Race & Racism:1970 and Beyond

Rodney King & LA riots

 

When the word racism comes to mind, African American  and Anglo American race relations are at the front of many people’s thoughts. African Americans were enslaved to Anglo Americans; African Americans were oppressed by Anglo Americans, and now African Americans are racially profiled by Anglo Americans and other races as well. However, after the civil rights movement and the era of blatant racism toward African Americans the 1970s began the era of taboo racism. Racism was no longer an everyday conversation topic and politically incorrect if talked about for extended periods of time.

Probably one of the prominent cases in racial profiling African Americans was the beating of Rodney King. Which in turn led to the Los Angeles riots of 1992. King was a black man who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and always worked hard. Him and his brother worked late hours with their father in the custodial business and after dropping out of high school King got a job in construction. Prior to the beating King had several run-ins with the law, one of them resulting in King serving 10 months in jail. On the fateful night of March 3, 1991 it was reported that King and friends were driving at 115 miles per hour on a California Highway. Stopped by a police officer, King appeared belligerent and he was suspected to be under the influence of PCP. “Police said that King then threw off four officers who tried to arrest him. Then, King ran at the officers” (Rodney King). Suddenly, one of the police officers struck King with his baton, and within moments King was struck a total of 56 times with steel batons, kicked several times, and struck with a 50,000 volt taser twice. “King suffered a cracked eye socket, a fractured cheekbone, a broken right ankle, and numerous cuts. In the few days after the attack, he suffered four heart attacks from the electricity of the Taser shots” (Rodney King). All of this police brutality was videotaped by a man living across the street from the scene.   Two days after the crime, the videotape was given and shown on a Los Angeles news station. April 29, 1992 was the day in which the violence began. April 29, 1992 an all white jury acquitted the four officers who repeatedly beat King on March 3 of the previous year. With this knowledge, Los Angeles erupted in hysterics and riots that lasted for four days and killed 54 people (Rodney King). African Americans were mainly targeting Korean owned shops and stores in Los Angeles because they felt the Koreans had been discriminatory towards them and they were simply avenging all those who discriminated against African Americans.

Although the video aired on the local news program was shortened and the footage of King running at the police officers was not shown, it was still a case of racial profiling. Despite the fact that King ran at the officers it was one King against four armed police officers. The question is, was it really necessary for the police officers to continue beating King when he had already been brutally beaten and even shocked with 50,000 volts twice? The typical answer would be no, it was not necessary to continue to beat the assumed unarmed King while he was already down on the ground. The part which made African Americans so angry was the fact that the officers who beat King and left him close to dead were acquitted with ease with an all Anglo American jury. African Americans could not understand and grasp the idea that the Anglo Americans who caused the most damage were not punished. African Americans wanted to punish those who had discriminated and racially profiled them. Therefore, the LA riots victims included Korean owned stores and shops, Liquor stores, grocery stores and any other racially prejudiced establishment in the Los Angeles area. 

Jena Six

 One of the most recent cases of racism that gained the most national attention was the case of the Jena 6. It all began at Jena High School in Jena, LA when junior Kenneth Purvis had to ask his vice principle if he was able to sit under the shady oak tree in the courtyard. He was told he could sit wherever he chose. With this Purvis and his other African American and Anglo American friends sat under the oak tree; however, the school did have racist undertones meaning that the oak tree was “reserved” for the Anglo Americans. Upon arriving at school the next day Purvis and the student body found three nooses hanging from the branches of the oak tree which Purvis and his other African Americans sat under the day before. When the three Anglo American boys owned up to hanging the nooses they only received a few days suspension which enraged the black population of Jena. Races clashed within Jena High and within the community of Jena. The school was set on fire, “[Michael] Bailey was punched and beaten with eer bottles when he tried to enter a mostly white party in town. The white kids who threw the first punch was later charged with simple battery and given probation” (A Town in Turmoil). That Monday when tensions grew an angle American student, one of the students who hung the nooses, supposedly teased Bailey during lunch. Soon after, an African American student supposedly punched Barker rendering him unconscious.  According to Anglo American students a group of African American student continually beat Barker kicking him and stepping on him sending him to the hospital. However, Barker did not even stay the night in the hospital and later returned to school for an event later that night.

The Defense Attorney charged Michael Bailey, Mychal Bell, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones and an anonymous juvenile, the Jena Six, with attempted murder II. Bell is the only one of the six to have his trial and is now awaiting his sentence; he could have potentially serve 22 years. However, at the time Bell was 16 and being tried as an adult Therefore, he appealed his conviction and Bell was released on $45,000 bail on September 14, 2007.

What first began in a high school became the nation’s outrage. It was clear that racism was very much alive in Jena, but the Anglo Americans residing there don’t see a race problem. They may think that way because there is no racial interaction.  This case was not about racial profiling, yet it was similar to the types of racism that occurred during the civil rights movement and the amount of attention some of the protests and movements would attract. By trying to speak out and change Jena the Jena Six are slowly changing the nation and making it a more ethnicity friendly country. Without all of the people that spoke out against the Jena Six then the people in America are in essence saying that it is perfectly reasonable to hang nooses which symbolize slavery, hatred, and oppression in a school courtyard for all to see. It is the people who spoke up for Jena that will slowly change the nation. 

Los Angeles, CA. 13 May 2009 <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/isler010/asianamericanstudies/campus_events/>.


Murphy, Michael D. "Free the Jena 6." Cartoon. Friends of Justice. 24 July 2007. 13 May 2009 <http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/jena-6-get-involved-page/>.


"Rodney King." Video blog post. Youtube. 2 May 2007. 13 May 2009 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg>.


CNN: Jena six Story. Youtube. 5 Sept. 2007. 13 May 2009 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIHfTfMXFtQ>.