[TTChamp]

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why is this even still a topic of discussion?

I guess people still discuss who killed JFK, but honestly - who cares at this point?



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A lot of people write off the OJ trial as pop culture trivia, but IMO when viwed in connection with Rodney King and the LA Riots, it is the most significant black/white race issue of my lifetime . It might actually be even more significant than the riots themselves.

First off, it is obvious that he did it. Even if you are one of the few people who thinks that he didn't do it, it doesn't really matter because the significance of the OJ trial is that the vast majority think that he got away with murder. Further, they feel that his defense was sucessful primarily because he was black. The true significance of the OJ trial has little to do with evidence at this point.

The reason that the OJ trial is so infrequently discussed is that it is a very uncomfortable topic of discussion in mixed racial company or among casual aqunatances. Most white people are afraid to say anything negative about some one black because being a "racist" is one of the most ignoble labels there is if you are white.

The OJ trial is the most extreme afirmative act, and many white people resent affrimative action. They resent that black people are allowed to use racial slurs, they are allowed to get into college with lower qualificaions, they get preferential treatment from government employers. Where does the special treatment stop? OJ showed that affirmitive action can even get you a free pass on murder.

The organized and televised post verdict celebrations by some black people showed that they embraced the victory of affirmative action over justice.

I personally will never forget the sequence of events following the announcement of the verdict. It went OJ in the courtroom, Goldmans crying, group of white people in LA looking pissed, black people outside the court house jumping up and down, and an auditorium of students at Howard University going nuts like they just won the National Championship.

That auditorium of students at Howard still pisses me off. They are supposed to be the educated leaders in the black community and they were celebrating because OJ got away with murder. Was setting a murderer free really a good solution for Mark Furman's racism?

I think that your attitude about the OJ trail is most likely a result of your age. If you ask many people in their late twenties/early thirties about OJ in mixed racial company you will get a very uncomfortable reactions and I doubt that anyone will commit strongly to a postition. This isn't because no one cares, it is because it has become socially unacceptable to take a stand against special treatment for minorities.

To answer your question: the OJ trial was the pinacle of institutionalized affrimative action. A signaficant amount of hostility that white people have towards black people is a result of resentment over affirmative action. Hence the significance of the OJ trial.