Justice Deferred >>

Guilty. That was the verdict in the courtroom on December 5^th, 2008. OJ Simpson, double murderer, was led away in shackles to serve out in prison what meaningful years he has left. Good riddance. But what slammed me to the wall after the initial thrill of justice served was not the length of years, but instead the lackluster enthusiasm towards this trial and verdict, compared to the former. What I was told in the 90s was the Trial of the Century was followed up by nothing more than a backpage side story, nullified in its effect to such a degree that water cooler passersby said during the arraignment “Oh, there is OJ… in a scuffle with the law again.”

I thought of Elliot Ness nailing Al Capone to the wall on tax evasion. And I thought of how at least Capone committed his crime acting on market forces…OJ acted on those forces after the crime.

I recollect that I was in 7^th grade when the verdict was read after months and months of deliberation. And I never knew why it was that OJ’s trial was considered important. He was not Thomas Edison, nor did he leave any indelible marks on Americana and history too significant. Maybe for the spectacular flee attempt? The melodramatic letter? The death of beauty? The fall of a hero? All of the great elements of a romantic trash novel…reading for about a year on TV newsfeeds. My class was perplexed at the trial’s verdict and how a man who was clearly guilty could walk after his perfidy. And we were equally stunned at the celebratory reaction from our black friends (what few I had living in Sticksville, Ohio) and why they found OJ’s proclamation of innocence to be so uplifting. Admittedly, I had no in-depth knowledge of Rodney King and the LA racial tensions at that time, and it made little sense to me how a jury could willfully suspend logic and common sense to strike a blow for their side of the hyphen.

Now as far as the state of blackness in America is concerned at this point, racial obsession is looking like a horse beaten beyond recognition. We sent a killer to jail because he was a killer. Not because of his blackness. America overcame whatever alleged racial phobias that Liberals said we harbored (and were adjusting for in the election) and picked a black president, which is more progressive than many other “modern” nations liberals point to when proposing a gun ban or abolishing the death penalty.

Can the Liberals finally get past race?

I would allege, with all respect to the race of which I am speaking, that Obama’s blackness was an advantage for youth attracted to novelty and for black voters that sided with him monolithically. At the very least, this jury judged the subject on the content of his character, a claim that I cannot make for Obama. So playingfield levelers like affirmative action need to stop. Objective reached. Impartiality in court for a black man (at least racial, not celebrity), and overpartiality for a nominee. Will there continue to be a criminal justice system that mills black men through its corridors and a workplace that prohibits mobility? At this point, I feel that such is up to each black individual now, and “free at last” means picking up the banner of self-determination and personal autonomy.

Murderers, who may just so happen to be black, can sell a few T-shirts like Mumia Abdul Jamal and Tookie Williams with pro-bono defense and raging fans—elevated to Nelson Mandela status. Black politicos can tap a homogenous racial electorate that they can harvest like cotton every election cycle. But I bet that that “typical white person,” Scott Peterson, sits in San Quentin and wishes he were black, and that the next GOP nominee wants more street cred.  >>