I don’t know that this is actually a myth; I just enjoy using the term "black myth bustin’. But this came up at work today (apparently we are stuck in the 90s), and I also had this debate with my neighbor, and I have heard this idea expressed in the media.
The idea that black people think OJ is innocent. The thing is; no, we dont. I don’t know any black people that think that. Every black person I know thinks he is guilty. Now, a few blacks I know think that he is guilty and are pleased as punch that he got off. Shame on them. But, most blacks I know think he is guilty, and just don’t care that he got off. They can’t understand why white folks are so up and arms over it, because we are used to stories of white folks getting away with ‘murder’, and it doesn’t cause a whole nation to pause.
Now, it could be that, in addition to this not being very topical, this is not even an actual misconception among whites…that blacks think OJ is innocent.
If that is the case, please, ignore this thread, it is just Nzinga going on about nothing. But, if this is indeed a notion that you had, please disabuse yourself, now. It just aint true.
disclaimer I speak for myself, and those that I think share my opinions on this. Of course I can’t actually speak for all black people, as much as I yearn to!
The difference between murder and ‘murder’ is why people who aren’t jaded are outraged over OJ getting away with murder. This shouldn’t be a black or white thing.
I don’t think it should be a white or black thing either. I was pissed at O.J. getting away with murder. I’m pissed that Roman Polanski’s living in Paris and that he didn’t serve a sentence for rape. I would have been pissed if Phil Spector had gotten off. People who commit crime should serve their time. White, black, whatever.
Exactly. I can’t believe we’re having a distinction between ‘murder’ and murder, but there you are.
Jury nullification is a perversion of justice. It always blew my mind that someone as esteemed as as Johnny Cochran was before the OJ trial would resort to it to free someone who did everything he could to turn his back on the black community over the years.
Oh well, it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around
Yeah, but I actually think it is a black and white thing. I put ‘murder’ in quotes, Dan, because I wanted that word to represent something…all the murders that black people read about, heard about, had shed tears about…black men swinging from trees. I am actually surprised that you called me on the quotes around murder. Did you think I couldn’t cite examples?
We are a little slower than white people, maybe, to believe that the corruption that allowed white people to get away with ‘murder’ for so long has completely melted away. We believe that corruption is still there. So I found it interesting that white people were freaking out about this particular injustice. Why on earth would I choose this one out of the fray to get all riled up about?
ETA: I never was an OJ fan, so this is a serious question…Sleeps; what exactly did he do to turn his back on the black community, and why in the world would that come into play with Cochran doing his job?
ETA, again; Also, could any of you that have responded let me know if you have heard that blacks thinks he is innocent, or if you believe that yourselves?
I can’t help thinking that on its most basic level, it’s not a black-white thing. I read Dominick Dunne’s trial coverage afterward. He generally sees things from the POV of the victim and is very hard on accused murderers (his own daughter was strangled by her abusive boyfriend) and he talks about meeting with the families of the victims. Thinking in terms of what the victims were going through right before they were killed makes it seem less about race and more about justice. Black or white, no one who caused fear/pain and ultimately death to two fellow human beings should be walking around free.
I think he’s generally considered to have turned his back on the black community for divorcing his black wife and then marrying a white woman.
ETA: I don’t think that blacks are any more likely to believe he’s innocent. I just figured that most people with any sense would think he was guilty based on all the evidence presented.
Freudian, so many white women are welcomed in our community through marriage with black men, that I am finding it just crazy that people would accuse the man of turning his back on the black community over that. Crazy. That man can marry whomever falls in love with. Now, if there are black women that have a problem with that, they better get over it. I do think it strange to see a white women saying he turned his back on the black community over that, though. Perhaps Sleeps has other examples.
I am skeptical about this not being a black/white thing. I have yet to see the nation go bananas this way over any other kind of murderer, celeb or otherwise, getting off.
Well, you haven’t yet, except a general vague reference to incidents before any of us here were born.
Maybe it’d help if you bothered to actually give examples of other celebrities getting away with literal murder which were responded to by the public with apathy instead of outrage.
I remember the scenes of jubilation that where shown on TV when black groups heard the verdict. Did those people jump for joy simply because he beat the rap?
And yes, I know that not every group celebrated that way.
Ok. I honestly don’t know a single black person that believes this. I am not exagerating. Not a single one.
