This article explores the complex and ever-changing public perception of O.J. Simpson, who passed away at the age of 76. It discusses how people have projected their feelings onto him and highlights the shift from his initial fame to notoriety.
So now that he is dead, what is there to do with the perpetually troubling, infuriating American conundrum that was Orenthal James Simpson? My guess is that we’ll do the same thing we’ve been doing for all his public life, right up until Thursday, when his family announced his death, at 76, from prostate cancer. We’ll just keep making O.J. Simpson up in our heads, using our own biases and presumptions.
But who was he, really? Was he the happy-go-lucky kid from the streets of San Francisco who hit the lottery of Fame & Glory? Or was he a cunning hustler who always knew the right things to say to acclimate himself in every social situation in the upper reaches of show business and corporate boardrooms? Maybe both? My guess is that in O.J., we have a working definition of the ultimate entitlement: the ability to be anything anybody else wanted you to be, and have everybody be OK with it.
O.J. Simpson American Conundrum Public Perception Fame Notoriety
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