There are always going to be the people who defend OJ, but they are the same people who believe that Elvis (or Tupac for that matter) are still alive, that pork is the “other white meat” and that reality shows have anything to do with reality.
There’s a lot of controversy around the non-release of the “If I killed that bitch, here’s how I did it” book, but I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about a less known actually released OJ Simpson book, Letters to OJ.
OJ claims that he’s responded to every letter that’s he’s ever received, even the racist ones, though his claim that “until I read the obscene letters, I was sure this type of thinking had died in America in the sixties” (p116) is only one of the statements that make the average intelligent reader stop and say, uh huh. Others include his equating his situation with that of Job after he read the Book of Job for the first time (he really came into his faith throughout his whole ordeal) and got a mean case of Athlete’s Foot, so for him, those were the “boils” that led to his understanding of that position(p132). He constantly brings up Quincy Jones and his “beautiful interracial kids” as someone who mirrors his situation, and how they “never talked about their kids as being interracial”, though he continues his half-assed (and I say this because he’s really picking and choosing what sides of the race card he’s playing) diatribe to summarize his trip to Africa with the statement that “back then, I thought that racism was a black/white thing, then I realized it was a black/black thing” (p114). It’s not to say that internalized racism/complicity is not an important part of every discussion or race relations, but come on! He tells the reader of his policy to send back any allowances sent from kids, even though he needs the money because those kids who sent their love “even if you did it” were also sending their money. Right, because he wasn’t asking why kids would be sending their love to a murderer? I’m just saying…He also dismisses the issue of domestic violence by only including letters on the subject by veritably crazy people (the kind of folks who write incoherent and random letters on any subject) and saying that calling the police (the now famous 911 tapes) were Nicole’s way of “getting control” of the situation. He also seems a little bit disrespectful of his slain wife’s memory, as he talks of “my girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, a beautiful model”. In fact, OJ seems quite preoccupied with looks, bashing the media for its terrible treatment of him, as if he deserves some kind of special treatment because he’s so good-looking (there are many, many letters included to the effect of “You are the most handsome black man I’ve ever seen” and “You are a gorgeous man who’s never done anything wrong”) and such an accomplished athlete and actor (yes, he takes every opportunity he can to remind us of his part in the Naked Gun). Well, Mister Simpson, any way you look at it, you’re looking awfully guilty, whether you want to tell us about it or not.