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13, 1995 Theation.

337

PULP FICTION

and the

Trial

J.

WILLIAMS

ere was a story some years ago about apeniten-

tiary in Texas where state prison officlals asked in-

mates to volunteer to help train their tracking dogs.

The inmates would be dressed up in padded cloth-

a

head start , and then the hungry hounds would

officials riding on horseback after

t became quite a

sport

the chasing of what they called

oys,” and it eventually embarrassedthough scarce-

enough) quite a number of politicians (who had joined in

when he degree

to

which it had become jolly pas-

e fox-hunting, came to public light.

The degree to which official exercises of power become

ague sports events gives melot

of

pause these days,

I

cautiously turn on the television from timeo time, search-

e weather report while trying to avoid the swamp of

Simpson mania, Sooner

or

later, I fear, it will sweep me

too, in the excruciatingly slow,molasses-motioned dis-

of

afternoon soap opera by the industrial-strength

Court

TVopera.

Although I had promised myself that I would be the one

yer in he United States to refrain from writing about the

I’m

increasingly troubled by the way it severe-

pushes the limits of whatever justice was supposed to be

notion of a public trial. The unprecedented

of rial by theater-rivaled only perhaps by the cover-

of Dr. Sam Shepherd in the 1950s-has whetted a public

for lurid speculation as well

as

spectacle. It is an ap-

I

fear, that will be satisfied by neither a guilty

nor

a

so much melodrama is building

better denouement han that. The publlc wants great pulp

y, for Marcia Clark to have Johnnie Cochran’s baby

0

J.

and Detective Fuhrman commit suicide in a dou-

interracial love pact, and just for good meas-

Ito

is discovered to be heading up a n international

whose operations he directs rom his chambers

the commercial breaks.

Of course, this is why Juries get sequestered-it’s a way

of

not the public viewing f the trial but the mob’s met-

climbing-Into-the-witness-boxand influencing the

by nolsy, string-’em-up gladiatorial rhetoric and

Still troubling to the unsequestered of us, however, might

Simpson trial

being used o divert political ttention from some very great

J

Willmns, aprofessorat Columbia

Law School,

IS

of The Alchemy of Race and Rights Harvard).

divisions rending this nation. “Maybe the Simpson trial will

undo the misperceptions created by the Rodney King hing,”

said one commentator on a morning news show-barely two

days after publication of the Mollen Commission report,

which detailed police excesses n Harlem and theBronx, in-

cluding racketeering, narcotics dealing and even attempted

murder. This seemingly pervasive entiment astonishes me for

a number of reasons:t reduces black anxietybout theustice

system to superficial and singular television encounters-the

Rodney King “thing” may have“created” a bad impression,

but look, “the system” is apologizmg, by making

up for

it

with

O.J.

Simpson. It trivializes or ignores the day-to-day

ex-

periences of blacks who are treated as “suspect profiles” at

best and suffer a range of abuses in contacts with the justice

system that go

from negligence to outright brutality. And it

dangerously misreads the discontent of

a

significant popu-

lation that s not merely disaffected but enraged, whose fury

is barely reflected n the staggering rates of black criminali-

zatlon and imprisonment.

T h e Simpson coverage takesa

bizarre

trial and mytho ogiza

t

into the mundane.

The

O.J.

Simpson trial bears very little resemblance to the

circumstances-in courtrooms or elsewhere-that occasion

so much black distrust of the justice system. But the self-

congratulation proceeds apace:

Now

maybe

they

will

see that

justice is color-blind, say so many of the high-priced pundits

who crowd he airwaves. Yeah yeah, except all sides agreehat

this trial is hardly typical. How many black or white people

can afford a team of defense lawyers like

O.J.’s?

How many

black or white people could command the audience that he

does? How many black men could lead the Los Angeles

Po

lice Department on a slow chase around thecity and survive

to spawn a publishing industry

of

True Inside tories,

all sure

to be best sellers?

