I've been a fan of John Mellencamp's music and activism since high school, so I'm not surprised that he chose to tackle the "Jena 6" issue. Mellencamp wrote this song back in August when he first heard about the issue. It will appear on his as-yet-untitled new album. The video is riveting. Take a look.
4 comments:
This song and the "Jena 6" is very sad and thought provoking. I am not much of a writer, but I say what I mean and mean what I say.. I have gotten in arguments with friends over this issue because they live in the south and think we are picking on them:-(
I live in WA State, I am 46 with a 19 year old son who is graduating this year.. For the past 2 weeks his school has in the middle of a race war!! There have been several serious fight betweens blacks and whites the last 2 weeks.. 9 kids have been suspended...
When I found this out I was sickened! Last friday over 1 thousand students were afraid to attend school because of the threats going around. Only 300 showed that day.
Yesterday someone hung a NOOSE outside of the gym! We ALL know what this means and when I hear that these kids can't know about the meaning of the noose, I am appalled, because do they really think kids are so dumb?
ONE news station showed up today, and they has a 10 second "report" on it!! I want to scream to these kids what they are doing is wrong and hurtful, to say the least!
People tens to think this only happens in the south, but in this country, racism is still alive and kicking and we need to kick it right on out!
It really breaks my heart...
Thanks for listening..
Karla/Dance Nekkid,
Thank you so much for posting. What is happening at your son's school is awful! How is the administration handling it? What sparked it?
Unfortunately, it seems like as much as we have made gains in race relations, we are still so very far apart. We need more substantive conversations about race, and we need to get real. Part of that is knowing that the South doesn't have a lock on race problems. I wrote a post about that back in the day:
http://whattamisaid.blogspot.com/2007/11/hate-its-not-just-for-southerners.html
http://whattamisaid.blogspot.com/2007/11/hate-its-not-just-for-southerners.html
Hi Tami,
I am not sure of the details of what started it, the school is being pretty hush about it.. It barely made the news. So I get bits from my son.. I believe it started between 2 black and white boys..An argument over something (I will try and get more info)...
Then it turned into lots of threats, rumors, etc.. 9 kids have been suspended so far that I know of.
Last week there was the noose, I wanted to vomit when I heard about it, and I never heard anything from the school.. My son told me, and then about 10 seconds on the news..
Now I get another call like before from the principle.. There is rumors of something that is supposed to occur (related to all of this) on Wednesday..So here we go again.
They said they have more security and are talking to students but my son says they haven't been. So I don't know what to think...
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