In the wake of the 1992 Riots, the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Wall Street Journal both jumped to politicize the riots, assigning blame, responsibility and power to certain groups and individuals. However that is where the similarities end because the Wall Street Journal tends to steer responsibility away from the Republican government and towards the black communities and leaders associated with the violence. This appears to have been the dominant discourse of the time, seeking to diagnose problems within specific racial communities instead of the country’s institutional structure. Conversely, the Los Angeles Sentinel put all of the focus on the government and the people with the most power and privilege. It maintained a discourse of victimization …show more content…
In the Wall Street Journal, leadership responsibility is generally deflected to the black communities themselves, evoking a “do it yourself” mentality. The implications of this line of thought are huge because they excuse Americans at large from confronting the inequalities they have created in society, designating the violence in the riots as a consequence of factors relevant only to poor black communities. In “Campaign 92” John Buchanan is quoted saying that he strongly apposes social programs and thinks that they actually hinder impoverished communities’ ability to improve their own situation. By downplaying the power of the government, opinions like this one take pressure off politicians to lead reform. Other articles such as “The Los Angeles Riots --- Who Speaks for Blacks?” show a subtle continuation of these themes, though through a more liberal lens. This particular article was written by Dorothy Gaiter who is, herself, a black woman and a leader in the black community. It argues that the violence and disorder in black communities comes from a lack of modern black leaders. She cites the increase of blacks in power from 1960s to 1990s and reasons that therefore there should be more responsibility for black leaders to control and pacify the violent outbursts in the communities. The article prominently features a chart measuring “Black Progress in the White …show more content…
Most articles call into question the injustice built into the American policing system and many directly address the laws and policies that caused discontent leading up to the race riots. These arguments are unique in the way they very carefully pull apart the words black, poor, and violence, distinguishing each as independent of the others. “The Riot 's Economic Impact on South-Central Los Angeles" talks about the poor blacks that were not involved in the rioting and violence but will have to pay for it in increased insurance as a result of stereotyping and bias. This evokes the role of the insurance industry in fair pricing and more broadly calls them for overt financial discrimination. Discussion of police practices and questions of their authority are unique to the Sentinel because of their dominantly black audience. In other newspapers police brutality was mentioned, but according to “Burn Baby Burn,” the white residents of Los Angeles were “blithely unaware” of the extent to which police had domination and power of fear over these communities and so could not relate to the distrust and resentment towards police. “A Tale of Two Riots” further evokes the leadership role of government social programs when it discusses the unequal opportunity blacks have for upward mobility (Pleasant). Because of an inequality in income, housing, and salaries there are many more blacks in poor communities.
Consolidated with authentic research, Twilight provides an important examination of the hidden reasons for the Los Angeles riots. A more drawn out chronicled see additionally uncovers the bigger class strains and the gigantic change of ethnic structure of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1990 that added to the atmosphere that could deliver such a huge scale riot.
During the years 1992 and 2000, a series of developments and events occurred that changed the way America functions. Of these events, two stuck out in the minds of many people as the national news coverage was hard to ignore. These two events that occurred resulted in many changes, Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the disputed election of 2000. It proves that one person can be the reason behind an event that will cause local and national governments and officials to stop and think of the consequences, both negative and positive. The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year.
Black Power, the seemingly omnipresent term that is ever-so-often referenced when one deals with the topic of Black equality in the U.S. While progress, or at least the illusion of progress, has occurred over the past century, many of the issues that continue to plague the Black (as well as other minority) communities have yet to be truly addressed. The dark cloud of rampant individual racism may have passed from a general perspective, but many sociologists, including Stokely Carmichael; the author of “Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America”, have and continue to argue that the oppressive hand of “institutional racism” still holds down the Black community from making any true progress.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.