The Simpson coverage takesa singular trial-possibly one

of the most bizarre of the century-and mythologizes it into

the mundane. The imultaneous failure to cover the Mollen

Commission report with anything like the same spotlight al

lows such mythologizing to trump empiricism in dangerous

ways. And when he empirical becomeso thoroughly discon-

nected from political belief structures, it’s a formula for o-

cial tension.

“Do

you think blacks will riot if

O.J.

Simpson is found

guilty?” a reporter asked meduring the prehminary hearing.

The question made me augh. “Are you serious?” I asked be

fore I realized that he was. Of course, the last laugh may turn

out to be on me, but it still seems preposterous that anyone

could think that angry black crowds wouldtorm the streets-

of what, Brentwood?-Just because a black man was found

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338 The Nation.

March 13,

guilty. T he questlon struck me as revealing a total lack of

understanding of the riotous passion thataused the infuri-

ated, blind eru ptions in

Los

Angeles-as tho ugh the eporter

expected that anytime any black m an is convicted,

no

matter

what he does, black comm unities will scream foul. W hat a

total lack f understanding of the seething soclal desperation

th at th e Slmi Valley verdict blew op en.

Even acknowledging tha t there are plenty of blacks w ho

don’t believe tha t any black ma n can et a fair trial in the Unit-

ed States, those beliefs alone hardly cause riots. H ow ran dom

and shallow the discontent must seem

if

0

.

Simpson is made

the measure of black oppression, just another example of

playlng the race card.

If O.J. Simp son is believed bymany whites

to

be enjoying

the typ ical trlal of a black m an you know, mired in the in-

dulgences

of

due process, tme-con suming and more expen-

sive than the ational budget), then Colinerguson, the man

wh o opened fire o n a crowded car on the Long Island Rail

Roa d, has been figured as the ypical black man you know,

always complaining, always blaming, parano id).

I

don’t know

how to say this gracefully, but there’s paranoia and there’s

parano ia, and Colin Ferguson is

msane.

H e thinks there are

ninety-threecountsagainst h ~ m ecause the year of the

shoo ting was

1993

He was sleeping

at

the time.

Marlo

Cuomo

is par t

of

a plot o set him up. Th e witnesses are all lying

and

the deadaren’t really dead . Yet a judg e fou ndim competent

to stand trial andll the headlines self-righteously proclaimed

hls raising of that old efense, The white man did

it

That’s

what they all say Well, he’s crazy r he thinks we’ll beheve

that one

sn’t there something comp letely upside down abo ut

ruling an insane man sane

so

that society can waggle their

heads and call him insane? The oft-palred but funda men tally

con tradicto ry logic is: He’s just acting this way to con vince

. “ ”

the court thathe’s crazy. Th at is, he’s plo tted an d plan ned

insanity. Do ing insane thingsust proves the demon ic ra

ality of his warped but “no rm al”paranoid black mind. W

is the function, one mu st egin t wonder as he babbles

soars in a world of his own, of “norm al”-izing Ferguso

the quintessential black mind?

Meanwhile, in the n ot-too-distant backgroun d,

Susan

Sm

who confessed

to

killing her children after recipitating

a

tionwide manh unt when she

told

authorities ablack man

It, is figured as som eone wh o s guilty as sin but simult

ously filled with pluck an d remo rse, ready to shoulder her

“responsibility” by stepping right

on

up to theelectric c

like a pitcher to the mound.

W ha t are these stories we are tellmg ourselves? We can’

quester the public imagination, b ut sh ouldn’t we be just a

more

careful in how we rush to m ythologize our fears, ou

mons, ou r mental inventions? S houldn’t we be a little m

careful abo ut digging ourselves deeper into the entrenc

of

our

division?

Would it help to make a reality checklist?

A

scorecar

sorts, just to keep the myths trim me d, like fingernails, e

so often, so they don’t get dangerou s or pok e som eone’s

out

or

Just plain paralyze us?

