O.J. Made in America

[mego maniac mark]

I was wondering same thing. Is there anything inappropriate in my statement? It's is my take away from the documentary

[Joshua the Atomic Robot]

This was really good. I watched part 1 on Saturday, then ended up binge-watching the whole thing through the weekend. I grew up in SoCal, and remember the Rodney King riots, and the O.J. trial quite vividly, but this still adds quite a bit of perspective to those times. If you ever had trouble understanding why there was such a huge racial divide on whether or not people thought Simpson was guilty, this documentary will help you understand it.

[Hector]

This is an excellent , well made documentary. It is sad that the race card was played in the trial. However the documentary does an amazing job of building the history of the unfortunate circumstances that the black community in LA has endured from the LAPD over the years. The culmination of the Rodney King beating led to the acquittal of OJ.
OJ himself , who couldn't have distanced himself further away from the black community in his younger years , would embrace his heritage at the most opportune time in history.
There is more than likely no doubt based on the evidence he is guilty. His law team was brilliant, working the system to their advantage and getting an acquittal for a guilty man.
Sadly lost in it all are two people brutally murdered. They are the victims not only of a heinous crime, but are the victims of the long injustices of the LAPD's inexcusable treatment of blacks for decades.
OJ said himself, " I'm not black, I'm OJ". He wanted nothing to do with those injustices when he was in his prime. Ironically , he embraced his heritage after his acquittal. One of the most tragic American stories ever , IMO.

He did not embrace his heritage, ever. He faked all those church visits. Putting on African clothing was cringe worthy, dude looked so uncomfortable doing so. He never moved back to a black neighborhood. He never dated or married another black woman afterwards. He never served the community. He never volunteered for helping the needy, the poor, disanchanted. He never coached kids. He still played golf (although the prestigious courses we're off limits for him).

No, he never embraced his community.

What happened, he moved to Florida and started partying with low lives. Snorting coke, doing low budget crass profanity laced videos, hitting the clubs, still womanizing, hooking up with a Nicole lookalike...and ultimately, traveling to Las Vegas, and do a sorry impersonation of a wannabe gangster.

That's not embracing his community.

That was my only gripe about your post...the rest...I pretty much agree with you.

[mego maniac mark]

Well said Hector. I didn't intend to omit that, just didn't get it in. For those who really idolized him, how sad to see him fall to such a low. Instead of looking for the real killers, he was golfing. And judging by his swing, he needed a lot of practice.

[Hector]

Exactly...

[huedell]

Why???

If you can't see what is in mark's post that is highly volatile political rhetoric... terribly one-sided... then I'm afraid to say, that's all I feel comfortable saying at the moment.

[Dark Shadow]

If you can't see what is in mark's post that is highly volatile political rhetoric... terribly one-sided... then I'm afraid to say, that's all I feel comfortable saying at the moment.

I don't know if you've actually watched the documentary or not?

I did.

From my point of view, mego maniac mark simply summarized the exact narrative that was presented in the documentary, and did so from exact same "volatile" perspective/slant of the actual documentary. There is nothing in mego maniac mark's summary that was not presented, implied and/or stated outright in the documentary itself.

[huedell]

I don't know if you've actually watched the documentary or not?

I did.

From my point of view, mego maniac mark simply summarized the exact narrative that was presented in the documentary, and did so from exact same "volatile" perspective/slant of the actual documentary. There is nothing in mego maniac mark's summary that was not presented, implied and/or stated outright in the documentary itself.

Inconsequential.

And, I say that with all respect. And, I'll explain what I mean by that conclusion:

This "volatile" aspect I brought up isn't in synch with your context... i.e. "accuracy in describing the doc's perspective". I have no issue with accuracy of presenting what the doc was... I have issues with what mego maniac mark said it was about and how he reaffirmed his views of the doc's "reality" of what the original event was about...

So, yeah, whether or not mego maniac mark was in synch with what the doc's narrative was, is (as I said initially): Inconsequential.

And, as I begged for earlier... I request and recommend this thread gets locked and/or removed before Pandora's box is reached into by myself (or others here)... because it sure as heck has already been opened.


Besides, despite all of which I just said, ultimately you mischaracterized mego maniac mark's post. His post wasn't merely a "book report" (in nature)---his post was overtly taking a political/social stance in line with that documentary's narrative.