Today there are many controversial subjects discussed throughout the media. One of the most discussed is race and the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, I came across an article titled “The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’”, written by The Editorial Board. The article was published on September 3, 2015, to the New York Times. In the article, The Editorial Board writes about what they believe African Americans are facing as challenges in society today, including the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The Editorial Board is right that some African Americans have been treated unfairly, but all ethnicities have been. Life is a precious thing that comprises all ethnicities. This brings us to ask; why
In the Educational Leadership article entitled “The Story Behind Ferguson” the author, Richard Rothstein, states, “Avoidance of our racial history in the United States is pervasive. And by failing to give our students the facts, we are ensuring that this avoidance will persist for subsequent generations. ” In this article, Rothstein is investigating the racial history of Ferguson, Missouri, a city now infamous for the tragic death of Michael Brown. Ferguson, despite it being casted as a white suburb, is an “urban ghetto.” Rothstein provides statistics such as Ferguson schools have eighty-five percent black people and eighty-three of their students need either free or discounted lunch. Student achievement has been at all time lows with thirty percent of them being proficient in math and twenty-five percent being proficient in reading. The author saw how odd it was how a city like Ferguson could be so segregated and so decided to investigate further on the racial history of the metropolitan area.
While the L.A. riots were far larger, and the effects are still being felt, I still feel that the Watts riots had more of an impact. I had known about the riots previously, as I had been interested and looked into it on my own, but I had not looked into the economic at the time. Seeing that there were not any real economic effects from the riot, and in-fact some things may have gotten even worse, changes how I think of riots reported on in the media. Although there has been little in empirical studies done on the impact of the Watts riots, which is odd due to their importance in recent American history, especially now, it is clear that the riots started a trend of misguided racial tension that continues to this day, one that has prolonged the suffering and disenfranchisement of Blacks in the United States. While I do not believe another riot is the answer, researching this riot has shown me that while the riots can be considered important, the reality is that their effects on society are quite minimal, and only the political discussion of the riots is what has lasted to today. The failure of any real reform since then of the treatment of Blacks in general, let alone in the criminal justice world, shows to me a real lack of justice in the United
In the article, “‘Violence’ in Cincinnati,” Thomas A. Dutton brings up a conversation about the urban area of Over-The-Rhine. He speaks out about how this downtown area has extremely too much violence and there needs to be something done about it. He speaks to the age group of twenty-five and up and to all citizens of Cincinnati. This article was published in 2001 in “Nation” magazine. At this time in Cincinnati, there were many disputes about race. A white officer shot an unarmed black man in April in 2001 that had many offenses against him at the time and was killed shortly after. Riots broke out and curfews were set in to place. This is a major event that happened in Cincinnati’s history and still today has hurt the citizens and the Over-The-Rhine district. Violence has been fought against people of color for a very long time and it affects the people and various cities around us.
A perspective on this question comes from Anna Deavere Smith’s film Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. Smith explores different dynamics of the tragic and well-known historical event, the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The Los Angeles riots instigated when an African American named Rodney King was beaten by four police officers, who were later acquitted for the beating. The occurrence of the incident was inconspicuously video-taped and released to the Los Angeles community, which led to individuals becoming outraged and starting a demonstration. As a result of the major outbreak of violence, there were several casualties, injured individuals, and a great deal of property damage, which resulted to be one of the most devastating domestic disruptions in United
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Amidst the aftermath of the 2011 riots in the United Kingdom, politicians pointed their fingers nervously to different factors that could have sparked the riots. David Starkey, a famous British historian, went on BBC’s Newsnight in August 2011 and put the blame squarely on the lap of the black community. In this interview, which will be analyzed here, David Starkey depicts black people synonymously with violence and destruction through biased language, sweeping generalizations and allusion.
Since the time of slavery, racial tension has existed between whites and blacks. This tension has only increased with the passing of time. This conflict culminated in the 1940s in the form of mob violence. While there have been previous riots because of race relations, none of them were of the magnitude of the 1943 Detroit riot. Much like any other event involving racism in the 1940s, the Detroit riot has little coverage, most of which is skewed, in articles in the nation?s leading news sources such as ?Deep Trouble? in Time, ?Riotous Race Hate? in Newsweek, and ?The Truth About the Detroit Riot? in Harper?s. Thus, one must compare articles from these sources to ascertain accurate information. Even when comparing these accounts, the reader finds discrepancies in the causation and destruction of the Detroit riot. By analyzing these descriptions, one can also notice the similarities between the Detroit riot and other mob violence during that time period. For example, James Baldwin?s retelling of the Harlem riot in ?Notes of a Native Son? bears great similarities in causation and destruction with the Detroit riot.
New York Times: What happened in Ferguson, this article is a more recent analysis on the Ferguson riots; it’s like a summation of the event. They were going in detail about the cases and who it involved. They also went over the crime and more importantly the social aspect.