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From: Jean
Date: 2/23/01
Time: 6:15:16 PM
I think that OJ is seen differently by whites and blacks even in those who believe that he is innocent.
OJ was a role model to the black community. He showed that a black man could make it in a white world in multiple areas. He was not only successful in sports but went on to be in advertisement, not as an aunt Jamima character but as a successful business man. A man in a business suit.
With a group of friends that were both black and white, he showed that blacks could integrate into a mixed society. Because of this the pendants accused him of not being black. But this was a lie as much as anything else. The reality was that he was accepted by both blacks and whites on every societal level. The fact that he kept his charity work low key was another thing that they used against him, which was a real character asset.
Now his big flaw is his poor judgement about women. I do not know why, but there are many men who have this ego thing about having wives and girlfriends that are traded in so that they remain the age that the man was in his prime. You see this even more in successful men, perhaps it is just because they can afford to do so.
But I can easily see that people in the black community can see him as a hero. He is someone that a black parent can say to a kid, OJ did it so can you. OJ was the epitome of the non raciest, and the irony is that it was his downfall. It was not the murder, nor even the alleged abuse (read Jasper Garrison's book and you will see that he yelled, he did not hit) not even the drug culture. He was lynched because he was a black man who made it in a white world.
I grew up in a southern place. No prejudice to blacks, EXCEPT those uppity n's. The blacks who got an education, who were professional or business men. Then it was said that they did not know their place. You see OJ stepped out of the role that whites said he was OK in, football hero, OK, but business man living with a beautiful white wife in an upscale neighborhood, well that was uppity and he had to be put back in his place.
No OJ was not a hero to me, a white woman, but it may have been very different to a black mother or father. And I am sure that I have not gotten it just right, as I can't really look at the world from a black person's perspective. I can only pretend to walk in their shoes.
Now how much of this election was about race and I am not talking about the disenfranchisement. I am talking about those who consciously or subconsciously voted for Dubya-cause he might make it more difficult for the blacks to get ahead. No matter what he said, his actions prove that this is true. As crazy as it may sound it was not personality that won, it was won (well close enough for them to steal it) on the issues. Just no one wants to admit it.
Just some stuff to think about.
Jean