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So can Columbia go a week without a protest? No. No it can’t. But, as speakers at today’s Jena 6 walkout pointed out, Columbia also can’t seem to go very long without somebody taking out their racist vitriol on a bathroom stall or stairwell. “Are you sick and tired of the same shit happening every year?” one speaker asked the color-coordinated crowd of about 200. Judging by the relatively few people who stayed behind during the rally’s 8-block march up Broadway, down 120th St., past SIPA and back to Low Plaza, the answer is a resounding yes.
While protestors didn’t shy away from the psychical rigors of taking a stand against racial prejudice, organizers didn’t shy away from linking Jena, the SIPA graffiti and PrezBo’s scathing introduction of Ahmadinejad. In the rally’s opening speech, MSA president Adil Sayed Ahmed said that what was happening to the Jena 6 was “an extreme example of what’s going on on this campus.” He then warned against the conflation of Islam, Islamofascism, anti-Semitism, male chauvinism, homophobia and probably a number of other things; alas, his speech was interrupted by a renegade balloon arbor set up by Columbia’s Queer Awareness Month (in another odd juxtaposition, Go Ask Alice was also tabling a few steps away on College Walk). Though Ahmed was
understandably flustered, BOSS president Glenda Smiley explained her group’s rationale to Bwog. “The grafitti was found two days after [Ahmadinejad’s] visit. Bollinger opened Pandora’s box.”
She added that “campus isn’t a place where people should be comfortable writing the stuff that was found on SIPA’s wall”–which is something that hopefully everybody can agree on.
– ARR
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@Armin Responds: http://columbiaspectator.com/blog/opinion/?p=5
@WHY why the hell was ccaw involved in this? I think Judd just can’t get enough protesting
@why? 1) ccaw != judd
2) the graffiti called for nuking a bunch of middle eastern & african cities. that’s kind of a ccaw issue
3) if ccaw did = judd, well, the graffiti also went after ‘pinko commies’
@funny I think someone just wrote, “For a good time, call 976-Mumia” in a shit-encrusted bathroom stall in Lerner.
@Jena not racist? Then why did the majority of the town vote for David Duke, the leader of the KKK in the 1992 Gubernatorial election? What is going on in Burma is horrible, but we need to be aware of the oppression in the United States as well.
@THey didn't They voted for the other guy, the crook
@The Protestors These kids should go for a holiday in Burma.
@poot Hey Hey…
Ho Ho…
Now we’re protesting bathroom stall graffiti!
@What about The soft racism of low expectations?
@gtfo noob
@What about What’s going on in Burma?
@please, please let’s not argue for the middle ground, for we all know that nobody likes that solution. anyone who’s been at columbia long enough knows that.
@the kids were not beaten up for ATTENDING an all-white party. it was a private party to which they were not invited. nothing wrong with that. they tried to crash it and a fight ensued. i don’t see why that is a race issue–that happens when kids are not friends.
please explain to me how that situation means that the jena 6 should not be charged with anything? hm?
@Sadia Adil Ahmed is one of the most rational, sensible people I have ever met. Go Adil!
@Also Re: The white kid who got punched and then showed up at a party that night.
He also was going around school that day 1) dropping the “n” bomb, and 2) mocking Robert Bailey, the black kid who got punched for showing up at a party on the “white side of town.”
Maybe you think that the Jena 6 should have let the school handle it, since, um, they had handled the previous racist incidents so well?
@errrrrrr so if i got this right, dropping the N bomb and mocking someone is justification for beating the shit out of them? okie-day.
the jena 6 case is a classic case of miscarriage of justice, and it’s obvious that a white guy in the same circumstances wouldn’t be facing 22 years in prison, but, that said, it doesn’t justify ganging up with 5 other people and beating the shit out of someone.
@protest this! http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2177789,00.html
“Painting a swastika on a public building is a hate crime. But what happens when the building itself is the swastika?”
