Monday, 6/9/97 Simpson verdict turns back tide of judicial
racism
Aaron Howard Oct. 13, 1995 As I stroll into the office I work in
the Anderson School, anticipation is in the air. My co-worker is
attempting to hook up a television; but since there’s no antenna,
he ends up using a metal spoon, aluminum foil, paper clips and the
antenna from a Sony Watchman to produce a grainy black and white
image that makes people different shades of a shadowy gray. The day
is Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1995. And the verdict concerning O.J. is about
to drop. Like the cherry bomb they use on cartoons, the fuse is
lit, and we’re all just waiting to see how it explodes. My heart is
racing like a broken metronome and… BOOM! The bomb drops. O.J.
Simpson is found not guilty. So I start jumping around the office
in intense celebration hollering, "Yes! Yes!" Except, no one’s
celebrating with me, and maybe it’s because I’m the only black
person watching. My fellow co-workers, all white and Asian, trudge
back to their desks like children disappointed on Christmas because
they didn’t get what they wanted from Santa. As I pranced around
the office in jubilation that day, I realized that a lot of people
were genuinely upset about the verdict. However, most of the rage
burned within the hearts of whites. The reason O.J Simpson was not
convicted was that there was enough reasonable doubt to acquit him
five times over! If you followed the case, you know that besides
the reasonable doubt, they had convicted hum after reviewing such
sloppy work by the coroner and detectives (even without including
Mark Fuhrman’s lying butt) the verdict would have been totally
unfair and justice wouldn’t have been served. How would you like to
be convicted on contaminated and sloppily collected evidence? I’m
not even saying that O.J. didn’t do it. But the evidence was so
corrupt and convoluted that to convict him would have been one of
the worst decisions in American history. But wait up. What I’m
trippin’ off of is all these white folks trying to protest and
convict the man even after a jury of his peers said he was not
guilty. Get over it! When those two white policemen were set free
after the videotape showed that they beat the blackness of Rodney
King, I didn’t see any whites protesting. I did not see any whites
holding a candlelight vigil for all the African American victims of
police abuse. Anybody have a videotape showing O.J. Simpson as the
killer? Oh, I didn’t think so. The man is free! All this whining
and complaining is not going to change that. And as far as I’m
concerned, for whites to persist in calling the jurors ignorant and
that O.J. was set free because the jurors were black, is racist and
self-serving. It’s also somewhat true though. Because I know if
that jury contained a white majority, O.J. would be in prison right
now. Because that trial wasn’t about O.J., it was about a black man
who was with a white woman. Most of white America was already upset
because of that! I’m saddened over the deaths of Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but must we make O.J. Simpson the
scapegoat over such a heinous crime? If Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ronald Goldman were black, white would not be so fervent and
passionate about convicting O.J. In fact, no one would be saying
anything. If O.J. Simpson was white there would have been little
public outcry, but not nearly as much as it is now. You know why?
‘Cuz many whites can’t stand blacks actually getting something they
deserve. They feel bad that a jury consisting predominantly of
African Americans acquitted another African American. They want the
black man’s fate in their hands. But not this time. ‘Cuz it’s about
time that African Americans got some justice. We’ve been at the
mercy of whites for 300 years. They convicted us whenever they felt
like it. And if they couldn’t put us on trial, they strung us up in
the woods on tall trees and took pictures of of our limp, dangling
bodies, and they laughed. After Medgar Evers was shot and killed,
his killer was set free but an all-white jury; I don’t care if he’s
convicted now. The man is so old, he’s about to die anyway. That’s
not justice. There never has been justice for the African American.
And we’ve been saying the system needs changing. No one listened.
Now that they acquitted a black man, everyone is saying, "the
system needs changing." It figures. Personally, I love everybody.
That includes whites, Asians, Latinos and any other group I come
into contact with. As a Christian, it’s a command that I love
everyone. However, I don’t turn a deaf ear to the cries of white
people. I don’t close my mouth when someone needs to speak out
against the double standard that still exists in American society.
And just as Jesus, while he walked the earth, had a place in his
heart for lepers, the poor and downtrodden, I too feel for my
people who for too long have been the oppressed and downtrodden.
And when it seems as if we’re targeted negatively for a decision
that represents justice, I must say something. I can’t stand back
and let whites vilify my people for a decision they felt in their
hearts was right. What happened on that night in June 1994, we’ll
never know. I wasn’t there, and neither were you. We can hear the
evidence and listen to people say this and that… but we weren’t
there. So how do you know for sure that O.J. did it? Police
departments have been framing African Americans for decades. Can
you say Geronimo Pratt? How about Mumia Abu-Jamal? Let’s not
construct more racial division over this trial. Racial division is
not what America’s in need of today. And as I sit here wonderin’, I
hear Stevie say, "Love’s is need of love today / Don’t delay, send
yours in right away/ Hate’s going around breaking many hearts/ Stop
it please before it’s gone too far." It’s gone too far. And the
hate over this trial needs to cease. Accept the jury’s verdict,and
let’s continue trying to mend broken bridges. Howard was a
fourth-year Anthropology student.