Th e Simpson trial is hardly the normal trial

of

a b

ma n, even thoug h it ymbolizes the domestic abuseof m

“norm al” atizens, black an d white.

Colin Ferguson is not your average black man, e

though he xpresses fears of thewhite world that are fam

to m any blacks.

Blacks who talk a lot ab ou t social inequities are

per se insane, even thoug h

I

appreciate that there are m

white people wh o find them very annoying.

Colin Ferguson 1s no t you r average urban Am erican

rorist. In fact, un til Ferguson, th e suspect profile

of

those

went into public places and sho t andom ly was the lonely

clusive or recently divorced, roub led, middle-aged whitem

9

If

Susan

Smith does die

n

the electric chair

and O.J.

S

son doesn ’t, perhap s we as a nation couldrefrain just a

ment before intoning that whitewomen die for their cri

while black men who com mit doub lehomicides don’t.

haps we could just make room for a host f competing

siderations such as:

A

wom an w ho kills her children is alw

more abho rred than m an wh o ills his wife in the so-ca

“h eat ‘of passion” and/or kills a ma n he thinks is his w

lover. The death enalty is administered variously by state

ernments, differently in Sou th Carolina and California. S

ing the death penaltys a matterof prosecutorial discre

0 .

is a star, dadgum mit, a nd nobo dy likes to see Amer

heroes ex ecuted. If

O.J.

were “Willie” Ho rto n, he’d fry.

I f

Susan Smith had m urdered almost anyone but her own

dren, she probably would not.

Blacks an d Latinos form a olid majority of our nat

prison popu lation. They are convicted more frequently

sentenced for longer terms than their white counterp

Blacks end up

on

death row in numb ersvastly disprop ort

ate to whites who commit the same cnmes.

Now th at all the boxes are checked

off,

are these

fac

really a source f com fort to those who think thatlack

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340 The Nation. March 13, 1

are out there “getting away” with things while white women,

even murderesses, are out there doing theirbit to uphold the

social order? Or shouldn’t this complicated play between

exceptionalizing trends and normalizing extremes give us a

frisson of a decidedly more sinister sort? How oes a demo-

cratic order rationalizehe craving for catharsis thatounte-

nances this savage running

of

the bulls, this chasing

of

the

dog boy, this stoningof the onemarked village idiot? These

are not imes foreasy prescriptions, butwhen the executives

of Entertainment Tonrght are thls exuberant, one has to won-

der if Justice hasn’t been just a wee bit seduced by the thrill

of O

STILL

THE STUPIDEST PARTY

Newt

G w i c h and

Other Blunders

NOEL E. PARMENTEL

JR.

“Vorers gave Republicans a second chance.

This

time they

better not blow It.”

il/~um

chneider on CNN’s Inside Politics

H

ere’s he deal,see. You’re he G.O.P.and you just

won the big one. Now

to

draw a bead on the

White House, where lurks Sidney Zion’s “Where

,isGeorge Bush now that I need him?” In poetic

justice Bill Clinton is now the patsy, blamed for everything

not his fault while getting

no

credit for his many accomplish-

ments. Worse, the Karacter Kops are o n his case. With wide-

open windows of Republican opportunity, high contrast is the

way to go, right? Credibility. Ethics. Family values. Patrio-

tism. Best put best foot forward.

For Republicans, after a forty-year drought, the irrevers-

ible first impression would be everything. With the Clmtons

nowwidely perceivedas rrelevant, nothing would revealmore

about the nature

of

the new majority than its choice for

Speaker of the House. Here was who would set the national

agenda perhaps even become de factoPresident. He better

look

good. Surely even Republicans would see that.

