[Black Boys ^ Jena (1 Tree + 2 Nooses) – Civil Liberties] / 1 Indivisible Nation = an Auto-ethnographic Performance of the Jena Six

Bibliographic Data

ID12370036
AuthorsKashif Jerome Powell (Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume31
Issue1
Pages68-89
Publication date2010-12-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueText and Performance Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-2937 • E-ISSN: 1479-5760
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10462937.2010.529929
OpenAlexW1997673712
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited13

With the Jena Six incident as a catalyst, this auto-ethnographic performance uses Foucault's Discipline and Punish to assert that the theatrical performance of lynching bleeds into our conceptual understanding of race. Consequently, blackness is understood in terms of what Watts and Orbe term "spectacular consumption," the pleasurable consumption of the other. Each of the four characters struggle to define their black male identity outside the limits of the spectacular, ultimately forcing the audience to reconsider America's racial past, present, and future. Keywords: Jena SixBlack performanceLynchingAuto-ethnographySpectacle Acknowledgements An earlier version of this script was performed at 2008 annual meeting of the National Communication Association conference in San Diego, CA and the 2008 Black Consciousness Conference in Long Beach, CA. The author would like to thank the two blind reviewers for their insightful comments, as well as several individuals for their guidance and encouragement: Ragan Fox, Bryant Keith Alexander, Ebony Utley, Renee Alexander-Craft, Della Pollock, Das Nugent, Anne Fleischer, Joanne Gilbert, Judith Hamera, Liesel Reinhart, Marc Rich, and Rachel Hastings. Notes 1. The Jena Times of September 25, 2007 reported that students arriving after 7.15 a.m. had no knowledge of the nooses being hung, as school officials, upon being made aware of their presence, promptly removed the nooses. The article further explains, "The overwhelming majority of students at Jena High School did not even know about the nooses until the following week, when it was published in daily newspaper reports and TV programs" (pars. 1–2). 2. The aforementioned Jena Times article explains that an external criminal investigation took place as well. School officials, local police, the United States Attorney's Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations found that "the noose incident did not meet the criteria for a federal 'hate' crime and although it was a terrible act that should have been punished within the school system, it did not warrant criminal charges from either the state (local district attorney′s office) or the federal government" (par. 3). 3. On September 6, 2006, two on-campus fights occurred. The first was between one black female student and one white female student. The second fight arose when a white male student was "jumped" from behind while walking through the hallway. The Jena Police Department was called to campus, remained until the end of the school day, and returned the following day, September 7, 2006 ("Chronological Order" par. 5). 4. On September 8, shortly after students arrived to campus, the school was placed in a three-hour "lock down" upon rumors that a student was in possession of a gun. No weapons were found. However, once word of the "lock down" spread, nearly 160 students were checked out of school by a legal guardian; 150 more students had not attended school altogether, leaving less than fifty percent of the student population attending classes. In response, Superintendent Breithaupt gave a radio broadcast to reassure parents of their children's safety. He concluded his broadcast stating, "[Parents] can be confident in the fact that we're going to provide a quality education to the students of LaSalle Parish and our primary concern is that we have good, safe schools that provide students everything they would have need of" ("Chronological Order," par. 12–13). On September 18, parents addressed the LaSalle Parish School Board at their monthly meeting. One parent, Tracey Bowen, spoke not only of her fear for her children's safety, but the "recent cries of racism" inherent in the School Board's handling of the noose incident. "Everyone says that we went overboard," she argues, "but I don′t believe we went overboard with this. Right is right—no matter what color you are" ("Chronological Order" par. 18). On November 30, the Jena Fire Department found the school's main academic building in flames after being alerted by an automated alarm. The cause of the fire was unknown, but Jena's white and black student populations implicated each other (McKewon, par. 11). On December 1, a group of black men were denied admission into a party held at the Jena Fair Barn. A fight ensued, in which Robert Bailey, a member of the now-infamous "Jena Six," was reportedly struck over the head with a bottle. Justin Sloan, a white participant of the party, was later arrested, but no charges were filed. This was the first instance in which the Jena Police used the term "racial tensions" to describe the event ("Chronological Order" par. 31). On December 2, at the "Gotta-Go" Grocery store, three black males, Robert Bailey, Ryan Simmons, and Theodore Shaw, reportedly attacked and robbed a white male, Matt Windham. Upon arrest the three men claimed self-defense but were nevertheless charged with second-degree robbery and theft with a firearm ("Chronological Order" par. 31–38). 5. Throughout Discipline and Punish Foucault referred to prison cells as the "mini-theaters" for prison guards to watch. 6. The notion of the "spectacular panoptican" I am forwarding, I believe, eases the tension between Foucault and Guy Debord. Debord asserts the spectacle is the "materialization of ideology" (150). "The spectacle," Debord states, "is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images" (12). With limited space and at the risk of overgeneralization, I argue that both Foucault and Debord theorize power as a means to reach a particular end, the fashioning of the individual. Their difference lies in the materialization of power; for Debord, power is mediated through a set of images, where Foucault asserts that power acts directly on the body. The juxtaposition of these articulations of power informs much of this performance. 7. See Alexander; Alexander-Craft; Fox; Hamera; E. P. CitationJohnson; Madison ("Performing"); Pelias; Pollock; Spry; Young. 8. Madison refers to the historical self as the full presencing of the ethnographic subject "as made by and markers of meaning, symbol, and history in their full sensory and social dimensions" (Critical 173). I evoke the term to argue that the performance's characters are the "markers of meaning, symbol, and history" for myself, the "Jena Six," and larger communities within the black American population. This auto-ethnographic work presents the overlapping historical selves to "reveal," as Spry explains, "the fractures, sutures, and seams of self interacting with others in the context of researching lived experience" ("Performing" 712). In interpreting the auto-ethnographic text, Spry continues "readers feel/sense the fractures in their own communicative lives, and ... create efficacy and healing in their own communal lives (712). 9. References the April 4, 2007 on-air comment made by shock jock radio host Don Imus who referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes," the majority of whom were African-American. 10. References the racially-themed Clemson fraternity party entitled "Living the Dream" held during the 2007 Martin Luther King holiday weekend. University administrators publically denounced the party when pictures emerged, via facebook.com, showing students dressed in blackface. 11. See Watts and Orbe, p. 4. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKashif Jerome Powell Kashif Jerome Powell is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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