On O.J. And The Jena6...

What do O.J. Simpson and the so-called Jena6 have in common?

Well it appears that they both at some point have had at least in part the support of a significant part of the African American community.

Amazingly the same sentiments that are driving the Jena6 conversations are the same that garnered support for O.J in his first and infamous trial.

It's not that many African Americans were actually big fans of O.J., it was simply that for all of our time in this country we, African Americans, have had a very difficult time finding fairness in the justice system. So when we had the chance to see a wealthy Black man fight the good fight against what many of us see as the enemy, we were happy to cheer him and his ultimate victory in court.

Since that trial in which O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife and her companion Ron Goldman, O.J has proven himself to be unworthy of the support that he received. He's been running around for the past decade acting as loony as a loony bird. Constantly being in the news for some reason or the other and none of it positive.

Now he's back in the news, on trial in Las Vegas for supposedly trying to rob some guy at gunpoint (or at least there were guns in the room), he says to retrieve property that belonged to him. Do any of us really care the outcome? Probably very few of us, since with us O.J has shot his wad, pardon me for being so indelicate.

This brings me to the Jena6.

The Jena6 as I'm sure you know are a group of Black teens (I'm not sure if they are all still teens) who beat up a White teen. It appears that their attack had something to do with a noose being displayed at the high school that they attended in Jena, Louisiana. (Are they still in school?)

Anyway, there was at first a surge of support and outrage (mainly in the Black blogisphere at first) about their arrests and being charged as adults, first with attempted murder and later with assault.

At this point the charges have been reduced for all of them and only one remains in jail, he is said to have violated his parole since he was already on parole before the beating incident occurred.

Well, now many of the supporters of the Jena6 are wondering if their support was in vein or given to the wrong guys. Since the big protest in Jena by African Americans from all over the country, the boys from Jena have done a very O.J like job of getting in the news for the wrong things.

Some of them were seen at a BET awards show walking the red carpet and flashing Jena6 (gang) signs (pictured above). And even more recently some of the parents of the Jena6 have started a mini war, with the help of a supposedly well know radio DJ, against at least one organization that helped them by soliciting donations to pay their legal expenses.

In other words, as Attorney Mom at the blog Character Corner would say, they just don't know that they should sit their respective "azz's down" and be thankful.

So just like O.J. Simpson who came before them, the Jena 6 are persona non grata for many in the Black community. It just goes to show that obvious lessons are not obvious to everybody.

I would really like to see O.J Simpson just disappear into the sunset, and maybe he could take the Jena6 along with him.