OJ Simpson

OJ Simpson's death is an odd topic for me to write about.

Simply hearing about his name in the news this week brought back a long-suppressed memory. That of the moment on October 3, 1995 when the announcement came after the lengthy 11-month trial that this middle class mid-20s college educated white woman first witnessed what I would later learn was dubbed "the racial gap."

I remember a group of us were returning from a group lunch at Sunny Garden in West Windsor. In my mind, I'm picturing us in its shinier location, after it sold its liquor license and moved a little closer to Princeton MarketFair mall. It must have been a birthday celebration, but nearly 30 years later I don't remember whose birthday we were celebrating. I'm guessing it was Hilda B., the first person I met who did not change her last name because she married someone with the same last name, what are the odds!

Whoever it was, we were a larger crowd than usual. 

As we were returning from lunch, someone shared the announcement they heard on their car radio: not guilty.

This was in the early days of the internet, long before knowing Smart Phones would become something just about everyone would always carry. Hearing news midday often meant listening to a radio. 

This was momentous.

I was not following the case. I had heard about OJ's police chase in his white Ford Bronco (something my in-law's watched on TV and told me about, as this was the beginning of our days of not having cable TV), and Johnny Cochran's famous line about the glove, "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit." I wasn't following the particulars.

Until that moment I don't think I had an opinion about whether or not (Black football star) OJ Simpson murdered his (blond white) wife Nicole Brown Simpson. What I instantly realized, though, was my Black co-workers had been following the case and did care -- they were thrilled. My white co-worker who had also been following the case were subdued.

This was the first time I realized I had Black and white co-workers.

It took me another three decades for me to realize that was the first time I realized that.