation that dismantles a white-supremacist capitalist patriarchal order that allowed these events to unfold in the first place.