The Jena 6: Barkers, Justin and Bishop Jakes

Dr. Phil asks the Barkers, "Did your son provoke " and I'm not saying that anything that you can say justifies physical violence " but was he spewing racial epithets to these or any other students?"

"No, sir. He told us he did not say anything to them," Mrs. Barker says.

"So you asked him straight up about this?"

"Yes, I did," Mrs. Barker says. "And he told me, ‘Mama, you know these boys. If I'd have said one word to them, we'd have fought right where we stood. We would not have had to have me knocked unconscious and then the six of them jump on my head.'"

 

Dr. Phil speaks to Justin. "You are instructed by

your attorney not to speak about this," he says. "Have you seen these boys since this happened, your classmates?"

"Yes, sir," Justin says.

"Have you had any nice conversation with them?" Dr. Phil asks.

"I've had no conversation with them," he says.

Last week, Bishop T.D. Jakes spoke to thousands in his congregation at The Potter's House Church in Dallas, Texas about what's going on in Jena. Dr. Phil paid him a visit because he wanted to know what the bishop thought about the issue. Is it about race or not?

"What do you see going on here?" Dr. Phil asks Bishop Jakes.

"I think really, Dr. Phil, one of the great issues is that for many, many main-stream Americans, racism is not even on their radar," he says.

 

"I've heard so many interviews [where people] say, ‘This is a very unified community,' but yet we've got some people who have done some really incendiary things," Dr. Phil says. "What is wrong with a Caucasian student or students that would make them go hang a noose from a tree?"

"It's hard for me to believe that you can hang a noose and not know that it's offensive," Bishop Jakes says.

 

Dr. Phil wonders about the parents of the Jena 6. "If I was a parent of one of the Jena 6, one of my concerns would be, ‘What are you doing getting into a fight and jumping on somebody with five of your friends?'"

"On both sides, the parents need to police the behavior of their children better than they do," Bishop Jakes says. "It really shows that beneath the skin of America, there is a rumbling, infectious hostility that needs to be confronted."

 

Tune in Monday as the dialogue continues!