I think the O.J. Simpson case conjured all the paranoia, the racial anxiety, but also the racial fatigue that America has endured over the last half century.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Race was thick in the O.J. Simpson case from the very beginning, but it wasn't evident. And I think the O.J. Simpson case revealed that there is subtle race, and there is sophisticated race, and there's evident and observable race.
Certainly the O.J. Simpson case was a turning point in my career.
The '50s and the '70s are sort of similar in that they're both times of major paranoia in America.
American history and the black experience are inextricable. And both are inextricable from policing. Far more often than not, that's been a good thing.
Race is something that's always haunted American policing.
There is a paranoid streak in American life. Radio talk show hosts tend to foment that paranoid streak in American life.
We are of the opinion that an important and irreversible process is taking place among the white population. Just as with the blacks, the whites, too, are currently overcoming a psychological barrier.
We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.
You ask every conceivable question after Sept. 11 in terms of what more could have been done, what could have been done differently. My impression from working on these cases and investigations for almost nine years was that an awful lot of people were working over time to connect dots.
African Americans have always known that a little bit of paranoia was healthy for us.