O.J. Touched Basically Every Corner Of Modern America

Ruminate:

Road-Blocked Media Events: Social media has given us so many of these things, whereby it feels like we need to weigh in or see what others are saying related to a big thing happening in semi-real time. I would argue that between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, the biggest “road-blocked” event that happened in America was probably the Bronco chase. Sure, maybe you could argue Clinton getting elected or Bush vs. Gore, although that took forever to play out in the courts. The chase captivated America (and parts of the world) for an entire evening. I still think it is one of the highest pizza delivery nights apart from Super Bowls in U.S. history.

The Kardashians: He was deeply tied to this family, including Robert as his lawyer, and there have been rumors for years that he is Khloe’s father. I think those have mostly been debunked, but if most media reports are true, he was hiding in Kim’s bedroom before the chase.

Race in policing: Racial issues with cops existed way before 1994, but Fuhrmann (did I spell that right?) and the trial brought so many of the issues directly into our living rooms for all to grapple with. Now we talk about race almost constantly.

Adriana Kuch: Must Everything Now Be About Race, Somehow?

TED BAUER

·

MAR 26

If you are unfamiliar with the Adriana Kuch story, basically she was a teenager girl in New Jersey. She got bullied a week ago at her high school (that’s the left side of the picture above). The video went “viral” within her high school and she killed herself days later. Obviously I don’t know her, or this family, and I cannot tell you if there were pre-existing issues with anxiety or depression before she committed suicide.

Read full story

True crime: You could argue true crime is the biggest genre in the world right now, behind maybe romance. While notable crime stories existed before O.J., i.e. Charles Manson and other things, the Simpson case and trial is arguably the beginning of the crime obsession of two different generations.

Rich people skating in criminal trials: This also happened before O.J., but this was one of the first times in modernity I think people realized “Wow, rich people with good lawyers can avoid most fates that the rest of us probably could not.”

A special shoutout for NYC’ers or sports fans: As detailed in the ESPN 30 for 30 on June 1994, the O.J. chase period — which obviously immediately followed the death of Nicole Brown Simpson — overlapped drastically with a number of major sports events, including the Rangers finally winning the Stanley Cup (and their parade), Knicks vs. Rockets NBA Finals Game, and Ken Griffey Jr. being the fastest player to 30 HR in a season. If you were a sports fan in the middle of June 1994, a ton of stuff hit you in the face at once. That went double if you were a NYC sports fan. I lived in NYC in June 1994, as I was … 13 years old.

Race in general: If you watched the award-winning ESPN/ABC deal on O.J. and race in America, you realize O.J. was an important figure in many respects because he was one of the few 1970s black guys who could sit at “the white tables” at fancy events. There are some NSFW quotes about that all over the Internet, including something he supposedly said to George Plimpton at a dinner once. (Google it.)

Criminal vs. civil: Most Americans, I’d argue, still don’t understand what a “criminal” trial is vs. a “civil” trial. O.J. got us close.

Celebrity Trial: Without O.J., would Depp vs. Heard have been as relevant to people? Depp vs. Heard was kinda like the #MeToo version of what O.J., a black man married to an attractive white woman that he likely murdered, was to mid-1990s, post-Rodney King race relations.

So much of our modern cultural obsessions tie back to this guy and his actions across one week, but more like a few decades. Rest in hell, Juice.