If ever the announcement of a high-profile death produced mixed emotions, that was the case this morning when we discovered that O.J. Simpson had died of bone cancer.
There's not much needed to rehash the story of his professional life because we all remember. Heisman Trophy, NFL Hall of Fame, exalted movie star, accused murderer, acquitted, liable for civil damages from said murder, convicted of armed robbery, jailed, released, played a lot of golf while "looking for the real killer."
O.J. had few peers on the field. He is easily on the Top Ten list of all-time running backs. But he had a little more. Despite playing in a small market for a team that rarely made the playoffs (Buffalo), O.J.'s unique name, obvious skills, charisma, good looks and million-dollar smile made him popular far beyond the confines of professional football.
He was the first African-American sports star to become a truly national celebrity. Yes, others were feted and made handsome livings, but O.J. was different. Jim Brown starred in several movies and television shows, but "The Juice" was more successful because he was so approachable. And, just being honest here, because he was non-threatening to white people.
Brown's persona (on both sides of the camera) was that of a no-nonsense proud black man. While that was laudable, it didn't click with middle America. In contrast, O.J.'s boyish charm and articulate California voice and diction made him a hit with white America like no African-American athlete before.
He appeared in several high-profile movies in the offseason and filmed a series of commercials for Hertz Car Rental that were memorable and successful. He made guest appearances with Bob Hope and other luminaries. In short, he was a black athlete that even the whitest of people felt comfortable with. He rapidly become one of the most popular black entertainers of his generation.
I know that reading words like these in 2024 are uncomfortable for some, particularly the younger people reading this. I get it. It seems odd today to even consider such qualities as "likeability" and "approachability" under the heading of white consumers and black celebrities. But 50 years ago, things were VERY different. And you can make a fine argument that O.J. paved the way for the likes of Michael Jordan and many others to take black athlete celebrity status to the next level.
But there was something else going on under the surface. O.J. gave more than a few people hope that we could continue to move in a positive direction with regard to race relations in America. Remember, his career began just as Jim Crow laws were being phased out in a quarter of our nation. The wounds of segregation were still quite fresh and painful.
As O.J.'s celebrity career continued long after his playing days, there were whispers from the black community . He was never conspicuous about using his celebrity status to tout many "traditional" African-American causes. He didn't campaign for black politicians. I don't recall any overt pushback, but there was an undercurrent of feeling from some in the Black Community that he had "sold out." That is nice term that is sometimes given very unsavory names like "Uncle Tom" and far, far worse. To paraphrase an infamous quote from our current President, many in the African American community felt that O.J., "Wasn't a *real* black."
The brutal stabbing deaths of O.J.'s wife and her friend was obviously front-page news. It quickly morphed into something else entirely when Simpson was charged. It culminated in a bizarre low-speed chase on a California Interstate that everyone on the planet, it seems, watched. That catapulted the story into a whole new dimension.
It was weird at the time, watching the nation quickly divide into "camps." That this was done without the existence of social media made it even more astounding. Equally astounding was the demographics in each camp. The same racial identity that Simpson had eschewed while making his career was quickly embraced and became the unfortunate focal point of the entire trial. Rapidly the trial became not about a high-profile double-homicide in a posh southern California zip code, but it became (literally) a black-and-white affair. It was a depressing thing to witness.
The trial itself devolved into the worst media circus imaginable. It was a daily soap opera that people began tuning into for entertainment. As a result, the participants --- lawyers, judges and other so-called professionals --- began playing to the audience. It was a precursor of Reality TV. Except that it was taking place in a court of law where trusted people are supposed to be conducting one of the sacred duties of a functioning society...the even-handed application of the law and justice.
O.J.'s acquittal was instantly one of those "Where were you" moments. We carried the reading live on our radio station at the time (WHLF/WJLC, South Boston, VA). After it was read, the station manager and I looked at each with bemused grins. Then he said all that was needed to be said. "He literally just got away with murder." Yes. Yes, he did.
But what I remember most about this was the collective reaction to the verdict. It was almost entirely split along racial lines. Many whites felt betrayed that an African-American whom they had welcomed into their world would have done such a thing. Many blacks were happy that the justice system appeared to have given a minority the benefit of the doubt for once. The two people who died to make all this possible were collateral damage, I suppose.
I will say today what I said at the time. Our justice system demands overwhelming evidence before someone can be convicted. That is a good thing. Do I think O.J. did it? Of course he did. But you still had to prove that in a court of law. The investigating agencies most certainly broke protocols in their probe of the murders and that cannot be ignored. It is better that ten guilty people go free before one innocent man is jailed. That burden of proof was not met.
But with thirty years of hindsight, I can point to this as the moment that I realized we still had a LONG ways to go in order to be a post-racial society. The image of an auditorium full of Howard Law Students jumping and cheering upon hearing the verdict---as if the Bison had just pulled an NCAA Tournament upset---will stick with me forever. These are supposed to be students who are learning about the law and its faithful and blind application. To watch them embrace a verdict based entirely on the color of a man's skin was sickening. But it presaged a lot of things that we have witnessed in the subsequent three decades.
As sick, sordid and comical as it was, the O.J. drama in the nineties laid the groundwork for unsavory people to turn immutable characteristics into a combination of shield and cudgel. In a well-functioning system, the defendant's skin color should bear the same weight as their shoe size and haircut. The O.J. Simpson fiasco demonstrated we are nowhere near that level, and we are much further away from it here thirty years later.
Bummer.