Michael Eric Dyson: ‘In Light of the Accumulated Indignities’ Towards Blacks, Murder Victims Were Not the ‘Greatest Tragedy’ in O.J. Simpson Trial

TOOBIN: “The King case was the most vivid demonstration of that. However, the tragedy of the O.J.Simpson case, in my view, was that even though that was a legitimate complaint about the Los Angeles Police Department in general, O.J. Simpson got away with murder because he was the unjust beneficiary of that long and unfortunate history. O.J. Simpson killed those two people and he got away with it by his his lawyers doing their job, exploiting the ugly history of Los Angeles.”
DYSON: “Well, I will say this to that — “
COATES: “Before you do, I want to hear all of you, but before you do, you know, I’ve interestingly heard this throughout the years, decades’ worth, and my question is always the same, which is, can we have it both ways in America, that we can believe in our jury system when it‘s the verdict that you‘d like, and disregard it when it‘s a verdict you don‘t like and suggest that the jurors were somehow misled in a different way. It‘s always an interesting question as we approach important trials coming up as well. What was the point you wanted to raise, Michael?”
DYSON: “Well, I want to first address Jeffrey’s point there about the heinousness. It is true that it was tragic, evil and an unforgivable assault upon to human beings who lost their lives. But to say that was the greatest tragedy, in light of the accumulated indignities, murders, denials of opportunity, failure to give just due to African American people in the court system, that, my friend, is a weighted tragedy that we cannot merely dismiss. So it‘s not either/or. What happened to those two people was a heinous crime. What has continued to happen to African American people before that crime and after that crime are testimony to the deeply entrenched systemic inequities that continue to flagrantly deny opportunity for African American people. And we‘ve lost so many lives as a result of that, and we‘ve got to weigh those on the scale. They are both — I‘m not trying to say one is worse than the other, but to suggest somehow that those accumulated indignities are not themselves the story of this would be equally problematic as well. And yes, we can‘t have it both ways, when we like the outcome it‘s great; when we don‘t, it‘s horrible. This is what happened to white America. You got just a small taste of what African American people have had to deal with daily. The refusal to acknowledge that a case that was should‘ve been open and shut was against us and that‘s — look, that‘s from history, not only Emmett Till forward, we‘re talking about African-American people going to court every day and not having juries of their peers. We‘re talking about evidence that has been set in place to try to convict them. So the point is that this is a very complicated reality, and the jury trial is the best hope we have for arriving at any sense of justice in America.”