On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson not only made history but took the greatest step ever in the way of improving race relations in the United States as he stepped onto Ebbets Field with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African-American ever to play in the previously all white American league.
Just several months later, on July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, Cal., another great sport figure would be born, Orenthal James Simpson. Orenthal grew up on the streets of San Francisco’s projects known as Petrero Hills where he spent much of his time playing sports in the projects rec center.
When Orenthal was just seven years old, on May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled on the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. recognizing that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Although it wasn’t recognized at the time, this was the beginning of Orenthal’s future in education.
In August of 1955 Emmett Till from Chicago was visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped, tortured, and shot, his body then dumped in the Tallahatchie River. Two white men were tried for the crime and were acquitted. Although the case was lost, it kicked off the Civil Rights movement which would continue to fight for equality for all races.
On December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to white man and was arrested. Her arrest led to a year-long boycott which led to the desegregation of busses in the South. Orenthal was just eight years old, and the fight was on.
In Jan. and Feb. of 1957, Orenthal was ten years old when Dr. Martin Luther King, along with Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth, formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the SCLC. Dr. King was made president. He established the guidelines of dignity and repose with which the organization would conduct itself, paving the roadway which Orenthal would travel, a gift, so to speak for Orenthal and all blacks to achieve a higher status than their fore-fathers.
Sept. of 1957 in Little Rock Ark. nine black students found themselves blocked from entering all white Central High School on the orders of Governor Orval Faurbus. President Eisenhower sent in federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." 1960 found more blacks and white sympathizers continuing to protest for rights across the south. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael.
Article comments
1 - Dia
This is the best thing I've ever read on this subject and I have read a LOT.
If OJ wants to save any dignity or legacy for himself, his children and the black community, he needs to really confess.
To come clean at last.
2 - Peter J
Thank you Dia,
My intent was to demonstrate my anger at what this man has done to all blacks, who are both equally African-Americans and Americans. Our Americaness is the one thing we share equally, whether black or white, and as a fellow American I'm enraged at what this man has done and the liberties he enjoyed at the expense of black America.
There were both black and white Americans who fought the fight for half a century to abolish all inequities that ignorant Americans brought upon our fellow Americans. This man single-handedly took that fight back by 20 years at the least.
I wouldn't dare to assume that I know how African-Americans feel. What I do know is how I feel seeing other Americans treated in the way that blacks have and the shame knowing that it was perpetrated by my fellow white Americans.
All that I can do is try to explain how I and millions of Americans must feel and hope that this man will be totally discarded like the piece of trash that he is and the healing will begin, again.
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
This whole trashy affair reminds me of the movie "Body of Evidence," where the lawyer gets his client off the hook in a murder thorugh sexual exhaustion only to discover she is guilty...
4 - Nancy
I think this has more to do with the common human factor that some people are just plain low-class, regardless of color. OJ would have been the same crass jerk whether he was white, black, yellow, red, brown, or rainbow plaid. I think his attitude has/had far more to do with the spoiled, over-entitled worldview that all coddled celebrities of every race or color exhibit.
5 - Peter J
Nancy,
Bingo!
You get it.
This article is about much more than OJ.
The man isn't worth the ink (or whatever it is we're using)
It's a commentary on the social status of classes which gets disguised by color or race. It's conditioning which is what must be overcome. Society thinks black, it assumes poor and drugs. It thinks white, it associates it with money and goodness. Of course this is not the case, it's not even close but it's what we're trained to 'assume'. Like Pavlov's dog's we have no choice, even if we admit to no prejudice, whether we be black, white or yellow there's a little thing which goes off deep in the back of our minds when introduced to someone new saying things to us that we don't necessarily believe but they affect how we feel. This we have no control over, but, how we handle that 'feeling' is what we do have control over. The initial introduction is where our minds form the opinion whether we will approach a person as a black, white or neutral.
OJ is a black man who literally was neutral from introduction to the nation. He had no color in the eyes of the nation. He acted just like any other star football player and was treated thus, that is until he himself took the roll of black man.
Look at all the confusion, for blacks he became the persecuted black man, for whites he became the guilty rich man and the press played it off as the racial battle of the century, even though there was no battle. A battle needs at least two sides to be fought, there was competition among blacks, feeling that OJ represented the oppressed African-American nation but white America had not, for the most part, considered color, it was class warfare, a rich man buying freedom. It was one large confusing mess. Everyone was fighting but nobody really knew who was the enemy. I think the enemy is society and the loser was society.
Judging by public reaction to this book I believe that there has been a lot of healing. I hope that, in the end this will be a battle lost, one which taught us a lot more about ourselves as a people, black and white alike. Hopefully, we can someday rise above the media crap, the crap that brought us the "N" word. Have you ever seen anything so goddam childish in your life?? The Fukkin "N" Word! It just blows me away. I'm a Sicilian-American (although I don't go around addressing myself as such) and I have, many times, been called a "WOP", a Ginny Bastard, among others. I would have been hilarious had someone ever called me "Hey, you "W" word! What are we letting the media society do to us?
