Everyone has a different opinion about the students who have now been labeled the “Jena Six,” but at least everyone has some opinion. At least something has really gotten Americans to speak their minds about how the country is being run.

By now, pretty much everyone knows some version of the complicated story. Six black students beat up their white classmate and were charged with attempted murder. Many people believe these charges are excessive and that they aren’t comparable to charges against the white students. People in Jena have now told reporters that they believe there have been many times when blacks and whites have had unequal charges made against them. Jena is not unique in this way.

It’s 2007, over 50 years since Brown v. Board of Education, and racism is no longer politically correct. But, just because racism isn’t PC anymore doesn’t mean it’s not a fact of everyday life.

In 1990, the government enacted the “Hate Crime Statistics Act,” which required the FBI to accumulate statistics on crimes across the country that “manifest prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.” Data released by the FBI on the year 2004 showed that there were 7,489 hate crimes nationally. Of these crimes 51.3% were motivated by a racial bias. Other biases that led to crimes included biases against people’s religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability.

The statistics on hate crimes show that even though the United States is a country that pretends racism is a phenomenon of the past, the reality is that hate crimes are committed every day. Yet, like political opposition to other long-term atrocities, the discussion about racism has faded from public debate. I don’t know whether we, as a country, have become bored of talking about discrimination and decided that because the problem is difficult to tackle it isn’t worth discussing at all, or if we somehow wanted it to go away so badly that we pretended it did.

Whether or not we believe the “Jena Six” deserve the consequences they now face, we can be grateful that Americans still care about something enough to protest and make their opinions known.

After decades of fighting for change in the U.S., it sometimes seems that it’s impossible to fix anything. It seems that in general, the public is apathetic and resigned to a less than ideal existence. Hate crimes occur literally every day in our country without causing scandals or even crossing the consciousness of the public. It’s grown to be “the way things are.”

The interest in the Jena Six is refreshing. Though everyone has her own opinion on whether or not it is a race issue, at least people are debating it, and though opinions are mixed on what justice would actually look like in this case, people are demanding that justice be served. Their voices are being heard.

If the Jena Six incident is able to prove anything to everyone unanimously, it should be that the American people still have a voice and a role to play in this democracy. We can still make a difference in this country if we speak our opinions. We should do it more often.

Jill is a junior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

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