Friday, September 21, 2007

The Jena 6

The Jena 6 controversy has nothing to do with race.

Let me repeat that: the Jena 6 controversy (with which I agree with the protestors) has NOTHING to do with race.

What it has to do with is the ongoing criminalization of childhood.

In a world where 5 year old boys can be brought up on sexual harrassment charges for kissing another 5 year old, we should not be surprised that a high school fight amongst teenagers has turned into criminal charges. I will leave aside the fact that anyone who thinks a 5 year old can sexually harrass someone is a sick, twisted pervert who themselves should be put away for obviously being a pedophile (what else is it when you see a five year old sexually?), and focus instead on the fact that we are labeling everything children do as pathological.

If a child can't sit still or pay attention (something they never seem to have a problem with when doing what they want to do), we fill them full of Ritalin. (I will refer you to the South Park episode on Ritalin where they give a completely accurate, time-honored, valid alternative to drugs.)

If two children get into a fight, the parents of the children get sued, the school gets sued, the children are arrested and charges are brought up, etc. There was a time when children would get into a fight over something, and then be over it an hour later, and be the best of friends two hours later. The reason for this is that we are social mammals, and we have to establish our hierarchies. That is done through non-deadly aggressive displays -- including fighting. When we do not allow those hierarchies to naturally establish themselves, the violent feelings escalate and escalate until the violence that does break out can and oftentimes does turn deadly.

I am not saying that there should not be punishments -- just that those punishments should not involve the government, but should instead be taken care of entirely in-school and within the communities. Why do we think it is better to send our children to prison than to spank them? But that is the choice we have made. Because we have interfered with our natural social behaviors, especially the aggressive behaviors that allow us to know our place in the social hierarchy, we have created situations of ever-escalating violence. Because we do not allow for varying levels of punishment, we end up saying that all behaviors are equal, and if all behaviors are equal, then why hold back if you are going to do something wrong? Further, children -- even teenagers -- should not be treated as adults. That is another false equality we are trying to create. Our children are not adults. I know the egalitarians around the world are criging at this, but I will repeat it: our children are not adults. When we treat them as adults, we end up with 12 year olds dressing as adults, 10 year olds having sex, and grown men thinking it is okay to have sex with 5 year olds. We have Kindergarteners brought up on sexual harrassment charges, childhood behavior pathologized so our children can be drugged up and pacified (so we won't have to actually parent), and every little fight turned into "attempted murder."

Indeed, Free the Jena 6!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with you: Jena 6 DOES have to do with race.

The group of WHITE students hung nooses under the tree as a sign to BLACK students that they are not welcome to sit there.

THAT IS ABOUT RACE.

NOT issuing any reprimand or punishment for those students on an CRIMINAL ACT, is further disrespect.

THEN, to draw the BLACK students up on severe criminal charges.

That is a double standard based upon race, ergo, IT IS ABOUT RACE.

This doesn't negate your other argument at all (regarding the criminalization of children, with which I agree)--but one has little to do with the other. It is a false association between your argument and use of the Jena 6 example and does not hold under scrutiny...

Troy Camplin said...

Let me clarify what I meant that it doesn't have to do with race. The white students should have been punished by the school for what they did. They should have all been expelled for the year. Again, that should have been something to do with the school policies, and should not be a legal matter per se.

Now, since there was not a proper response to the nooses by the authorities, we should not be too surprised that the six students took matters into their own hands -- when there is no justice, you have to expect vengeance.

Nor does this negate the fact that the Jena 6 were brought up on charges because our culture has become one where a school yard fight results in criminal charges. Regardless of race, that should not be the case -- unless we are talking about it resulting in actual long-term harm, broken bones, or death.

And my argument does still stand, because the authorities obviously allowed things to get out of hand, preventing the two groups from working it out mich earlier, resulting in each side ratcheting up what they were doing until it exploded into much more severe violence.

I do not deny that there is a racial component to this -- I just chose to take this provocative stance to make a point, which is that this does in fact fit in to a certain very disturbing trend. This is a case where the trend coincides with racial issues to make the problem even worse.

V said...

I'm not sure I agree on the Jena 6, but I do agree with most of this.