A lot of bloggers in the Black Blogosphere have posted about the Jena 6, young black men charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in one of the most blatantly racist prosecutions I’ve come across lately. I’ve been largely silent on this blog because this is one of those rare cases where the situation makes me so angry I can’t even call it anger, anymore. I am furious. I don’t know if a word has been invented that accurately describes my feelings about this.

Which doesn’t make for an interesting post. Maybe I should just do a video of me taking a hammer to my wall and furniture, cuz that’s the level I’m at.

I didn’t want to let too much time go by before posting about it, though. Especially as it highlights just how far we have not come as a country. It doesn’t matter that this is happening in the South. We cannot just write off the South when something especially heinous happens down there. It’s America. North, South, East, West, Midwest, Bible Belt, all of it belongs.

So, in case you’re not familiar with the story of the Jena Six, here are some resources for you:

• Main Jena page at ColorofChange (includes reference links to articles and blog posts about the incident).
• Justice for The Jena Six (includes information about hwo to contact local representatives)
• Friends of Justice blog (posts about Jena Six and other related social justice issues)

More recently:

• School bans shirts supporting attack suspects
• Angry Black Bitch on the Jena Six, with her own take on angered into silence, and also contains links to other bloggers who’ve posted.

From there you can spiral out and find more articles, posts, etc. If this situation angers you as much as it angers me, consider doing something about it. Express your opinion to the prosecutor, the governor, local, state, and federal representatives. Contribute to the defense fund. Educate people about what’s going on. Write a letter to the families affected and offer support. Bug news outlets and ask them why they spent weeks worrying about Michael Vick and whether or not Senator Craig was NOT GAY!!!! yet don’t work themselves into a lather over this.

Oh, and get angry. If there was ever a time for it, now is that time.

ETA: As I come across more Jena Six posts, I’ll list them here.

• As the new school year approaches, Jena, La., is struggling to move beyond the racial strife that ripped it apart – Newsweek
• ‘Jena 6’ case inflames racial tensions – Anderson Cooper 360 blog
• JenaSix.org – information and contacts
• Mychal Bell’s conviction overturned.  Still not released from jail, though, because the judge and prosecutor didn’t show up for the bail hearing.  Because they suck.