Jena 6 teen gets a chance at a new life

[rox63]

Jesse Ray Beard said he was constantly in trouble, even when he behaved. It took being accused of the racially charged attempted murder of a white classmate in the Deep South to turn his life around.

Beard, 18, now interns at a New York law firm as he prepares for his senior year next month at Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy where Beard is highly regarded among peers and teachers.

"I didn't change the way I act. I didn't do nothing different. It was just that I was at Canterbury instead of Jena," he said. "It was like Jena was out to get me -- and not just me, but other people, too."

If not for the controversy surrounding the Jena Six and the palpable racial tension in the Louisiana town, Beard never would have met the attorney who changed the course of Beard's life by removing him from everything he knew.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/25/jena.to.new.york/index.html

[JonQ]

1. I think beating a kid severely may have had something to do with it

the town didn't invent that to get him in trouble.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for violent thugs. Although it does appear he's turning his life around, so maybe not a total loss.

[lies and propaganda]

2. Then you dont know the full story

They werent just violent thugs beating up random people. These white kids, and the white town, went after these boys multiple times. Self defense and then YOURE the bad guy? fuck that.

Sometimes, I almost think only other Louisianans truly understand the Jena 6 debacle. racism is MORE than alive and well in L.A

[vadawg]

4. self defense isnt 6 people jumping one, at least not unless you are looking at it with abnormal

lenses

[JonQ]

6. So that one white kid

was threatening those 6 black kids lives? Forcing them to respond (out of sheer desperation) with violence?

Unless that white kid was the improbable love child of bruce lee and rambo (apparently not, he got his ass beat) then I'm not buying it.

[aikoaiko]

7. I'm glad this kid turned his life around, but calling what they did self-defense

is wrong.


Edited to add: The kid who got beaten by the jena 6 didn't have any connection, if I recall correctly, to the nooses or the shotgun incident that preceded the beating.

[philly_bob]

9. Request for link to Full Story.

Sometimes, I almost think only other Louisianans truly understand the Jena 6 debacle.

You got that right. I certainly don't understand it. It doesn't sound anything like self-defense from the accounts I've read.

Got a link to the "full story" that justifies what most accounts say was the beating of one kid by six others?

[rox63]

3. Sounds like you've only heard one side of the story n/t

[JonQ]

5. When 6 people beat up one their side doesn't really matter

I doubt this was self defense.

Yeah I know there was a noose hung on campus or whatever.

Doesn't justify ganging up on one kid, even if the kid was a douche.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. Exactly, whatever.

It's not like there's a problem with racism in Northern Louisiana. Why, These guys need to take responsibility for their own failings "in life" or else move to a community where people tolerate them :sarcasm:

I mean, if five white guys had beaten up a white guy you guys'd be all het up about that, too, right?

[vadawg]

10. and im sure if six white guys beat up a black guy you would be lionizing the white kid who did it

lets get real, a mob of six guys jumped one guy and beat him close to death, regardless of colour of skin, no one can argue that the 6 guys are heroes worthy of acclaim. Or does their skin colour absolve them of what they did...

[JonQ]

12. If 6 white kids had beat up a white kid

I suspect they'd get exactly zero sympathy on here, or in general.


If they'd beaten up a black kid there would be calls for their deaths. If they had then tried to use as an excuse that black folks had been mean to them in the past, so they found this one black kid and beat the tar out of him to make it even, then I suspect there'd be still more calls for their hides.

[noiretextatique]

11. im glad this kid got a new start

away from that racist town. there were several incidents before this attack happened. i hope the victim is doing well too.