I've never seen anything so ridiculous in my life but these are, the so-called "media", the people who "train" us, who pound us with rhetoric, who love to push racial shit, even if it's not there, who will create it or find someting other than, to stir people up, pit them against one another. It makes great news. That's what OJ was all about anyway. We're all dogs.
6 - Zedd
No. We need to be honest. For Whites it was not about the rich guy who got away with a crime. There are many rich guys who get away with crimes every year so lets stop pretending.
It was a RICH, BLACK man who HAD SEX with then KILLED a BLONDE white woman.
It is impossible for America to have healed from lynching black men for looking at white women in two decades. Let be honest. We are still very ill. No one ever claims to be racist but we have this horrible history that is IN US.
He was
1.Black - a crime
2.Rich - how dare he. thats not supposed to happen. well atleast it was sports.
3.had sex with white girl - oh my goodness
4.killed her - there are no words!! we must stop them all!!!
7 - Peter J
Sorry Zedd, I have to disagree. First of all , sure there are millions of white men who get off and there are also millions of black men who get off but none were so "in you face" as OJ. A white man named Charles Manson was not charged in the murder of Sharon Tate and friends or the LaBiancas but everyone, EVERYONE, wanted him dead. It's what's in your face.
I agree with you that we have this horrible history but we (whites) were the perpetrators. It mostly falls on our shoulders to tow the line. As I said, we can't control our programmed feelings but admitting to them is the first step in dealing with our reactions. I don't know where you come from but I'm definitely not high society. The very few people who I've come across who felt being black was a crime are not in my life anymore. If you read back to what I said about conditioning by society, we all, black and white alike have been conditioned to fear or hate the other. I said "How we handle that feeling is what we do have control over".
If you've given in to that conditioning that's your problem. I get the same messages as anyone else but I don't let it confuse my rational.
"black"- so what? I don't get your point.
"rich"- I'd say that most people , who are barely getting by in this so-called "wealthy" country have a bit of an attitude toward the rich
"had sex with a white girl"- you must be living in Miss. circa 1960. Again, you control what you do with your feelings
"Killed her"- I can't control my animosity for anyone who preys on someone and kills anyone, I don't care what color.
I don't think society as a whole still holds ALL of the animosity that you feel. By bringing them up it shows that you have not yet learned that your feelings are programmed, if you'll accept being brainwased without so much as a recognition or an attempt to fight it you'll never change. I think there are many in society who have recognized it and are trying to change.
One question which always comes up when discussing racial prejudice is "What if your daughter came home with a black man?"
My honest answer, If he had a grill and a ton of "bling", pull up to the house blasin gangsta rap and hits me with "wassup" on introduction, I would feel exactly the way I've felt about the couple of white men she's brought home.
One time, I would like her to show up with a young man in approx. her age bracket up with a bright, polite, attitude who could carry an intelligent conversation on almost any level, with NO grill, NO bling, NO gangsta signin.
I don't care what color he is. A white guy wit shorts 5 sizes too large, a hooded sweatshirt in july and tats ankle up on both legs and a shaved head isn't gonna make my "love list". It's not about the color, it's about the "freek"
The problem with that question is the same problem that is associated with the word black. First thought is a gangsta with all the requisites. If you can break that down your on a good start. This is hardly what blacks are about. Blacks make up less than 15% of the population. Gangstas make up probably 1% of those. Most blacks are working, supporting families, in school learning a trade or profession. If we allow it to happen we are probably 3 generations down the road this cycle can be broken. We mostly have to teach the children but first everyone needs to lose the defeatist attitude that you have.
Blacks are as much responsible as whites for racial ambiguity. I've employed many people in my life , white, African-American, Jamaican, Haitian and on and on.
One man sticks in my mind because he said honestly what many blacks believe.
In a paint/body shop the exhaust stacks for the paint booth must be cleaned regularly. I had gone to the top of the spray booth to inspect stacks in one of my shops. When I got up there it had been neglected and was a mess. I started right in scraping and cleaning in my shirt and tie and when it was coming on my time to go to my next shop I called on a man who was a pretty new employee to go up and finish the job. He asked why. Because it needs to be done and I've asked you to do it. "Why me", he's pissin me off. "It's cause I'm black, I knew it, the black man loses again", sensing he may be joking I said ,"that's right, because your black". The shop was about 75% black. Now he asks me for a raise. This clowns serious. No, no raise. "Yea, you're white, you got plenty of money". I leaned close and said "I'm gonna tell you a secret. When ever a white baby is born the Govt. opens an account and puts a million dollars in it." "I knew it, I knew there was something" He really believed it. Before I left the shop , two other men came in and asked if it was true. I couldn't believe it, where had they gotten this notion that all whites were automatically rich per the govt.?
They too were conditioned, by parents, relatives, friends, but you couldn't tell them different because all whites are liars. This isn't their fault, but it's up to blacks who know differently to step up. Before you say "see?" let me tell you that was 20 years ago.
It's up to everyone who's gotten past the bullshit to get others past it, especially children. To teach a child before they've been introduced to the lies and give them a much more deep seated belief that we are all the same, we're just the checkers in a game. All we need to do is use our brains and stop playing. It seems like such a simple damn thing to do.