"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin said Friday that many Black Americans were relieved by O.J. Simpson's acquittal because of their frustration with the American justice system, adding police officers had killed more people than he had.
Simpson died of cancer on Wednesday at age 76, known for his football prowess but moreso for his arrest and infamous double murder trial that dominated 1994 and 1995. His acquittal remains one of the most controversial trial moments in American history, exemplified by the racially divided reaction at the time.
On ABC’s "The View," co-host Joy Behar said "everyone still can’t stop talking" about Simpson’s death, recalling, "It was like a phenomenon when it happened, the trial of the century, the Bronco chase, the not guilty verdict. All of these things made people crazy."
Behar later went on to ask, "Why do people see it through such different lenses do you think? I mean the guy had a bunch of stuff in his car, his passport, he looked like he was leaving to get out and get away after he allegedly murdered these people and yet he got away with it, so it’s a divisive sort of trial, wasn’t it?"
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Hostin replied that Black Americans’ relief at Simpson’s acquittal was due to racial enmity, particularly after the Rodney King incident. She said on Thursday that him not going to prison for the brutal murders was an "injustice."
"You know, I think it was less about his guilt or innocence and rather about the system and how the system treated African Americans, and continues to treat African Americans in this country," Hostin said. "You have to remember, in putting it into context, the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King almost to death in front of the world’s eyes was in 1992."
"This happened in 1994, and I think for the Black community, it was less about whether or not O.J. did it, because I think even today you’ll go to, you know, barber shops and beauty salons and people will say he did it, but he got away with it and the police officers, you know, police officers have killed many more people than O.J. Simpson."
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Co-host Ana Navarro later shared an account of how the verdict and media frenzy made her realize America's deep racial divisions.
"It was the first time I was confronted in my lifetime with the racial divides and the painful racial gaps in America. And I remember watching it. I remember I was at the student union and law school and the Black students were one side and the White — Nonblacks were on the other side. The Black students erupted into cheers, the Whites — everybody else was with jaws agape, and it’s something that still is happening in so many cases and I do think, Don Lemon was saying to me yesterday, it was not about guilt or innocence, it was about race."
Co-host Sara Haines interjected to remind people, "There were innocent people involved here, and I’d like to take a moment to mention them. Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were brutally killed and murdered, and I think that the legal system failed Nicole over and over again."
One of the many issues that the Simpson trial spotlighted was domestic abuse, as he was known to have assaulted and harassed his wife during and after their marriage.
