America - Still A Racist Country

There are those who believe that since our government has outlawed some blatant racist acts in the United States, we have solved our racial problems. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Racism will never be conquered as long as it resides in the hearts of many Americans. Consider the following stories.

You may have heard of the "Jena 6". Jena, Louisiana is a town of about 4,000 citizens, about 85% of whom are white. There is a tree at the high school called the "white tree". It is where white students congregate. One day an Afro-American student sat under the tree. The next day three nooses were discovered hanging from the tree.

The principal tried to suspend the students who put the nooses there, but he was over-ridden by the school board and the district's superintendent. They claimed it was just a "harmless prank", and gave the offenders an in-school suspension lasting three days.

Naturally, this created ill-feelings between white and black students and numerous fights broke out over a several week period. When one white student bragged in school about how a black student had been beaten, he was attacked after school by 6 black students. He was not seriously injured, and returned to the school that same night for a ceremony, but the 6 black students were arrested.

Throughout the semester of several fights, no white student was charged with anything more than a misdemeanor. However, these 6 black students were charged attempted murder. Even though the charges were finally reduced, they were still convicted of felonies and face the possibility of many years in prison.

They are now known as the "Jena 6", and their unfair treatment shows that racism is alive and well in America -- even in our educational and governing institutions.

But Louisiana is not alone. In West Virginia, a 23 year-old black woman was kidnapped and held for days by several whites. She was beaten, stabbed, sexually abused, called racial epithets, and forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from a toilet. Fortunately, someone tipped the police and they rescued her, or she would have probably eventually been killed.

The FBI says they are considering charging the six white criminals with a hate crime. I don't know what there is to consider. Of course it's a racially-motivated hate crime! These cretins need to be thrown so far back in the jail that they never see daylight again.

These are just two cases among many, but they prove the point. This country doesn't just have a racist past, it has a racist present. Unless good and decent people of all races come forward to stamp out this evil, it will also have a racist future.