Wherein you, the readers, talk amongst yourselves.

It was a year ago this week that thousands of people descended upon Jena, La., to protest the judicial treatment of six black teens who beat up a classmate and were subsequently charged with attempted murder. Now that we've had a year to reflect, do you think the uproar over the Jena Six changed anything in the justice system? Was it worth it? In hindsight, did the Jena Six deserve the attention they got from the black community? Weigh in below.

To find out what the boys are up to now, click here.

I'm sure all of the people who took off work and traveled to Jena, La., to protest the now-infamous prosecutorial injustices committed against six boys who beat up a classmate are ecstatic to know that Bryant Purvis, one of said boys*, has been arrested for "assault causing bodily injury."

It warms the heart.

Purvis's mom, who sent her son to live with his NFL-player uncle in Houston after the drama went down in Jena, is speaking out in defense of her son. She said he was provoked.

Tina Jones, Purvis' mother, said her son got into an altercation with another student at Hebron High School early Wednesday after he was told that the student had vandalized his car the night before.

"I wish he could just get in a place where he could walk away from the situation," Jones said of her son. "I understand he gets frustrated. But he needed to walk away from this situation, being that he's already in a situation. It's very frustrating and upsetting to have to go through so much."

She says Purvis's tires were flattened during his high school basketball game and, prior to that, someone had broken the windows of her brother's truck and stolen his tires. She maintains her son was not involved in the Jena attack, but admits that this recent arrest doesn't make his case look good. You think, mom? [HC]

*He's actually now a 19-year-old man.

THE SADDEST LITTLE WHITE SUPREMACIST RALLY IN ALL THE LAND The white supremacists who planned a big rally in Jena on MLK Day to protest, of course, the Jena Six and MLK Day, say the event went off without a hitch. An AP reporter, who describes a four-person rally that ended two hours early, with most attendees leaving long before that, begs to differ. The counter-demonstrators couldn't even find a good reason to stick around. Still, the idiots believe that they really put a dent in the fight to bring down MLK Day and the Jena Six (although I'm not even sure how one "brings down" the Jena Six at this point). So, good for them!

PARDON ME The Congressional Black Caucus wants Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to pardon the Jena Six before she leaves office. Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said in a letter to Blanco this week that Bell and the other teens have paid their debt to society and should be immediately pardoned. "They and their families have suffered enough, as has the State of Louisiana and the town of Jena," the letter reads. I'm not sure that any of them, with the notable exception of Mychal Bell, have actually paid their debt to society in the conventional sense. And some of them have certainly come up, socially speaking, since getting arrested and unfairly charged for their crimes. Will a full pardon be productive in this case?

The family of Justin Barker, the boy whose beating made civil rights celebs out of kids who were charged for it, is suing the Jena Six, their parents, an additional student, and the local school board. Probably because that attempted murder thing didn't stick.

"Petitioners show that Justin was singled out by Mychal, Bryant, Robert, Carwin, Theodore (and the two juveniles), and that the malicious and willful attack of Justin was of such extreme nature so as to require emergency medical care and treatment for the harm inflicted by the attack, and resulting in extensive and permanently disabling injuries," the lawsuit states…

The civil suit was filed Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that the LaSalle Parish School Board, through its employees, was not adequately supervising students or maintaining discipline.

This kid's family should really be suing J. Reed Walters. It was the egregious, racially-motivated, prosecutorial overreach he exhibited in the case that turned the Jena Six into victims instead of victimizers.

[USAT]

The lawyer for Mychal Bell, the most talked about member of the Jena Six, says that he is close to making a plea deal. Bell is charged with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy, although he was originally charged, as an adult, for attempted murder. With the deal, which could be entered any day now, Bell could plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge and have the conspiracy charge dropped. [MSNBC]

• The Jena Six is on Essence's list of the 25 most influential people, along with Beyonce, Rev. Al, and Barack Obama. [PR]

• A white man's being persecuted for a crime a black man committed? Well, that's a twist on an age-old theme. [WFTV]

• South African airline Comair is being accused of racism by critics who say they failed to hire black cabin crew members because they couldn't swim. [SABC]

• Plastic surgery really shouldn't kill you. [HP]

• Seriously, with the nooses? There are so many other racist symbols out there. Go to a library or something. [NOTP]

A Louisiana state district judge has disqualified himself from deciding a request from the news media to open the new trial of Mychal Bell, of Jena Six infamy, to the public.

