From OJ to Trayvon
is the title of this NY Times column by Charles Blow, to which I would like to direct your attention. Blow begins his piece simply but bluntly:
The case of Trayvon Martin is producing another O.J. Simpson moment for America.A recent Gallup poll shows a real difference in attitude: most Blacks believe Zimmerman is guilty of a crime and that racial bias was a major factor, while only 11% of non-Blacks definitely think Zimmerman is guilty and only 1/3 think Zimmerman was operating on racial bias or that he would have been arrested had his victim been white.Gallup itself makes the parallel with the OJ case:
"In one Gallup poll conducted Oct. 5-7, 1995, for example, 78 percent of blacks said the jury that found Simpson not guilty of murder made the right decision, while only 42 percent of whites agreed.”Blow makes two points. OJ was charged with murder, and he as a Black man thinks OJ was guilty. As I noted last night on twitter when he asked for responses to his column, I am white, have no doubt that OJ did it, but thought his rights were totally violated when the police went over the fence without a warrant, thus thought it almost poetic justice when the bloody glove - which should never have been admitted into evidence - turned out to be the basis of his acquittal - remember Johnny Cochran repeating "If the glove does not fit, you must acquit."The point of Blow's column flows from the apparent parallel in attitudes between the two cases, something he puts simply:
But there is an important, if strained, commonality between them: the issue of equal treatment by the justice system.Please keep reading.
