Re: OJ Simpson
 

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If I ever get accused of a crime I definitely hope that Marcia Clark handles the prosecution.


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Chris Darden came to speak at my school after the trial was over. I don't remember all the details, but I remember him mainly blaming the judge and the jury. His position was that the prosecution hadn't made any significant blunders.

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What you expect him to say? My boss and I were clearly idiots who were outclassed every step of the way? The fact that the only work either of them can get is that of 'TV analyst' speaks volumes as their true legal abilities.

Personally, I would rather have Jackie Childs defending me than either Clark or Darden.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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His position was that the prosecution hadn't made any significant blunders.

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So did you ask him why they chose to prosecute the case in downtown LA instead of Santa Monica and how that was not THE most significant blunder?

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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Don't you agree that white people are almost instantly labeled racists if they say anything in a racial context?

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No. I agree that whites are more scrutinized for things like this, but that's partially because there's a long (and ongoing) history of discrimination against minorities, both in personal and institutional contexts.

I think that scrutiny is most often tied to power. If Shannon Sharpe were a coach instead of a player, I bet there's criticism.

Since most of the powerful people are white, if scrutiny is correlated with power, we should EXPECT for there to be more discussion about them.

I believe that good, honest discussion is frequently suppressed in the name of political correctness. The flip side is that a lot of people who say they're "politically incorrect!" are just prejudiced and superficial and are sort of being anti-PC to justify being rude.

I also think that blacks are scrutinized more than you do. You generally hear about it and you hear discussion when they say something regarding race.

Also consider that there are a LOT of racial comments made among people that know each other and can infer each other's intent or attitude. The point is not to examine the words per se, but what they represent. Too often people don't examine this because it's easier to just instantly grab onto comments and get hysterical.

So in summary: our public racial dialogue is mostly superficial, whites are more scrutinized, but they probably should be, and I don't think the difference is all that much.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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If I ever get accused of a crime I definitely hope that Marcia Clark handles the prosecution.



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Chris Darden came to speak at my school after the trial was over. I don't remember all the details, but I remember him mainly blaming the judge and the jury. His position was that the prosecution hadn't made any significant blunders.


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What you expect him to say? My boss and I were clearly idiots who were outclassed every step of the way? The fact that the only work either of them can get is that of 'TV analyst' speaks volumes as their true legal abilities.
Personally, I would rather have Jackie Childs defending me than either Clark or Darden.


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I didn't have any expectation that he would accept responsibility. I just found it interesting that even Darden was pissed that the jury got caught up with the "race card" defense.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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I didn't have any expectation that he would accept responsibility. I just found it interesting that even Darden was pissed that the jury got caught up with the "race card" defense.

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Blaming the jury is easy here. How they could be unprepared for the race card defense? The second Johnnie C signed up to defend the Juice, they knew that was coming. He didn't happen to mention whose idea it was to have OJ try on the glove, did he?

I wish I could have been there, it would have been entertaining asking him questions that he would not be able to answer without looking a complete fool.

Oh well, at least Ron and Nicole civil lawyers did a much better job presenting the same case, albeit with a lower standard required for a guilty verdict.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

Good post, but I still disagree here:

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I also think that blacks are scrutinized more than you do. You generally hear about it and you hear discussion when they say something regarding race.


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It is socially acceptable for black people to make racial generalizations that would make white people pariahs. There are a lot of examples in music: "shake it like a white girl", "even white girls got to shout", and of course the fact that every other hip-hop song has "niger" in it.

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No. I agree that whites are more scrutinized for things like this, but that's partially because there's a long (and ongoing) history of discrimination against minorities, both in personal and institutional contexts.

I think that scrutiny is most often tied to power. If Shannon Sharpe were a coach instead of a player, I bet there's criticism.


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I agree with your point that there should be more scrutiny placed on people in power, but I also think that putting Shannon Sharpe on TV as a network commentator lends crediblity to his opinions. He has ascended to a postion of power in spite of his racial comments.


I guess what bothers me most is that there is a floating imaginary line in terms of what is approprite regarding racial comments and what is over the line. I feel like black people (on the whole at least) don't mind that niger is used in so many songs. They don't mind if there are jokes about how white guys can't dance (generally true IMO BTW). They don't mind if there is the sterotypical goofy asian convenience store owner in ghetto comedies. But then some one who is white says "I want to get better at recruiting black players so that I can get more team speed" and all hell breaks loose.

Either rage against racial commentary in all forms or accept that racial comments are fine as long as they don't advocate limiting anyone's opportunity to suceed.

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our public racial dialogue is mostly superficial

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Most definitely I agree.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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Blaming the jury is easy here. How they could be unprepared for the race card defense? The second Johnnie C signed up to defend the Juice, they knew that was coming. He didn't happen to mention whose idea it was to have OJ try on the glove, did he?

I wish I could have been there, it would have been entertaining asking him questions that he would not be able to answer without looking a complete fool.

Oh well, at least Ron and Nicole civil lawyers did a much better job presenting the same case, albeit with a lower standard required for a guilty verdict.

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What is ironic about the race defense was that OJ never embraced being black until he was trying to beat the murder charge.

I asked him a few questions, but the only one I remeber now was asking him about the Howard Auditorium celebration. Nothing about his response comes to mind though.

BTW, I'm sure some one will tell me if I blew it on ironic. I've noticed that there are a lot of irony police on here.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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Im not saying it was perfect before, but now white people cant stop thinking about the one that got away.

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Racsim:
Discrimination or prejudice based on race

as a side note, I'm not picking a fight/accusing anyone of anything, just found that interesting.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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Black people.

No, seriously, most people I know that think OJ didn't do are black.

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Exactly. And remember these are the same black people who think the CIA blew up the levees in New Orleans, that the United Nations created Aids, and that Louis Farakhan is a great man. Face the facts. Black people are stupid. But the white girls just can't get enough of the big black sausage can they? Nicole even gave her life for some big black sausage, so I guess to her it was worth it.

Re: OJ Simpson
 

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Most legal experts...agreed that the prosecution did one of the worst jobs in history when presenting the case. A lot of people dont realize that most of the jurors did not see the mountain of evidence everyone else saw...

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My favorite part of Bugliosi's book: his lamenting that the prosecution never mentioned the interview OJ had with detectives the day after the murders. The former prosecutor wrote, "Give me a yellow pad and 100 hours, and I could've got a conviction based this (evidence) alone."

The main gist of the book was the utter incompetence of the DA's office in this case. The section on Ito's incomprehensible rulings was great, too.

I think I've got to find a copy of this book, and read it again. It's really good.

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I read it. Main thing that sticks in my memory is that Bugliosi says to expect incompetence and you won't be disappointed.

He also says that since most lawyers are incompetent, and most judges were lawyers, that most judges are also incompetent and one shouldn't be intimidated by the black robe.