LOS ANGELES ON FIRE

In late April and early May of 1992, we watched one of America's most violent revolutions unfold in Los Angeles. On April 29, jurors found LAPD officers "not guilty" of the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King. The videotape came to represent proof of the type of harassment and brutality that most blacks in America have been subjected to by police agencies nationwide. Special news briefs interrupted our regularly scheduled programs with the verdict. The nation was in disbelief. Most people searched for answers. What could justify beating a man to near death? How could the justice system make such a big mistake? Others already knew how. This was another example of a white justice system to which the black man was always guilty. Outraged by this clear omission of oppression several blacks lashed out in violence on the streets of Los Angeles. Soon a few incidents became widespread chaos and destruction. News helicopters hovered above streets bringing us pictures of a man being pulled out of his truck and beaten, of bricks being thrown through car windows as they passed by, of people running in and out of stores carrying as much as they could, of fires burning well into the night.

For our generation the King verdict introduced a change in our thinking on how the judicial system worked (later reinforced by the Menendez brothers and O.J.). It was no longer the blind entity we once saw it as. It was a system that based judgment on race and economic standing. The police were no longer just an enforcement agency. They were above the law, capable of doing whatever they felt necessary. For many of us we could see the injustice of the decision, but could not understand the reaction to it. Why were innocent bystanders beaten, black-owned businesses burned? White youth in America were troubled with the thought that some blacks saw them as the cause of their oppression. What did they have to do with the decisions made by other whites? This attitude that some blacks had against whites allowed us to feel first hand what it is like to be seen as a stereotype: one person who embodies all negative images of a race. We also realized that despite the progress made in race relations over the years that problems, deeply rooted not only in individuals but in powerful institutions, still exist and that we must continue to work for equal treatment and equal attitudes towards one another.

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