I had never seen the Student Center so crowded in my life as it was Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. There must have been over a hundred people crowded around the television awaiting the verdict of the “trial of the century.”
As O.J. Simpson was pronounced not guilty of double murder by a supposed jury of his peers, I felt a wave of anger and disgust come over me, but what was even more disgusting was the split reactions of the people around me in the Student Center.
I could not believe my eyes! It seemed like the majority of the people cheering were African-American, and the majority of the people sitting there dumbfounded were Caucasian. For the first time in my life I felt the vibes of segregation, even though we were all in the same room. I realized that, if it was happening right in the heart of ULV, it was happening all over the world.
Were we all following the same trial? It makes me wonder how many of us really believe in the things we support or if race is sometimes the issue that comes before the issue.
I am sure not all African-Americans believe Simpson is innocent, nor do all Caucasians believe he is guilty. But what is true is that we as people are not as unified as we claim to be.
I believe Simpson is a murderer—black or white, he is still a murderer. It is not a race issue and never was.
Mother Teresa once said that the day she became a humanitarian was the day she saw Hitler in herself.
For the first time in my life I am actually able to understand the rage of the people who rioted in the streets of Los Angeles after the acquittal of Stacy Koons and Lawrence Powell. I am not justifying the riots, but on Tuesday morning I saw how devastating it can be when racial differences help form opinions and can even keep what I consider a guilty man out of jail. When Powell and Koons were acquitted, I was disappointed too, but failed to understand why people were so angry. Now I get it.
I am absolutely appalled at the lack of justice in the justice system. The American public knows how much evidence there was against Simpson because we saw it with our own eyes. Was it all for nothing?
I think it was just another case of “we want to go home” on the part of the jury, which is why it took them a mere three and a half hours to deliberate a case that has been going on for nine months. The media reported that their bags were packed that morning, before they even went into deliberation. How ironic.
Technically, Simpson was not given a jury of his peers. Sure, there were nine African-American people on the jury, but they were from the inner city where the oppressed mentality can be easily catered to by instigators like Johnnie Cochran. Simpson did not live in the inner city of L.A., he lived in Brentwood, a predominantly white area.
An African-American woman was quoted on television, “Now that we’ve embraced him, he must come back to his people.”
Maybe if the jury had taken their jobs more seriously, the trial would not have widened the racial divide. It might have even brought people together and forced them to look at the real issues at hand. Imagine that—an African-American football star millionaire convicted of double murder by a jury in which nine out of the 12 jurors were African-American themselves.
What a breakthrough it would have been! A true historical event. Not only would the justice system have been redeemed in the eyes of educated America, but faith in people and equality would have been redeemed as well. The same would have applied a few years ago when there were twelve white jurors that acquitted Powell and Koons.
The Simpson verdict also proves to battered women just what Nicole Brown said. “He’s going to kill me and he’s going to get away with it.” He did, Nicole, he certainly did.
