Uprising vs. Rebellion

Upon watching the video and learning about L.A. in 1992, I now realize that the events in L.A. started out as an uprising but then became more of a riot due to the people that joined in and the chaos that emerged from this. I believe this started out as an uprising because there was injustice with the Rodney King decision, and the black race had a cause to uprise. Other races did join in because of the inequality at the time, but the main issue here was between black people and the cops. The riots turned into a crazed frenzy, which ultimately was not called for, and why I believe this has been coined the term a riot. Many people joined in on this chaos with no real cause except just for destruction. Overall, I don't think that either term if fully appropriate, but if anything this should be called an uprising due to the driving force behind why all of this started.

1992

Before seeing this documentary I knew very little about the riots in L.A.. The only thing that I can really recall is the Sublime song that talks about raiding the streets after police brutality on Rodney King. With this being said, I have found this documentary to be very powerful and informative so far. The scene of Rodney King getting beat up is very graphic but I feel that it is necessary for students to view this because it betters our understanding of why the riots happened in 1992. This really reminded me of If He Hollers Let Him Go because of the mistreatment of citizens due to racial discrimination. It is pretty sad to think that our nation and court systems did not provide justice in 1992. With that being said, even though we have a lot of progress to make,  I feel that if something like this happened in today's society there would be justice given.

Howl

This poem was pretty powerful for me because of the vivid imagery it portrays. It brings up the dregs of society but also the realness of society. Upon reading this, I got a pretty clear image of the streets of Brooklyn as well as other main cities that could be pretty similar. This poem highlights a lot of failed talent and aspirations that lurk in the streets of Brooklyn. One example of this is the line, "I saw some of the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" (Ginsberg 2). This shows that ultimately it is the society at this time and location that gets to the minds of these intelligent people and acts as a poison. It finally ends with a solomon note that relates to the great Western frontier and the "tears" that are associated with this.

Implicit Bias

I thought this video was actually very interesting. Even though we may not think of ourselves to have bias in certain topics, the way that we are raised and the society around us shapes our ideas and our unconscious. 

The first test I took was the race test. I went into it knowing that I was not biased but for some reason the result came up as moderately biased. I now realized that my responses on this test reflect the my social life throughout the years and how I have been raised to consider different aspects of the media. The second test I took was the age test and this one said that I actually slightly favored old people when I thought I liked young people more. Once again, I feel that this was a reflection of the way I have been raised and the comfort that I associate with old people. 

Overall, I believe that this can relate to If He Hollers Let Him Go because even the people in society who were not blatantly racist at the time of the 1940's, they were influenced by media and their views were shaped uncontrollably by the harsh conditions of this time. When mass society is racist, it is hard to change one's views even if you don't explicitly agree.

If he hollers let him go

One aspect of these novel covers that hit me as soon as I saw them was the image with the black man and the white lady. Every one seems kind of mysterious and I think this does portray the time period because relationships between black men and white women were uncommon and frowned upon by many. This is a dark part of Californian history but it is essential to understand the covers of these novels to help paint a picture of what times were like back then. One novel that I liked was the one with the black man with his fists up. I believe that this shows him as a powerhouse, ready to fight against racism in society. This image is pretty powerful and shows the strength that African American people had back in this time period.