Mr Simpson’s shortcomings are his own. They are unrelated to his ethnic background and he no more represents blacks as a group than any other individual. I find Nicole Simpson’s death no more (or less) tragic or profound than any other murder victim. I hope that you are not apologizing for his murder out of a sense that blacks as a group are somehow sullied because of Mr Simpson. While I appreciate any sentiment which furthers the brotherhood of all people, no individual of any group owes any individual of any other group some sort of apology for the behaviour of an individual. We are each responsible for our own actions.
Building on what Chief Pendant said, and that said by many here, OJ is as guilty as hell. His claims of innocence are empty. Many fans, white or black, condemn him. Yet there are many I have spoken with that claim he is innocent. ALL of them are Black. His guilt is not racial. His lack of innocence, it seems, is.
Healing? What healing?
Dropzone, my mother was in her eighties at the time of the trial. She was thoroughly convinced of O.J.'s innocence. Since she couldn’t explain why or respond to any of the evidence against him, I suspect it had to do with his good looks. She was also very judgmental about Nicole’s sister and spoke degradingly of her because she looked “hard.” I asked her what that meant and what looked “hard” about her. She couldn’t be specific.
I suspect that people who are attractive are more likely to be found not guilty than someone who looks creepy. I don’t know if there have been any studies done on the subject though.
Oh, I know I don’t owe any apologies to anyone for anyone. And to be clear, I wasn’t apologising to you. I was just trying to be nice, you know, just in case there is anyone out there who used to get that lump in there throat or that sinking feeling in their chest when they saw OJ on the gulf course, or in the clubs with all those women and stuff. I mean, I want the healing to begin for them. I think an apology is a nice way to start. Doesn’t cost me anything.
Zoe, I know that I am about ready to wrap up an episode of Black Myth Bustin’ when I stop getting all hype and emotional and I start calming down. So, for me personally, I think it is time for me to sew this one up. But I will respond to your last couple posts by saying, ; As I said before, I didn’t put this in GD, so while I appreciate your telling me my shortcomings in the debate arena, I have no shame in admitting that I have lots of growing to do in that area. My opinion on matters, though, is another matter, and my opinion is that there a lot of white people that were overly invested for the wrong reasons, and a lot of black people too. If you don’t agree with that, then perhaps I am wrong on the facts. Maybe there actually weren’t a lot of people over invested in that huge spectacle. Anyone that remembers the odeal can judge for themselves. Because, as I recall it, there were a lot of people shaking their heads at all the people making fools of themselves.
And after all, you have plenty of polls to let you know what black people think, so you’re good. Hell, you don’t need Nzinga or any other black posters cropping up on these boards to tell you any different.
Also, to all the people saying he had a Heisman and was in a lot of movies and all that, thanks for the clarification. I knew those things, but still didn’t realise he was a big star. He wasn’t on my radar, and I actually loved the Naked Gun movies.
And last but not least, just in case any sarcasm or for that matter, any lack of communication on my part doesn’t make it clear; I know OJ is guilty (sorry not alice, I am speaking from my gut, not in legal terms) and I think he is a psycho who is better off in prison forever than walking the streets. Peace.
OJ got pretty well known among non-sports fans for ads he did for a rental car company. They would show him jumping over chairs to get to his car. I think those were not long after he retired.
I will be happy to listen to your opinion and feel free to disagree with you. You have a good point that your post was not started in Great Debates. If it was posted in IMHO, then it was missing a couple of required elements. To me, much of what you had to say sounded very hostile. And you also claimed things that were not just a matter of your opinion.
I have been at peace with my feelings about race all of my life – a large portion of which has been spent in the black community. Lately on the SDMB, I’ve seen some intelligent black females (mostly) who seem to feel eager to spew racist accusations and twist words to mean what they were not intended to mean. President Obama has called for honest dialogue about race. I don’t think that these women are being honest, but I could be wrong.
Maybe they misunderstood me personally. (I know they did on some things.) But sometimes they pretended to misunderstand. One admitted that. How can we ever have an honest dialogue if they are so quick to assume the worst or play games?
I wish you peace also. If you are in need of healing over these issues, I hope you find that too. You and I can certainly agree that our justice system needs racial and economic parity.
I heard someone say they could have found OJ standing over the bodies holding a bloody knife and he still would not have been convicted.
You might want to take a look at the method of many of these deaths as opposed to the motive and to the relation to the early theories in the Simpson murders.