Kobe & The Race Card

October 1, 2003
by Debra Opri - Attorney and Legal Analyst

Remember the O.J. Simpson trial and its notorious race card? What does it take for the race card to be played again? Just take a few polls and ask a few people if they think that Kobe Bryant is being set up for having had sex with a white girl. That's all it takes. Then the underlying argument will again come forth as to whether the question of racism still exists in our society. The argument is flawed, however, because it isn't the answer to this question that matters. It's not even the question itself or why the question is being asked that are important. Rather, the emphasis should be on who is making the racism argument, and why, in the context of the Kobe Bryant case.

Consider this: When posing the race question, isn't that in some way racist in itself? Long after the O.J. Simpson case has settled into the dust of legal - and media - history, the one resonating reminder of the "Dream Team" trial strategies was the race card and its success with a Los Angeles jury.

Strange, but not really, is the sudden re-emergence of one of the "Dream Team" star attorneys, Johnnie Cochran, who only recently gave an interview to Savoy magazine and discussed "The O.J. Rules...Race, Law and Celebrity." In that article, Mr. Cochran stated with unabashed certainty that Bryant would be acquitted. He emphasized that "race" plays a part in almost everything in America." If Mr. Cochran is correct, then we most certainly will see Mr. Bryant's own "Dream Team" use it to the max in a Colorado courtroom against the accuser, a white woman.

This is where Johnnie Cochran and I disagree. Maybe it's because, unlike Mr. Cochran [a black male attorney], I [a white female attorney] see it from a different point of view. My perspective is that, since the O.J. Simpson trial, we have learned as a society that the race "issue" was "played" as a race card - a trial strategy. That means, simply enough, that once the race card has been played in the media and so publicly as a trial strategy, its no longer a strategy; the hand has been tipped, the cards shown. And that's really all we're talking about. trial strategies.

I successfully defended James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, in a sexual harassment trial wherein a young, financially needy woman accused the elderly, financially successful, performer of improper sexual conduct. If you read this statement closely, you will discover my trial strategies for defending this legendary entertainer against allegations of sexual misconduct. While the race card could not be played -- they were both black -- the question would then become, if Brown's accuser had been white, would the race card have been a useful trial strategy?

In the Kobe Bryant trial, the race card will not be played, mostly because it will be seen as just that - a race "card." However, what will happen is that his attorneys will allow the media to keep the race issue of a black man and a white woman "out there." It will never be discussed, as it was in the O.J. Simpson case before the jury, but it will be there everyday. a reminder that racism is still here and just what do we think about it in terms of the basketball player's due punishment?

Bryant's attorneys have an uphill battle. They have to use everything they can. Don't they?