O.J. Simpson’s death has forced Black America to grapple with our complex relationship with the “trial of the century.” In 1995, a majority-Black jury acquitted Simpson of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman — who was brutally stabbed to death inside of her Los Angeles home.
The trial sharply divided Americans across racial lines, with some Black Americans viewing the trial through the lens of the Rodney King beating. But mostly Black support, wrote Nigel Roberts for The Root, was less about O.J.’s innocence or guilt but about decades of Black people being killed by White Americans without justice served.
At the time, it was believed that the majority of Black Americans thought Simpson was innocent, at least according to an ABC poll. Later polls show that the majority of Black Americans in recent years say he was guilty: In 2015, an ABC News/ Washington Post poll found that 57% of Black Americans suspected he was guilty. But Roberts argues Black Americans have always believed O.J. was guilty.
While Black Americans’ reaction to the verdict has been heavily discussed, Black Americans’ relationship with the victims’ families, particularly the family of Ron Goldman, has been less of a discussion.
In 2017, Ron’s father, Fred Goldman, and younger sister, Kim Goldman, opened up to The Guardian about the criticism they received for speaking out against the “not guilty” verdict and for continuing to pursue legal action against Simpson.
The Goldmans and the family of Brown Simpson were awarded $33.5 million from a civil lawsuit that found Simpson liable for their deaths. However, they’ve yet to recuperate anywhere near that sum.
Kim Goldman says that at the time, they were called “racist” for their stance on the verdict. “My dad and I were called racist for not agreeing with the verdict, she said, also noting other attacks she and her father have received online. “I get called all sorts of names – antisemitic, racist, sexual things. I ignore most of it,”
Race played an undeniably crucial role for both the jurors and Black Americans watching the trial at home.
Roberts, writing for The Root, argues that many Black Americans privately believed that Simpson was guilty but that his acquittal was about decades of racial injustice. “Our excitement at Simpson’s acquittal wasn’t about the man’s innocence or guilt – it was all about generations of injustice and white people killing Blacks with impunity. Nearly 30 years later, that’s much easier for Black people to admit – to each other,” he writes.
However, the Goldmans felt that the way race was applied in the trial and how they were treated afterward were unfair.
“We disagreed with the verdict not because the jury was black,” Kim Goldman told The Guardian, “but because they didn’t do what they were ordered to by the judge, which was to look at the evidence. They told us they stopped listening at some point during the prosecutor’s case. I didn’t think they’d fall for all the race stuff.”