Loading ...Following pledges of both financial and moral support by many in the American hip-hop and R&B communities, David Bowie is among the first rock artists to cut a check made out to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund, with all proceeds from Bowie’s $10k going to the legal fees incurred by the six African-American teenagers from Louisana who are currently caught in the path of the racial and social trainwreck of a trial that has followed “an alleged attack on a white classmate in the tiny central Louisiana town of Jena”:
The British rocker’s donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund was announced by the NAACP as thousands of protesters were expected to march through Jena on Thursday in defense of Mychal Bell and five other teens. The group has become known as the Jena Six.
“There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena,” Bowie said Tuesday in an e-mail statement. “A donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented.”
Bell was found guilty on second-degree battery charges June 28 by a six-member, all-white jury. Before the case was overturned by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, his sentencing had been set for Thursday.
And here’s where I admit to a small feeling of shame that the first time we’ve mentioned this case is in a story about David friggin’ Bowie.
Rocker Donates To jena 6 Defense Fund [Yahoo via AP]
Don’t feel too bad. The NYT didn’t cover it until yesterday.
whuh? wazzuh? is this something to do with OJ- LOOK!! HE’S ON TV NOW!!!
All night, he supports Young Americans. (He read the news today, oh boy!)
@CharlesRockyPamplin: speaking of OJ, what’s this i hear about freakin’ Mark Fuhrman being on Fox News every day this week talking about Orenthal.
Sometimes when you round up suspects with a driftnet…
@brainchild: Fucking Kato Kaelin (sp?) was on ‘Geraldo at Large’ last night. now there’s a guy i thought i’d never see again…
Fratelli: That doesn’t surprise me one bit. After all, Bowie proved he was down when he married Iman, a black woman.
Costello: Which did he marry?
Fratelli: What?
Costello: A man or a black woman?
Fratelli: Iman, you numbskull.
Costello: A black man?
Fratelli: Iman, the supermodel, a black woman.
Costello: OK then. He married a supermodel, who of course is a woman.
Fratelli: Right. Iman.
Costello: But you just said . . . alright, fine. David Bowie is down with the plight of American blacks, because he married a supermodel, who is a man and a black woman.
Fratelli: Right.
Costello: Is this person a schizophrenic? Transsexual? Bisexual? Merely androgynous, like Ziggy Stardust?
Fratelli: You ought to know better than to equate non-heterosexuality with mental illness. Costello, I’m disappointed in you! But if you ask me, she’s more like Aladdin Sane.
Costello: She is. Like a lad . . .
Fratelli: Yes, Iman.
Costello: OK, was this person he married called Mr. or Mrs. Bowie?
Fratelli: Now that’s just stupid. David is Mr. Bowie. Besides, Iman would never change her name, it’s iconic.
Costello: Aha! Her name!
Fratelli: Yes, you idiot. And David also made an album called “Black Tie White Noise” that had a song called “Looking For Lester.”
Costello: Bowie?
Fratelli: Yes, you idiot, who do you think I’m talking about?
Costello: Oh Christ, forget it. Anyway, I thought that was Tin Machine.
Fratelli: What does Tom Waits have to do with this?
What an idiot