Posted on 06/09/2014 3:49:04 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
The Simpson murder trial exposed many painful truths. None hit harder than the idea that white and black people often look at the same facts and see different realities.
Today, 20 years after the case captivated and divided the nation, few opinions about the saga have changed. Despite two decades' worth of increasing racial acceptance, the Simpson case still reflects deep-rooted obstacles to a truly united America.
Most people still believe that the black football legend killed his white ex-wife and her friend, polls show. But for many African-Americans, his likely guilt remains overwhelmed by a potent mix: the racism of the lead detective and the history of black mistreatment by the justice system.
For these people, Simpson's acquittal is a powerful rebuke to what they see as America's racial crimes. Others simply see a murderer who played the race card to get away with it. Across the board, emotions remain vivid.
"It was very tense at work," recalls Carlos Carter, who at the time was one of the few black people working in the trust department of a Pittsburgh bank. "The whites felt like OJ was guilty, they were rooting for their team. We thought he was innocent, that he was kind of framed, so we were on the black team."
He adds: "We were consumed with it. Like Sugar Ray Robinson fighting the great white hope. It was like a match. It represented something bigger than the case, the battle between good and evil, the battle between the white man and the black man. It was at that level."
This sentiment, widespread in the black community, was confusing to Shannon Spicker, a white woman who was working her way through college at the time.
"We didn't understand how people could defend him just because he was black"
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
> I thought he did it but I also thought the prosecution didn’t come anywhere close to proving it and I did not understand the rush to trial.
Nonsense! I started off favorably disposed towards Simpson because of his athletic achievements and comic roles in movies. I had lots of free time during that period, though, and watched nearly every minute of the trial. As inept as the prosecution was at times, the fact remains — as Marsha Clark pointed out in the summation — that even the uncontested evidence was far more than needed to convict. Also the evidence that was contested was contested very badly by the so-called Dream Team. I don’t want to get into the details — or take the time to refresh my memory of them — but I could write for hours about what was wrong with the defense’s arguments. They shouldn’t have convinced any unprejudiced person with a grain of sense.
Oh, hell, yes. The man was badly treated, by Marcia Clarke, among others, who said she wished he’d never been born, or some such.
Yes, but unfortunately to a lot of modern people, especially liberals, words and thoughts are more important than deeds.
Sorry, ‘Marsha Clark’ should be ‘Marcia Clark’.
Poem:
Tough Teddio Brisenio
Preserved poor Roddy’s brain-i-o
His cervical save
Was just such a rave
That they trashed ol’ LA
Insteadio.
It’s also necessary to remember “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” Rodney King.
LAPD Officer Theodore Briseno claimed to have placed his foot on Rodney King’s neck “in order to prevent brain damage”.
Poem:
Tough Teddio Brisenio
Preserved poor Roddy’s brain-i-o
His cervical save
Was just such a rave
That they trashed ol’ LA
Insteadio.
It’s also necessary to remember “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” Rodney King.
LAPD Officer Theodore Briseno claimed to have placed his foot on Rodney King’s neck “in order to prevent brain damage”.
It was silly, the same way their blind defense of Michael Jackson’s misdeeds was. Nobody worked harder at not being black than MJ.
I’ve given it air if thought and think he was probably a bigger drug abuser than most people knew, not just coke, but maybe steroids, too.
I heard that even some women in a battered womens’ shelter were rejoicing.
But it might be a story, like the ones about various middle easterners rejoicing on 9-11.
I read a comparison of this trial with the Susan Smith trial around the same time on the other side of the country, by some editorialist. He or she pointed out how sensibly and sanely the Smith trial was handled, even though it was high profile.
Don’t worry, I got it wrong too.
Should read “a lot of “ thought.
The hate is there.
Thanks for that link. It was very interesting. Not that it’s done CNN much good. Their ratings are circling the bowl.
Probably; after all the kids are half white.
Then why don’t you just use it? It’s kind of like Honky or Peckerwood or White Devil. It’s just a word; actually derived from the Spanish Negrito or Negro, meaning black. Because most (not all) slave holders were from the Southern United States and have their regional dialects and accents the word was corrupted to nigra or nigger, shorter to say and easier to pronounce.
Mix in a basically illiterate population (1500’s-1800’s) and a little bit of Creole and you get a lot of words that people continue to use even today.
The only time any word, even cuss words and profanity are unacceptable is when they are used to denigrate or insult another human being.
I am what you would call a white man (actually kind of a brownish pink) of northern European stock, and I have been called nigger on many occasions by my black friends. They don’t mean it as an insult and I don’t take it as one.
People need to get over the fear of words in common usage, political correctness can not be allowed to determine what is a distinctly American language.
By my brown friends from the southern areas I have been called Gavacho (not sure of the spelling, I don’t speak Central American); normally it is used as an insult, it means white guy more or less kind of like gringo. Who uses the word, and how the word is used is the only important thing.
Agree
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