Free to choose from the entire House membership, the

G.O.P. was blessed with an embarrassment of riches: Henry

Hyde of Illinois, popular as his separated-at-birth twin Tip

O’Neill; John Kasich

of

Ohio, a Perot pet who might keep

Ross

the Baas

on

the reservation; Christopher Shaysof Con-

necticut, conscience

of

the Congress. There were even more

adventurous choices who would havemade thehistory books:

San Antonio’s Henry Bonilla (who makes fellow Texicans

Gonzalez yCisneros look like Cheech Chong) or Connect-

icut’s FemiNazi (Not ) Nancy Johnson (nowooden nutmegs

there). All in all, an impressive array.

Noel

E. Parmentel JK Republ~an,oncedes that any man

burdened wrth Speaker Gingrich’s wnting skills whoanstill

rip

off

4.5 million of Rupert Murdoch’s Yankee dollarsifoniy

for a moment) can’t be all bud.

So here goes nothing. Push the envelope, please. The w

ner is? Would you believe Newt Gingrich? Way to

go

N

who? Sure, the buck starts there. But this bucko? The o

White House wannabe with more demerits than the liv

couple? The rsatz Gaukiter of

Boys

Town with thevoice

of

A uy

Named Joe McCarthy? And, like his soundal

has he got a mouth on him.

Cobb

County

Caliban

Like I Smith, when Republicans make a mistake it

beaut. The daddy of all boners was a bad judgment cal

craven party brass

in

favor

of

a sawdust Caesar they ho

would respect them in the morning.

Up tohe election, few “normal Americans” had ever h

of Gingrich. Now since the Cobb County Caliban lau

his unfriendly takeover bid for the Partyf Lincoln, Ne

Coach’s Corner

is giving

All Day/EveryDay/L A /O J

for the ratings. At Christmas therewas a modest propo

give state orphanages a hance, give the little bastards

due: Here’s looking at you, kids. No room at the inn?

problem. At Gingrich gulags, Tots R

Us.

Lost in the up

was

any appreciation

of

classic G.O.P. timing.

Family values? The guy’s close to his mother, even if

spilled the beans to Connie Chung. Did Connie gooo

Maybe you hadda be here. And none of that JudgeWap

crap for this hothubby. When you want out in Hot’La

just lie doggo till the little woman comes out

of

a cance

eration. Thenyou spring thedivorce papers on her in the

covery room. O.K. he’s no Ashley Wilkes.

When you got it, flaunt t. And

Newt’s

such

a

good-look

devil, it’s plain to see whyRepublicans would insist upon

as

celeb spokesman for their Twelve-Step update, the Cont

With America. The Speaker s trying his best to elevate th

bromides

to

the exalted level of The FederalrstPapers. (N

mind that the Contract s to the

Federalist

what Bob Pa

wood’s diaries are

to

the private papers

of

Henry Adam

Other thanproviding tea and sympathyo a bunch

of

n

Poujadistesset to win anyway the political cllmate being

i t

was), Gingrich had little to do with the election resu

There was

no

reason for G.O.P. lemmings to walk the pl

when the real founder of the feast was the former Hillary R

ham. Once ths

Joan

of

Ark.

massed herArm y

of

the Poto

(which, living off the land,lew a cool half-billion f sa

taxpayer to produce a 1,342-page Magaziner Mous

piece), the Federal Period was over. Accordingly, in imp

sive homage to George Romero, she revived barely eno

Living Dead White Males to give the G.O.P. their point-a

a-half “blowout.” Hummelstown’s Own Ma Gingrich ou

to wash Newtie’s mouth outwith soap. He owes the First L

big-time. Virtually unassisted, she liberated this 900-po

guerrilla (previously more or less confined to Zoo Atla

into the general population. But en garde, G.O.P. Not e

St. Hillary can guaranteeo keep testosterone levels up

adrenalige flowing her way once L.D.W.M.s again h

George Steinbrenner and Mike Keenan to kick around.

White Dwarf or Sneaker

of

the House

It’s an understatement to say that Newt Gingrich hasb

a P.R. disaster

for

the G.O.P. With all that baggage, how

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