Collection

Are you down for the cause?

By Dr. Andre M. Perry, Contributing Columnist September 24, 2007

When you first read the about the Jena 6 case, how did you feel? Your emotions probably poured along either side of the usual black and white split of public opinion. Blacks typically reacted angrily to the case with focus squarely placed on the criminal justice system. Whites generally felt indifference or disgust due to the individual actions and criminal backgrounds of the black students involved. The rest of America can almost always fall into one of those painfully persistent, racialized boxes.