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| Was OJ Simpson's arrest and trial the beginning of reality TV - and Donald Trump's rise? Nick Bryant, BBC News, New York |
© April 12, 2024, the Griot Poet
I saw the Bronco Chase,
June 17, 1994,
We all watched it like a
dark, communal ritual,
The eclipse of our
innocence.
The slow meander on the
California interstate,
I was witnessing the birth
of sensationalism and spectacle.
I witnessed the rift
between black and white citizens and how they would perceive the trial
proceedings.
The trial lasted a year.
It was the “trial of the
century.”
A “made for TV” drama.
This was the prototype for Court TV, “reality TV,” and streaming services.
We’re not quite processing
how sociopathic this made our society.
My Frat brother, Johnny
Cochran, was the lead attorney,
And on his team, a name
that would go down in infamy: Robert Kardashian,
As his widow and his
daughters would make a billion-dollar empire,
On the Shakespearean
equivalent of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Contributing to the public
disdain for being an expert at anything,
“Cosmos” by Carl Sagan
lasted three years.
“Keeping Up With the
Kardashians” has droned on for two decades.
Why learn a profession where
eyeballs can make you billions?
It’s a strange way to
remember the patriarch of their family.
It's ironic because Robert
Kardashian was an excellent lawyer.
It's ironic because Robert
Kardashian was part of what was dubbed “The Dream Team.”
Because of Detective Mark
Fuhrman,
And the racial epithet he
casually used,
Television censors were on
point then,
And the “n-word” entered
our lexicon.
Orenthal James Simpson,
He was the first
post-Civil Rights sports superstar.
He made it a part of his persona to ignore its significance.
He was "respectability politics" before the term came into existence.
He wasn’t as militant as
Cassius Clay cum Muhammad Ali,
Or Lou Alcindor cum Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar.
He reduced his moniker to
“just OJ.”
From unusual names to two
letters.
He proved himself to be a
marketing genius.
He advertised Hertz
Rent-A-Car.
Running through the
kiosks,
So, he naturally had a
part in Alex Haley’s semi-plagiarized autobiography, “Roots,” the original
seven-part series,
When we thought, then, finally,
there might be recognition and reconciliation before reparations.
That, of course, passed.
He was an actor, to boot.
He is as recognizable in
“The Naked Gun” series as the star, Leslie Nielsen.
He was a guest on variety
shows and celebrity interviews.
He dated Nicole Brown when
she was barely legal.
Despite being the mother
of his second marriage’s children, he was jealous of her beauty.
One domestic violence call
to 911 found her with an imprint of his hand on her face.
The police shrugged and
left.
I wept at the verdict.
Because I saw the eyes
of so-called “white” people roll so hard to see their brain stems.
Because I saw so-called “black” people cheer, not that “The Juice” got away with murder but for my Frat
brother, Johnny Cochran.
It was the fact that OJ could pay for expert lawyering, which many of us could not possibly afford.
Most of us go into the
jaws of the beast,
Each time we go into the
criminal “justice” system,
The Central Park 5 were
almost railroaded into the electric chair by a full-page ad in the New York
Times,
Exonerated by DNA
evidence,
And the real predator
confessing,
Kalief Browder, however, was mauled
by the beast, committing suicide after three years of confinement without a
“speedy trial” in sight.
He was framed for stealing a
backpack that he didn’t steal.
Because we so-called
“black” people have always known:
The system is broken.
It was always rigged
against us and for the so-called “white” and privileged.
“1681,” the Bacon
Rebellion, is when they invented a lie to divide us.
We have been waiting:
Since Crispus Attucks in
1776,
Since Medgar Evers in
1963,
Since Malcolm X in 1965,
Since Martin Luther King
in 1968,
Since Rodney King in 1991,
After OJ in 1994 drove a
Bronco in slow-mo.
Maybe,
After the slow white
Bronco “chase,”
After an acquittal, that just
didn’t seem right,
When he got sentenced for
civil liability, you cheered just like you did when he was on the gridiron.
Did you cheer when the
token respectability “golden boy” got off scot-free?
Dying after prostate
cancer isn’t exactly dying peacefully,
But he did die, surrounded
by family.
We thought:
Maybe you could finally
see how a system rigged by rich people,
It might blow back in your
collective faces.
But you didn’t.
And here we are,
Waiting for another rich
celebrity to game a broken system on a “Stormy” Monday.
A former president goes on
trial,
For hiding his secret
affairs with an adult film actress and a playboy centerfold.
It wasn’t “hush money”: it
was FEC violations, denying American citizens the RIGHT to know what character
the man who arranged the scheme had who was RUNNING for president AFTER the
Access Hollywood tape!
“Absolute immunity” is
absolute nonsense.
But I expect that from a
criminal whose only time he is not committing crimes is the few hours he’s
sleeping.
