Newspaper Article

Seeing the Simpson Verdicts in Black and White

By Michael Eric Dyson. Michael Eric Dyson is professor of communications studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author, most recently, of "Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line."

1997

Overview

For starters, we must acknowledge that there is no easy equivalency between the experiences of blacks and whites. It is by now a commonplace among critics to say that what blacks and whites see in this case depends on where they fall in the racial order. This observation assumes that black and white perspectives on race share an equal starting place of reasonable bias - that is, that one's self, or group, interest will color, but not control, what one thinks about racial issues. The problem with this assumption is that it neglects the history of how black and white interests were unequally weighted in determining what was viewed as reasonable to begin with. In other words, white perspectives on race have long set the limits for what is accepted as common sense or received wisdom on the subject. The success of this move among whites has hinged in large part on the power to deny the legitimacy, logic or persuasiveness of black beliefs about race. Black folk have often been made to feel foolish, ignorant or stupid - and in some cases, insane - for the racial views they hold. This history must be taken into account as we assess the radical discrepancy between white and black views of the Simpson trials. To assign equal value to the perspectives of whites and blacks as a group - the suspicions they harbor, the skepticism they nourish, the biases they express - is to pretend that racial differences in opinion were given equal consideration in determining the course our country should follow in resolving its racial agonies.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC