Wearing Green isn't Enough

You may have heard about the protests in Jena, Louisana this week regarding unjust punishments for racial violence in the small town. When I first heard about the story I was appalled. I just couldn't wrap my head around the blatant racism that was being tolerated.

When I saw a group on Facebook called something like "Wear Green on 20 September for the Jena Six I was happy to do so. Then when I got to work I told some co-workers about the importance of wearing green today, but they hadn't even heard of the Jena Six. I went online to see what I could find about the wearing of green and to see how many people knew about it. (I had heard about it only because a girl from high school joined the group, and so it came up in my newsreel).

One article really got my attention. The basic premise was, "Wearing green is not going to do anything to solve the racial injustices that are still going on in this country. If you want to do something about it, you need to do more than wear green." That really struck me.

So I wrote a letter to Orrin Hatch tonight. I mentioned that although racial tension isn't much of an issue in Utah, it is a national issue. I emphasized that if he would speak about it, more people would realize what a problem it is. He would be able to put pressure on the Louisiana senators to step in. I think it especially would matter because it would be a white man speaking on behalf of black boys. That would show that even white people recognize racial injustice when they see it.