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It is amazing how we can all look at the same picture and see something different or hear the same song and hear something different. Perhaps that is the case in Mayor McMillian’s strong disapproval of John Mellencamp’s song “Jena.”

Yesterday, at our monthly U Grow Girl meeting we had a wonderful conversation about how things are not always how they look or seem. We discussed perception and paradigms in depth.

Perception:
immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment. The result or product of perceiving.

Paradigm:
A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

After seeing the video Jena, the mayor of Jena said

“the Mellencamp video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough.”

The mayor is very outspoken about how Jena has been unfairly portrayed as a racist city. We have yet to here him admit or express any outrage over the unfair treatment of the Jena 6. Mayor McMillin seems more concerned with the image and public perception of Jena than with the injustices taking place in Jena.

Maybe the picture that I see is different from the picture he sees. What do you see? I guess its a matter of perception.

It seems that a person who doesn’t want to be perceived as racist would not behave as a racist. Nobody wants to be considered or thought of as racist. I get that.

What I don’t get is:
An elected official offended by a song with an anti-racism message.

An elected official tells a white-supremacist group leader “Your moral support means a lot.”

An elected official failed to recognize that Enough should have been Enough with the tolerance of the known “white only” tree.

It seems that the bigger picture is not whether or not the individual citizens of Jena are racist…the issue is the blatant institutional racism in Jena and many other cities across America. To deny that racism exists, to look the other way, to declare the hanging of nooses as a prank is to enable and therefore tolerate racism. It would seem that anyone offended by anti-racism sentiments is probably pro-racism…

“The song was not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism, a problem which I’ve reflected in many songs, a problem that still plagues our country today.” — John MellencampPerception Perspective Paradigm

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