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OPINIONS/ The Charlotte Post
February 13,1997
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O J. Simpson was only fall guy in civil trial
By Linda Deutsch
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - The differences were many
but in the end it may have come down to one idea - the
jury in O.J. Simpson’s civil trial wasn’t offered anybody
but the football great to blame.
Although the law did not require the defense to find
that answer, it was an imderlying theme of the case and
one which the defense was barred from exploring in his
second trial. In bitterly fought pretrial motions, defense
lawyers lost the option of suggesting to jurors that Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed by
shadowy figures in the drug underworld - a theory
offered during Simpson's criminal trial.Superior Court
Judge Hiroshi Pujisald rejected the strategy on grounds
the defense could not back it up with sufficient evidence.
Simpson’s criminal “Dream Team” suggested Nicole
Simpson’s drug-using friend, Faye Resnick, placed her in
harm’s way when they shared living quarters for a time.
Perhaps, the lawyers suggested, Resnick owed big
money to drug dealers who came in search of her and
killed the victims by mistake. But Fujisaki found the the
ory was rank speculation unsupported by evidence and
ruled it could not be mentioned. In a verdict announced
last week, jurors unanimously found Simpson liable in
the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and awarded
Goldman’s mother and father $8.5 million. A punitive
phase of the trial - to punish Simpson - resulted in $25
million in damages..
Jurors remained imder a gag order Tuesday, so they
weren’t talking and it’s impossible to know what turned
jurors so steadfastly against Simpson. Perhaps it was the
physical evidence - the blood, hair, fibers or gloves.
Maybe it was something Simpson said - or didn’t say -
or 31 pictures purportedly showing Simpson wearing
Bruno Magh shoes. The defense was unable to use the
so-called race card in the second trial. ’The testimony of
disgraced former police detective Mark Fuhrman was
barred by Fujisaki.
Branded as a racist hate monger in the first trial and
forced in October to plead no contest to perjury,
Fuhrman was accused by the defense during the crimi
nal trial of framing Simpson by planting evidence. By the
time the civil trial began, Fuhrman had moved out of
state and refused to return to testify. ’The defense asked
to use the next best thing, his testimony at the criminal
trial, but the judge ruled against them. Fujisaki bought
the plaintiffs’ argument that defense lawyers had no
legitimate reason to call Fuhrman as a witness and were
merely setting him up as a whipping boy, injecting him
in the case only to tear him down.
In his opening statement, lead defense lawyer Robert
Baker attacked Nicole Simpson’s reputation. He told
jurors the beautiful divorcee was running with a bad
crowd, consorting with drug users and prostitutes, get
ting pregnant by a lover and having an abortion. All of
this, he said, could have placed her in the path of a killer.
But his allegations were never developed in testimony.
Simpson was the only witness asked to discuss the
claims and he seemed reticent to trash the reputation of
his dead ex-wife. In the end, the defense even tried trash
ing Goldman’s reputation.But no one ever offered the
name or the face of another possible killer.
LINDA DEUTSCLL covered the O.J. Simpson trial for
The Associated Press.
Honeymoon won’t last between political rivals
By Donald M. Eothberg
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The era of
good feelings, of gentle words
and grand common goals ought
to last at least for a few more
days.
Long enough for President
Clinton to deliver his State of
the Union address and the
Republican-run Congress to
start chewing on the details.The
assumption is the partisan
knives will come out once the
debate is joined on balancing
the budget, dealing with
Medicare, paying U.N. debts
and overhauling the welfare
reform act passed last year. The
Democratic president will pro
pose and the Congress wiU dis
pose. That is how the system
works. 'The result can be grid
lock. But it does not have to be
Not even in this era of divided
government. Both sides could
look back 40 years for an exam
ple of cooperation in a divided
government.
After President Eisenhower
was re-elected in 1956, Senate
Majority Leader Lyndon B.
Johnson and House Speaker
Sam Rayburn, two Texas
Democrats, pledged to work
with the Republican president.
They said the Democrats would
not offer a rival program. Much
to the dismay of portions of their
own party, Johnson and
Rayburn kept their pledge.
Clinton draws criticism today
from Democrats for backing
positions with a distinctly
Republican cast. No doubt.
Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., and House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.,
also would come under fire finm
their right if they got too cozy
with Clinton.
