A Compare and Contrast: With not much Contrast

Many do not seem to understand the gravity of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. Yet this event transcends history and time by exposing the countless underlying issues of not only race but the United States in its entirety. The riots seem to have begun as an angry reaction towards the Rodney King verdict of 1992, yet the verdict was only the tipping point of a much larger systematic injustice occurring beyond LA and expanding across the entire U.S. In order to understand why the riots occurred and study its effects one needs to focus on the contextual subtleties of LA at the time. Specifically what George Lipsitz refers to as "Racialized Social Democracy" in his paper "The possesive Investment in Whiteness" which narrows in on the systemic disenfranchisement of colored people in America. Throughout history, there has been a pattern of underlying racism within our economic, political, and social systems. The concept of Neo-Liberalism has embedded itself in the culture of most Americans whether they know it or not. The "American Dream" as a notion is rooted in ideas of competition and material success. These capitalistic themes have provoked inequitable policies long before the riots began. The deindustrialization of the U.S. affected mostly racial minorities by eliminating an industrial infrastructure which had allowed black workers to earn fair wages with the opportunity to climb the ladder of success. Major government sectors were also guilty of depriving people of color equality. The EPA for example when responding to toxic waste cases neglected to consider income in the areas they visited. They fined white areas around $55,000 in contrast to the 500 times larger sum of $335,000 for black neighborhoods (375 Lipsitz). Education, which is predominantly Eurocentric first and foremost, refers to race in ways that create an almost victimizing attitude. Students are being trained to have the mindset that Black grievances are only associated with slavery and past blatant white on black racism. This only discredits the injustice blacks face today and encourages a "we don't owe you anything" perspective for white America. How are people really shocked at the reaction of Rodney King's trial verdict, what else was there left for America's minority population to do?

In terms of 'Racialized Social Democracy", presently, not much has changed. Structurally not much has been done and we see police brutality move beyond 56 beatings to multiple bullet wounds. It is not difficult to compare the LA Riots era to that of our own. Politically we have Trump as our commander in chief and we still fail to absorb interculturalism with schools systems. The protests haven't stopped, the Ferguson Unrest of 2014 is a direct parallel to the issues faces years ago. People have stopped marching, but no one has forgotten. Our investment in whiteness has procured a place where today, 26 years later in 2018, a black man named Stephon Clark can be shot 20 times in his own backyard. He was 22 years old, he was a father. But he was black. He was Black.

This was Arely Hernandez, thank you.