Social Divisions and the Simpson Verdict

Thanks for Richard Rodriguez’s “More Than Just Black and White,” regarding the O.J. Simpson verdict (Opinion, Feb. 9). I am so tired of hearing and reading every day that the fundamental conflict in American society is a black/white schism. Indeed, I have a number of friends who are equally convinced that the world breaks down into other dualisms: male/female, gay/ straight, theist/non-theist, Jew/ non-Jew, Anglo/Hispanic.

Is one of these so much more fundamental than the others? By viewing life through such parochial glasses, we severely limit any serious social analysis and simply perpetuate a set of half-truths and myths.

RICHARD SHERMAN

Port Hueneme

* As a white woman once active in civil rights, I wondered whether I had reverted to bigotry in the O.J. Simpson case. Then I asked what if the accused were white (and also compared with other ethnicities after the Rodriguez article). I realized I would even more readily call a white man guilty who seemed to have three alibis for a cut, four for whereabouts, a history of spousal abuse and matching DNA. An innocent person of any race, color or creed might show some simple evidence, such as the day’s clothes in the laundry hamper.

Blacks in Mississippi in 1960 had ample reason to complain of discrimination. Here and now they should not let that excuse substitute for the effort we all have to make.

ALAMADA B. BARRETT

Van Nuys

* I disagree with blacks who feel that most whites are cheering O.J.’s downfall because he is black. I am white, and was a great admirer of him--until evidence indicated that he was a wife-beater.

The future of our country indicates a blending of all races and I’m sorry I won’t live long enough to see that. I don’t agree with William Raspberry (Commentary, Feb. 7) that juries should represent different races. If given the right instruction on evidence presented, most jury members will strive to find true justice.

MURIEL HORACEK

La Canada

* One thing that strikes me about “Let the Simpson Saga Be Done With” by Karen Grigsby Bates and “Divided Verdicts, Divided Society” by Alan M. Dershowitz (Commentary, Feb. 6) is that they totally omit any reference to the closing arguments of Johnnie Cochran, in which he “played the race card.”

To me that was the defining moment of the criminal trial, and did more to split the races than anything else that happened. There was no such moment in the civil trial.

CHARLES W. BENNETT

San Diego

* The verdict in the Simpson civil case makes a travesty of our judicial system. Now it takes two trials and some legal wrangling to prove your innocence. Is this true justice or is it double jeopardy?

Why don’t our politicians in Washington draft an amendment to the Constitution stating: “If a person is found to be innocent of a criminal act in a criminal court of law, this person shall be immune to any civil suits pertaining to the act for which he was found innocent.”

MATTHEW L. PATTON

Fullerton