Boiling Over

O J Simpson repeatedly abused his wife. Nicole Brown Simpson made several calls to the LA Police to report him, but she always refused to press charges. Her prevarication cost her her life. The forensic evidence was overwhelming, and everybody knew OJ did it, but legal technicalities allowed the jury, which was hell bent to nullify the law, to declare OJ innocent.

Uxoricide is the act of murdering your wife. It happens way more often than we want to admit. A recent study found that pregnant women in the US are twice as likely to die by homicide than pregnancy-related causes.Two-thirds of the deaths occurred in the woman's home, suggesting a partner was responsible.

Globally, 39% of all homicides of women are by an intimate partner, whereas only 6.28% of all homicides of men are by an intimate partner. My point is that men are emotional animals. Some can be domesticated, some cannot. Most men have anxiety about their relationships, but they control themselves. They recognize they receive an overwhelming amount of positives from their partner, and so they forgive and forget those fears that sometimes arise.

Other men seeth inside when they believe they are being abandoned or betrayed. They allow the emotional tornado to gain momentum until it overwhelms their restraint and they lash out.

Most male abusers believe their torment goes unnoticed, and when they overreact and commit murder, they are surprised when they get caught. Some retain just enough guilt that they choose suicide over prison. What about those like OJ Simpson that not only act out viciously, but manage to escape responsibility? 

OJ is the highest of the high profile murderers who escaped conviction. There are hundreds, because our legal system is set up to protect citizens from being framed or wrongly accused by angry partners or otherwise ruthless opponents, for whatever reason.

Here is The Rub: OJ changed the culture in America far beyond his athletic or media accomplishments. He was, in my opinion, the head of the spear in releasing the onslaught of racial animus, the rejection of the idea of integration or assimilation of black culture into western white culture.

It was a quirk of nature that he was placed in such a position of leading the "Social Justice" movement in America. He was for much of his life, quite the opposite: He was the poster boy for assimilation by a rich and powerful black man. He was a peacock in the media, starring on Monday Night Football broadcasts. He appeared in Hollywood films, and was seen with his beautiful blond trophy wife in celebrity magazines. 

Behind the facade, however, was an angry, jealous and emotionally unbalanced black man who walked cautiously across broken glass barefooted. He lived a double life and managed his demonic "other" peronna with skill.

And America was doing something similar: It was hiding a cultural schizophrenia behind a facade of constant growth in wealth and achievement. The second half of the 20th century was conflicted. Americans were fully aware of racial prejudice and inequity in opportunity. We were struggling with liberating women, minorities, and assimilating an enormous number of newly established foreign cultures. The Great Melting Pot was boiling over.

But we were also getting really rich. Jobs were everywhere. We had improved mobility, communications, and media platforms. It was easy to brush irritating social issues under the rug of distractions.

OJ Simpson was riding high on the media wave of exciting expansion of entertainment vehicles, the exploding success of pro sports, television and film celebrity, and opportunities presented to women and minorities.

When his wife was found with her throat cut, and the police said they were charging OJ with her murder, he paraded across Los Angeles in his white Ford Bronco holding a gun to his head.  He assumed the mantle of  David vs Goliath, symbolizing Oppressed Black Men vs The Man.

And simultaneously he began a cultural War On America. Our brand would never be the same. It was as though our food had been contaminated by e-coli. No one wanted to eat at the Restaurant of Americanism ever again.

The legal system was corrupted permanently. Any progress we had made toward unifying Whites and Blacks was gone. All of the distrust and anger engendered by our Progressive school system and the Democratic Party congealed. The OJ Trial of the Century pitted Liberals against Conservatives in a new form of conflict: It put racism on trial and the outcome would be the death penalty for The Constitutional Ideal that all men are created equal. Instead it would have to be remodeled to say, All People Are Created To Be Equal.

And that is where we find ourselves today.

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