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The Trail of the Century

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Submitted By eholley
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The Trial of the Century
The O.J. Simpson trial had become more than just a discussion at the water cooler. People had become obsessed with the trial. You were either for the prosecution’s side or the defense side. Meanwhile in my business we were taught not to discuss politics or religion. However this was neither one of these subjects, so what could be the harm in having a friendly discussion.
In this situation, as the trial progressed the public opinion began to become Polaroid. This would be the first time in our country’s history in several years had we witness a big division among race. Well at my salon the topic of conversation was only about this trial.
So I decided that since this was the only subject my customers wanted to talk about, we needed to set the rules for discussion. There was only one rule, to agree to disagree. With this rule everyone was allowed to speak their mind clearly. And it soon became noticeable that the room became very left or right, or black and white. O.J. Simpson had quickly become an angry black man who killed his white ex-wife. And he was no longer the celebrated Heisman retired NFL football star.
Even though everyone would say they were making their decision based on the evidence that was presented in court, you could tell that minds had already been made up. And there was no way of changing people’s opinion. What had started off as being a friendly debate, had turn into a nation divided.
It has always been said the hind-sight is 20/20 and if the opportunity ever came about again I would not have the open forum of opinion in my salon. With this open venue of honesty, everyone saw each other true colors and some of the colors were black and

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