Jennifer,
First, let me say your article made me want to vomit. This piece represents, in my opinion, all that is wrong in conservative politics and ignorant mindsets. Of course this was a racially charged incident, and while you pointed out the incident of hanging nooses from a tree was not a hate crime per se, you’d be hard pressed to convince anyone that was not a racially charged incident as well. As far as questioning whether so many protesters would have “showed up” (or shown up) to defend six white kids who beat up one black kid, I can guarantee they would have, and it would have been a crew of conservative Republicans crying about injustice while they are busy perpetuating it. I was amazed to see you did not include the largest issue in this case, that these young men (I do not prefer the terms “goons, thugs, and punks” as you do) are being tried as adults even though they are minors. That seems to be what people are rallying around, that underage boys are being tried and sentenced as adults. I recommend opening your eyes, and maybe even your heart a little bit rather than joining the Republican bandwagon and jumping on Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who are trying to bring attention to injustice rather than continuing to deny its existence.