In the wake of OJ Simpson’s death, several black commentators have revealed the dark underside of race relations in America by suggesting that black Americans were glad that he got away with murdering two white people.
In 1995, a jury of nine blacks, one Hispanic, and two whites acquitted Simpson of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman despite “a mountain of evidence” that he was guilty. Many commentators at the time saw the acquittal of Simpson as an example of jury nullification, when a jury members defy a judge’s instructions on the law and acquit a defendant who has been proven guilty for their own biased reasons.
CNN reporter Stephanie Elam’s raised eyebrows Thursday when she almost said many [black] people were happy OJ got away with murder.
“Because of that racial unrest in the ’90s, that is why so many people, who may not have been invested in OJ Simpson, were just happy to see that someone who is rich and famous, and black, could get away with,” Elam began before catching herself and continuing, “what other people did in the system as well, too.”
JUST IN—CNN's Stephanie Elam reporting on OJ Simpson's death accidentally said the quiet part out loud:
"So many people were just happy to see that someone who is rich and famous, and black, could get away with… er … what other people did in the system as well, too." pic.twitter.com/7j4zPCUlo5
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 11, 2024
CNN Contributor Ashley Allison made a similar comments Thursday, suggesting that the black community were rooting for OJ “particularly because there were two white people who had been killed.”
Allison formerly worked in the Obama White House as the Deputy Director in the Office of Public Engagement, and also worked on Joe Biden’s presidential campaign as well as his transition team. — was weighing in on the racial tensions that pervaded the country during the Simpson trial and its aftermath.
She said the Simpson case stoked the racial tensions stemming from the Rodney King riots of 1991.
“It was so racially charged because of what had happened just before with Rodney King, but also just how black Americans feel about policing,” Allison said.
“He wasn’t a social justice leader, but he represented something for the black community in that moment, in that trial, particularly because there were two white people who had been killed. And the history around how black people have been persecuted during slavery,” she added, going on to suggest that black people will continue to harbor murderous resentment toward white people until we “deal with the issue of race.”
“Until this country is ready to actually have an honest conversation about the racial dynamics from our origin story until today, we will always have moments like O.J. Simpson that manifests and our country will always be divided if we don’t actually deal with the issue of race,” Allison said. “And the history around how black people have been persecuted during slavery.”
CNN's Ashley Allison on race + OJ Simpson:
"He wasn't a social justice leader, but he represented something for the black community… because there were two white people who had been killed." pic.twitter.com/uFVabrEFiV
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 12, 2024
Marc Lamont Hill, another black political pundit and a CUNY professor, also sparked outrage after he wrote on his X account that Simpson may have been “an abusive liar” and a “monster” who “killed two people in cold blood,” but his acquittal “was the correct and necessary result of a racist criminal legal system.”
O.J. Simpson was an abusive liar who abandoned his community long before he killed two people in cold blood. His acquittal for murder was the correct and necessary result of a racist criminal legal system. But he’s still a monster, not a martyr.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) April 11, 2024
Hill later defended his post, claiming that Mark Fuhrman, the detective from the Los Angeles Police Department who worked the case, “was caught lying” about having referred to black people with racist epithets.
Hill also pointed out that Fuhrman pleaded the Fifth when asked whether he planted evidence in the Simpson case.
“That raises legal doubt,” Hill argued. “That’s why the verdict was proper.”
“Regardless of race, the system has to be fair,” he added.
Fuhrman has claimed in interviews that he had used the “N Word” in an effort to create dialog while helping an author write a screenplay for a police movie. The author taped the sessions proving that he had uttered the “N” word dozens of times while consulting with her. After the tapes were played, Furhman said he had no choice but to plead the Fifth Amendment when the defense called him to the stand.