An “afterthought,” that is what James Clingman, columnist for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), said black people are in the U.S.
Clingman has a valid point. In his Oct. 8 article in the Louisiana Weekly, he quotes an excerpt from his book Black Empowerment with an Attitude – You got a problem with that?
In this excerpt, Clingman exams the harsh and cruel punishments black people have endured.
I mention all of this because of the injustice black people have received in the criminal justice system. Cruel and unusual punishment is an understatement for the punishment Mychal Bell, one of the six teenagers charged with second-degree attempted murder in Jena, Louisiana, received for fighting.
Bell was convicted on a lesser charge of aggravated battery, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison.
His charge and conviction are unusual because the legal age of an adult is 17 in Louisiana, and Bell was charged as an adult when he was 16 at the time of the incident.
Since when did the criminal justice system charge high school students with attempted murder for fighting. I’ll tell you when: when they are black.
(It’s a standing joke in the black community that DWB-“driving while black” must be on the book.)
Take the kidnapping in West Virginia for instance, six Anglo-Americans kidnapped, sexually abused, beat and stabbed a black woman. None of those six white adults received an attempted murder charge and they stabbed and beat her. Was Bell a victim of unusual punishment? Yes.
Would he have received a lesser sentence if black people around the world would not have responded to this situation? No.
Situations like these show that racism still exists in this country. This is a subject I absolutely hate to discuss because it disgusts me.
I hate racism, and I hate prejudice. I wonder if the world would be in such turmil if these things didn’t exist.
We are a new generation. I believe that we have to start changing now. By teaching our siblings and children not to prejudge and not to choose the people they associate with or befriend by their color, wealth, health or gender, racism and prejudice can possibly be eliminated.
By
Nick Davis