“The president has got to col
lect votes on the other side, and
the more he does that the more
he alienates people on his side,”
said University of Wisconsin
pohtical scientist Charles Jones.
“The same with congressional
leaders; the more they go
toward the president the more
they’re going to get some carp
ing from their wings.”
Jones called it “the nature of
the beast in split party govern
ment. But it’s also the definition
of coalition budding.”
The second Clinton term and
the 105th Congress have begun
on a note of concUiation. With
an ease unimaginable in the
take-no-prisoners political
atmosphere of a year ago, fom-
of Clinton’s second-term
Cabinet choices zipped through
the Senate with hardly a dis
senting vote. But the nomina
tions of Anthony Lake to head
the CIA and Alexis Herman as
secretary of labor are encounter
ing greater scrutiny. Senators
are raising questions about
Lake’s role as national security
adviser in the decision to give
tacit, covert approval to the flow
of Iranian arms to the Muslim
government of Bosnia. Also at
issue is the handling of energy
stocks Lake promised to sell to
avoid any conflict of interest
when he took his White House
job. Herman will have to
explain her role in helping
arrange White House briefings
for U.S. business executives
going on Commerce
Father of Black History Month
Carter Woodson’s
gift to America
grows in stature
By Ron Daniels
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Black America is in the midst
of celebrating Black History
Month which has become an
institution in the United States.
Unforhmately far too few people
are aware of Carter G.
Woodson, the man who had the
foresight and wisdom to con
ceive of the idea of an annual
occasion for Afiicans in America
to discover and celebrate their
history.
Bom in 1875 in New Canton,
W.Va., Woodson devoted his life
to restoring the self-esteem of
the sons and daughters AfHca
in America who suffered from
the physical and mental shack
les of enslavement.
Woodson, however, was con
cerned with much more than
racial self esteem. For Woodson,
self-awareness, a knowledge of
one’s origins, cultme and histo
ry was the key to the uplift and
liberation of an oppressed peo
ple. Hence his passion for Black
History was not a love of history
for history’s sake but a search
for that which could heal a
wounded people and prepare
them to struggle for liberation.
As an expression of his motive
for engaging the study of Black
History Woodson wrote;
“.. .No systematic effort toward
change has been possible, for,
taught the same economics, his
tory, philosophy, literature and
religion... the Negro’s mind has
been brought under the control
of his oppressor...When you con
trol a man’s thinking you do not
have to worry about his
actions.” The challenge as
Woodson perceived it, therefore,
was to utilize black history to
liberate the mind of Afiican peo
ple from the education and way
of life of their oppressors.
A dedicated and talented
scholar totally committed to
rediscovering the history of
African people which had been
intentional buried by Europe
and America, Woodson founded
the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History in 1916.
He also served as Editor of the
Journal of Negro History. 'The
Association and the Journal
were seen as vehicles to dissem
inate the “good news” that
Woodson and other scholars
were unearthing about the phe
nomenal achievements and con
tributions of Afiicans to history
and humanity. Woodson was
convinced that newly conscious
Afiicans would become mission
aries farming out amongst the
unconscious to rescue them
from the bondage of European
culture and history.
It was in 1926 that Woodson
decided to establish Negro
History Week for the “awaken
ing of American Africans to
their heritage.” In establishing
Negro History Week, Woodson
also offered suggestions on how
the week might be celebrated.
“...This included exercises
emphasizing the importance of
the African background, the
Negro in the discovery and
exploration of America, the
laborer, the inventor, the sol
dier, the poet, the artist, the
spokesman, the press, the busi
ness man, the professional class,
the educator, and the minister.”
Created at the height of the
Black Renaissance that was
sweeping the country, Negro
History Week was immediately
successful. Woodson was of
course quite pleased with prod
uct of his labor. He proudly
reported that “one high school
principal said that as a result of
the effort the pupils of his
schools were showing unusual
interest in their background. A
teacher said:
“The celebration improved my
children a hundred per cent. I
wish we could have Negro
History Week throughout the
year.”
Not content to rest on his lau
rels, Carter G. Woodson pub
lished his most important book.
The Mis-Education of the
Negro, in 1933. This widely read
work gave even greater impetus
and momentum to the celebra
tion of Negro History Week.
