O.J. Simpson never asked to be a martyr. Nonetheless, black activists are warning him not to ignore his fervid support among African-Americans. If he does, they say, he risks becoming an ingrate.

Simpson – whose acquittal Tuesday drew cheers from many blacks – has been challenged to pay more attention to the “streets of L.A. than the fairways of the famous.” He’s previously been accused of being a black man who never acknowledges the “black experience.”

“It’s about time for this guy to begin to understand that if he’s going to be a kind of posterboy, then he ought to straighten up his act,” said Celes King, California chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality.

But activists like King, are missing the point. Regardless of the tactics used by the defense attorneys in securing an acquittal, Simpson never asked for black solidarity. “Support” was never on the man’s agenda.

The belief that Simpson should fulfill the responsibilities of being a “black” idol now that he’s a folk hero is ridiculous. That belief, largely based on divisionist racism, falsely assumes that idolatry knows racial boundaries. This simply isn’t true.