perhaps... perpetuated in jena?

To say that "it all started in Jena" is a bit presumptuous, and a little bit frustrating, as opportunists seek to liken the legal upheaval there to the original move to desegregation in the South (and to lend their protests credibility). It didn't all start in Jena; the noose has been a metaphor for racism, violence and bigotry for generations, and it wouldn't have caused so much consternation in Jena in the first place if people hadn't already been "(identifying themselves) with some aspect of the picture" for many, many years. Furthermore, the picture of the noose actually has very little to do with the protests, since the battle is really about whether or not one of the black students should be tried as an adult for beating a white student (who reportedly was not one of the kids who hung the nooses in the tree, in the first place). Is it possible that the image of the noose is being used to induce empathy from a public that might otherwise actually focus on the real issue at hand (gasp)?