Nobody Ever Talks About Black Women: Exploitation in O.J.’s Murder Trial
When O.J. Simpson’s infamous murder trial was occurring in 1995, I was just 7–8 years old and the only things I remember vividly were the video of the Bronco chase and the reactions of Black people when he was acquitted. All I understood was that O.J. was in trouble for possibly killing some people and that Black people were happy he didn’t go to jail. Like most millennials, with each revisit to the “trial of the century,” I learned more and more about the case, its participants, and its impact on society.
One of those revisits is Oxygen’s new true crime series, “The Jury Speaks” which takes a look at high-profile cases from the perspective of the jurors who decided those cases. While I never planned on watching the whole series (one of the episodes was about George Zimmerman’s case and the preview was especially triggering), I was eager to watch the Simpson episode. For a case that was polarizing along white/Black racial lines, today almost everyone — regardless of race — believes O.J. was guilty. I wanted to know how the jury felt about their verdict now and if they’d give the same verdict considering public opinion.
Whether or not they’d vote the same was included in the episode but the most intriguing thing I learned was that the jury was composed of mostly Black women, a demographic that…