@Savonarola RACE WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@BOSS President Is Glenda Smiley, not Linda
@this protest is pitiful
@Annoyed who is BOSS? Expand your abbreviations bwog.
@BOSS Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters
(really)
@Jena 6 Am I understanding this wrong, the six threatened to kill a high school student. The six were arraigned for attempted murder and then 5/6 were released. One, a juvenile with a history of violence, is being held on assault charges.
How, exactly, is this racist?
@to #2 He shouldn’t be released. As far as anyone is reporting, he did brutally assault a kid unprovoked. The injustice comes from (a) the response to the original noose incident, which was despicable and not taken seriously at all and (b) the fact that the suspect is being tried as an adult, which is awful. He *should* be tried as a juvenile and not just released because of the racism surrounding the incident. Regardless of the environment or related events, the kid beat the everliving crap out of someone. You can’t just say “oh, but there were racial injustices so let’s overlook it completely.”
@what gets lost is that in the course of this “brutal assault” the victim somehow didn’t get all that injured, as evidenced by his appearance that evening at social events.
but apparently that was good enough for the DA to to put these kids in jail for a good long stretch.
@you're stupid six on one is plain old assault. who the fuck are YOU to say what is “injured” enough? do you realize that athletes often do not even realize they have a concussion until a few days later? his injuries may not have been readily apparent. stop making excuses for those thug kids who CLEARLY deserve to be in jail.
@one more thing “The victim attacked was beaten and kicked into a state of bloody unconsciousness.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_re_us/jena_six_14;_ylt=ArgksIfhl1pIY_dQnNRmN2kE1vAI
And here’s more from wiki, all cited:
A doctor treated Barker, who was left unconscious after the attack, at the local hospital. He was released after two hours of treatment and observation for a concussion and an eye that had swollen shut.[11] The emergency physician’s record shows that he also had injuries to his face, ears and hand.[24] He was able to attend his school’s Ring ceremony that evening,[11] though he later testified, “I waited 11 years to go to it. I wasn’t going to let that get in my way,” and that he ended up leaving early due to pain.[25]
“not all that injured” my ass, you moron.
The nooses were COMPLETELY out of line, but by my count, NO black kids were physically assaulted by a group of six white students. Expel the kids who hung the nooses, jail the thugs who committed assault.
Violence is ok when it is in self-defense (or the defense of somebody else)–when you or another are being directly threatened (like, when somebody instigates a physical attack on you). These black kids just didn’t like that white kid’s opinions. That kid didn’t hang a noose, and he didn’t start throwing punches.
Violence is not okay in any other case. And letting six black kids who clearly committed pure assault off the hook just because they’re black? That’s called racism, dear.
If you disagree, YOU are simply racist. Period.
@umm a black kid was beaten a few weeks earlier for attending an all white party. iirc one guy, out of several attackers, faced minor charges. three black kids were threatened with a shotgun – and then arrested when one of them grabbed the gun away. then six black kids beat up one white kid – its absurd to say they “threatened to kill” him – and they were charged with *attempted murder*, with *tennis shoes* as a deadly weapon. because to a very large number of people, when white kids get in fights at school, they might be bullies. but when black kids do, they’re “thugs” who deserve jail.
there’s racism. saying that in these circumstances, where no whites have faced any serious punishment, they should get off with time served – that’s common sense.
@I would say... …getting knocked the fuck out is “injured enough” to constitute assault. But I agree that in Jena, like in much of the USA, the application of the law is not even handed which is truly sad, and these cases that are mentioned should be investigated, by the feds perhaps. That doesn’t translate, though, into dropping the charges for someone who is obviously guilty of a crime. Bully violence is still assault and should be handled as such, though 22 years, if that’s true, is asinine. I don’t care if the victim was a racist fuck, that should be handled as a seperate issue, he was still assaulted and not in self-defense.
@How about FREE MUMIA?