Though the teacher cited
above has not quite gotten her
wish, what began as Negro
History Week was transformed
into Black History Month as a
result of the Black
Consciousness Movement of the
‘60s. Indeed, the wisdom that
Carter G. Woodson showed in
establishing an aimual occasion
to celebrate the history of
Afiican people has not only led
to the expansion of the occasion
from a week to a month,
Woodson’s efforts have also con
tributed to the spawning of the
African Centered Education
Movement.
Consistent with Woodson’s
mission in pressing for the
study of Black History, the
essence of the Afiican Centered
Education Movement is to pro
mote education for liberation
and self development; a major
effort to counter and overcome
the damaging effects of
European education by making
Afiican history and culture an
integral component of the learn
ing experience of African stu
dents.
In that regard, as we celebrate
that which Carter G. Woodson
bequeathed to us, we should be
ever mindful of his original
motive and mission — to free the
African mind from the yolk of
European education and cul
ture, to liberate Afiican people
firom the oppressor.
Carter G. Woodson died in
Washington D.C. in 1950 hav
ing done his best to rediscover
our history as a tool to rehabili
tate and restore the race.
RON DANIELS is a syndicat
ed columnist who writes from
East Elmhurst, NY.
Department trade missions.
Repubhcans allege that pohtical
contributors got priority on such
trips. Immediately after the
presidential election, Sen.
Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., said
he was ending his investigation
of Whitewater, the Arkansas
land deals in which the Clintons
were investors. But there will be
plenty of congressional probes to
torment the administration.
Sen. Fred 'Thompson, R-Tenn.,
chairman of the Senate
Governmental Affairs
Committee, received Senate
approval for a yearlong, $6.5
milhon investigation into fund
raising activities by the 1996
Clinton and Dole campaigns.
On issues, there are these con
flicts and more:
• The administration is asking
Congress for $1 billion to pay
back dues to the United
Nations. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-
N.C., chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee,
says the world body shouldn't
get any money until it comes up
with a management-reform
plan.
• Clinton wants $16 bhhon to
restore programs cut in the wel
fare reform bill he signed last
year and promised to alter.
Among those benefiting would
be legal immigrants, people on
food stamps and employers who
hire people off the welfare rolls.
Most congressional Republicans
like the law just the way they
passed it last year.
• Medicare played its usual
hot-button role in the 1996 cam
paign, with Clinton saying the
GOP wanted to cut the health
care program and Republicans
countering that they wanted to
increase benefits but make
changes that would keep
Medicare from going broke.
That debate will continue.
• The president and Congress
talk about cutting taxes, but not
necessarily the same ones. One
area in which agreement looks
more probable is on capital
gains, long a GOP goal. Clinton
has recently indicated a willing
ness to discuss cuts in that area.
DONALD M. RO.THBERG
covers national affairs for The
Associated Press.
The history of Ebonics
By Junious Stanton
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Amidst the controversy over
Ebonics, the history of Afiicans
in America has been conve
niently overlooked.
Our ancestors were forcibly
brought to this hemisphere in
chains and subjected to egre-
giously brutal indignities and
atrocities designed to transform
them from Afiicans into chattel
(Negroes). In most colonies
(later states) it was against the
law to teach Afiicans to read or
write or provide even the rudi
ments of education.
An artificial language barrier
was created because Africans
were forbidden under severe
physical and psychological
duress from speaking their
native languages. Even when
they retained some famiharity
of their native tongue, the slave
system deliberately separated
Africans from the same tribe or
clan thus minimizing the poten
tial for communication, plotting
and rebellion. Africans learned
to speak English by imitating
the crude language of the over
seers who for the most part
were what came to be known as
white trash.
Later arrivals learned from
other detribalized and decul-
tured Africans who learned
from the lower class, uneducat
ed whites. (Remember it was
not until Reconstruction that
African Americans played a
major role in the establishment
of free universal public educa
tion in the South). Out of this
milieu emerged distinctive
regional dialects and patterns of
speaking based not only on the
local colloquialisms of the
whites but on the African’s
adaptations to them and what
they added to what was forced
upon them.
The way we speak is both our
response to cultural oppres
sion/depravation and a reflec
tion of the way Africans in
America view the world. Our
language simply mirrors every
thing else we’ve done here in
America. We bring oiu own dis
tinctive flair and approach to
whatever we are exposed to. It’s
just the way we are. Our music,
blues/spirituals/jazz/R&B,
evolved the same way.
