Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case
by Toni Morrison
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Book Summary Information
Author: Toni MorrisonEdition: Paperback
Published: 1997-02-04
ISBN: 0679758933
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case
Book Review: Cool and controlled rage
Summary: 4 Stars
This is required reading for anybody interested in understanding the circus around O.J. Simpson's trial, in particular for liberl whites who pretended to have felt betrayed. The essays hardly deal with questions of guilt or innocence (although I got the feeling that most authors did believe in O.J.'s guilt), but with the question of why the response was so violent and bigoted, why white liberals accepted the trial by the media, some even joining in the media lynching. Essays are somewhat uneven, but in general very good and enlightening. Particularly striking were Kimberl? Williams Crenshaw and Ishmael Reed, the former elegant and poised, the latter in cold rage. Disappointing (for me, of course) were Ann duCille with her pre-digested Marxism, and Claudia Brodsky Lacour, who spoke more of Kant than of OJ, with a Baroque and convoluted style, quite appropriate for the Enlightment but hardly for the subject at hand. A question that came to my mind was why white Liberals tend to believe that African Americans should be forever grateful when a White Liberal treats them as equal. And then, they feel betrayed when their white hands are not licked in gratitude. After all, it is not a favor. Mind you, I happen to be what is normally known as white. In summary, excellent collection, to be highly recommended to objective people trying to understand the bitterness of African Americans in today's America
Summary of Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case
The best part of this collection of essays remarking on the O. J. Simpson case is the reminder that what we saw on television and read in the newspaper wasn't the whole story. The authors--lawyers and academics for the most part--aren't primarily interested in questions of guilt or innocence. Instead, they look at the marketing of the Simpson trial and the falseness of the "race neutral" concept when applied to the trial and its aftermath. In the end, it's hard to disagree with Ann Ducille, who concludes that "If we are not actually the worse for it all . . . we have most certainly been shown at our worst by it."Co-edited and introduced by Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Birth of a Nation'hood elucidates as never before the grim miasma of the O.J. Simpson case, which has elicited gargantuan fascination.
As they pertain to the scandal, the issues of race, sex, violence, money, and the media are refracted through twelve powerful essays that have been written especially for this book by distinguished intellectuals--black and white, male and female. Together these keen analyses of a defining American moment cast a chilling gaze on the script and spectacle of the insidious tensions that rend our society, even as they ponder the proper historical, cultural, political, legal, psychological, and linguistic ramifications of the affair.
With contributions by:
Toni Morrison, George Lipsitz, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., with Aderson Bellegarde Francois and Linda Y. Yueh, Nikol G. Alexander and Drucilla Cornell, Kimberl? Williams Crenshaw, Ishmael Reed, Leola Johnson and David Roediger, Andrew Ross, Patricia J. Williams, Ann duCille, Armond White, Claudia Brodsky Lacour
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- Morrison, Toni
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