OJ:Made in America: Part 1 - TV program

NOTES:

People of color moving to LA - to get jobs, actually buy a house - but it's not as rosy as anticipated

Grew up on a farm, owned land, but no opportunities

OJ born in Cali

Chief Parker - cleaned up a corrupt LA police dept, but Racist himself

BUT - racism as stark as in the JimCrow south
Always conscious of the police

Police relations in the community based purely on apprehension

Aug 11, 1965 Watts Riots - Black people had had it - police responded with even more force, didn't try to understand - one of the first events being caught on tv -

Racial thoughts: "We didn't ask them to come here, they came here and flooded the area"

Watts area right on the other side of the USC coliseum where OJ was playing, people warned not to go into that area - when white people saw OJ on campus and he talked to them, it was likely that for most of them this was the first African American that they had ever spoken to

1967 African American boycott of 1968 Olympic games  - trying to escalate the relationship between pro-athletes and the civil rights mvmt - tried to get OJ to participate in the mvmt - he said "I'm not black, I'm OJ" **He wanted to be judged by his character and his competence, not the color of his skin

Groundbreaking - OJ being sponsored by Chevy, ABC commentary staff, his story was based on pleasing the white people - OJ was like a character, and he recognized that fact and performed - what made him so successful in the white community, people didn't see him as black

OJ - Hertz - other black people looking at OJ and saying, I want to be like him, I can do that.

First to demonstarte that white people would buy things from a black endorsement as long as they didn't perceive that it was being pushed by a black man - did that by removing all black people from the ad besides OJ !!!! - white people saying Go OJ Go!! - America could point to somebody who made it, that we not only accept you, but embrace you. OJ got fame/money/celebrity - THE guy of the 70s

OJ wanted to erase race - and that's why white society accepted him. The problem is that so many had sacrificed - and he in essence was saying  "well, HE made it, and the rest should just try to get there like he did."

REFLECTIONS: I watched the beginning of this because I wanted to see that particular time period, before the drama. I thought back on the Hertz commercials that I remember, and realized that I never looked at OJ as a man of color, just a famous football player, and that's exactly what they were going for. But when I listen to OJ's words, that he made it, everyone else can too, I think it does a great disservice to other people of color. As we've learned, we aren't all equal, and to say their is no difference between us is to deny that there ARE disparities.