Month: March 2019

In the article, “What OJ Simpson Means to Me”, it talked about how racism played a huge role in OJ’s case. During his case, it was believed that OJ killed his white wife, but he wasn’t viewed as a black man; instead people looked at him as a man. OJ was viewed as a man because of his accomplishments in society: he was drafted to play football professionally, and that changed his life. He used to his fame to experience things that only white people could experience: playing golf, being a businessmen, spokesperson, and married a white girl named Nicole Brown.

The LAPD amplified on how racism played a role in the case because of their brutality on black men. In 1982, many black people died because of “choke holds” from the police. The police chief Daryl Gates, talked about how drug dealers deserve to be shot, and that black people’s “veins or arteries do not open as fast in normal people”: he believed with this statement, killing black people was justified. More cases on black people started to happen: the beating of Rodney King and the death of Latasha Harlins. The police were recorded beating Rodney King and when they were trialed, they were found innocent and so was the grocer that killed Harlins. With all the prejudice to black people and these events, it fueled up the LA riots.

During the trial, the detective of the case, Mark Fuhrman, was revealed on talking negatively on black people, and it was suspected that he planted evidence on the case. OJ’s defense was the race card: the police were doing everything they could to imprison an innocent man because he was black. This caused the jury to feel pity for OJ because of all the events surrounding black people, and that could been the reason why the voted him innocent.

When I was reading the article, I agreed with the claim that riots can bring changes despite it being chaotic. By rioting, it brings attention to the subject the riot is about and causes the authorities to do something about it. For example, in Baltimore’s riot about the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, it helped spark an investigation on the police department. The investigation exposed the racist practices the department have been doing, and led the department to reform.

The article also explained on how many historians agree that riots aren’t just random acts; people don’t do it just for fun or to steal. They are the response to years of negligence by politicians, media, and general public; the people want to see changes and by doing nothing, they’re not going to get it. During the 1960s riots, it was primarily African-Americans protesting against the police. The African-Americans didn’t like being treated like trash,racial segregation, and police arresting non-violent protesters. They believed by rioting, they can stop the injustice, but it wasn’t effective at all.

Racism is still a thing in the modern era. In a Baltimore neighborhood, they were in poverty as half the residents weren’t working, residential buildings were abandoned or vacant, and the city owed millions of dollars in settlements to a hundred people – a majority was black. The state wasn’t providing any help to black people, but ignored them. Charlotte is also in the same scenario as Baltimore. Charlotte is richer, but this wealth didn’t apply to black neighborhoods. Instead, black neighborhoods were presented with heavy police guarding it. They would throw random people on their car to search for drugs instead of doing their job properly.

Violent,social riots have shown changes and it does work. The Kerner Commission caused local police to reform to hire more minority polices, when the police could use force, and forced them to live in the communities they guarded.

Riots do bring chaos but you can’t bring changes by staying passive sometimes.