Blacks Debate Issue of Race in Simpson Case

On the eve of celebrations honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., converging news events ignited a fast and furious debate among blacks over race and justice in America.

“I am angry and all black people should be angry,” Cynthia Vernon of View Park said Saturday outside the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Plaza shopping center. “These issues are some of the exact same things that Dr. Martin Luther King was talking about. Not too much has changed since he died. Race is still as big a problem in this country.”

Like many blacks, Vernon was focused on two events--one in Minneapolis, the other in a Los Angeles courtroom--that they say stand as emotionally charged reminders of a divided and racist society:

In Minneapolis, Malcolm X’s daughter Quibilah Shabazz was indicted Thursday on charges that she was part of a conspiracy to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

And in Los Angeles on Friday, two prominent African American attorneys generated a national debate over a perceived insult to the maturity of black jurors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

In barbershops and bookstores, over fax machines and phone lines, the talk in Los Angeles’ black community Saturday was dominated by the two events. Most attention centered on the heated and high-profile courtroom exchange between Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher A. Darden and Simpson defense lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

Arguing against Simpson’s defense team being allowed to question a Los Angeles detective about his alleged use of what Darden called the “N-word,” the prosecutor said that word would become a test for black jurors. That test, Darden said, would be: “Whose side are you on, the side of the white prosecutors and the white policemen, or are you on the side of the black defendant and his very prominent and capable black lawyer?”

Darden’s contention that African Americans could not hear that racial epithet without becoming irretrievably biased against the detective generated stinging criticism.

“I think they hired (Darden) to smokescreen the issue,” said Robin Waller, a barber who lives on the Westside. “The issue they are hiding is that there is racism in . . . the Police Department.”

Along Degnan Boulevard in Leimert Park, a center for African American arts, Eddie McNeil of View Park bitterly denounced Darden’s argument, saying: “They got the black boy to throw the brick while the white man hides his hand.”

Cecil Fergerson, a patron of black artists, said most people he has talked to “are appalled by Darden’s position.” The prosecutor’s exchange with Cochran “had nothing to do with O.J.,” Fergerson said. “It had to do with a black man who is a prosecuting attorney who one day might have my son up there.”

It makes no sense to try to divorce black people from that racial epithet, Fergerson said, “when it’s all around us . . . from our filmmakers, our comedians and our young people on the street.”

Outside the Boulevard Cafe on Martin Luther King Boulevard, Bill Dauphine of Inglewood agreed, saying African Americans “hear that (word) everyday anyway. . . . If they don’t hear it today they will hear it tomorrow.”

Celes King III, a community activist and state chairman the Congress of Racial Equality, said that “putting a black on the prosecution’s team is one that we fostered ourselves with Dr. King’s dream. That means we are going to have people against us who look just like us. We have a whole new set of problems now than we did back in the day when the issues were more simple. It is no longer unusual to find that the spokesperson for the white community is a black person.”

The debate transcended community gathering spots and reached into the realm of academia.

For UCLA English professor Richard Yarborough, who is African American, Darden’s argument is “a slightly disingenuous reading of the black experience, because every black person has heard the word . . . and had to read it and has seen it on TV all their lives. To suggest black people are so sensitive to the term they are disabled is extraordinary. It marks the inability of mainstream America, in this case in the legal system, to deal with race maturely.”

Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree said he is troubled that “people probably misunderstand the debate that took place between Darden and Johnnie Cochran. Both men are striving to see that race is properly and adequately considered in the case.”

“It is not an ugly episode of two African Americans debating, but a rude awakening that we haven’t had frank discussions of race in this country or about race in the criminal justice system or in this case.”

Ogletree, who is African American, said his disappointment comes not so much from Darden’s argument as from his fear that many white Americans share that view and have reduced African Americans on the jury panel--jurors who were “rigorously questioned during jury selection”--to labels and symbols.

Reginald Holmes, president of Langston Bar Assn., the city’s largest organization of black lawyers, said the “sad reality and probably the dark side of what is a beautiful country” is that race is “always an issue.”

Karen Bass, a leader in the African American community who heads a substance prevention program, said it was insulting to say that blacks could not react rationally to evidence involving racial epithets.

“It’s like saying women jurors wouldn’t be able to handle the case because of the domestic violence stuff,” Bass said. “If there is tons of evidence against O.J., then there is tons of evidence. That’s all there is to it.”

James Pickman of Los Angeles found it “ironic that so close to King Day we have two black men (Cochran and Darden) being pitted against each other. Black people need to come together whether you believe O.J. or Malcolm X’s daughter are guilty or not.”

Cochran said he had received about 150 calls and faxes supporting the position he took Friday.

He also said that at a funeral he attended for congressman Julian Dixon’s mother Saturday that many people were talking about Friday’s exchange.

“There is outrage everywhere in the community,” about Darden’s remarks, he said. “I don’t relish that, because of Chris’ poor judgment, but the district attorney’s office is out of touch.”

Darden did not respond to requests for comment Saturday. But for all of the criticism, he had his defenders. District attorney’s office spokeswoman said her office had received about 200 calls, most of them supporting Darden.

One caller was Gloria Alibaruho, a consultant with the World Health Organization in Atlanta, who was one of Darden’s professors at San Jose State. She described herself as something of a mentor to the prosecutor.

“When Chris made his statement, I knew where he was coming from,” she said. “He’s a person with a conscience. He has honor. He has courage. He has dignity.

“It is true that when you dangle the N-word in front of African Americans and you put it in the context of white vs. black, then you’re going to get a very strong reaction. There are instances when the N-word can be softened but it is only intraracial, not interracial.”

While window-shopping on Melrose Avenue, Terrell Jones, a 24-year-old law student from Trenton, N.J., defended Darden, saying the prosecutor “is right to not want them to use the word. It’s inflammatory. The judicial system is not perfect but the focus is coming off the issue of murder and onto whether you should sympathize with O.J. just because he’s black.”

While the Simpson courtroom controversy sparked anger, Shabazz’s indictment left sadness and skepticism in its wake.

Ted Minor, also known as Bwana Mwalimu Kaunda Rishi, an artist and a longtime resident of Pacoima, said he was troubled by the fact that the accusations against Malcolm X’s daughter came out on the eve of King Day celebrations.

“This is the time we look back on King’s life and all the suffering he went through. This is a time of coming together and living in harmony.”

Others, such as Cile Borman of Lake View Terrace, pronounced themselves a bit overwhelmed by it all. “There’s a lot going on. The rains, O.J. Simpson, Marion Barry becoming mayor again, this accusation (against Malcolm X’s daughter). A lot of people seem to feel that way--overwhelmed. Like, what next?”

Times staff writers Jeannette DeSantis, Jocelyn Stewart and James Rainey contributed to this story.