There is a splitscreen of the verdict that had 2 schools one white and one black and it was exactly what you expected back then.
The OJ trial for a lot of people had little to do with OJ per se. He was a vessel that represented the people who in large part felt marginalized by the justice system. Just another black man taking the fall for the transgressions planted upon them. You can't get to how people at the time saw the OJ trail without going through Rodney King and the literal and very tangible corruption throughout the LAPD and police across the country. It should have been about the victims and their families but it was for many it became a snapshot position in America. There was a lot of "OH NOW THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IS BROKEN?" sentiment across the nation but I digress. A lot of those people who "celebrated" were people who grew up and lived through slavery's remix so....there was far more too it than just "The Juice is Loose"
This. There was some schadenfreude at watching white America's get their brains broken on how the justice system is trash on some 'First time here?'. While you will always have a fringe that truly believe he was innocent (and tbh I don't blame them, how many terrible run ins many of them had with the system to not trust it on such a level?) it was more a nihilistic celebration.
Even the media coverage at the time of 'Pan the camera to a poor neighborhood, look at those blacks celebrating' without any deeper dive. It was a shocking crime in Middle America because they were perfect angels in regards to skin color and class along with their mourning parents; you're dealing with a drug epidemic and historic crime highs where sadly outside of the intersection of celebrity race and class 'It was a Tuesday'(c) where cops wouldn't have bothered really investigating the crime to that level if it was your usual poor neighborhood shooting. Cops ignoring previous domestic abuse allegations? Two people murdered on a city street? This is America business as usual. Arrest easiest closet person to crime innocent or not, railroad, get overtime, go home to burbs.
Irony is OJ did his best to leave his blackness to the side and be 'post race' and suddenly his trial is synonymous with American racism.
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