As someone who was neck-deep in a progressive leftist bubble at the time, I can confidently tell you that much of America was naively baffled by the verdict. A lot of “good colorblind whites” chalked it up to the privilege of wealth, class, fame, etc. They couldn’t fathom that non-whites were not observing the identity politics ceasefire and were, in fact, consolidating their advocacy and activism along purely ethnic/racial lines. For those who could not view the world through the prism of honest racial politics, the OJ verdict made no sense whatsoever.