Past
Throughout the history of the United States, events relating to uprisings of people protesting racism have resonated with the events surrounding the 1992 riots. For one, the media depicted a sensationalist portrayal of both the La riots and the Watts riots that payed attention only to the damage done and not the systemic injustice that caused people to protest. Attention was payed purely on the damages with Chief Parker, who was chief of police in Los Angeles at the time of the riots publicly saying that the rioters acted like monkeys in a zoo. The LA riots were similarly approached, with media coverage that was aimed to be sensational instead of analytical and critical. Media at the time painted the riots as a response to the verdict that acquitted the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King, while it was more about the structural injustices that African Americans faced that caused it. In both these cases, coverage of these uprisings painted a sensationalist, superficial analysis that ignored any real critical analysis of the deeper causes of the events.

Present
A failure on behalf of America to recognize the structural injustices and racism of American society has meant that not much at all has changed racially throughout the years. Police brutality is still very prevalent in this day and age, as are economic disparities and incarceration problems. The fight still rages on, with Black Lives Matter and other groups gaining traction to fight the powers that be.

Berenger Tan