Panel discussion held at JSU to ‘save our sons’

William Kelly
Photographer/Student Designer

Jackson State University students and guests gathered in the Rose E. McCoy Auditorium n Feb. 5, to ‘save our sons’.

The panel discussion:  “Black on Black Crime, Saving Our Sons” was hosted by the Mu Xi Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta National Communication Association’s Honor Society in conjunction with the JSU Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

This event covered three topics, Anger in the black community, the impact of social media and how it portrays black crime, and the United States criminal system.

Brianna Davis, a senior speech communications major for Chicago, Ill. and member of the panel, deconstructed the origin of the anger in African-Americans.

“Let’s just think where we were first told about our history, they started off with slavery, so from the start that demeans our value. We were always told that we started off from the bottom of the pit barrel, which is not the case at all, but through education outlets we were taught that,” said Davis.

Other members of the panel discussed how blacks were forced to battle each other for power and dominance, which ultimately led to jealousy and anger.

“In general with media, if it bleeds it leads, so they’re going to play every negative image of African-Americans on the news before they show something like this, a positive get together where we discuss situations. If it’s a shooting they’re going to show that simply because it leads,” said NaTosha DeVon a junior speech communications major from Chicago, Ill.

DeVon also discussed how the criminal justice system affects African-Americans.

“I think that the U.S. criminal justice system is not designed to benefit the minorities or the majorities, it’s designed to benefit green money. If you can afford to be free and get away with crimes in America then you’re going to get away with it. It doesn’t matter, in certain situations, what color you are,” said DeVon.

Kurtez Scott, a criminal justice major also believes the system works based on ethnicity and social status.

“A lot of times, prison rates do say that black men in general have the highest incarceration rate, so most people would say that the criminal justice system benefits whites more than it benefits blacks. As a whole, we do not know all of our rights that we have, If you’re educated on the law and on the constitution, I think you will understand how most people are benefited,” said Scott.

When the discussion concluded, the audience was given an intermission period where the speakers shared a scene from the movie, “The Great Debaters”, in which Denzel Washington discussed the Willie Lynch letter, which explained how blacks were trained to be weak-minded.

“I feel that when it comes to taking back control, it starts with the school system and education. When you think about how back in elementary and middle school, I don’t recall taking any black history courses until I got to college,” said Delbert Griffin, a senior speech communications major from Los Angeles, Calif.

Some on the panel believe that students attending these types of discussions are the solution to many of the problems in the black community.

Members of the panel plan to start a petition in order to get a black studies class as a requirement to enhance the knowledge black history.

Isaiah Brydie, a senior political science major from Tulsa, Okla., stated that panel discussions like “Saving Our Sons’ benefit students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

“I definitely believe that panel discussions based on African-American studies are essential to the HBCU experience. I also believe that plans of action to affect communities around HBCU campuses are also paramount to the HBCU experience,” said Brydie.