I am writing in response to the Feb. 5 article regarding the verdict in O.J. Simpson’s civil trial. Regardless of Simpson’s actual guilt or innocence, this was irresponsible journalism. I would like to think a university newspaper, supposedly dedicated to the education of our students, would save such biased columns for the editorial page. Apparently the editors disagree. Allow me to elaborate. The article states that the “liable” verdict was “a moral victory for grieving relatives” and that the largely white jury “snatched away some of the vindication Simpson claimed when he was acquitted of murder by a mostly black jury.” This one-sided article ends with Darden’s opinion that “we” finally got “a fair hearing on the issues.” Such statements, regardless of the intention of the writer, send the following message: the black jury was biased, but the white (“neutral”) jury has cleared things up. Black jurors are racially biased instead of logical, but white jurors are objective and tell the unbiased “truth.”The writer also claims that the trial has “divided the nation over issues of police racism, domestic violence and the quality of justice.” It is interesting that the writer is unaware of how divided the nation has been over these issues, a division illustrated, but certainly not created by the Simpson case. It is sad that it takes this trial to illuminate racial tensions to us white folk who are privileged with the choice of whether or not to notice it. If racial tension has never been a part of your every day life in the U.S., in other words, it is not because you are neutral. It is because you are white. I challenge the Lantern to consider such privileges when covering all issues, but especially issues like racism. Surely the editor would not have allowed an article to be printed declaring the verdict wrong and racist, except on the editorial page. Why is the article declaring this a “moral victory” considered neutral enough to print as objective news? This clearly biased article makes me embarrassed to be white and affiliated with OSU.
Jenrose FitzgeraldWomen’s Studies graduate student