Detribalized and decultured
Africans took African and
European instruments and cre
ated brand new forms of expres
sion.
The battle for quality educa
tion for all Afiicans in America
won a major victory in the U.S.
Supreme Court decision, Brown
vs. Topeka Kansas Board of
Education. The plaintiffs suc-
cessfiiUy argued that “Separate
but Equal” pedagogy was inher
ently inferior. Based upon the
evidence they presented and the
realities in existence at the time
the “high coiut” outlawed legal
ly sanctioned educational
apartheid in America. That
decision was rendered less than
43 years ago, but has not fuUy
rectified or remedied the situa
tion to this day.
Africans in America speak the
way we do for a number of rea
sons, many of which I have
already alluded to. I teach GED
English to adults. I tell them
they have to learn standardized
English to function in the work
place, to fill out applications,
write letters, research papers
and speak in a way that is
acceptable to “mainstream”
America. However, I also point
out the hypocrisy of the adver
tising industry for example, that
mutilates the spelling and the
pronunciation of the language
while nothing is said. I remind
them that we understand each
other when we use "our lan
guage" and that that is what
communication is all about. I
tell them not to be ashamed of
the way we speak to each other
as long as it is positive and
upUfting.
Not speaking “standard”
English gives those in power
another reason to knock us
down and belittle us.
JUNIOUS STANTON is a
syndicated columnist.
Deja vu all over
San Francisco
By John Templeton
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Ever since the Gold Rush, it
has been very dangerous to
be an African American
neighborhood in San
Francisco. As soon as a com
munity gets settled and com
fortable, someone else decides
they want your land.
'The city’s history can liter
ally be traced by the neigh
borhoods that used to be pop
ulated primarily by blacks
from the Financial District
and Chinatown to Russian
Hill and the Fillmore and
Hayes Valley. Tactics ranging
from vigilante violence and
the Fugitive Slave Act-to the
right of testimony law, urban
renewal, and in the case of
the Fillmore, even murder,
have been employed to dis
place black land owners. But
generally, it’s been done
under the auspices of legiti
mate governmental authority
through plaiming, zoning and
permits granted, often with
the stated purpose of improv
ing community conditions.
You’ll find very few former
residents of the Hayes Valley
or North Beach public hous
ing projects who expect to
move back into those areas
once they are demolished.
Nationally, Afiican American
urban neighborhoods have
been sited near industrial
concentrations. We’ve all
heard the oft-quoted saying
“the other side of the tracks.”
While doing an analysis of
Census data in the 1980s, I
was able to confirm demo-
graphically the validity of
that notion. While looking at
more than 100 metropolitan
areas, I was struck that 95
percent of the time, the 2000
block of East 14th Street in
any city was an 100 percent
African American area.
Further queries determined
that because of prevailing
winds heading east, African-
American neighborhoods
were generally just east of the
industrial area near the site
of the pollution from smoke
stacks. Since railroads ran to
the factories, those neighbor
hoods would be next to the
tracks. Conversely, in practi
cally any city, the 'West End'
was described as a fairly
upscale area with very few
blacks.
Despite the environmental
consequences, there might be
some security and lower
housing prices from being in
a less desirable area. But
those neighborhoods have
tended to be the path of least
resistance for highways, and
major construction projects
like the Oakland postal clear
ing center. Crippled hy the
lack of access to mortgage
capital for home building and
renovations, the communities
have been unable to amass
the capital to hold on to their
neighborhoods.
New Bayview publisher
Willie Ratliff is now sovmding
the alarm for Bayview-
Himters Point, the site of the
highest concentration of
hreast cancer in the world. It
also lies between the already
approved Pacific Bell Park for
the San Francisco Giants and
the about-to-go-to-the-voters
49ers stadium-mall complex,
linked by a planned light rail
line up Third Street
Although the combined
impact of the Giants and
Niners has never meant an
iota of economic benefit to
Bayview, RatUff correctly per
ceives that someone will ben
efit from the increased land
values due to the appeal of
the new facilities. History
tells him that it won’t be the
current residents.
In the same way that an
effort has been launched to
create an economic magnet
with the Fillmore Jazz
Preservation District
although hopefully much
more effectively and quickly,
there is a need to give the
Bayview-Hunters Point com
munity an economic focus
that provides jobs and entre
preneurship for residents.
JOHN TEMPLETON is a
syndicated columnist.