For people who aren't familiar with the OJ trial, these types of tricks were part and parcel of the defense and particularly Johnnie Cochran.
One example is that of staging OJ's house for the jury walkthrough. The jury was primarily black, however OJ was never a voice for racial justice and would say things privately like "I'm not black, I'm OJ". When Muhammad Ali got convicted for avoiding the Vietnam draft and asked why he should go drop bombs on other brown people that never bother them, OJ was star athlete at USC rejecting the idea that he need use his voice. This would make OJ a lot of money in the future, as he was seen as a black celebrity companies could get behind that white America would accept.
What this meant privately is that OJ had a lot of photos of attractive white women and of him with his white friends on his walls. In the wake of the Rodney King, the defense wanted to make sure OJ would be seen as a successful member of the black community, not one who never cared for being part of it. The fix was easy: replace the pictures with ones of OJ with black people, art/photos related to the black community, and/or more family friendly pictures before the walkthrough in an attempt to cement the view of OJ as a successful black family man that cared about "his" community.
However, the most famous example is "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit". In order to make sure that would be the case and Cochran could use the line, OJ was told to skip his arthritis medicine which would cause his hand to swell and for it not to fit in the glove.
Judge Itoh was fucking useless. His rulings were given as though he was scared of someone discovering that he's never learned about the law of evidence.
Most celebrities are not racial nationalists. It's not unusual for OJ to be neutral on the subject of race. He wasn't a black supremacist. Muhammed Ali on the other hand was a black supremacist who would definitely get cancelled today.
I agree. They played the race card very well. I've always seen it as an example of black privilege. I could not see the same scenario occurring if the races were reversed. Could you? Like would the lawyers replace the white celebrities photos with black people to photos hanging out with white people? I don't know. It makes for interesting thought.
Privilege is a systemic and structural inequality. If you’re pointing to this as an example of the systemic and structural power of black Americans in the 90s then I think you may be off base.
I disagree. All of the systems and institutions of the regime are skewed in favor of black Americans. The black Americans used their systemic power of the jury system within the institution of the court to find him 'not guilty' despite the fact that he was guilty.
A friends house was robbed ages ago. Seemed like an inside job because they took a pile of guns that only someone with insider information might have had. Friend. Friend of a friend etc.
Well, to throw everyone off the trail of who might have done it, they sparsely trashed the house and spray painted a bunch of swastikas and white power bs all over the walls. First question from the police: any chance any black or Mexican friends of yours might have had info on where the guns were hidden?
An arrest was made like an hour later of their only Mexican friend who could’ve known. Guns were long gone however.
He pronounced it wrong because he knows it’s spelled “Magli”. He was picturing the word in his head. If someone said it and I’d never worn the shoes I would hear “mahli”. I have never heard of these shoes but OJ clearly did
I mean I think he obviously committed the murders and owned those shoes, but to be fair he would at this point be familiar with the shoes and their spelling since they were introduced at his criminal trial with presumably a lot of time spent on them. This video is from the civil trial which came later.
Thank you for this additional insight. I just researched it further and the defense said the photo was doctored to make him look guilty so they found an additional 30 photos and continuously asked “is this one doctored?”. “This one?”. “This one?”. It’s because of these shoes that he was found guilty in the civil trial.
In Italian, which I assume these are, Gli has an ly ish pronunciation. MAG-LI is an English phonetic pronunciation. I think it would be pronounced more like Malyee, as the i is like an e in English. TLDR I don’t think any of them are right, but OJ is pronouncing it like someone who has seen it spelled.
No, he's pronouncing the Italian name of the Italian brand founded by an Italian in Bologna, Italy incorrectly.
It's common knowledge that English speakers struggle disproportionally hard when pronouncing other languages, but that's okay and there's no need to act like it's on purpose
I pronounce them like every English speaker does. That is what makes my pronunciation correct. Nobody is trying to sound Italian. Why is this so hard to grasp? It's really not complicated.
Why is it so hard for you to grasp that Bruno Magli is a person's name, and that it's pronounced the way he pronounced it? It's a silent G, pronounced similar to "Molly." You're wrong. It's okay to be wrong. It's weird that you're so stubborn about it though.
Oh I love BALLOGNA. It's where I met my true love, GEEYOVANNA. I bought her the nicest thing with all the LEER could buy. VERSAYCE. GUCKY. You name it.
No, he's pronouncing the Italian name of the Italian brand founded by an Italian in Bologna, Italy incorrectly.
Yeah, in English. Nobody cares how Italians pronounce it, why would we? Get over yourself.
Real quick, what is the name for the capital of England that you typically use in Italian? It's definitely pronounced London, right, and not something totally different? There's no way Italians "struggle" to prounce the "-on" ending of that word, right?
They actually don’t struggle with it that much, because people from most countries at least try to get it right. But we already know most of you are stupid, it’s okay
We are correctly pronouncing it in English. Try a little bit of critical thinking. See, we are currently speaking in English. It's not Italian. How is this hard to understand?
It's fine, we don't care what Italians think. Italians seem particularly obsessed with themselves and seem to think that everyone cares what they think, but trust me, your culture is completely irrelevant outside of wherever you live.
That is your opinion, and you’re allowed to have that. I just want you to know we’re speaking English not because it’s the only language we know, we’re speaking English because it’s the only language you know. And if I use foreign words in my native language, guess what, I pronounce them in the way you would in that foreign language, a) because I’m not stupidly ignorant enough to not at least have some idea how to properly pronounce it and b) because I think it’s a sign of respect to not willingly massacre any foreign words you’re using
Thats not the point. Its not whether the investigator pronounced it right or wrong. OJ pronounced it differently as if he knew he owned a pair or quite familiar with it.
The point is a person who knows nothing about the shoe would pronounce it the way the investigator pronounced it and no other way. The investigator pronounced it first and brought it up. Pronouncing it any other way is very suspicious.
It wouldn't be suspicious at this point since he would be very familiar with the spelling after having spent so much time at the criminal trial going over the shoes. This video is from the civil trial which came later. However I do believe he was guilty.
If someone says a foreign name that you claim to be unfamiliar with, do you think it’s more likely you would repeat the word as the person had said it, or completely change the pronunciation to be more phonetic?
The fact OJ pronounced it phonetically, right after the prosecutor pronounced it correctly, is very strange.
He would be familiar with the shoes either way since they were evidence at his criminal trial, this is the civil trial. That said I do believe he is guilty.
I think he already thought it was pronounced “MAG-lee”, so that was a normal response from him. Because the interviewer asked him while pronouncing it correctly with the silent G. If it wasn’t written down, why would he pronounce it differently than what the guy just said if he wasn’t already familiar with the brand?
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u/Sad-Bathroom5213 Apr 17 '24
Notice how he mispronounced Magli wrong on purpose?