The O.J. Verdict   • home   • watch online   • interviews   •
analysis   • discussion  interview: michael eric dyson michael
eric dyson  Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of humanities at
the University of Pennsylvania and the author of numerous books
about race in America, including Is Bill Cosby Right?, an
analysis of the comedian's recent criticism of the African
American community. In this interview, Dyson explains the
divergent ways in which whites and blacks saw the Simpson trial
and argues that it was the prosecution, and not the defense, who
first played the "race card." He also explores the possibility
that the jury's verdict was, in part, a form of "payback," but
explains that the case was not just about O.J. but about
generations of black men unfairly prosecuted by the justice
system. "I think that what white America failed to realize with
the quick jury deliberation, [was that] black people had been
deliberating far longer than the O.J. Simpson case" says Dyson.
"So the quickness appeared in the c