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By Frederick Benjamin Sr. _
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
ARTICLE OF ANALYIS AND INTERPRETATION
Race, race, race. The chilling mantra emanating from just about
every quarter of the nation is deafening and numbing at the same
time.
The outrage that most white Americans apparently feel is the
closest they may-ever come to understanding the pent-up rage that
lies, often dormant, within the breasts of most Americans who were
not born into the dominant White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture
and all that it pretends to be.
Whites needn’t whine incessantly about the perceived injustice of
the Simpson verdict because, after all, the shoe has been on the other
foot for centuries. Blacks, Latinos,
Asian-Americans, Native Americans,
etc. know only too well what whites
are experiencing. They know only
too well the feeling of helplessness, of
being cheated, of having no recourse,
That feeling, that blind rage, is the
characteristic of the ultimate VIC
TIM.
What whites don’t fully compre
hend, however, is the glee, the joy,
the satisfaction that most blacks
apparently feel from this verdict.
That jubilation was not borne of rac
ism or anti-white feeling, or even
love of 0.d., but of relief.
Most blacks felt that the deck was
INSIDE
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See Page 19
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October 5-11,1995 VOL. XIV NO. 720
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What many whites don’t
fully comprehend, howev
er, is the glee, the joy, the
satisfaction that most
blacks apparently feel
from this verdict. That
jubilation was not borne of
racism or anti-white
feeling, or even love of
0.J., but of relief.:
Article on race in the
newsroom hits nerves
B Debate over
affirmative action
spills over into news
rooms. Work of
minority journalists
belittled.
By Mike Feinsilber
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
Two venerable Washington
publications are in a name-call
ing fight over the place of inte
gration in journalism.
First, The New Republic mag
azine, which has no full-time
blacks on its staff, attacked the
hiring policies of The Washing
ton Post, which has one of the
country’s mostintegrated news
rooms.
Then the Post accused the
magazine of engaging in “racial
McCarthyism.” In reply, The
New Republic said black jour
nalists at the Post must always
wonder if they are published be
cause they are good or because
they are black.
Your local newspaper sponsored by your local grocer.
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GRAPHIC BY XAVIER JONES P
stacked against O. J. Simpson because of his race, in spite of his
tremendous wealth. They understood the defense’s claims, claims
that most white Americans, through no fault of their own, were
ineapable of understanding. The verdict, and the support that it
received from black Americans does not mean that blacks and
whites are destined to be at each others’ throats. It does suggest,
however, that blacks and whites perceive very different realities in
this country.
Many blacks felt that Johnnie Cochran’s harangue in his closing
arguments was embarrasingly shallow and did not feel for a moment
that it moved the jury one way or another. Yet, white Americans
point to that very act as the determining factor in the whole trial.
Johnny Cochran did not 2ave to convince those jurors of anything.
They could see for themselves that the prosecution did not prove O.J.
Simpson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt und it had nothing to do
See FUHRMAN, page 3
In her article, Ms.
Shalit asserted
that, in its quest for
diversity, the Post
hires and promotes
minorities over
more qualified
whites.
Thedisputeillustrates the sen
sitivity of affirmative action
when it moves from the front
page and the editorial page into
practice in the nation’s news
rooms. The article generated
heated debate within the Post
and led to a staff meeting attend
ed by 400.
JonJeter and Robert E. Pierre,
two black reporters on the Post
metropolitan staff, sent an in
ternal message objecting to the
“cowardice” of white colleagues
who were quoted anonymously
in The New Republic as belit
tling the work of minority jour
nalists. :
The 13,000-word article said
the Post’s affirmative-action pol
icies have aggrieved white male
staffmembers, left minority staff
members feeling they got their
jobs and promotions because of
theirethnicity,and corrupted the
paper’s journalism, causing a
squeamish approach to racially
sensitive stories.
“Racial McCarthyism” and “big
liepropaganda,”replied the Post’s
executive editor, Leonard Downie
Jr., in a letter to the magazine.
And publisher Donald E. Gra
ham wrote that the article’s au
thor, Ruth Shalit, 24, would not
know much about working with
blacks since she is employed by
“the last practitioner of de facto
segregation since Mississippi
changed.”
He suggested The New Repub
lic’s motto could be, “Looking for
a qualified black since 1914.”
