In
June of 1994 my 16-year-old sister April, my 4-year-old brother
Johnathan, and I were visiting family in Germany for the summer. I
was 12 at the time. This was the summer that followed my 6th
grade year. I was in my Oma and Opa's back garden when my sister came
out and told me that somebody named JR Simpson was in a car chase. I
told her I didn't care, never heard of him. She told me, “I
thought you liked football. He's a famous NFL player.“ Clarity
hit.
“You
mean OJ Simpson?”
“Yeah,
that's it.” I ran into the house and the TV was on either CNN or
CNBC already.
My
grandparents had two English language channels. CNN and CNBC. CNBC
wasn't purely a markets channel at this point. At least the
international version wasn't. I watched the chase on TV for a long
time, completely fascinated. It wasn't live, in fact it was delayed
about six hours but wow. NFL legend and all-time great on the run for
murder. It had the added flavor of being a little bit of home in a
foreign land. The US was hosting the World Cup, which I watched live
on TV, but I wasn't that into soccer. I connected with OJ. I heard him
on TV broadcasts and saw him on car rental commercials all the time.
I
assumed he was innocent that summer. Of course all the information
and evidence wasn't available to me, I just went with my heart. I
liked OJ and by golly I didn't like murderers. So he had to be
innocent. After a day or so I forgot all about it and went about my
vacation.
The
trial went on forever. The murders were in June of 1994. The trial
didn't begin until January of 1995. The verdict was not announced
until October 1995. A ten month trial. 17 months between arrest and
acquittal. I wasn't one of those people who watched Court TV all day
obviously. I mean school was in session. But I did begin watching
the evening news daily in the 8th grade. Even after the
trial, news became important to me. So much so that I make my living
in TV news.
So
from watching the news it was pretty clear to me that OJ Simpson
murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. But the thing is
there were so many teachers that publicly supported OJ in my
school.
The
verdict was announced and teachers could be heard cheering the
outcome. I was stunned. Clearly this guy did it! My teachers weren't
dumb. They had to have known this. I believed that there were two
possible reasons for them to openly celebrate the acquittal of a
killer.
The
first was really simple. They did not want to appear racist. Not
much explanation needed for this. Rodney King and the LA Riots were
just a few years before. Racial tensions were brought into the
spotlight again, frail feelings on the subject were extra sensitive.
They knew in their hearts OJ did it but were afraid to be seen as a
racist to openly call him a killer.
The
second possible reason is a little more complicated. The perception
was (is) that a black man could never be found not guilty in the
murder of a pretty white woman. That innocent black men
are convicted all the time. That if OJ Simpson, despite common sense,
could get off, it would show that the United States has progressed so
much.
I
can understand that thinking. In fact, I know that I suffer from
white guilt myself. I root for minorities over whites, all other
things being equal. But in a capital murder case, this is
ridiculous. Justice was not served. Clearly the prosecution must
have been incompetent. Surely the Jury had a very broad definition
of “reasonable doubt.” To root for a killer to walk away does
not do anything to make up for past racist actions. All it does is
piss on the memory of the victims. Yes, OJ was found not guilty.
This didn't prove that racism was no longer a problem. It had more to do with OJ's financial situation. He was able to hire not just one or two great attorneys, but an entire team. The acquittal did not
remove racial bias or lift anybody up. All it did was offer up
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman as sacrifices to make some
people feel better about themselves.
Today
many liberals like myself do this to a degree. Affirmative action is
fine but quotas are harmful. We should all be held to a high
standard. We should be held accountable. There may be horrible or few
choices afforded some, but we still make them. To baby a class of
individuals does nobody any favors. Is it not just a patriarchy to
overly protect a group and make excessive excuse when somebody falls short? You want to be
fair and even give a little leg up, but not to a point where people
are dependent upon your actions. This helps nobody and fosters
dependency and resentment. We should fight injustice and for equality and make up for erstwhile infractions, but as the adage goes, two wrongs don't make a right. Proverbs 24:23-25 (MSG)says
It's wrong, very wrong, to go along with injustice.
Whoever whitewashes the wicked gets a black mark in the history books,
But whoever exposes the wicked will be thanked and rewarded.
Of
course I guess there was a third possible reason for my teachers
celebrating the OJ acquittal. Maybe they actually were dumb?
###
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| Me holding a framed poster of Michael Irvin. Christmas 1995. |
If I had to pick a single song to be the soundtrack to this post it would be...
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