But after reading your post, I conjured up an image in my head. It is the image of a lot of black folks I know. A stereotype in my head about a certain kind of ‘hoochie’ black girl that may be dumb enough to say that to you. So, I should say that there probably are a lot of dumb black folks that think he is innocent. But I maintain that it is a myth that most black folks think he is innocent.
ETA: Dan, I will admit it. I was hoping so badly that you wouldn’t honestly make me get cites of white people getting away with murder. But, the dope is the dope. Can’t grow, if I don’t try. I will be back with cites. Grrrr. I hate it though!
No, there really hasn’t been any other case i can remember where someone so obviously guilty bought himself freedom. OJ was a very beloved figure, he wasn’t Michael Vick or Fifty Cent. Saying people were up in arms because of his blackness is like saying people were up in arms about Michael Jackson because of his blackness. It was his obvious guilt, nothing more.
Dan, will you accept Robert Blake? Still looking for acceptable cites for whites getting away with murder of blacks. I confess I am not good at digging up cites; embarrassingly bad at it. But again, this is the dope, and I will damn well put up or shut up. Still digging.
Sorry for the triple post. Wondering if Dan will accept Emmett Till. Still searching, though; just in case.
Ludovic, I don’t blame you for laughing. I can tend toward the dramatics on these topics. But the sentiment was sincere. A lot of blacks are still haunted by the idea of lynchings.
I thought he did it and that the police framed him and the jury was disgusted with the framing of him.
I’m more in danger of government officials trying to frame me than I am of being killed and I think it is a bigger danger to society in general, so I am grateful that Simpson was not found guilty and the government was left holding their bag of extra evidence for everyone to see that there are serious consequences to government officials breaking the law.
It’s the same reason that I want Cheney and company tried for torture and murder and starting war: they tortured to find an excuse to invade Iraq and half a million people are dead. If we let them get away with this, there is nothing that the United States government cannot and will not do to get its way.
I clearly remember seeing the reactions of people when the verdict was read. The time of the verdict reading was set to give people time to get to the courthouse and it also gave the media time to set up cameras in places where people were watching the verdict. I remember seeing African Americans in those videos jumping up and down and cheering. Oprah had her studio audience live when the verdict was read and she said later that she felt like vomiting when she watched so many women in her audience clapping and cheering and holding one another when he was acquitted.
The Washington post had a poll after the verdict and 71% of African Americans thought he was innocent. Asked again after the Las Vegas robbery it was down to 40%. And yes, that 40% was about the 1994 murder, not the robbery.
As far as how he turned his back on the black community, I did not specifically mean divorcing his first wife and then only dating white women thereafter. It’s been years since I’ve read American Tragedy by his longtime friend and attorney Robert Kardashian, but he spoke of Johnny Cochran’s hesitancy when first asked to be on the team because he felt all of the work he’d done to help African Americans who were truly screwed by the system would be forgotten because of his role in OJ’s trial. For the most part, he was right.
Another thing that sticks out is how it took the defense team three hours to take down all of the pictures in OJ’s house of all of his white friends and golf buddies and replace them with pictures of his family and black friends before the jury had their walkthru of his house. On the nightstand next to his bed they removed a nude picture of his girlfriend Paula Barbieri and replaced it with a picture of his mother sitting in her wheelchair. :rolleyes: Johnny Cochran personally took African American art from his offices and put them along the staircase in OJ’s house.
I don’t own the book so I can’t go back and cite the other challenges they had with getting support for him in the L.A. black community, but that book (along with a few others I could get the names of for you) would illustrate this issues in far more depth than most people would care to read.
Second Stone, your statement is a statement that I have heard hundreds of times, in many ways.
I’m afraid I have failed at cites, Dan. I have to retract my statement. I cannot even figure out how to find a cite for a white man obviously guilty of murdering a black man being aquitted that actually didn’t happen before any of us were born? How can I even determine that the aquitted white man was ‘obviously guilty’? Especially when there is no media circus involved. I am in over my head on that one. I have to retract, and feel like a damn fool.
ETA: Sleeps, no need to cite, I believe you. It just seems like silly sensationalism to me. A black man with all white friends and a white wife is not considered a traitor in my circle. That shit is common as hell, especially when with blacks raised in white communities. We don’t really give them much shit about it. I also don’t buy that poll. It was black folks not willing to say, “He is guilty, and I am glad he got off. Bout time we aren’t on the short end of the injustice stick.”