In its Oct. 16 issue, out this
weekend, The New Republic said
Graham’s “wild accusation” is
“outrageous,” because the maga
zine long has been “a vital de
fender of traditional civil rights,
attacked first from theracist right
and now from the race-obsessed
See NEWSROOM, page 9
MR. BOH HENNEBERGER \
CHONGIA NEWSPAPER ]
UNIVERSITY OF GA
ATHENS GA 30802 12131/g9 J
|
SMART
MOWVES
Laney Wildcats
find winning ways
on gridiron
THE SIMPSON VERDICT
Juror: Race not
afactorinverdict
B Lying detec
tives, unreliable
evidence were
most important
factors, jurors
say.
LOS ANGELES
(AP) dJuror Brenda
Moran, a black computer
technician from South
Central Los Angeles, said
Wednesday she voted to
acquit OJ Simpson be
cause the prosecution’s
‘evidence was unreliable,
one detective lied, one was
a racist and the discovery
ofthe glove was suspicious.
“Somebody planted it,”
she said at a packed news
conference.
Meanwhile, Simpson
said in a telephone inter
view Wednesday that he
was happy after the ver
dict but added, “I haven’t
really had a chance to
breathe,” CNN reported.
“Yesterday, it was a fes
tive mood at the house.
But at the same time my
kids don’t have a mother.
People don’t seem to un
derstand: I loved that
woman.”
Moran, 45, who repairs
computers and printers for
a court, said jurors spent
less than 4 hours deliber
ating the case because the
prosecution case was so
thin and the evidence was
so untrustworthy.
“Mr. Simpson was not
guilty. It was not proven. I
didn’t have enough evi
dence to convince me he
was guilty,” Moran said.
Jews fear role of
Farrakhan in
Million Man March
By Jehron Hunger
PHILADELPHIA NEW OBSERVER
PHILADELPHIA
The number-one topic of
discussion in the African-
American community is
the upcoming March on
Washington called origi
nally by Nation of Islam
leader Minister Louis
Farrakhan. Never before
has an effort united the
Black community like this
March for atonement and
a more equitable place in
society.
And as if on cue, certain
segments, notably the
Anti Defamation League
of the Jewish community,
have responded with con
sternation and concern.
The ADL says the “idea of
the March itself, is, obvi
ously, quite commendable
... however, (it) has the
potential for advancing the
influence of one of Ameri
ca’s most unrelenting
hate-mongers and anti-
Semites.” This theme is
the same as the one made
by the ADL when the then
BULKRATE
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
NO. 302
AUGUSTA, GA
She said she believed De
tective Philip Vannatter
lied and Detective Mark
Fuhrman was a racist.
Vannatter’s actions
raised questions, she said.
She didn’t understand why
he didn’timmediately book
“In plain
English, the
gloves didn’t
fit.”
— Simpson juror
into evidence a vial of Sim
pson’s blood, but took it out
to Simpson’s house to give
to a criminalist.
Although defense attor
ney Johnnie Cochran Jr.’s
soaring summation
brought her to tears with
memories of a sister killed
in a car accident, Moran
denied that racial bias on
the black-majority jury
played any role in its deci
sion.
In fact, she denied the
race card was a factor.
“We didn’t evendeal with
that deck, period,”she said.
She said the glove dem
onstration, in which
Simpson struggled to put
on the evidence gloves, was
crucial.
“In plain English, the
gloves didn’t fit,” she said.
The statement was remi
niscent of Cochran’s clos
ing theme: “If it doesn’t fit,
you must acquit.”
Finally, she had ques
tions about the bloody sock
found at the foot of Simp
son’s bed, siding with de-
See JURY, page 2
executive director of the
NAACP, Dr. Benjamin
Chavis, invited Minister
Farrakhan to the African-
American Leadership Sum
mit in Baltimore last year.
In response to the invita
tion, a “Policy Background
Report” was prepared in
January 1994 by the ADL
and a subsequent meeting
held in Palm Beach by the
ADL, both discussing with
much concern, “the legiti
mation of Louis
Farrakhan.”
Recent events seem to in
dicate that Farrakhan can’t
mention Jews without it
being interpreted as anti-
Semitic. In a September edi
tionofthe Philadelphia Jew
ish Exponent, it was stated,
“Although his (August 28)
remarks (in Philadelphia)
were not as virulently anti-
Semiticas they have beenin
past appearances, he did
manage to refer toJews sev
eral times...” In Minister
Farrakhan’s speech, spon
sored by the local organiz-
See MARCH, page 9