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On a sunny, breezy Monday afternoon, hundreds of students formed a line outside the EMU to get football tickets for the highly anticipated USC game. Students sat on the sidewalk in clusters, discussing Oregon's new No. 5 ranking after Saturday's win against Washington. But little did they know, just around the corner, a protest against injustice and racial discrimination was making sparks. Approximately 150 students gathered in the EMU amphitheater Monday at noon to let their voices be heard.
The protest, organized to speak out against the racial inequalities taking place in Jena, La., consisted of a rally with motivational speakers, including Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy.
In December 2006, a group of six black students from Jena High School in Louisiana beat Justin Barker, a white teenager also from the school. The beating occurred after a black student asked a Jena High School official if he could sit under a tree known as "the white tree" in the schoolyard. The official replied that any student could sit wherever he or she likes. The next day, three white students hung nooses from that same tree.
What followed was a heightened sense of racial tension among white students and black students, as well as a series of physical fights among races.
The school's principal decided to expel the students who hung the nooses, but the school district's superintendent brushed it off as an "adolescent prank." But when the Jena Six (as they are now referred to) assaulted Barker, the superintendent said the attack was no ordinary school fight and was a very serious matter.
"What's happening in Jena is not just happening in Jena," said University junior Diego Hernandez. "It's happening everywhere. Even right here in Oregon. Jena just got lucky with some media coverage."
University junior Rachel Cushman agrees that it is still very much an issue in Oregon.
"Oregon has been to known to be a primarily racist state," Cushman said. She says civil rights is worth protesting and is still prevalent today.
"This is standing up for everyone's equal rights," Cushman said. She said that the Jena Six incident is not an isolated affair, but that it happens with sexual orientation, race, religion, etc.
Cushman, who works with the Coalition Against Environmental Racism and the Multicultural Center, said the most important part of the protest was to be as loud as possible in order to be heard.
"Its like the old saying goes: the squeaky wheel eventually gets heard," said Cushman, who was wearing a T-shirt that read "Eujena" across the front.
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Hernandez helped other organizers of the event pass out black ribbons that read "Jena 6" on them and black paper clips to fasten the ribbons to clothing.
"We're here because we want to show people that we know what's going on," said University senior and Black Student Union Co-Director Ty Schwoeffermann. "People in Oregon are very active; we are activists. We are aware, we are social, we are progressive, and we know what things are important."
Schwoeffermann began the rally by welcoming students to the protest. He provided a little background on the situation to familiarize students with the events that have been unraveling in Jena.
Next came Senior Vice President and Provost Charles Martinez of the University's Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, who spoke about social responsibility.
Martinez began by quote Martin Luther King Jr., who said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"This is about us. It's not just about a small town in Louisiana. It's about Eugene, Oregon. It's about the University of Oregon," Martinez said. "It's about our community and all over this country. That's what this quote means."
Martinez continued by encouraging the student population to take action. He said incidents of racism happen everywhere, but it is crucial that as students, we must not sit back and remain silent as we witness such great injustices.
In July 2007, Jena school officials decided to cut the tree down to get rid of the painful symbol that represented such fighting.
"They removed the tree and they took out the roots," Martinez said. "What are they saying, removing the tree? It must be the tree's fault. That's why we had issue of race in our community, so let's move the tree. Get rid of the roots. Take care of all symbols that it was ever here. Does this resolve the issues of the community? Absolutely not."
Martinez analyzed the diversity on our campus compared with Jena's.
"In Jena, Louisiana it is 85 percent white. Does that sound like a place you're familiar with?" Martinez said. The students in the amphitheater laughed nervously at Martinez's dig at the University's low diversity numbers.
Martinez told the group of protesters that he grew up in Southern California.
"We have smog there, and particularly when I grew up, we had lots of it," Martinez said. "Racism and intolerance are like smog. We breathe it and feel it and it's part of the air.
"We need to pay attention to the smog, not just on the alert days, when an incident occurs in our community, on our campus, but every day. We must engage in the difficult conversation," Martinez said. He warned that until "we have the courage to stand together and say 'no more,'" incidents will continue to occur.
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