Oj Simpson Arguments From History

Arguments from History Essay

The American public has a major fixation on all of the current events that are going on in the lives of celebrities around the world. This fact remained true on October 3rd, 1995 when almost everyone was glued to their television to listen to the verdict issued to O.J. Simpson. The public’s fascination and attention was completely captured throughout this process. Nobody knows why our society is so hooked on needing to know every detail that is currently going on in the everyday lives of celebrities, but our addictions are continuing to grow. Anywhere you go there are many newspapers and magazines, along with all social media websites, that have all of the latest gossip plastered on the covers, and we can’t seem

Celebrity fascination may be an outgrowth of this tendency, nourished by the media and technology” (Pappas). It has come to the point where “many cannot go a day without reading the latest juicy morsel of celebrity gossip” (Palm). This fascination was evident on the day of October 3rd, 1995, when the long awaited verdict of the murder trial of O.J. Simpson was issued. It was such a historical moment in history that “it was called the ‘trial of the century’ because of its high profile and, until that point, much beloved defendant” (Morales). Orenthal James “OJ” Simpson was a beloved athlete to many football and sports fans. Starting off in San Francisco, “he gained fame as a two-time All-American halfback for the USC Trojans, setting NCAA records and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1968” (Biography.com). After his college career he joined the Buffalo Bills in 1969 and quickly began to become one of the NFL’s best players. He was so good, he was “nicknamed ‘The Juice,’ and topped 1,000 yards rushing over five consecutive years (1972-76)” (Biography.com). Americans

Simpson in the spotlight for something as terrible as this, the attention of the public was bound to be caught. This event was so impactful that it was one of the first trials to be televised to the whole nation with “ninety-five million television viewers witnessing the slow police chase live. The 133 days of televised courtroom testimony turned countless viewers into Simpson trial junkies. Even foreign leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin eagerly gossiped about the trial” (Linder). Most Americans believed that his verdict was almost certain to be guilty, but when the opposite decision came down from the jury, the world was shocked. This situation was not just about the guilty vs. not guilty, good vs bad, but became about black vs. white. Some viewpoints about his guilt were split along the lines of racial background with “the whites who thought he was guilty haven’t budged an inch, and the blacks who thought he was not guilty haven’t budged an inch and no one’s mind has changed two decades” (Ogletree Jr.). The article in CBSNEWS by Tatiana Morales agrees with Ogletree’s article in that both believed that this trial drew a line between the races once the verdict was decided. She states that