Just When You Thought You'd Heard The Last Of The Jena Six...

..one of these fools just had to show his natural black ass yet again.

A defendant in the Louisiana "Jena Six" case was arrested after allegedly slamming a student's head into a bench at his new school in Texas, police said. The defendant, Bryant R. Purvis, 19, was arrested on a charge of assault causing bodily injury Wednesday after an altercation at Hebron High School. It began because Purvis believed a student had flattened his tires, Sgt. John Singleton said. Purvis was released from jail Thursday morning.

According to a police report, the student felt Purvis come behind him and "grab his neck with one hand and begin to choke him." Purvis then said, "Don't you ever mess with my car again" and slammed the student's head into the bench of a table and walked away, the report said. The student's left eye was injured, but Singleton didn't know whether he needed medical attention after seeing the school nurse.

Just in case you were keeping score at home, Purvis is one of the two kids who showed up onstage at the BET Awards last Fall. His fellow civil right's icons compatriots have made waves of their own since that fateful day:

Mychal Bell gets tossed back in the clink for an unrelated battery charge that occurred before the infamous 6-on-1 beatdown.

Robert Bailey shows up on MySpace flossin' with a gang of dollar bills in his mouth.

Purvis and Carwin Jones show up at the BET Awards, generally clownin', and are spotted in afterparties at 21 and over clubs.

Hell, 2 outta 6 ain't bad, I guess. In the game of baseball, that would make you an All-Star.

In the game of life though, that makes the blogosphere, Rebb'n Al, and all the folks who rode with these misguided young souls look really, really, really stupid right about now.

I know this will throw some of you for a loop, but I still don't blame the kids for what's happened in the aftermath of Jena. They never asked for this sorta attention. They never asked for 20,000 people to skip/ditch take off work and flock to tiny Jena on their behalves. They didn't ask for a manufactured media circus. They didn't ask to be made 07' civil rights icons. They only wanted justice, which is fair and good.

The problem is, the folks who came down, with video cameras, live podcasts, and book signings (yeah, seriously) in tow, didn't really want justice. They wanted photo-ops. They wanted sympathetic props for their reality TV shows. They wanted to sell more books, boost their daily unique visitor counts, and Arbitron ratings. They didn't really give a shit about the kids. And let's not even get started on the parents.

If they cared, someone would have pulled all six of these boys into a dimly lit room and told them to learn from their mistakes. Learn to control their anger. Learn that justice ain't colorblind, and prolly never will be. Learn that this country, despite the Obamas and Tiger Woods, ain't as far advanced at it seems to think it is. Learn humility. Learn to stay the hell off TV and the internet. Learn to use your legal defense fund for its intended purpose. Learn that they might be "victims", but didn't have to be had they made wiser decisions in the first place.


[Yes, I AM selling these shirts. Head over to the AB.com Store and cop yours now.]

But of course, none of that happened. Just as I lamented months and months ago, once the charter buses rolled out of town, these kids would be assed out. Folks would return home high off speeches, but not organized to make a real change in their own communities, Michael Baisden would be richer, Al Sharpton would be fatter, and Jena would be little more than a stray crumb in the book of modern activism history.

Sometimes, I hate being right. This would be such a time.

Medgar Evers is crying inside.

Question: How has your perception of the Jena Six situation (not necessarily just the kids) changed (if at all) since The March?

"Jena 6" Defendant Arrested In Texas [CBS News]

More AB.com Jena Six Coverage