Not since the debate over gays in the military has America infused an issue with such profound and divisive meaning as it has with the O.J. Simpson trial. The racial divisions it engenders exacerbate legitimate tensions over serious issues like welfare reform. Some blacks hailed the verdict as a blow for social justice. However, the tokenism of the verdict and of black America's response bespeaks only political impotence, a condition that compels blacks to find more forthright tactics and implicates a white-run political system that denies blacks a more effective voice.
Whites in Post-O.J. America are as race-conscious as anyone. The GOP incites racial animosity with its stands on affirmative action, crime and welfare, while President Clinton demonstrates his political courage by taking potshots at black entertainers. Willie Horton, urban white flight, and the immigration debate each attest to the continuing resonance of race among whites.
Whites still reserve acceptance for the few minority individuals who live in white neighborhoods and for "articulate" black leaders who all seem to oppose affirmative action and welfare. Whites still play ultra-violent video games like Mortal Kombat and watch Melrose Place and then criticize rap for lacking a moral compass.
Liberals compound the problem by insisting that we should simply be "color-blind," or by offering stale remedies that appeal to minority political establishments. Consequently, whites tacitly accept institutionalized racism, especially in the judicial system, and support government policies that reverse minority gains.
Unfortunately, the black response only feeds white resentment and harms African-Americans by obscuring their true interests with racial platitudes. Much of Washington's black community, for example, supports Mayor Marion Barry despite the damage he inflicted on the predominantly black city over 12 years of incompetence and corruption or the wretched example his womanizing and drug use set. Mike Tyson spent time in prison for raping a black woman, but he and Don King billed his trial as Black Men vs. The White Establishment, The Rematch.
Johnny Cochrane suggested that the jury should send a political message with its verdict. Whether or not the jury agreed, Cochrane's statement sent its own message: Blacks have more interest in rescuing a millionaire from prison than in the integrity of the jury system.
African-Americans' bunker mentality, while more understandable than that of whites, is equally counterproductive. The likely effects of the Simpson trial will be further curtailment of defendants' rights and growth in the political power of the Pete Wilsons and Pat Buchanans of our world. If African-Americans believe guerrilla attacks on the justice system are effective means of social reform, they will be unpleasantly reminded of the consequences of being a racial minority in a nation defined ever more sharply by race.
Black America's intense focus on criminal trials of prominent African-Americans and its acceptance of possible jury nullification attests to its powerlessness in the legislative arena. That the release of one man is taken as a major triumph demonstrates the lengths to which African-Americans must go for a victory. That the man's history of wife abuse and substantial evidence that he murdered his ex-wife are irrelevant is even more disheartening.
On the other hand, whites did not defend Rodney King's assailants, Mark Fuhrman or Susan Smith, and the media did not expect them to. Whites reject these figures without a second thought, making black support of O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson even more vexing. Racial tolerance, much less understanding, will elude us as long as African-Americans strike petty blows against the "system."
However, whites are the majority in America, in numbers and in political and economic power. When white America is insular and reactionary, other groups will follow. If whites used their money, public and private, in a serious effort to reduce inequality, particularly in education, Louis Farrakhan would quickly lose his audience. But if whites continue to accept racism among police, racial disparity in sentencing and a crime policy targeted at minorities, it cannot expect those minorities to acquiesce.
O.J. Simpson's most destructive accomplishment has been in convincing Americans that on some level he symbolizes black defendants. African-Americans seem to think that his acquittal helps other blacks fight corrupt police departments. More likely, cuts in legal services and habeas corpus will harm the innocent. Many whites draw the even more ridiculous conclusion that prosecutors frequently have trouble convicting blacks.
The trial tells us nothing new: Rich people are impossible to convict. Rich black people with predominantly black juries may be marginally better off, but money is singularly decisive. The trial could have fostered a productive discussion regarding money in the courts, where blacks and middle-class whites would have found common ground, but instead we have another fruitlessly divisive racial issue.
Which side is at fault? Whites drive African-Americans to bad collective decisions, and they comply willingly. Whites should stop viewing blacks as a unit, and blacks should stop acting as one. For its part, the media should stop asking "Which side is at fault?" and start asking Rodney King's question: "Why can't we all just get along?"
