O.J. and Michael Jackson, part 3

So. We're going to address O.J. and Michael as fictional characters, and see what the tools we've been dancing around will tell us about them.
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O.J., from early days, was used to being treated as a star. He got everything he wanted due to his looks and athleticism, and crossed over into commercials and movies quite handily. he went for the American Dream--wealth, power, fame, and a white woman on your arm. I think it would be reasonable to say that he actually had an unhealthy preference there, based upon his relationship history (both marriages and girlfriends). It seems not to be a simple statistical fluke. Judging by comments made by friends and ex's, he is also tremendously possessive, and a rageaholic. If rage is a mask over fear, what is he afraid of? I would say that a lot of black athletes have a sense that they are well-paid buffoons, that they are vastly paid so that white audiences can empathize with their power and grace--but resent their blackness.
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What do I mean by this? I mean that the actual appearance of black people has been demonized and associated with negatives for hundreds of years. Some of this is unavoidable and has little to do with race: dark skin mirroring a dark night in a species unadapted to nocturnal hunting. Unfortunate. But Negroid hair, nostrils, lips (I remember a classic Saturday Night Live line spoken by Chevy Chase: "I don't judge a man by the color of his skin. I judge him by the thickness of his lips!") has been associated with "ugly" so long that many black people have internalized it. Protective coloration is what this tendency is called--a topic for another column. At any rate, I remember one multiple-year period where Hollywood wouldn't put a black face on a poster. They'd put silhouettes of black people, or they would have their faces, with the background color very dark to minimize what I call "color shock"--the subliminal awareness of the audience that they are dealing with an "Other." It is this tendency that has induced virtually every black actress to straighten her hair, and actors like Vin Diesel to shave his head--a reduction in visual cues that suggest Negroid features. Something like this happened in Japan post WW2 when Japanese women started having plastic surgery to increase their bust size and "Occidentalize" their eyes. The dominated group tries to look as much as possible like the dominators, as a way to survive.
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There will be some who read this who might say to themselves (although they are unlikely to admit it)--"well, maybe White People really don't find blacks attractive". Perfectly reasonable comment, however politically incorrect it might be. But that wouldn't explain the fact that black women are positioned as sexual objects for white men in media quite commonly now. Statistics show that most interracial couples are white women with black men, not the other way around--the media is showing a distortion that could represent nothing other than the male fantasy of dominating all sexual outlets. Men are fun, aren't they?
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If O.J. internalized this negative stuff (and it would be incredibly hard not to, believe me), there would be quite an inner gap between his self image and his external actions and reality. He would feel like a fraud at times, and like a superman at others. The tension between these two is a killer.##For men like this, their women represent both possessions and peace. they have no healthy contact with their own feminine side, and catch glimpses of that vital feminine self only fleetingly during sex, or when with their young children--who are more bonded to the mother than to themselves. Many pro athletes are hyper-male, with all the negativity that that implies. They are often bonded to hyper-females, harpies who have groomed their animal attraction aspects to a razor-edge, a meld of clothing and makeup designed to trigger a massive hind-brain response in males. O.J. clearly used physical power to intimidate Nicole. She would have retaliated by attacking him in any manner she could--his masculinity, sexuality, need to be a father to his children, etc. Remember that they didn't end up together accidentally. They chose each other. So we can easily picture a REALLY sick dynamic. O.J., crazy with jealousy, probably got together with an old buddy and went to see Nicole that night. Who knows what was in his mind, but my guess is that one part of him knew perfectly well what he was up to--while another part was in denial. Ron, Nicole's friend, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, triggered even more jealousy and rage, and some kind of negative energy spiral began--possibly planned, possibly semi-spontaneous (too much equipment had to have been brought along: knives, gloves, probably a disposable raincoat to shield clothing from blood. I think they had worked themselves into a murderous state, but that is still a hell of a line to cross). And so it happened.
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At this point in his life, O.J. probably has half-convinced himself he is innocent. Another part of him revels in feeling that he "got away with it." As in one very real sense, he did. In another, he destroyed his life. This is the reason I have NO confidence in the idea that "he knows who did it" but won't speak. Nonsense. O.J. was all public image. If his own brother had done it, O.J. would have talked his brother into turning himself in, and gotten him the best lawyer in the world, and gone on making movies and commercials and being O.J.
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But he didn't. Oh, there's another connection between me and that trial. Remember Ron Ship? The cop who was O.J.'s friend who said O.J. was partying instead of mourning. Johnny Cochran tried to make Shpo look like a liar and glory seeker. One problem with this. I KNEW Ronnie Ship. We went to elementary school and Jr. High together. He was an absolute straight-shooter, a big, kindly kid who used to pull bullies off me. And he became a cop because he wanted to protect people. A mutual friend, Lee Taylor, called me and told me to turn on the television, to the O.J. trial. And there, sitting on the witness stand, was Ron Ship. And he was looking at the stone-faced Simson, mouthing the words "tell the truth, O.J."Yuck.
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So that is my take on O.J. There may be more later, but I want to get on to Michael next.

Steve