In his September 25 syndicated column on the so-called Jena Six case, Thomas Sowell asserted that "[r]acial hype has replaced all rational discussion," claiming that “the Jena episode has shown that two can play the racial hype game.” As an example of such “racial hype,” Sowell cited the publishing of “the telephone numbers and home addresses of all the young blacks involved in the school incident” on a neo-Nazi website. The Washington Post reported in a September 22 article that the posting on the Neo-Nazi website encourages readers to “get in touch [with the black teenagers], and let them know justice is coming.” The article further reported that the “FBI is investigating to see whether the posting violates federal laws.”

In the same column, Sowell criticized the slogan -- “No justice, no peace” -- used by civil rights protesters in Jena and said that the “Neo-Nazis have now helped demonstrate what a dangerous slogan that is, since different people have opposite ideas of what 'justice' is in a given situation.”

Media Matters for America has documented in a report titled “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns” that Sowell's column regularly appears in 141 daily U.S. papers and occasionally -- meaning at least once a month, but not weekly -- in 22 more, ranking him ninth among syndicated columnists by the number of papers in which he appears.

From Sowell's column, headlined “Law Versus Mob Rule”:

It is painful -- and dangerous -- how little we learn from history, even when it is recent history.

Just a year ago, “rape” charges spread lynch-mob hysteria on the campus of Duke University and in much of the liberal media, while professional race hustlers descended on the town of Durham, North Carolina, and mindless tribalism was stirred up by extremists in the local black community.

This year, we have all learned what a total fraud that case was, from beginning to end. Yet now we see a similar outburst of mindless tribalism and another attempt at mob rule, promoted by such veterans of last year's hysteria as Jesse Jackson.

[...]

Racial hype has replaced all rational discussion. Moreover, the Jena episode has shown that two can play the racial hype game. Neo-Nazis have published the names and home addresses of all the young blacks involved in the school incident.

The slogan “No justice, no peace” has been used to justify settling legal issues in the streets, instead of in courts of law.

Neo-Nazis have now helped demonstrate what a dangerous slogan that is, since different people have opposite ideas of what “justice” is in a given situation.

Long after the imported demonstrators have left, and the national media have lost interest, the families of the black youngsters involved in the school altercation will have to live with the knowledge that their privacy and security have both been lost in a racially polarized community, with vengeful elements.

The last thing the South needs is a return to lynch-mob justice, whatever the color of whoever is promoting it.