Detached from the long history of marginalization in this country, the Rodney King Riots seem unnecessarily self-destructive but when one understands the evolution of inherent prejudice in this country, specifically how it evolved after and during the period of Jim Crow, he or she can identify how frustration over a vicious cycle could turn into citywide uprise and violence. Jim Crow laws were a set of rules place by the government that visibly divided white and colored people in our society, giving white people clear privileges like better seats on buses, better schools, better jobs all leading to more success. In the time, it was evident there was a massive social gap in society and activists in the 1960’s such as Dr. King and Huey Newton realized they had to create change leading to the Civil Rights Movement. This Movement supposedly succeeded in banning color based prejudice in the workplace, school and the overall concept of making decisions based on racial bias. Though this movement did change our society for the better, it caused racism to adapt to a social structure in which it took an even more elusive form.
The government attempted to make the people believe slavery in this country was over after the abolition of Jim Crow laws in America but a closer glance will reveal that the state now engrained racial bias even deeper into the laws of the country to “monopolize the legitimate use of violence” and “organize domination” (Max Weber) through mass incarceration, the system which still exists today and was was rebelled against during the 1992 riots. As blatant racism would no longer be tolerated in our country, the lawmakers had to create a concealed system where they could put colored men in a repressed cycle where they could not achieve the same level of success as others. Ronald Reagan, our 40th president, turned this idea into reality when his leadership began the War on Drugs. They would ship people of color into prisons from the poorest neighborhoods by the thousands for nonviolent, minor drug crimes while white, privileged areas were barely touched. These now convicts and ex-convicts find themselves with the same disadvantages as could be seen in colored individuals in the Jim Crow society such as worse job selection, inability to buy a home or raise a family and many more. These twisted, educated leaders of our country perfected how to put people of color in a mental and physical box with raising little to no suspicion. In more urban areas like Los Angeles, even more regulations were put in place such as redlining territory. These systems of racial discrimination most evident in Los Angeles due to their multiethnic community combined with the spark of the Rodney King beating video led to the 1992 L.A Riots. Even if we are able to abolish this current system we must be aware of how racism can and has evolved to make sure this pattern does not repeat itself in the future and discrimination dies away for good through intersectionality: sympathy for the plights of all.
-Harish Venkat
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