When the O. J. Simpson verdict was introduced, I used to be a junior at Michigan State College. On the time, I used to be the managing editor of my school newspaper, The State Information, so I didn’t have the luxurious of reacting emotionally someway. I had the accountability of determining how our publication was going to current to 40,000 college students this beautiful consequence to what many had referred to as “the trial of the century.”
However as I watched the decision on the TV in our school newsroom, I instantly understood why a few of the white staffers on the paper reacted with seen disgust—and why lots of my Black pals felt relieved, even joyous, that Simpson had been discovered not responsible of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her good friend, Ronald Goldman. Though, again in 1995, everybody was conscious of the racial divide on this nation, the trial offered stark proof of simply how sharp it was.
As a pupil journalist, I understood that this was a major piece of the story. The predominantly African American jury’s not-guilty verdict appeared inseparable from the deep mistrust Black individuals had in regulation enforcement, however I didn’t see it as a second to have a good time. Simpson’s soccer achievements had obtained due recognition—he was a Heisman Trophy winner and an NFL Corridor of Famer. However athletic prowess apart, he had lengthy since distanced himself from the Black group. Purposely so, and he appeared to experience his distinctive proximity to white America. To my thoughts, the message that the decision despatched about Black skepticism towards the criminal-justice system couldn’t be indifferent from its far-from-ideal messenger.
When Simpson’s loss of life was introduced by his household on Thursday, the racial divide that the trial had uncovered got here again to the floor. The CNN contributor Ashley Allison, a coverage adviser for former President Barack Obama who had additionally labored on President Joe Biden’s marketing campaign, stated on air that the Simpson trial “represented one thing for the Black group” as a result of it put a highlight on the racial inequity that Black individuals generally face within the criminal-justice system. Marc Lamont Hill, an anthropology and urban-education professor and a media commentator, summarized Simpson’s profession on X on this method: “O.J. Simpson was an abusive liar who deserted his group lengthy earlier than he killed two individuals in chilly blood. His acquittal for homicide was the right and mandatory results of a racist felony authorized system. However he’s nonetheless a monster, not a martyr.” Each had been harshly criticized by right-leaning retailers. Regardless of a gradual provide of proof that the criminal-justice system does certainly deal with Black individuals in another way, pointing this out within the context of the Simpson case nonetheless brings condemnation for Black advocates who achieve this.
Amongst different reactions to the information of Simpson’s loss of life, Torrey Smith, a former NFL participant who can also be Black, blasted media retailers for relying closely on Simpson’s courtroom pictures within the protection of his loss of life—in his view, thus relitigating Simpson’s acquittal. In the meantime, Caitlyn Jenner, whose ex-wife, Kris Jenner, was finest pals with Nicole Brown Simpson, posted “Good Riddance” on her X account. The truth that we’re nonetheless arguing about O.J. reveals that we haven’t come so far as we should always have, partially as a result of too many white individuals misunderstand the response amongst many Black individuals to his acquittal within the first place.
What they miss is that if Black individuals cared about Simpson’s trial, and the way in which it uncovered cracks within the criminal-justice system, they by no means cared a lot about Simpson the person. As a sports activities journalist, I’ve talked to numerous individuals through the years about these questions. I’ve discovered that Simpson was not the cultural fixture within the Black group that some white individuals assumed he was, and apparently proceed to imagine he’s. As Simpson preferred to inform individuals, “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.” I took Simpson at his phrase and so did many others.
By comparability, such infamous abusers as Invoice Cosby, R. Kelly, and now Diddy have a a lot stronger cultural maintain. All three have been accused of abusing girls (in Kelly’s case, truly convicted), but some ambivalence persists within the Black group about their standing and their work—every nonetheless has defenders or followers who appear keen to both stick by their icon or withhold judgment.
With Simpson, no such relationship exists. Simply because many Black individuals imagine that his acquittal was the correct verdict—and, sure, some celebrated when it got here down—doesn’t imply that Simpson was our man. And who was that man? In 2008, Simpson was convicted of a number of prices referring to an armed theft wherein he and associates broke right into a Las Vegas resort room to retrieve gadgets that he claimed had been stolen from him. Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in jail however served about 9 earlier than being launched in 2021.
Some individuals might have seen his conviction and imprisonment in that case as some type of payback for his homicide acquittal, however—in my circles, a minimum of—virtually nobody claimed Simpson as a misunderstood political determine, not to mention a hero. Together with his profession as a sports activities commentator, his appearances in adverts, and his film roles, O.J. achieved an nearly distinctive stage of acceptance—as a star, he arguably meant extra to white America than he did to Black America. So if something, in my expertise, some white Individuals appeared extra upset than Black individuals ever had been that Simpson wasn’t who they thought he was.
Put merely, he was a once-great athlete who turned out to be a horrible individual. The mingled legacy of his movie star and criminality is that his homicide trial compelled our nation into tough conversations—significantly about home violence and the way, no matter race, fame can defend individuals like Simpson from penalties. Above all, although, Simpson’s loss of life is a reminder of how far this nation nonetheless has to go to heal the racial rift that his homicide trial so mercilessly uncovered.
