CARIBBEAN TODAY


V I E W P 0 I N


We black Americans
 seem to need a
 major event or out-
rage every so often to revive
our mass energies in ways
that remind of us the 1960s
civil rights
movement.
 In the
1980s we had
mass arrests
at the South
African
embassy to
protest
apartheid. In
the 1990s CLARENCE
there was the PAGE
Million Man
March to
redeem black fatherhood and
proper role modeling. In 2007
we have the "Jena 6".
 Thousands flowed by the
busload into tiny Jena,
Louisiana, last month. They
came to march on behalf of
six black youths who were
originally charged with
attempted murder for alleged-
ly beating up a white youth
last December at the local
high school in what many
describe as a schoolyard fight.
 The "Jena 6" case actual-
ly began months earlier when
three nooses appeared in a
tree at the high school. That
was one day after black stu-
dents defied a school tradition
that designated the tree to be
a whites-only gathering spot.
The school principal expelled
three white students for hang-
ing the nooses, but the school
superintendent reduced the
expulsions to a few days of
suspension.
 Tensions grew as various
interracial fights, attacks and
angry confrontations, mostly
off-campus, in later weeks
resulted in young white males
receiving slaps on the wrist, at
most, while young blacks
received school expulsions or
criminal charges.
 It was the local district
attorney's decision to charge
six black students with
attempted second-degree
murder, while white students
had gone free for other
attacks, that touched off the
national uproar. The white
student who was beaten
allegedly taunted blacks with
racial slurs and was a friend
of the students who had hung
the nooses. He was treated
and released after a few hours
in a local hospital.

EXCESS
 I don't make light of
anyone's beating, but the
attempted murder charge was
an excess wretched enough to
be a virtual invitation to the
Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al


Sharpton, who enthusiastical-
ly accepted, leading the march
with Martin Luther King III.
 Suddenly little Jena
became a symbol in many
minds of every injustice or
racial grievance, real or per-
ceived, that black folks have
endured in recent years, from
the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina to the gross dispari-
ties between federal sentences
for crack and powder cocaine.
 The "Jena 6" put real
names and faces to Justice
Department statistics that
show African American men
to be three times more likely
than white men to face jail
once they have been arrested.
The bi-__L,,I disparity is
among men convicted of
aggravated assault, according
to the National Urban
League's annual State of
Black America report. It
found that black men are sen-
tenced to an average of 48
months in jail almost one-
third longer than the average
sentence received by white
men.
 But now that the crowds
have gone home and Jena is
once again a quiet little oil
and lumber town, will the big
march have lasting signifi-
cance, like the movement that
helped end apartheid and free
Nelson Mandela? Or will it be
like the Million Man March: a
stirring memory and a great
applause line for political
speeches, but not much fol-
low-through?

BAD COVERAGE
 It was the bad fortune of
the "Jena 6" demonstrators
that they had to share the
spotlight with another media
eruption, the latest misadven-
tures of O.J. Simpson.
Charged with armed robbery
in Las Vegas for allegedly try-
ing to steal memorabilia from
his own glory days, Simpson
needed no help from bloggers
or talk shows to get wall-to-
wall coverage.
 Simpson returned to T.V.
screens like a cheap sequel to
a movie you'd rather forget.
He reminds us of one of
America's most racially divid-
ed moments. Simpson's
acquittal of double homicide
charges gave white Americans
a shock that their black
friends, neighbors and
coworkers have been long
acquainted with, the chilling
sense of denied justice.
 And for black Americans
with an eye for bitter irony,
Simpson's acquittal showed a
strange form of progress, at
best: America had progressed
enough to let a rich black
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)


Injustice is bigger


 than 'Jena 6'


 omen loving women
 is as old as time
 itself, but it never
seemed to get the abhorrence
as men loving men.
 Anyway, these women got
the name lesbian from
Lesbos, which is a Greek
island in the Aegean Sea.
History has more than
implied that the inhabitants
there, especially the followers
of the poetess Sappho, were
all into free love between
each other.
 The fact is though, they
also dealt with men, but the
women loving women part
seemed to dominate. The fact
is also, anyone who lives on
the isle of Lesbos is a lesbian,
just as how people who live in
Jamaica are Jamaicans and so
on. But in this context, and
the accepted one, is that
female homosexuals are
called lesbians.
 Way back in my youth,
before I knew what all this
same sex thing was about, I
naively thought that boys
liked girls and that was that.
The thought of men with men
or women with women just
never crossed my innocent
mind. So, in my wooing days I
approached this very attrac-
tive young foreign lady and
started to give her my best
lyrics.
 "Don't even bother with
those sweet words, they won't
work on me, because I'm a
lesbian," she said.
 "Well, I'm Jamaican, but
pray tell, what is a lesbian?" I
innocently queried.
 "A lesbian is a woman
who enjoys the company of
women, loves to touch, caress,
fondle, kiss and make love to
women all the time," was her
reply.

TAKE-OFF
 This phenomenon seems
to be taking off pretty big in
our parts, or perhaps they're
just creeping out of the closet.
More and more we see reports
in the press, and even recently
there was this huge feature on


being raised.
 Not so with males though,
as no way would society allow
two young males to do the
things that I just described. So
from early, girls are exposed
to same gender contact and
affection, and sleep over
slumber parties are the rage
among young teenage girls. Is
it any wonder that many of
them graduate to become full-
fledged lesbians, or am I tak-
ing the narrow view? To com-
pound it, women are able to
mask their sexual leanings,
after all.
 "We're only roommates."
 Curiously, many of the
lesbians that I know very well,
confessed to me that they had
suffered some sort of sexual
abuse while young, usually
from a family member.

RESTRICTIONS
 The only time men are
allowed to show any form of
affection towards each other
is during sports, especially
football when a goal is scored.
Then you will see players run
down each other, jump on one
another, pile on and hug and
kiss each other like they're in
a Turkish bathhouse. Even
the spectators in the stands
will join in, clapping and hug-
ging total strangers, just

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)


how many
prominent
schools have
fallen prey to
this type of
sexuality.
Locker
rooms aren't
what they
used to be, TONY
and no longer ROBINSON
are only
randy
teenage boys predators for
our daughters. Now you also
have to be careful of the girl
next door. She could very well
be your future daughter in
law.
 But it's bound to happen,
what with cable TV showing
how 'natural' it is for women
to love women. Have you
watched The L Word? Plus
even male magazines perpetu-
ate this by having women in
bed pleasuring each other.
 That's a big turn on for
men, but apart from that,
society has always accepted
little girls being affectionate
towards each other. Girls are
allowed to hold hands, hug
each other, groom each other,
touch, comb each other's hair,
and even sleep together in the
same bed. We think nothing
of it, and it's as natural as a
walk in the park. Why, even
female roommates are preva-
lent, without any eyebrows


T


Girls on girls, what a thing!


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October 2007