Media review: OJ: Made in America

I spent most evenings last week enthralled in one of the best TV documentaries I have seen for years:: "OJ: Made in America", directed by Ezra Edelman.

Why should we care about the Simpson case? Because it says so much about the character of our principle ally, that country which, as George Bernard Shaw, is separated from us by a common language.
         The film was called "Made in America" for a good reason. It attempted to show OJ's roots as a poor black boy growing up in an America still under the "Jim Crow" laws which made discrimination against black people, not only legal but mandatory. As soon as he could, OJ escaped from his roots and found fame as a running back in the college football system,  playing for prestigious University of Southern California (USC). Beloved even by a highly racist public, tacitly awarded what could be called "honorary white" status, OJ had little interest in the struggle for civil rights at that time convulsing the nation. He was earning his own civil rights through his prowess in football, and that was all he cared about.

Later as the 70s dawned he joined NFL side the Buffalo Bills and achieved iconic status as one of the greatest running backs of all time. And all this time he made his friends, not among fellow blacks but in the white community. He had married a black girl when very young though it soon emerged that it was white flesh he preferred. It wasn't long before he abandoned his first wife and had a succession of white girlfriends, culminating in his marriage to beautiful, slender, white, Nicole Brown.
           But unfortunately for her, he had a jealous and controlling streak which resulted in numerous and escalating incidents of domestic violence. Finally she had enough and left him. But he wouldn't let it go as easily as that and continued to stalk and bully her. Finally he snapped and the rest is highly disputed history.

While all this was going on the race issue was bubbling away in American society. In 1992 a group of white cops were videod beating the holy shite out of a black guy, Rodney King. Despite the apparently conclusive footage all were acquitted, sparking riots in Los Angeles that left many dead and laying waste to dozens of city blocks.
               And now we come to the crux: for at OJ's trial, it wasn't the fumbling antics of the LAPD, nor the incompetence of the prosecution team, nor the lies of Mark Fuhrman (he said on the stand he never used the word "nigger", then a tape was produced of him saying just that, time after time) nor even the brilliance of OJ's defence team especially Johnny Cochran that secured his "not guilty" verdict, it was payback for Rodney King.
           The jurors were perfectly clear about it. This was their chance to reverse years of injustice meted out to the black man, and they didn't really care if Simpson had viciously slashed two human beings to death or not. They were going to send a message to whitey- you ain't gonna lynch another one of our people this time.

It's hard for us to understand the enormity of the OJ case. It is as if David Beckham had murdered Posh, though that doesn't really encompass it because Becks is a white man in a still predominantly white society. No, the US and the UK are so different there isn't really a meaningful comparison to be made. All I would say that I understood a lot more about this strange, beautiful but terrible country after watching this film, and can only urge you to find it on iplayer and see it for yourself.