(RE)AFFIRMING RACE:

This article combines insights from the social construction of reality tradition and recent works on audience ethnography to explore the ritualistic process by which racial boundaries are continually policed, (re)affirmed and (re)produced. The so-called black-white divide in perceptions of the O. J. Simpson double murder trial serves as the case study. This case is understood as a classic media event in which different 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 course of the criminal trial. Findings outline how "raced ways of seeing' figured in the process by which the groups attributed meanings to the case and case-related media constructions. Study conclusions consider the implications for "evidence,' epistemology, and contemporary U. S. race relations.