Black, white, and read all over: Racial reasoning and the construction of public reaction to the O. J. Simpson criminal trial verdict by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago defender

Abstract

This case study deconstructs the media frame of the racial divide used by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Defender to define the public reaction to the October 3, 1995, Simpson criminal verdict. This frame analysis identifies differences and similarities between 2 newspapers, 1 mainstream and 1 Black, as they define, interpret, and evaluate the public reaction to Simpson's acquittal. The common frame of the racial divide advances specific common‐sense beliefs about the role race plays in U.S. social relations. Despite the different histories of the 2 newspapers with regard to race, both papers articulate strikingly similar common sense assumptions about the role of race in U.S. social relations that compel readers to make sense of the world within the narrow confines of the Black‐White dialectic. This dialectic of racial reasoning obscures alternative pathways of making sense of social conflict in U.S. society.

Key words:

• assimilation
• Black nationalism
• common sense
• discourse
• discursive gridlock
• frame
• frame analysis
• race
• race relations
• racial reasoning