INNOCENT! Still pissed?

but i thought OJ was a black man by "electoral vote only?" it corrects an historical injustice for a black millionaire to buy his way out of a guilty verdict?? that is the solution??? i'm not black, so I can't completely empathize with that...i can sympathize, and I'll be the first to say that the treatment of black people in this country sucked for a long ass time, and in many respects sucks even today...but i can't empathize....and i can't understand looking past two murdered victims and their families to a millionaire who bought his way out of a verdict and seeing it as a "win" against historical injustices. the fact that he is a millionaire...sure i can see that. rooting for joe louis to kick ass when he was forced to stay in different hotels while fighting because he was black?? you bet your ass i can understand that...joe louis was my white father's favorite athlete of all time for that reason. but i can't understand thinking it's cool that a guy got off for murder because people who share his skin color have been discriminated against and treated poorly.

 

Yes, I would like to make clear that it is the same for me. I would be just as pissed if the guy had been white or half-polynesian or whatever and if they had used his being white or half-polynesian to get him off the hook.

AB, nobody was talking about it being a religion. I was responding to someone saying that the judicial system is bull**** and they were celebrating that. My point was, why would a law student celebrate that the judicial system is bull****.

 

I'll take a stab at correcting you....if you don't mind.

The penalties in criminal court are basically the same.

The penalties in the court of public opinion can be vastly different.

 

I liked your approach to the topic in the post with which you started the thread. You approached it by asking people about their opinion. And yes, unfortunately later you switched to defending a position.

 

I think, too, that the trial itself had become such a spectacle and so surreal that it became easy to lose sight of the fact that two people were murdered (especially since they were two people we didn't personally know).

In a way, the whole thing was like a TV show. It didn't seem real a lot of the time. It was sometimes hard to feel for the victims because they didn't seem real. The only time it really ever hit home with me was watching Ron Goldman's sister break down after the verdict. Until then, I really didn't think all that much about how Nicole and Ron were real, actual people who had been murdered.

 

okay...sorry for this minor interruption.

but AB. c'mon.

16 posts in this thread so far...and i'm still waitin for a punch line

and as for me, i didn't follow the case close enough to have a strong opinion

 

Also, I don't remember if this was a fact, but Kidman's head was virtually decapitated.

 

Because they are lying. I'm sorry guys, but you are. There is still a very powerfull undercurrent of racism in this country. It effects every facet of our lives whether we choose to see it, or choose to ignore it. To claim that OJ being black and both victims being white mean absolutely nothing to you is a LIE. Whether you want to admit this to yourself or not is completely up to you.

 

De La Beckwith was eventually found guilty wasn't he? This is heading into a black vs white thing, and I'm not sure I like that. I'm neither, btw.


Judicial injustices aren't exclusive to blacks, it's happened to all races.

 

Although it took a while, eventually Beckwith was convicted.

 

You are probably right, but I guess these people were not as much in the public spotlight as O.J. was. If you take me as an example, I have never heard of these names or cases. If I had been exposed to constant Larry King Live shows and other TV shows reporting about these cases, I might be equally mad.

But when I heard about this case where some white assholes dragged a black man to death with their car (I forgot about the names), I was probably more mad than about the O.J. verdict.

There seems to be a tendency in German courts to be very lenient with young skinheads who beat up people who look foreign. This makes me mad as hell as well.

And again, AB, I think you are drifting into a black/white discussion now that has nothing to do with how you started this thread...

 

I am not even in your country and I absolutely refuse to accept being called a liar just because I say I would judge this the same way if the killer was white and the victims were black and a jury had acquitted the guy mainly just because he was white. I would view it exactly the same way and I take offense to your statement.

 

Well, all that happened before I was born. Medger Evers was murdered in 1963, and his two mistrials were in 1964 (I was born in 1971). When he was brought to trial in the '90s for the murder, he was convicted. Had he been acquitted, I would've been passionate about how wrong it was.

But I do think it's hard for people to be as passionate about things that happened before they were born. The folks who are the most passionate about the OJ Simpson trial (either way) are the ones who watched it.

But if you want to talk about passion. I'm passionate about how the Dallas Police Department has railroaded Mexican laborers and convicted them of possessing pool chalk. I'm passionate about how the DPD has decided to continually use "Failure to ID" as a way to put uppity minorities "in their place" despite the Department's own attornies telling the DPD that they can't arrest people for the non-existant charge of "Failure to ID". I'm passionate about how the City of Dallas closes city pools in poor neighborhoods while giving Ross Perot, Jr. and Tom Hicks hundreds of millions of dollars in free land and other giveaways at the American Airlines Center. I'm passionate about how the Dallas ISD spends more time arguing about what race the Superintendent is rather than fixing the damn schools.

And getting to issues beyond race: I'm passionate about how that Fort Worth man got away with murdering his estranged wife because she had apparently had an affair. I'm passionate about how the city in which I attend school thinks that public transportation creates a bigger poverty problem rather than potentially lessening the poverty problem. I'm passionate about the lack of low and middle income housing, and how nobody wants that housing built in their neighborhoods (don't get me started on the apartment complex imbroglio in Amarillo). I'm passionate about Dustin Camp and think its horrible that he can get away with murder because he's a football player and the guy he killed was a punk.

And on and on and on.

And then I sit back and wonder what difference it's made to anyone (not connected to the case anyway) that OJ went free. How are the lives of OJ supporters better? How are the lives of OJ detractors worse?

And then my head hurts. So I give up on the whole thing and watch The Simpsons.

 

Take offense if you want SJC, but it wasn't intended to be an insult. I think racism touches every man, woman and child every day in this country, whether they realize it or not. If you think that the color of OJ and his the color of his victims had NOTHING at all to do with the way you felt after the verdict, then I think you are lying to yourself.

 

Something has happened to Nicole Kidman?

 

Nope. I was pissed over the dragging of James Byrd and those guys were actually found guilty. A crime is a crime.

 

perfect, htownhero...if we disagree with your assertion we're liars...if we agree, then we're admitted racists!!! good work, htown!!!

or maybe it's because i wasn't alive to see the killer of medgar evans go unpunished....we weren't all tuned in when he was acquitted, because many of us weren't born. but i can tell you right now, if the killer is alive, bring the jackass to justice NOW!

i have more than a few black friends...if one of them were murdered, i'd pray for justice in the same way i would for a white friend.

i'm discouraged at how many people are willing to say their views change when the color the person's skin is their own.

 

So I am a racist. And if I think I am not, I am lying to myself. Did I get that right?