Give me a break already. While I’m sure there was an element of racism in the original trial and subsequent furor over the acquittal, you’re an idiot if you think someone is racist for being outraged when a douchebag celebrity writes a book that says, in so many words, “yeah, I committed cold-blooded murder, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Maybe that outrage had something to do with the fact that it was the most publicized trial in the friggin’ universe. I don’t see why it has to be assumed it’s because it was a black man that committed the murder. Do you honestly think that if it had been a white athlete nobody would have cared?
That was my point, that people didn’t suddenly become overly outraged just because of the book.
To the point of stopping in the middle of a work day to watch the verdict, literally crying about the acquittal, and seething over it for the entire decade following? Of course not, are you kidding me?! Again, Robert Blake who?
But Robert Blake came after OJ, and that made a big difference. But there’s some truth in what you’re saying, and you have to wonder if it would have been as big if it hadn’t been a black man killing a white woman and a white man.
But to be fair and correct me if I’m wrong cause I’m too young to really know, didn’t OJ have WAY more name recognition. He was a famous athlete, had roles in several movies, did commercials, etc. Robert Blake was on a tv show for 3 years. I wasn’t alive at the height of their careers though so someone else can confirm or deny this. I didn’t know Robert Blake was till I heard about his wife in the news.
Yes – OJ had a solid reputation as a nice guy. Robert Blake was not seen as markedly different from his TV character.
Did Robert Blake receive anywhere near the media saturation of the OJ trial? Was there a live chase scene on every channel with the Robert Blake case? Crying racism is an easy way to shut down the debate. I don’t think it had nearly the significance in people’s opinions that you do. The fact that OJ was a (still recognizable) sports hero and Robert Blake was a washed-up has-been was another difference.
I don’t know who “literally cried” about the acquittal and seethed for a decade afterward, but yeah, I’d grant they probably had some issues.
The book was already pretty much written, its publication is what got canceled.
Uh, you’re saying that like the media is some natural force independent of society. That the media was so interested in the OJ case is part of my point.
How so? How is my “crying racism” shutting down any type of debate? I think you’ve got it the wrong way around.
Now how would OJ’s sports hero status contribute to the outrage over his acquittal?
Well, search for Simpson and trial on this board pre-October '06 for some seething.
As mentioned, the prosecution never had any intention of asking for the death penalty. As a rich man, there is nothing Simpson could have done that would have gotten him the death penalty. The death penalty is for the poor, not the rich.
Wrong, douchebag.
Black juries put black criminals in prison every working day of the year.
O.J. got away with it because he was rich and famous, and because the cops fucked up.
If OJ is an auto assembly line worker who kills his secretary wife, he’s convicted. He could be as black as he wanted to be (and OJ’s never wanted to be black) and it wouldn’t help him one damn bit.
The US justice system, like all human enterprises is imperfect. Most of the imperfections work in favor of white Americans. That’s why people who murder whites usually get stiffer sentences than people who murder blacks.
Quit fucking whining about it.
Whuh? How could you possibly know that? A murderer dangling his crimes in front of the public while declaiming, “Nyah nyah nyah” isn’t enough to get outraged over on its own?
Yeah, but your point seems to be that they were interested because of the racial angle. I’m sayin git’s because of the celebrity angle. That’s what the American public is obsessed with. And that’s why we have the E! Channel and not the Racial Tension Channel.
Nah, that’s bullshit. By crying racism it’s a lot easier to claim the moral high ground (whether such a high ground actually exists in this case or not) and imply that anyone arguing with you is doing so because they’re secretly racist.
Because people were ten times more passionate about the guy going in than they were about Blake, and thus ten times as disappointed when it turned out one of their previous heroes turned out to be a murderer (which, let’s be honest, seemed pretty obvious to most people even at the time, regardless of OJ’s race)?
I don’t doubt that. There have always been plenty of idiots here.
My cable provider has a Racial Tension Channel. There was a 30-day free offer and I checked it out. It was just reruns of The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? so I didn’t subscribe.
Good question. Yes.
Have you thought about becoming a DJ on commercial radio?
There are other things to base biased judgments on. My then 82 year old mother was quite certain that O.J. was innocent. Denise Brown had a “hard look” to her. And of course O.J. didn’t “look” guilty. (He was too nice looking to have done anything like what they were saying.
Pizzabrat, I don’t think that very many women had crushes on Robert Blake. No many kids wanted to grow up to be “The Blake.” It’s really impossible to compare the two cases. Frankly, there is also more interest when the murder victims are very attractive too.
I thought O.J. was guilty because I didn’t think that over 60 L.A. police officers could form a conspiracy in five minutes time to frame O.J. for two murders. And those “butt ugly” shoes that he claimed never to have had but was wearing in a photograph – now it wasn’t helpful to lie like that.
Yeah; the last execution I heard about was some guy who was so broke he lived in a spider hole. :rolleyes:
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Of course his celebrity got him through the media circus gate, but the racial angle added the momentum.
And yet you’re having no problem disagreeing with me. But what do you think your dismissal of my position as “crying racism” is, if it’s not exactly what you just described?
I don’t know what kind of rhetorical algebra you’re using, but that doesn’t make any sense at all.
The book was more than “pretty much written.” It written, printed, and distributed, but recalled prior to release at the last minute.
In the link from the OP, “All 400,000 copies of the book were recalled for destruction, save for one locked away in a News Corp. vault.”