special effect

oj was a brotherman whose time had come and gone he didn't take the witness stand so doubts will linger on but doubts it seems are all we have so when the jury spoke the vision of our certainty in justice quickly broke but what had been a spectacle from day one so it seems could scarcely prepare anyone not d.a. nor defense teams for the screams and yelps and cutting eyes and open mouths and speculation who could ever prophesy the racial polarization that swept across our nation do you recall the moment some would ask? i was at work my pager buzzed from reuters and i read it with a smirk 'all over but the shouting' was my grateful comment at the time but when i saw the tv shows i knew there was another crime it seems someone decided or colluded and collided with the common sense of reticence and in the verdict's wake despite the few peanuts at stake... the cameras in the 'hood went click click click the mikes in the 'hood went stick stick stick of violence and of mayhem all will claim a great abhorrence but everyone had camera crews at normandie and florence the readiness for riots was the order of the day surprise, surprise, surprise and so it spun another way. i witnessed jubilation, exaltation by the black and white humiliation, sobbing, patting on the back. which ever way the verdict went the media was clear one race would be filmed angry and the other in great cheer. alarms went off inside my head they'll say ron and nicole are dead and all those people do is laugh and dance when white supremacy informs the public consciousness then storms of fear and hate will always be the stance way back, with koon exonerated i felt the sting and contemplated the standing of a black man's words of truth when knowing that a video could sway the public to or fro despite whatever blacks offered as proof and so instead of goldman or of oj or nicole the nation focussed harshly on a colored jury's soul. a verdict rendered thusly must be racial so they say for surely they just couldn't comprehend the dna of johnnie and the jury in the matters of the case there's but one theory to explain: conspiracy of race. and if you don't believe that's true, then just watch your tv. for all the negroes in the world are rowdies full of glee or at least most, especially the ones that don't agree that simpson is a killer and should never be set free. that much joy is overstated as the mainstream press related happiness of the black sort means that their view of the court is nothing but a racial forum without mention of the quorum who have said most everywhere that oj's blackness wasn't there. until of course time magazine played up the dark obsession and made his cover photo darker without much discretion and some forget ms. harris the ex-juror on the case who claimed that sheriffs deputies antagonized her race and people claim she faked it that race was *never* a factor until judge ito backed her up they called her just an actor. but in the courtroom race itself as a flashpoint ito denied outside the courtroom pollsters pushed a classic racialist divide. they said those that believe in simpson patently are black and whites of course think otherwise (and yes, we've got their back) few pundits dared to bridge the rift no pollster cared to split the diff by education, party line geography, zodiac sign religion, history of crime, orientation or other kind of simple demographic not age nor sex but racial traffic (if i must name one, dominick dunne) despite the fact that people vent that oj can't be innocent yet isn't that what we presume until those in the jury room have said without a doubt in fact the man is guilty of the act? but no, we watch the tv sets in bedrooms, streets and foyers we jump to place a guilty bet and bitch about the lawyers sworn to uphold defendants rights in these united states no wonder we have waco ruby ridge and darryl gates sad but true that two are dead but when all is done and said these two dead should signify more than simply eye for eye and tooth for tooth in a race war (fuhrman's grinning even more since we've chosen his world view) and looking back i think it's true there's nothing much to learn at all from tv murder trials but prosecutors faces and defense attorney styles and what a witness looks like when he's lying through his teeth proving perjury needed no tapes so where's the beef? the evidence admissible to television crews spin doctored, sliced and diced and skewered daily on the news for weeks on end, ubiquitous no matter where you tune is bound to be quite dubious and yet since back last june the country has sat spellbound in a simpson trial jones a broken family's father spills his grief into our homes a dozen pseudo witnesses sold their tales to feed the flame a million hours of advertising bankrolling the game but worst of all americans, despite that we've been warned have swallowed so much swill as truth and think that we're informed. and thinking all this edutainment legal evidence believing the renditions of this tv farce made sense accepting that all reason is on our side of the fence have made ourselves the greatest fools, with racial consequence. within just days the nation has decided from tv not only what i'm thinking but a proper caste for me as a black man with doubts about d.a. garcetti's case (of course without the courage yet to say it to my face) and though my fate is trivial, it's not for me i cry i wonder for a moment if it's even worth a try to believe that in our future there remains democracy if everybody's thinking process hinges on tv for clearly what is thought of blacks without our own consent is taken from a broadcast of some ghetto tenement where some for their own reasons known inside, their mouths agape show happiness for a brief time, their smiles are caught on tape. a smile taken callously and shown as disrespect for bloody broken bodies...