‘I’m not black, I’m O.J.’: What O.J. Simpson’s life showed about transcending race and being trapped by it

O.J. Simpson listens to testimony during his 1995 trial, in which he was acquitted of murder charges. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images& by Rodney Coates, Miami University It’s still unclear when – or if – O.J. Simpson actually said the words that rapper Jay-Z attributed to him in his 2017 Grammy-nominated song “The Story of O.J.” But the words stuck and came to symbolize the complicated relationship the Black community had with Simpson, who died on April 11, 2024, from complications of prostate cancer. He was 76 years old. “I’m not black, I’m O.J.,” Jay-Z wrote. Indeed, O.J. did transcend race. He had the life of the rich and famous that many Black and White people could only dream of. In the early 1990s, the former professional football player and Hollywood actor was earning US$55,000 per month and had a net worth of nearly $11 million, according to court records. But it all came crashing down on June 12, 1994, after the vicious killing of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was charged in both murders and during the trial became the epitome of Black, male toxicity. Though acquitted – in large part because of...