Column: Simpson trial is still relevant

If you have been watching television lately, you may have noticed one person’s growing presence: O.J. Simpson.

The FX show “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” concluded last week, ending a 10-episode run detailing the criminal trial regarding Simpson and the June 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. This summer, ESPN will release a five-part documentary entitled “O.J.: Made in America,” which will focus on Simpson’s complete rise and fall. The latter received extreme amounts of praise when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Both of these productions are great learning opportunities for our generation. It does not just tell us about the real Simpson, but also why this situation is significant today.

Simpson was more than just a defendant. He was a football star, an advertising spokesperson, broadcaster and actor. He was admired by millions of people and he seemed indestructible.

“There is no hypothetical comparison in the America of today,” sports commentator Keith Olbermann says of Simpson’s stardom. “There is nobody who was as Teflon as the O.J. Simpson of pre-June 1994.”

Yet the case was more than just a national superstar in trouble. There was also the issue of race and the justice system as a whole. Keep in mind the trial in Los Angeles, a city that was nearly torn apart in 1992 following the acquittal of four police officers in beating Rodney King.

Despite being beloved by the public, Simpson at the end of the day was a black man. Race was not just on the forefront; it was an issue fairly or unfairly impossible to ignore.

Then there was the massive amounts of media coverage. Cameras never seemed to stop rolling, whether it was covering the white Bronco chase, pundit debates or detailing of the private lives of all parties involved. People never stopped talking about the trial, and every little detail was magnified by the press.

All of these things — fame, race, journalistic and public obsession — are matters we still deal with currently. Our culture of celebrity worship, debate over racial justice and questions regarding what journalists and people focus their attention towards (see the obsession over Donald Trump) are issues just as prominent now if not more so than they have been before. The Simpson chapter forced all of these things into a single courtroom for a nation to take in.

The Simpson trial has been defined by many as the “trial of the century,” but it is so much more than that. It was a moment where culture and crime came together in an event like no other. “The People v. O.J. Simpson” put those matters in place for viewers to understand, and it will likely be done in “O.J.: Made in America.” Both are not just detailing what happened in 1995; they are telling the story of the United States and how in some ways we have not changed in the past two decades.