Michael Eric Dyson: ‘In Light of the Accumulated Indignities’ Towards Blacks, Murder Victims Were Not the ‘Greatest Tragedy’ in O.J. Trial

EXCERPT:

DYSON: "Well, I want to first address Jeffrey's point there about the heinousness. It is true that it was tragic, evil and an unforgivable assault upon to human beings who lost their lives. But to say that was the greatest tragedy, in light of the accumulated indignities, murders, denials of opportunity, failure to give just due to African American people in the court system, that, my friend, is a weighted tragedy that we cannot merely dismiss. So it‘s not either/or. What happened to those two people was a heinous crime. What has continued to happen to African American people before that crime and after that crime are testimony to the deeply entrenched systemic inequities that continue to flagrantly deny opportunity for African American people. And we‘ve lost so many lives as a result of that, and we‘ve got to weigh those on the scale. They are both -- I‘m not trying to say one is worse than the other, but to suggest somehow that those accumulated indignities are not themselves the story of this would be equally problematic as well.”