David Bowie Apparentlly More Interested In American Racial Politics Than Most American Rockers

jharv | September 19, 2007 12:00 pm

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]

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