Bad Art for a Cause

[teaberryblue]

So, basically, the situation in Jena, Louisiana is getting pitiful coverage around here which is not to say that it's getting no coverage so much as it's getting a mix of no coverage and coverage that is woefully short on details.

This means that I explained it about five times to five different people, in detail, over the course of the past two days.

And pretty much everyone has the same reaction, which is "WTF WHAT DECADE IS THIS?"

Anyway, I decided that I could do my part to help tell people what is going on.


Read my Jena, Louisiana Primer


This is just the first chapter. Yes, it is highly snarky. Yes, it is badly drawn. But I think it gets across my general feelings about the situation.

Comments

[liret.livejournal.com]

Ice Cream> Hate crime. True fact.

The most surreal part of this story is how clueless the Jena officials are, still.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It is a little-known fact that chocolate cake > hate crime, too.

I can't decide if they're all clueless or if some of them are downright evil. DA Walters? Seriously, I don't know how anyone could say the kinds of things he's said to kids anywhere without being evil; he's like...he reminds me of the principal in the Breakfast Club, but FOR REAL.

Also, here is his homepage. Check out his photo!

http://www.ldaa.org/roster/walters.html

[liret.livejournal.com]

Maybe both? I feel like if they were even evil but not clueless, they would have a better public relations stratigy then to keep repeating "Nope, no racism here!" and expecting everyone will believe them. And, y'know, LET BELL OUT OF JAIL.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Just the time he's spent in jail is far more than a kid should suffer in comparison to his actions.

[lextaci.livejournal.com]

Wow. I know I'm on the other side of the world, but I still can't believe I hadn't even heard about this. Tree-posterous indeed!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It's getting very oddly uneven news coverage! I haven't even gotten up to the biggest part of the story--you should go google it or read the timeline I've posted on the page!

[lextaci.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've just been reading up on it.

And it's really fucked up. o_O

[dancedarkly.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

Mind, if I hadn't just seen that article on female members of the Australian Navy getting tax-payer-funded boob-jobs for 'psychological reasons', I would believe we didn't get any relevant international news. *cough*

[lextaci.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's just embarrasing! Although it's cool that, since that story came out, something like 50 male sailors have requested Viagra prescriptions for 'psychological reasons'. XD

And I wouldn't be surprised if the Jena story hadn't come up in Aus newspapers - they're notoriously bad - but my family subscribes to The Guardian International and Le Monde, so I really should have heard about this. Crazy.

[dancedarkly.livejournal.com]

Hah! We'll probably hear about that in a few days' time. So much more important than major international relations issues or whatever else we don't hear about.

And yeah, my family usually reads the BBC reports online. I was surprised that SA hadn't picked it up as a race issue, really, but the Mail and Guardian's got it now. Fucked up indeed.

Heh, Tea, slogan for you. 'Another man's T-shirt told that part of the story: "I came to Jena to cut down the white tree of white supremacy."' LOTR/racism crossover?

Comic is good stuff.

[bunnymcfoo.livejournal.com]

you are fucking made of awesome, just so you know.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hope it is helpful to somebody.

I kinda feel like I should be doing more than making cute little pictures of someone else's suffering,though.

[rainy-day.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know anything about this.... Thank you for posting this!! Clearly I need to be more in touch with the stateside news.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It is honestly probably not you. The story has apparently been getting a lot of attention on blogs, but not in major news sources. It's slowly been picking up, but there was a big rally there on Thursday with thousands of people, and unfortunately, I have heard from a lot of people that they didn't know about it until the rally and they would have gone down if they had. I certainly didn't start finding out a lot of the more specific details until then-- a lot of the newspapers have been misrepresenting the story as "OMG six black boys beat up a white boy and people want them to be let out of jail scot-free!"

[rainy-day.livejournal.com]

I dunno if that makes me feel better or worse...

I try to keep up with CNN, the BBC, and one site with Japanese news but I haven't seen anything about this at all. which, in retrospect, is probably because I typically read the news and work and we've been without web access this week--but still.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

No, seriously, my coworkers who read the news every day and live in New York didn't know about this. My mother didn't know about it until Thursday and she listens to the radio every day.

[selfunderstared.livejournal.com]

This is a great idea; it's complete Whathafucksville that this is getting so little coverage in the traditional media.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It really totally is.

[much-reality.livejournal.com]

I can't work out whether it's getting a ton of coverage over here is a tragic or a fantastic thing. Or both.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing that it's getting coverage somewhere. It is a bad thing that it is not getting the coverage it should in the places where it matters. It also kind of shows another level of the preposterousness surrounding the situation.

[much-reality.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I literally haven't been able to find a paper that isn't covering it, even the more gossipy right-wing ones:

1
2
3
4
5
6

[shakinros.livejournal.com]

Newsweek did a great lengthy article on this several weeks ago, followed by updates the last couple weeks. You're right that it hasn't gotten even coverage, but between NPR and Newsweek, I've been pretty well deluged in information about it. It's odd to me that there are major news outlets NOT covering it.

[kellygrape.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this.

You rule.

[amaskforophelia.livejournal.com]

My school is having a fit over all of this, but kind of in the spirit of the school, they're just protesting a lot and letting what happened go to google and heresay. ^^; Which has worked to some extent, but not the extent that it should.

[blueboats.livejournal.com]

the whole thing is just ridiculous. i can't even believe this is happening. it sounds like it should be in my US History textbook, not in two thousand fucking seven. jeez.

the comic is great, btw.