THE HOYA's Priorities Are Wrong
Georgetown University prides itself on being an inclusive, socially conscious and politically conscious community that is committed to serving the needs of others. Yet too many times at this university, the issues most talked about in the minority communities at Georgetown have slipped under the radar.
In Friday’s issue of THE HOYA, none of the front-page stories addressed or referred to Jena Six and the rallies that took place in response to it on Thursday at both this university and around the nation.
What's wrong with this picture?
If you are reading this and asking yourself what Jena Six is, you have just proved my point.
Jena Six has become a national rallying point against racial injustice. This university’s own NAACP chapter was even featured on the local news for the incredible show of support that more than a hundred of Georgetown students, organized by the NAACP, showed this Thursday by wearing all-black clothing and gathering in Red Square for a vigil at 10 p.m.
Where is THE HOYA’s coverage of this national issue of injustice? It is buried in NEWS IN BRIEF on page A5 ("Students Rally In Red Square to Support 'Jena Six'," THE HOYA, Sept. 21, 2007, A5).
And these events weren’t just happening on the Hilltop — history was in the making around the country on Thursday. Thousands of Americans marched on Jena, La., and hundreds of students showed their support at universities all over the country to protest the unjust and unequal charges that had been made against six black high school students in that town.
The protests were all in support for six students, all between the ages of 14 and 18, who were initially charged with attempted murder for their role in a school brawl with a white student in Jena. This brawl reflected racial turmoil that has consumed the town; two or three nooses were hung from a tree in the schoolyard the day after some black students had tried to sit under it. The white students responsible for hanging the nooses were briefly suspended, but no criminal charges were brought against them. The six black boys involved in the subsequent fight were arrested and all but one has posted bail; Mychal Bell, who was 16 at the time of the fight, has been in jail for almost a year now. The lives and academic futures of all of the black students involved have been severely and irrevocably affected by this unfortunate incident and the way Louisiana’s justice system has chosen to deal with the matter.
Apparently the protests made against injustice this past Thursday were not remarkable enough for THE HOYA’s front page. Instead, Friday’s edition of THE HOYA features a front-page picture of Georgetown students rallying for their right to consume alcohol, along with articles about a shortage of shelving space in Lauinger Library and renovations being made to Dahlgren Chapel.
It is not as if THE HOYA’s staff did not know about the Jena Six protests on Thursday. They simply didn’t feel that the protests were important enough to merit more than a short story on an inside page.
THE HOYA needs to reevaluate its priorities. The Jena Six issue is only a small part of issues of racial injustice that have been happening all over this country. Four nooses were found hanging from a tree at Andrews High School in High Point, N.C., on Friday morning. A noose was even found hanging from a tree outside of a minority cultural center on the campus of the University of Maryland-College Park — about a dozen miles away from Georgetown. And the FBI is currently investigating a white supremacist Web site that apparently featured the addresses of these Jena Six boys, offering them “in case anyone wants to deliver justice.”
At the vigil on Thursday night, Joshua Deminter (COL ’08) passionately shouted, “Wake Up, Georgetown!” as he recited a poem that challenged those gathered to remember that the Jena Six issue is an issue that demands all of our attention. I hope the rest of Georgetown, after reading this, will take this advice.
Niara Phillips is a junior in the School of Foreign Service.