A CNN contributor sparked outrage Thursday by saying that OJ Simpson “represented one thing for the black neighborhood … notably as a result of there have been two white individuals who had been killed.”
Ashley Allison made the remark in the course of the community’s protection of the dying of the 76-year-old Simpson, the disgraced NFL legend who was acquitted in 1995 of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her buddy Ron Goldman.
Allison — a former Obama administration official who additionally labored on Joe Biden’s presidential marketing campaign in addition to his transition workforce — was weighing in on the racial tensions that pervaded the nation in the course of the Simpson trial and its aftermath.
She stated the Simpson case delivered to the fore “simply how black People really feel about policing.”
“He wasn’t a social justice chief, however he represented one thing for the black neighborhood in that second, in that trial, notably as a result of there have been two white individuals who had been killed,” Allison stated.
“And the historical past round how black individuals have been persecuted throughout slavery.”
Allison’s commentary sparked a backlash, with one X person remarking: “Completely unhinged racism.”
“They’re persevering with to say the quiet half out loud,” one other X commenter wrote.
An X person wrote that in the event that they stated the identical factor about white individuals on Fox Information, “I’d be cancelled so quick.”
The Put up has sought remark from CNN and Allison.
Marc Lamont Hill, a distinguished media persona and CUNY professor, additionally made waves when he wrote on his X account that whereas Simpson was “an abusive liar” and a “monster” who “killed two individuals in chilly blood,” his acquittal “was the proper and essential results of a racist legal authorized system.”
The X submit additionally prompted pushback, with one commenter writing: “Saying he left the black neighborhood and admitting he’s a m*rderer however believing he nonetheless deserves black legal immunity is wild.”
Hill defended his declare that the acquittal was simply, noting that Mark Fuhrman, the detective from the Los Angeles Police Division who labored the case, “was caught mendacity” about having referred to black individuals with racist epithets.
Hill additionally stated Fuhrman pleaded the Fifth when requested whether or not he planted proof within the Simpson case.
“That raises authorized doubt,” in line with Hill. “That’s why the decision was correct.”
“No matter race, the system must be honest.”
Hill wrote that LA prosecutors “failed to satisfy [their] burden” and that “a racist police officer created cheap doubt due to his lies and documented racism.”
“That is how the system is meant to work,” Hill wrote. “There’s no exception for individuals you don’t like.”
Through the Simpson trial, Fuhrman testified beneath oath that he by no means referred to black individuals with the N-word.
However Simpson’s legal professionals later launched into proof tapes by which Fuhrman is heard utilizing the epithet.
