Sunday Song Lyric:
John Mellencamp's new song and video, "Jena," has struck a nerve with the town's mayor, Murphy R. McMillin.
"The town of Jena has for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place where justice is denied," Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin wrote in a statement on town letterhead faxed on Friday to The Associated Press.The mayor is particularly upset with, what he sees, as the song's characterization of his town, and the video's juxtaposition of the current controversy with images from the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. "To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory," McMillan said.
He said he had previously stayed quiet, hoping that the town's courtesy to people who have visited over the past year would speak for itself. "However, the Mellencamp video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough."
In response to such criticism, Mellencamp posted a statement on his website, Mellencamp.com (where one can also find the song lyrics and video).
I am not a journalist, I am a songwriter and in the spirit and tradition of the minstrel, I am telling a story in this song.As for the lyrics, here is how the song begins.
The story is not, strictly speaking, about the town of Jena or this specific incident but of racism in America.
The song was not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of rasicm, a problem which I've reflected in many songs, a problem that still plagues our country today.
The current trial in Jena is just another reflection of prejudice in our nation. If the song strikes an emotional chord with people and if they examin it and interpret as they will, something will have been accomplished. The aim here is not to antagonize but, rather, to catalyze thought.
An all white jury hides the executioner's face
See how we are, me and you?
Everyone here needs to know their place
Let's keep this blackbird hidden in the flue
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, while Mayor McMillin does not like John Mellencamp's suggestion that Jena is a racist community, this story suggests he was not so upset about receiving "moral support" from white supremacist groups.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Sunday Song Lyric:
- TalkLeft on the "Jena 6":
- Should We Be Blogging About the "Jena 6"?:
Best,
Ben
However, there is a real narrative:
Senator Jim Webb On Mass Incarceration.
Sure, discussion of how racist and bad the town of Jena and by extension the whole South and by extension all conservatives are. It's standard practice.
I think Benjamin Davis doesn't know what happened in Jena. Some white kids hung the nooses from the tree and were punished pretty severely for it, according to reports. There was a lot of racial tension between the white and black students on-campus, there was a fight at a party off-campus involving (black) Robert Bailey, Jr, son of the local NAACP president, and another incident later at a convenience store involving again Robert Bailey, Jr, and finally, the beating of 17-year old Justin Baker by six black students, in school, including Robert Bailey, Jr. According to the Assistant Principal, Bailey and his friends ambushed Barker, who was knocked unconscious by a punch to the head, and then kicked him repeatedly.
Somehow this has been turned into a racial issue when it is obvious to me anyway that the only issue here is that Robert Bailey and some of his friends broke the law repeatedly.
So what concerns should we be addressing? Maybe the concern of some students that they will be unable to, six-on-one, ambush and beat someone unconscious and get away with it?
I think the concern is that there be something in between "get away with it" and "be charged with attempted murder."
Is this the same Mayor Murphy McMillin who expressed his gratitude to white supremacist groups for providing moral support to him and the (white) people of Jena in this troubled time? Why, yes it is.
And Jonathan, thank you for referencing the Chicago Tribune article in your update. It was good of you to put that up front in the discussion.
No different than the juxtaposition of the current abrupt climate change causing global warming controversy with Bob Dylan's song lyrics of the 1960s predicting the extent of future chaos from these currently unfolding events of almost Biblical proportions that will affect us all:
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
-- Bob Dylan
a good song or two re black on white violence - my first thought was 'Cop Killer', but then I remembered the Garret Morris classic.
Oh, well, all right then! What is everyone upset about?
That he should have been tried as a juvenile doesn't really seem to be the main complaint of people running around chanting "Free the Jena 6." (Although that was, in fact, the legal hook for getting his conviction reversed.)
Yes, that seems about right: Mellencamp knows about as much about race as the actors and audiences of minstrel shows.
thanks