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'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Postscript: just saw some more of my friend's unpublished photos.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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The
#LARiots are and have been a symbol of possibility for me.... they always have been...Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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U r taking me back my friend to all of this that is always so present in my life and my work...
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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