Note: I wrote this on the day of OJs death. I got distracted and never proofed or posted it...
The Juice is dead!
For you young people, "Juice" is what they used to call OJ Simpson.
I will never forget where I was when the news broke that he was acquitted by a majority Black and female jury for murdering his white wife. I was having lunch with colleagues at TGIF in Greenbelt, Maryland. There were five or six of us, 50/50 Black and white.
Over the years, I have described the scene as like being at a funeral and a wedding at the same time. Black folks were jumping for joy and cheering loudly, not for OJ, but for what felt like a taste of justice. White folks were sobbing and jeering, for what presumably, felt like a denial of justice, a response completely foreign to them in a legal matter such as this.
For Black folks, finally, the criminal "justice" system, rigged and used against us, had worked in our favor.
So often in America, Black defendants enter a courtroom where the prosecutor gets up to bat and already is on third base. S/he need only punt the ball for a homerun conviction. That didn't happen in this case and white America is still angry...
The white patrons on that day at TGIF were visibly shaken, shocked to their core, and quite angered by our elation. Some were even crying as they paid their bill and got the hell out of there!
The remainder of lunch with my colleagues was awkward as we struggled to suppress our emotions of joy or anger out of courtesy and professional respect for one another.
I will never forget my exchange with Dennis, a white male colleague and lunch partner that day. He was mad at me and probably never really liked me after that afternoon. He couldn't believe I was so happy as he had heard me speculate that OJ might have done it. I wasn't yet an attorney, but still, I understood enough to explain to him that it wasn't about OJ or what I thought, it was about a crooked criminal justice system that unjustly or unfairly convicts Black men everyday. I told him my joy was because OJ, notwithstanding guilt or innocence, had the money and the resources to afford his legal defense, therefore justice, typically reserved for white Americans. To his chagrin, and that of many other white Americans, the[ir] criminal justice system failed them and inadvertently was extended to OJ, a Black defendant.
Most importantly, however, the prosecutors failed to prove the case - bottom line! They were so inept at proving the case, the jurors passed on even the theater of long deliberation and promptly delivered a speedy verdict.
Chris Darden, the Black male prosecutor, is still crying to this day about his very public smack down from the late and great legal genius and icon in the Black community, Johnny "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit" Cochran. May he rest in peace...
The prosecutors over played their hand and wrongly assumed a jury of majority Black women would deliver the verdict they wanted, conviction of a Black man known for his attraction to white women. They abandoned their golden rule, to strike Black jurors from the jury pool. They bet wrong on their "Angry Black Woman" trope. Justice prevailed over any presumption of resentment of OJ harbored by Black women who were not swayed by planted evidence and shoddy testimony from racist cops, jaded and rehearsed in-laws, or lazy house guests.
From the slow speed Bronco chase, to the trial, it was sensational and televised every day. People were glued to the tube. Isn't it interesting however, that almost three decades later, Bill Cosby's case was not televised? It was just as sensational. It was not televised because the state knew they had a BS case, based on mostly BS witnesses who could not have withstood public scrutiny. They knew their witnesses to be so weak, that once observed in a court of law, the court of public opinion would have swayed in Cosby's favor. Be reminded, the first trial ended in a hung jury. The jurors were not convinced. TV is a powerful medium. I digress...
The OJ verdict was, and remains, another stark reminder of just how deeply, some say divided, I'll say different, are our experiences as Black and white people living, breathing, and just trying to be, in America.
The Juice is dead. I guess white folks, especially the Goldmans, now get to have their "wedding". The difference is, Black people are not having a funeral because it was never about OJ for us. May The Juice rest in peace. If he did it, may he meet his maker.
