Jena VIPs
lessons learned on the red carpet
2007-10-29
By Terry Glover
The appearance of Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones at the BET Hip-Hop Awards a couple of weeks ago caused a ruckus heard ‘round the blogosphere and beyond. Was their joint going platinum? Their beef resolved? A multi-million dollar clothing line/fragrance release/beverage partnership finalized? Not quite.
The two young men gained initial notoriety as members of the Jena 6, which, unless you’ve been under a rock, you know as the group of Louisiana teenagers caught up in a southern brand of justice, and now facing felony charges for the beating of a white teen. The incidents in Jena revolved around a “whites only” tree, nooses hung from that tree, a shotgun, two beat downs, a racist, overzealous district attorney and a judgment-impaired school superintendent.
As headlines go, the story was a sleeper, taking weeks to gain momentum. But, as facts of the case leaked out and Jim Crow double standards were on brazen display, activists, both analog and digital, urged the black community to get up and get involved. Thousands descended on Jena in spirit and in the flesh, and civil rights violations became the rallying cry. By the time protesters arrived in the Louisiana town of 3,000 residents in mid-September, media frenzy was full throttle and emotions ran high in favor of the six black teens railroaded by the same bootleg justice that saw dozens of lynchings and race murders go unpunished during the first half of the 20th century.
Fast forward to mid-October and the BET red carpet where the dons of rap gathered to pay respekts to the art form they’ve made notorious. Diddy, Jay-Z, Nelly, Nas…. Bryant and Carwin. The Jena two were snapped on the red carpet decked out in jeans, side-cocked caps and dooky ropes, flashing the number “6” like a gang sign.
Like a punch to the gut, those pictures knocked the wind out of the support behind the teens. Blog commentary on one hand wondered aloud where were the parents, the advisors that allowed such a misstep. Another suggested that if, maybe, they had worn suits instead of Sean John, their presence would have been more acceptable.
The backlash against them was immediate and disapproving for several reasons: The situation in Jena smacked of an era of racial injustice that white America likes to pretend has passed, but black America suspects lurks just beneath a thin veneer of inclusion. In the midst of the systemic railroading of young black men Jena dregged up memories of brutality that black America vowed would happen never again. Those six young men became the embodiment of that vow.
Further, in mainstream black America, hip-hop is the enemy. Charged with breeding a culture of violence, greed and disrespect, rap has become equally symbolic of all that is wrong with our misguided youth. Adding fuel to the fire is rap’s dismissal of the Jackson/Sharpton school of thought as “old” and outside of the current social discourse. Like a parent embarrassed by an errant child after coming to their defense, seeing the most recent recipients of our civil rights largesse flossin’ in the midst of gangsta’s evil doers was more than the collective conscience could bear.
For those that came to their defense, that red carpet moment cast those young men, not as victims of a history that refuses to die, but as suspects, accomplices, really, in the further demise of our collective character. Granted, the punishment meted out in Jena was biased and woefully out of line with the crime, but if those young men are to have any hope of living their lives as responsible, reliable men, there are consequences that need to be paid for whatever part they played in the Jena assaults.
Rolling out the red carpet hardly qualified.
Terry Glover is Senior Editor for Ebonyjet.com. She writes on trends, current events and popular culture.
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