Review by Choice Review
The role of Prosecutor Christopher Darden in the O.J. Simpson criminal trial is the occasion for this perceptive collection by 12 African American writers (four academics, seven journalists, and one lobbyist, including four women). Darden's role is a minor focus for these calm and judicious analyses of the US criminal justice system and of African American life in general. "Unresolved questions of race" is the central issue of the collection. A primary issue is loyalty to race conflicting with loyalty to the system. The authors look at the past, present, and future. Valuable both for readers who are African Americans, and for those who are not. Highly recommended for high school, public, college, and university libraries. L. E. Noble Jr.; emeritus, Clark Atlanta University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Newsweek contributing editor Cose, whose Color-Blind [BKL Ja 1 & 15 97] just reached store and library shelves, now takes on the U.S. criminal justice system--and attitudes of white and black Americans toward that system--in a collection of essays in which African American writers respond to the view "of the black prosecutor as a tortured soul," painted in O. J. prosecutor Darden's In Contempt (1996). Addressing this conflict from various perspectives are journalists Stanley Crouch, Betty DeRamus, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Andrea Ford, Clarence Page, George E. Curry, and Cose; sociologist Elijah Anderson; journalist/historian Roger Wilkins; law-school professors Paul Butler and Anita Hill; and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights head Wade Henderson. In the process, many face broader issues: "To what extent is the history of a blatantly racist age relevant to black behavior today?" and "Can blacks forever think of [them]selves as outsiders in [their] own country?" and when, if ever, will "Americans face up to the fact that prison is a poor substitute for effective social policy?" A healthy antidote to the sleaze and fluff that fills much of the Simpson-trial bookshelf. --Mary Carroll
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Christopher Darden, the only black on the team prosecuting O.J. Simpson, was seen as supporting a justice system that many blacks view as unfair. In this often thought-provoking collection, the best essays stay close to that justice system. Law professor and former prosecutor Paul Butler writes powerfully in favor of jury nullification of drug offenses and victimless crimes: any system that prosecutes "one-third of my sisters and brothers... is morally bankrupt." New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch scores Darden for criticizing the mostly black jury but downplaying the substantial errors made by the prosecution. Los Angeles Times reporter Andrea Ford talks to other black prosecutors, who discuss their efforts to "tilt the system toward justice." Although no contributor addresses reports that the black women on the jury reacted with hostility to prosecutor Marcia Clark, Univ. of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill offers an intriguing commentary on the case of football player Warren Moon and Moon's wife, who refused to offer damaging testimony after her husband was arrested for spousal abuse. Hill suggests that Felicia Moon wanted to save the reputation of a "well-known Black man" not only for himself but for the whole community. Some essays veer off into more general racial politics, but there's enough here to spark much discussion. Cose is a contributing editor at Newsweek. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Cose, a contributing editor at Newsweek magazine, has compiled a book of essays inspired by black prosecutor Christopher Darden's account of his role in the O.J. Simpson trial. The essayists range from Roger Wilkins of George Mason University to Detroit journalist Betty DeRamus. The "dilemma" Darden and other black members of the justice system face is the problem of being an African American working in a system that many in the black community consider racist. Most of the essays are hostile to Darden, seeing him as naïve at best and incompetent at worst. All of the articles focus in one way or another on the issue of black crime and imprisonment, with the majority of the authors blaming white racism and hypocrisy for African American overrepresentation in the prison system. Like most "quickie" collections, this one is uneven; it also tends to overstate the case against white America. Recommended for public libraries.Anthony O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Another volume inspired by The Case That Would Not End, which only fitfully addresses its subject: the dilemma that African-Americans face when they must use the authority and responsibility they have obtained in a white-dominated system against members of their own race. A few of the pieces are interesting, though nothing here is likely to change anyone's mind. Cose, a Newsweek contributing editor who has written perceptively on race and other social issues (Color-Blind, 1997, etc.), artfully compares Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden and defense counsel Johnny Cochran respectively to Joe Frazier, the black heavyweight champ who was acceptable to whites, and Muhammad Ali, who became a black idol by symbolically outfighting and outwitting white America (before time and success made Ali a white idol, too). Stanley Crouch portrays Darden as a whiner who did a lousy job on what should not have been a difficult case. Former prosecutor Paul Butler reprises his controversial view that black jurors should sometimes ignore the letter of the law, since the system is fatally biased against black defendants. Clarence Page notes that Darden became a ``double outsider, cast out by outcasts,'' when he tried to convict Simpson. Anita Hill thoughtfully and persuasively analyzes the particular dilemmas faced by black women when black men are subjected to the criminal justice system; she focuses on the example of Felicia Moon, who recanted an accusation that her football-star husband, Warren, had assaulted her. The best is saved for last, with Roger Wilkins's eloquent reminder of the historic importance--and possibility--of successful blacks' efforts ``to tell the truth for people who cannot speak for themselves because of the damage that continues to be done to them.'' Unfortunately, most of these essays pay little attention to the book's theme, and several read like annual reports on the state of race relations in America.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
