Friday, September 21, 2007
2nd post
So the Jena six are on trial in Louisiana and we of course discussed it in our amazing AP Gov class. This led to the discussion of free speech. How far should free speech be allowed to go? Is burning a cross or hanging a noose simply an expression of free speech or is it something that should be banned. My thoughts are that it is impossible to put a blanket ban over something like hanging a noose from a tree because that would be infringing on peoples rights. I think it totally depends on the context. In the case of the Jena six the noose was meant to threaten the black students at the high school, in particular, the student who sat under the tree the previous day. A total ban on things such as nooses would lead, in my opinion, to more controversial issues such as banning the swastika or the confederate flag, as those are also symbols of horrible atrocities to certain groups of people. The Jena six is a case about racism, but it brings up many other important issues, especialy the issue of free speech, which is going to need to be addressed before an even worse case comes up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I agree with you that putting a ban on certain acts of free speech that are threatening or offensive would be difficult. But judging each controverial act of free speech case by case would be equally as difficult. In AP Gov we discussed the court case where it was determined that displays of "clear and present danger" are illegal. The hanging of the noose in Jena, Louisiana is, to me, a clear and present danger for the black student that sat under the tree and all other black students at that school. The real purpose of the case is not about the noose, but about the black boys who beat up the white boy. Since they are facing charges of attempted murder while the white boys who did the same thing are not, this is a case of blatant racism, and something needs to done to impliment fairness between blacks and whites in Jena.
hey brooke... i wrote about this similar issue and i agreed with you when you said this case was about racism and the freedom of speech. Similarly, I felt that although everyone has a right to speak their minds, the purpose behind their words and actions is what truly matters. In this case, when I heard that the court ruled the action of the white students a prank, I realized that the biggest issue at hand was racism. Basically, the black and white students were treated differently and the justice system needs to instill a more efficient policy to have equal treatment.
I agree that the justice system has failed in this particular case since it was excessively harsh on the black boys because of their race, but i wanted to point out that no one can prove if hanging the nooses was an actual threat that would have been backed. In fact, it is rather open to interpretation what exactly the students were trying to get across by hanging the nooses. Was the gesture absolutely unacceptable and racist? YES. Do I believe that the white students were making a threat to actually lynch anyone? NO. There is definately a difference between hanging a noose and ganging up on a kid and pummeling him. Neither are acceptable but actual physical violence does deserve a more harsh punishment. I definately agree, nonetheless, that the punishments given to the black youngsters were very excessive, unfair, and likely racially motivated.
Brooke, I definitely agree with your post in that it would be extremely difficult to put a "blanket ban" on all things such as banning the hanging of a noose. This would definitely lead to on ly more controversy because it is impossible to be consistent with something like that in all cases. If every case needed to be considered and judged whether it should be allowed or not, it would get too much into personal opinion and baises. Like Christa said, the issue in Jena needs to be looked at more from the light of the black boys being punished for something the white boys did the day before but to an even worse extreme.
Hello there Brooke, some very interesting points you bring up on your blog. I also agree with you that putting a blanket ban on these sort of actions would not be the best choice to solve problems like this. I think that racism will never truly die because of the way that some people are. There is just no way to completely rid the world of this kind of injustice, especially in our nation. The right to freedom of speech just makes it too complicated to completely control racism. The Ku Klux Klan, for example, is allowed to have gatherings about talking about how whites are superior, as long as they don't harm anyone. As for Jena 6, I just read that one of the black students, Mychal Bell, was going to be tried as a minor, which does make this situation more fair. Hopefully the other 5 will also be tried as minors, because it is unfair to do so otherwise.
Post a Comment