25 years ago today, the Bloods and Crips came to a truce in Watts. One day later the LA riots broke out. This fact is largely ignored today.
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If you think, as Lee Fang explains, the Black Black created what he calls a "lefty riot" 25 years ago in LA, you definitely don't get it.
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If you're surprised at the fact that more than half the arrests during the 92 riots were latinxs, you don't understand my city.
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If you're surprised at the fact that Koreatown is also a hub for Central Americans, you don't understand Koreatown.
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If you don't know who Latasha Harlins is, you don't understand LA. (And I don't mean a google search after you read this thread.)
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If you don't understand this track, the artists, how this album came to be, you don't understand LA, and you don't understand the riots.pic.twitter.com/9Gedxur2kZ
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If you're a reporter who was really eager to talk to someone who looted for your anniversary story, you have no business writing about 92.
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I didn't have high hopes, but I've mostly dismayed by what I've read coming up to the anniversary of the riots.
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I have a friend who's been at times like an older brother to me. He was learning photography in college when the riots broke out.
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He took AMAZING photographs. He published a few in his school newspaper, which never went digital. He's dozens if not hundreds of negatives.
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They illustrate a really different picture that departs from some of the dominant narratives of the LA riots.
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I tried for more than a month to find a good home from them. No one pay anywhere near what they were worth. So they remain private.
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So like this kid from the hood that has images that illustrate people demanding justice, graffiti like DARYL GATES IS A NAZI, remain hidden.
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That's part of the story, too: who got to tell the story then; who gets to tell it now. Hasn't really changed. It's maybe gotten worse.
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And, like
@PalmTreesnGz just reminded me, the way so many of us hold the LA riots as a symbol of what's possible: everything's possible. -
The phoenixes that rose out of those literal ashes. The LA riots weren't a single event; it's one thing in the series that is our history.
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Long live 1992. And 1991. And 1993. And everything and everyone that came before and since. We know -- even if others don't.
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Postscript: just saw some more of my friend's unpublished photos. Do you remember that fire on Pico and Hoover? So damn chilling.
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omg i thought the truce happened AFTER the riots started. got any suggested reading or shall i just google?
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