(RE)AFFIRMING RACE - REALITY, NEGOTIATION, AND THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY

This article combines insights from the social construction of reality tradition and recent works on audience ethnography to explore the rit ualistic process by which racial boundaries are continually policed, ( re)affirmed and (re)produced. The so-called black-white divide in perc eptions of the O. J. Simpson double murder trial serves as the case st udy. This case is understood as a classic media event in which differe nt societal groups struggle to privilege particular understandings of reality, to either maintain or improve their statuses in society. Two ten-member groups-one group black, one white-were tracked over the cou rse of the criminal trial. Findings outline how ''raced ways of seeing '' figured in the process by which the groups attributed meanings to t he case and case-related media constructions. Study conclusions consid er the implications for ''evidence,'' epistemology, and contemporary U . S. race relations.