. CNN’s Ashley Allison Under Fire For Saying O.J. Simpson ‘Represented Something For The Black Community’ Because ‘Two White People’ Were Killed - News Times
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CNN’s Ashley Allison Under Fire For Saying O.J. Simpson ‘Represented Something For The Black Community’ Because ‘Two White People’ Were Killed

By News Here - 12:07

CNN political commentator and former aide to President Joe Biden’s campaign Ashley Allison said this week that O.J. Simpson represented something to the Black community” because “two White people” had been murdered.

The comments were part of a panel discussion on the CNN This Morning about the death of infamous former NFL star charged with and acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman.

Host Kasie Hunt asked Allison for her take on how the trial and acquittal “really did divide the country in racial ways” at the time.

Allison said that as a child she’d cheered when he was let off, but she doesn’t think she “had a concept of, like, who was guilty and who was not. I was a child. You know? I probably shouldn’t have been watching the case about two people being killed at the end of the day.”

She then related the trial and verdict to the L.A. riots and the brutal beating of Rodney King by police prior to the O.J. Simpson trial.

“It was so racially charged because of what had happened just before with Rodney King, but also just how Black Americans feel about policing,” she said. “It’s not like O. J. Simpson was the leader of the civil rights movement of his era, you know? He wasn’t a social leader.”

“But he represented something for the Black community in that moment, in that trial, particularly because there were two White people who had been killed,” said Allison.

She added, “I guess I would just close with this. There was racial tension then, there is racial tension now. It might not be the backdrop of the Trump campaign, but until this country is ready to actually have an honest conversation about the racial dynamics from our origin story until today, we will always have moments like O.J. Simpson that manifest. And our country will always be divided if we don’t actually deal with the issue of race.”

Right-wingers on social media bashed Allison for her commentary after the segment ended, accusing her of racism or promoting violence.

Widely considered one of the greatest running backs in the NFL, Simpson’s fame became stained after the murder trial of Brown and Goldman. Although Simpson was acquitted for their deaths, he was found liable in a wrongful death civil suit and ordered to pay $33 million in damages to the victim’s families.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post CNN’s Ashley Allison Under Fire For Saying O.J. Simpson ‘Represented Something For The Black Community’ Because ‘Two White People’ Were Killed first appeared on Mediaite.

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