Troubled Times
McKayla Milam
McKayla Milam
The sudden death of Dayne Jones was discovered on October 17th by his mother. Dayne Jones was a 24 year-old black man and the son of Ferguson activist, Melissa McKinnies. Jones was found hanging from a tree in the backyard behind his mother’s house. Tied around his neck were unfamiliar looking bed sheets with his pants pulled down to his ankles, his genitals completely exposed. Melissa took a picture of Jones in her backyard and posted it on Facebook captioned, “Look what they did to my baby.” It was eventually taken down by Facebook but the family still continues to be outspoken about the grueling incident. According to St. Louis County police department Jones’s death was investigated as a suicide. The family along with many others believe that Jones was lynched out of spite due to him being the son of an activist. Hillgrove students gave their heartfelt opinions on what they believe to true.
When questioned if they were surprised that an event like this occurred in 2018, the students were respectfully truthful. “I’m not really surprised that it happened but unfortunately there are still a lot of hateful and evil people in the world,” a source that chose to be anonymous stated. Hillgrove sophomore, Anisa Williams claimed, “I am not surprised something like this happened in 2018 because people continue to view black people as people who we are not and everyone accepts that we are different than them.” Jayla Goodwin, who is a junior, said she was actually a little torn about whether she was surprised or not. “I am in the middle about the situation. Of course we still have people out here who still commit acts such as that but you do not see many news stories about it because it does not happen too often.”
It is common for many people to be unaware of situations like this and the students express why they think that is. The anonymous source honestly stated, “It is a hate crime toward African Americans in this country. In this country they love to brag about how much progress we have made and how different it is from the past. When truly not much progress has been made. If this crime was on headlines everywhere like it should have been then this country would look bad and this country would not be able to jade the reaction it would gain from a lot of angry people.” Anisa responded with, “this was a horrible situation and I feel like not many people know about it because of how brutal it was and people do not want to share something like this.” Jayla said, “I believe people are not aware of this because lynchings typically have to do with blacks therefore when something like that arises people will be too disturbed to spread it.”
Although acts of hatred sadly still occur to this day, people still hope, pray and fight for justice for the future generations ahead of us. While some may not care or have to deal with harsh circumstances such as this, others do. Despite the things seeming like they have not changed over time, people continue to command better and greater treatment for all.
When questioned if they were surprised that an event like this occurred in 2018, the students were respectfully truthful. “I’m not really surprised that it happened but unfortunately there are still a lot of hateful and evil people in the world,” a source that chose to be anonymous stated. Hillgrove sophomore, Anisa Williams claimed, “I am not surprised something like this happened in 2018 because people continue to view black people as people who we are not and everyone accepts that we are different than them.” Jayla Goodwin, who is a junior, said she was actually a little torn about whether she was surprised or not. “I am in the middle about the situation. Of course we still have people out here who still commit acts such as that but you do not see many news stories about it because it does not happen too often.”
It is common for many people to be unaware of situations like this and the students express why they think that is. The anonymous source honestly stated, “It is a hate crime toward African Americans in this country. In this country they love to brag about how much progress we have made and how different it is from the past. When truly not much progress has been made. If this crime was on headlines everywhere like it should have been then this country would look bad and this country would not be able to jade the reaction it would gain from a lot of angry people.” Anisa responded with, “this was a horrible situation and I feel like not many people know about it because of how brutal it was and people do not want to share something like this.” Jayla said, “I believe people are not aware of this because lynchings typically have to do with blacks therefore when something like that arises people will be too disturbed to spread it.”
Although acts of hatred sadly still occur to this day, people still hope, pray and fight for justice for the future generations ahead of us. While some may not care or have to deal with harsh circumstances such as this, others do. Despite the things seeming like they have not changed over time, people continue to command better and greater treatment for all.