The Simpson saga will always be a part of our culture

Come October 1, O.J. Simpson will be a free man. All indications point to Simpson being granted parole on Thursday.

And if you think this doesn’t matter, believe me, it does. It’s been over 23 years since the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, and the story is never going to go away. For starters, it’s a “great” news story, and by “great” I mean it hits virtually every news value. Really. You can’t make it up, and if you did, it would’ve been a best-selling novel and hit movie. “On of the NFL’s all-time greats, who became a Hollywood star and pitchman, stands accused of murdering his exwife and another man.” I mean, that alone is enough to fill the pages. Add in the Bronco chase and the circus of a trial, and you’ve got an incredible finish. As for the epilogue? The ridiculous Keystone Copsesque Las Vegas robbery that eventually landed Simpson in jail.

All of that is reason enough to continue to keep O.J. in our minds forever.

But the biggest reason I think we need to continue to be reminded of Simpson? Because of the light he shined on race relations in America.

I will never forget those next-day front pages after the jury verdict. White people with their mouths hanging open, black people celebrating. I was 22 at the time, suburban sheltered, and it blew my mind. I mean, it certainly seemed like he committed the murders. Anyone could see that. Right?

Apparently not. To this day, only 53 percent of African-Americans believe Simpson is the murderer, that according to a CNN poll from 2014. To compare, over 90 percent of white people think he was guilty.

Speaking for the suburban shelterites, this trial broke the myth that everything was hunky-dory, race-wise, in America. I mean, I never saw racism growing up in Parsippany. Nor did I see very many minorities, which, I realize now, is it’s own form of racism.

We’re starting to tread into 500-page sociology dissertations, so I’ll stop, but in the end, know this: O.J. Simpson, and what his trial eventually showed, will always be with us, and it’s up to all of us to confront that fact.