A new judge will decide whether or not to give the news media permission to "The news organizations are seeking permission to attend new hearings in Bell’s case, to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records, and to lift a gag order against participants in the case."

The non-journalist in me says the whole thing screams "terrible idea!" The cynical journalist side is morbidly curious. Still, considering the publicity nightmare this case has been, I strongly doubt any judge is going to be inclined to give journalists more access to the case.

[MSNBC]

This video, a montage of photos supposedly snatched from the Myspace page of Robert Bailey, Jr. (of Jena Six infamy), is an example of why attention should be paid to the issues involved in the Jena Six case — hate crimes and racism in the criminal justice system — and not the actual boys, who indisputably beat up a classmate in a 6-on-1 brawl. We shouldn't trot them out to a star-studded award show and let them schmooze on the red carpet, nor should we celebrate them as burgeoning civil rights icons or stars. They are kids, after all. Kids who, despite whatever provocation might have occurred, did a thing they weren't supposed to. Kids whose heads have swelled as a result of all of the big-name attention they, in addition to their case, have been getting.

As this video circles the blogosphere, people are speculating that this money is from the Jena Six Defense Fund. I strongly doubt that's true or even possible. Still, the whole thing is ignorant and highly offensive to the people who are donating their time, money, and/or energy into making sure he and his friends get fair charges and fair sentencing.

Admit it. You have just been dying to put an actual voice to these words you read everyday. Good news: I was a guest on NPR today. Bad news: it's not such a great voice, and I'm going to need to retire "you know" from my repertoire.

I was joined on News & Notes' weekly blogger's roundtable by Shay Riley of Booker Rising and Brandon Whitney of Homeland Colors. Today's topics were the Jena Six's BET Hip Hop Awards cameo, Bill Cosby's Meet the Press appearance, and the acquittal of the defendants in the boot camp death case, all of which are things you pretty much know my opinions (which I'm much better at expressing in written form, unfortunately) on if you read the blog. Still, it's fun to listen. Click here to check it out.

Perhaps because I have no interest in looking at pictures of Katt Williams and suspected the same about you guys, I missed these photos of the diminutive comedian wearing a noose around his neck on the red carpet at the BET Hip Hop Awards. Hilarious*, especially considering two of the Jena Six were also in attendance.

*But, of course, not really.

If you're wondering who those two gentleman are on stage with Kanye West and Katt Williams at the BET Awards, they are Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis. Still don't know? They are a third of the infamous Jena Six. It appears they were flown to Atlanta and given some new clothes and the honor of presenting an award. I'm not sure how I feel about the move to make celebrities out of these kids, who should probably be somewhere doing school work or attending to their world-famous legal troubles. This all seems inappropriately celebratory. These kids don't deserve "special" racist treatment from their local DA or their peers. But I'm not sure if they deserve this kind of special treatment either.

More pics from the show, which airs Wednesday at 8 p.m., after the jump.

CONTINUED »

If Mychal Bell's going to be the poster child for racial equality in the criminal justice system, I'm gonna need him to get his shit together from here on out.

Racism and nothing but racism was responsible for the ridiculous charges initially slapped on him and his friends and him being subsequently tried as an adult, but that really has nothing to do with the fact that he was on probation and shouldn't have been fighting to begin with, despite the racial tension that had been building at Jena High School.

Louisiana State District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced Bell to 18 months in the juvenile facility for four previous offenses, including two counts of simple battery and two pertaining to criminal destruction of property that occurred before the beating of classmate Justin Barker, according to The Associated Press. The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media, CNN reports.

I hate to see this kid go back to jail, though. I hope, and actually believe, that the events of the past year have probably permanently steered him in the right direction. Thousands of people marched into his town to protest the way he was treated — it will definitely make him think twice the next time he's tempted to break the law.

[MTV]