[mego maniac mark]

My post was not intended to open "Pandora 's box" after viewing this documentary, I was reminded of some of the issues that African Americans endured.
One example was the women at the counter of the market who shot the young woman in the head for what looks like no reason. If that was not shocking enough, she only gets a slap on the wrist. I expect most people to be outraged over that, no mater what race or religion. That would make anyone mistrust the system.

They did a masterful job of building the histories to make the average viewer understand.
After seeing the beating of Rodney King again for first time in a long time, it's downright despicable. If that wasn't an example of excessive, nothing is.
The one juror herself stated that 90% of the jurors voted not guilty fans a payback for Rodney King.

OJ was in the perfect place in time and history to get away with murder.
That would be my stance from then to now. Agree or not, that doesn't change things.

[huedell]

My post was not intended to open "Pandora 's box" after viewing this documentary, I was reminded of some of the issues that African Americans endured.
One example was the women at the counter of the market who shot the young woman in the head for what looks like no reason. If that was not shocking enough, she only gets a slap on the wrist. I expect most people to be outraged over that, no mater what race or religion. That would make anyone mistrust the system.

They did a masterful job of building the histories to make the average viewer understand.
After seeing the beating of Rodney King again for first time in a long time, it's downright despicable. If that wasn't an example of excessive, nothing is.
The one juror herself stated that 90% of the jurors voted not guilty fans a payback for Rodney King.

OJ was in the perfect place in time and history to get away with murder.
That would be my stance from then to now. Agree or not, that doesn't change things.

I don't agree. Without being "politically incorrectly" specific, I'll offer that this tone of "justifiability" in certain reactions to the O.J. case (and any/all viewers suspectability to embrace that tone wholeheartedly) makes me wretch.

And I'm not foolish to think I could "change things" whether I wanted to or not.

You may not have intended to open any kind of Pandora's box, but by starting down that path on this board, you did it, and continued to do it in your latest post.

I'll attempt to continue biting my tongue, but dang it if my tongue isn't starting to separate.

[Sideshow Spock]

You may not have intended to open any kind of Pandora's box, but by starting down that path on this board, you did it, and continued to do it in your latest post. I'll attempt to continue biting my tongue, but dang it if my tongue isn't starting to separate.

Your criticism of mmm is both misplaced and unfair, as Dark Shadow aptly summed up. All mmm did was acknowledge the context of the anger the black LA community was experiencing at that time in history, not giving an opinion that the OJ result was "justifiable".

So..

[megomania]

I still need to watch episodes 4 & 5. Eps 1-3 had so many small details about his life and the pre-trial that I either forgot or didn't know. Really looking forward to finishing the series.

I still can't fathom why O.J. committed the armed robbery in Vegas and why he refused to plea for a lighter sentence.

-Chris

[jacoblb]

I haven't seen the documentary yet, but I want to. I've no doubt the public library will have a copy to borrow once the show is put onto DVD.
On an Howard Stern show, I believe when Robin Quivers was delivering the news at the last hour, it was said Nicole was performing a sex act on the guy OJ (and perhaps an accomplice?) killed when he/they killed her too. I did not know that and it adds an even more disturbing aspect to their deaths. I was in my final year of high school when the LA Riots were going on.

[huedell]

Your criticism of mmm is both misplaced and unfair, as Dark Shadow aptly summed up. All mmm did was acknowledge the context of the anger the black LA community was experiencing at that time in history, not giving an opinion that the OJ result was "justifiable".

So..

I do consider my behavior to be on the "light" side---as I'm choosing my words extremely carefully... yet, you persist... and that's cool, but it also moves me to point out that when a word is used like "inexcusable", the mmm "not giving an opinion that the OJ result was 'justifiable'." stance goes out the window.

Fair enough?

I mean, I suppose that even though I see this as an open and shut debate, we can still, in theory, agree to disagree... I just wanted to make sure you had the clearest idea of what is causing the disagreement without totally upsetting this applecart of a thread subject unnecessarily.

[Hector]

One example was the women at the counter of the market who shot the young woman in the head for what looks like no reason. If that was not shocking enough, she only gets a slap on the wrist. I expect most people to be outraged over that, no mater what race or religion. That would make anyone mistrust the system.

You said a woman was shot for no reason. Well, first of all, she was a 15 year old girl. Second, she did strike the female shopkeeper several times in the face, causing her to go down to one knee. There was a reason why this tragic event ended up so violently.

Having said that...shooting her in the back of the head while the girl was leaving was a cold blooded execution.

My point...the reason did not justified a death...but there was a reason.

But yes...the shopkeeper got away with second degree murder...