In brief, it’s about a group of black kids who sat under a tree that was a “traditionally white” hangout spot in the mostly white town of Jena, Louisiana, last December. The next day, there were three nooses hanging from the tree.

The conflicts that resulted, in which several black kids assaulted a white classmate, left six black kids in jail, awaiting trial for attempted murder. Their charge was just reduced, in a new ruling on Friday, to aggravated battery. The prosecutor, District Attorney Walter, will appeal the charges to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

According to the Indiana Journal Gazette, “About 90 minutes before the Third Circuit ruled, Walter had given the Jena Times a longer written statement defending the charges against Bell and the other teens and the decision not to charge the white students who hung the nooses.

Federal prosecutors found nothing to charge those students with, he said, and he found nothing in state law that would apply.

Louisiana’s hate crime law covers a multitude of violent crimes as well as criminal damage to property and “institutional vandalism.” His statement did not explain why the nooses would not be considered vandalism.

He also wrote that race was never considered, and the fight was not “just a schoolyard fight,” as the boys’ defenders have called it. “The victim was `sucker punched’ and knocked immediately unconscious before being stomped and kicked,” he wrote. “There was no credible evidence before or during the trial that the victim had provoked the attack by word or gesture. The evidence showed that this was an attack, not a fight.”

The problem here is that we live in an age of symbolism. It’s easy to argue that culture occurs on the level of symbolism, because language is symbolic. But we interact more with technology – with televisions, with computers, with cell phones, with ipods, than ever before. All of these mediums communicate to us symbolically.

The above document linked above, which is provided by the Sociology Department at Cardiff University and derived from “Modern Social Theory by Ian Craig,” makes the following points:

1. Human beings act towards things on the basis of the meaning that the things have for them
2. These meanings are the product of social interaction in human society
3. These meanings are modified and handled through an interpretive process that is use by each individual in dealing with the signs each encounters.

Right. So the problem here is the intrerpretation of the symbolism of the noose. To most people who either experienced or have been educated about American history and African-American history in particular, those nooses represent the most extreme kind of racial hatred; a time when oppression and murder were publicly tolerated and when no black person was ever free from fear or guaranteed the dignity and justice that all citizens deserve.

In many ways, the invocation of lynching has more hateful cultural meaning for the U.S. today than any other symbol. (The swastika, another symbol of genocide and racial hatred, is not rooted here, and does not carry the same reminders of the horrible crimes committed here, in this country. Segregation has only been over for 39 years; we don’t want to face that shame, but we must, as a nation, move away from racial hatred.) The fact that the white justice system cannot recognize that threatening to lynch somebody for being the wrong color in the wrong place is a hate crime is egregious blindness.

So what can you do? To find out what’s going on in your area, check out ColorofChange. Also, check out other actions here.

At the very least, people are being asked to wear black or green on Thursday, September 20th, which is the day that one of the defendants, Mychal Bell, would have been brought in for sentencing — if the charges of attempted murder against him hadn’t been reduced.

Because Bell was only 16 in December, he cannot be tried as an adult for aggravated assault, so he’s just continuing to wait in jail as the prosecuting attorney prepares to appeal.

So, on Thursday: Black will symbolize “strength and mourning,” while green will symbolize “growth and surpassing hate.” Take your pick. You can’t go wrong with either color, or both.